PR stunt. This annoucement fall just on their second birthday ? Fat chance. They announced they would go out of Beta and now this ? Fat chance.
PLus the number of double-entendre words in the annoucement :
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
I believe they'll put the site back in a few days, and by the same occasion change some rules (the no-DRM rule ? the "two pricetags rule ?).
This really looks like a PR stunt, and a really stupid one :
- People become more aware that DD games are not as "safe" as retail games (since the service can be lost)
- People complaining with DRM often complains because they cannot download whenever they want. For the White Horse of DRM so far, shutting the service without prior notice is a bad move.
- Most (interested) gamers knew about GOG already - so they did not need (IMO) that move to get (much) better known. On the other hand, people are already talking about the alternative site to go to (
www.dotemu.com), which was fairly unknown so far.
Note that those 3 arguments can be used to say that this is not A PR stunt after all.
