Good Old Games admits closure a hoax, relaunches
Retro download side lifts 'beta' tag and rewrites codebase following fake shutdown
Retro PC game download service God Old Games (GOG.com) has revealed its apparent closure over the weekend was a hoax.
Admitting it was a marketing stunt to raise the site's profile, co-founder Marcin Iwinski and managing director Guillaume Rambourgthe appeared dressed as monks in an online press conference this evening.
The pair claimed they had "sinned," before going on to accusing the games industry of being too "stiff" in its response to the ruse.
The service, whose temporary suspension since Saturday had denied existing customers access to their prior purchases, will relaunch and reopen tomorrow.
As well as lifting its long-held 'beta' tag, the new-look service will boast improved coding, new features such as download timers and friend recommendations, and several additional games.
The most notable new recruit is classic Bioware RPG Baldur's Gate, with hints that its sequel may follow. Rumours that GoG might drop its no-DRM stance proved unfounded.
In a statement provided before the conference to PC Gamer, a GoG spokesperson said:
"First of all we'd like to apologize to everyone who felt deceived or harmed in any way by the closedown of GOG.com. As a small company we don't have a huge marketing budget and this why we could not miss a chance to generate some buzz around an event as big as launching a brand new version of our website and even more important, bringing back Baldur's Gate to life."
Iwinski and Rambourgthe closed the fancy dress conference by asserting that they intended GoG to become "the number one alternative to Steam."
You have to admit though that this has raised their profile - they've been all over gaming news sites in the last few days, thanks to this (which I think was quite a good way to generate publicity for a smaller site).
I don't think it will have ruined consumer trust in them, provided stunts like this are very infrequent.
But then, what do i know? I don't manage a company! :)
Edited 1 times. Last edit by James Prendergast on 23rd September 2010 4:14pm
It's an odd stunt and I don't know the impact on potential new customers but I can say I've been a customer for a while, and this did not weaken my confidence on them. I'm just glad all is ok as I they differentiate themselves from other online shops by adding value (exclusive wallpapers, avatars etc) to the games they sell.
Dreamt up a good 10-20 games from my early years and found nada
My blog
Edited 1 times. Last edit by Jonathan Grimes on 8th October 2010 9:16am