General Game News

[Compound]

Well, I'm not sure if this is real news or not.

From Good Old Games:

Dear GOG users,

We have recently had to give serious thought to whether we could really keep GOG.com the way it is. We've debated on it for quite some time and, unfortunately, we've decided that GOG.com simply cannot remain in its current form.

We're very grateful for all support we've received from all of you in the past two years. Working on GOG.com was a great adventure for all of us and an unforgettable journey to the past, through the long and wonderful history of PC gaming.

This doesn't mean the idea behind GOG.com is gone forever. We're closing down the service and putting this era behind us as new challenges await.

On a technical note, this week we'll put in place a solution to allow everyone to re-download their games. Stay tuned to this page and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

All the best,
GOG.com Team

(Good Old Games was a website where you could purchase and download old games that had been optimized for more modern computers.)

There is speculation that GoG is finally moving out of Beta and/or getting a standalone client so it's just changing a bit, but there's still the very real case that a bunch of weasels abused the hell out of the system and spoiled it for the rest of us. And if the latter, why Master of Orion suddenly showed up on Impulse this week suddenly makes more sense.

[mrbasehart]

It doesn't sound like a very positive note.  I browsed GOG a few times and got close to buying some stuff, but I was never really a PC gamer in the past, so nostalgia never played much of a part in buying those games. 

[SJP]

All I can say is, they'd better put the downloads back up, like they said.  I bought about $200 of stuff from them, and barely downloaded a handful of it.  I don't normally get mad about stuff like this, but this seems to be a real slap in the face.  I did my part; everything I bought, I did honestly, and didn't go sharing it with every Tom, Dick, and Harry I've ever met.  If it is an abuse thing that happened, why is it bit-torrenting morons always get away with it, and the honest people are the ones who end up getting screwed?

I liked them, too; the stuff I liked best from them was the REALLY old games, like Waxworks and Personal Nightmare, stuff Steam and the others wouldn't bother to carry.

[Pak-Man]

Argh! I just replaced my hard drive and I don't have ANYTHING from that account. If only I'd gone on that install-spree last night like I was going to...

EDIT: Just read the last sentence of that announcement. As long as they give me a swing at redownloading my games, I'll be cool.

[Compound]

It looks like GoG will be making an announcement tomorrow about the situation. IIRC, they're a Polish company, so we'll probably see it tomorrow morning. Well, except for Basehart.

[TTYT]

Oh, dammit...I was gonna buy Shogo: Mobile Armor Division from GoG in the near future...Christ, they better come back.

[Pak-Man]

Well popular opinion now is that the GOG closing was a marketing stunt. If you pause their announcement video:

and move it to the 13 second mark, you can see an image of what looks like a product page for Baulder's Gate, which had never been available on GOG. The speculation is that they're about to come out of their perpetual beta. That all adds up, except for one thing: Why'd they shut down in the middle of a weekend promo? They sure seem to be hinting at a big comeback (I've wanted Baulder's Gate on that site for forever) but if I were GOG, I'd have grabbed me some more weekend sales before closing the hatch.

UPDATE: Well the heads of GOG are giving a press conference here: http://www.transmisjeonline.pl/gogconference (Dressed as repentant monks?) introducing the new GOG. It will still be independant and still be DRM free. They just had to take down the site to upload the new code.

UPDATE 2: And the new, non-beta GOG should be up tomorrow at 1 PM GMT (Which is like 9 AM Eastern if I have my math right.) Baulders gate will be available for $10, and that includes Tales of the Sword Coast, and more Atari RPGs to come. There's a section now where you can create custom lists, kinda like on Amazon, and you can "Like" any game on Facebook. Nothing else huge. I'm just glad it's coming back. :^)

[mrbasehart]

Huh.  Way to annoy or confuse most of your customer base, GOG. 

[TTYT]

First of all we would like to apologize everyone who felt deceived or harmed in any way by us closing down GOG.com without any warning and without giving access to your games. We apologize for that from the bottom of our hearts!

Now it's time we put an end to all the speculations once and for all. It's true that we decided that we couldn't keep GOG.com the way it was... so we won't. As you probably know by now, GOG.com is entering its new era with an end of the two-years beta stage and we're launching a brand new GOG.com with new, huge releases.

The new GOG.com will launch at 8.00 a.m. EDT (2 p.m. CET). Later today we'll provide you here with 4 videos where you'll find all needed information about the current events, as well as news on the new GOG.com, the upcoming big releases and the summary of the last two years.

According to the counter on the site at the time of this post, there's 17 hours and 40 minutes to go until the relaunch.

[SJP]

So basically...

"GOG.com will now close...to make way for this FABULOUS USO SHOW!"

*cue South Park "April Fools" sign*

Yeah...very odd publicity stunt.  They could've been very up front, saying, "Sorry, but we're going to be migrating to a new site and a complete makeover, which necessitates temporary loss of access to your purchased merchandise (emphasis quit emphatically mine).  We know it's inconvenient, but we think you'll like what we've done with the place."  What with Steam and all the other downloadable places available, you have to be careful with the way you try to get name recognition, since a lot of customers are likely to shrug and go somewhere else.  It's one thing to pull a practical joke on something like South Park, where tweaking people on cable television doesn't really hurt anybody...fiddling with people who've invested money in your company is incredibly risky.

[TTYT]

In general funny game news: http://kotaku.com/5647832/check-out-kirbys-epic--uh-

[spaceforarent]

Uncharted 2: Game of the Year edition will be released October 12th. So if you're one of the 2 people that haven't played it yet, get it then.
Nothing too special included really. Basically just the stuff you can already buy, plus the golden guns and early access to the Revenge Booster in multiplayer (ya know, if you want to play like an asshole). Also gives you a currency multiplier up til level 10 in multiplayer, which really doesn't add up to much.
http://ps3.ign.com/articles/112/1123604p1.html

There's also talk that "The Lab" in multiplayer is just tests for Uncharted 3.

[spaceforarent]

Oh look, a double post.
Despite all the videos claiming a November 16th release date, LittlebigPlanet 2 has been pushed back until January 18th. 

[TTYT]

Valve's next project: Defense of the Ancients 2 - http://kotaku.com/5663018/valves-new-game-is-dota2

[Compound]

Coming soon...

Professor Layton Vs Ace Attorney



No, it's not a joke. It is for the 3DS though.