(Photo : GOG / Screenshot taken from official website)
Online gaming store GOG just launched a new preservation program that seeks to make games become playable "forever" amid digital ownership controversies.
The new scheme known as The GOG Preservation Program is a self-aware determination to try and bring the platform back to its origins. It includes a long-term commitment to preserving and maintaining classic games for the foreseeable future.
GOG's Preservation Program
Currently, the company has 100 games listed for the program and it pledges to use its "own resources to maintain games' compatibility with modern and future systems." The situation comes at a time when the preservation of games is becoming much more important.
GOG experienced a difficult time in 2019 when it had a series of layoffs during a time when it abandoned its Fair Price Package. The latter was where the company would repay customers who were charged higher fees due to regional price differences.
At the time, one former employee said that he was told that they were dangerously close to being in the red. Many fans who initially were supportive of GOG's vision started to drift away from using the platform altogether, according to Kotaku.
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In a recent interview, GOG's senior business development manager Marcin Paczynski talked about the latest decision to refocus. He said that one of the biggest drivers of the decision was that the market is "different today."
He noted that a lot of platforms nowadays continue to leave a lot of the classic games behind to simply whittle away and die. Others just do not give the titles the care that they deserve, which results in them slowly disappearing from the industry.
Keeping Games Playable Forever
The games that are currently on the list with the launch of GOG's preservation program include Diablo, System Shock 2, Resident Evil 1-3, and many others. The company also plans to add more games to the list moving forward, The Verge said.
GOG said that players can expect some key features with the preservation program, including that games will work on current and future popular PC configurations. It is also planning to have only the best and most complete version of the title in the program.
This talks about having all of its DLCs, expansions, and included manuals and alternative languages. The games that are part of the refocused efforts will also come with offline installers and no Digital Rights Management (DRM).
GOG noted that the goal was to have all games become part of the new preservation program that it launched. It added that there is a long backlog of classic titles that are available on GOG that may already be qualified, according to Rock Paper Shotgun.
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