Good Old Games Interview: CD Projekt on Reissuing Classic PC Games for Cheap, Piracy Concerns
Priced at either $5.99 or $9.99, these aren't straight re-releases. CD Projekt has done work to ensure that each game is now compatible with Windows XP and Vista, going so far as to create a custom installer for each game. A closed public beta demonstrating this is set to go live on August 1, with the site currently accepting applications.
The company is even removing DRM from titles that featured copy protection upon their initial release. It's already got the support of publishers Interplay and Codemasters, with the company hoping to eventually expand its catalog to include classic titles from others, such as EA and LucasArts.
But how does it actually work? How far back with GOG's offerings go, and what's stopping them from offering modern games as well? Isn't CD Projekt afraid of piracy? What about reprinting old game manuals, or adding features such as achievements?
And, most importantly, how will GOG compete in the already-crowded digital distribution space, which is dominated by Valve's Steam platform and other efforts?
For the answers, I turned to CD Projekt marketing VP Tom Ohle.
Shack: How does Good Old Games work? Is it just a website, or is it a dedicated platform a la Steam?
Tom Ohle: Essentially, GOG.com is just a website. You go to GOG.com, we'll have the latest games listed up top, reader reviews. We'll have a news section dedicated to retro gaming, or classic PC games.
The focus will be on the games catalog, online. So you go to GOG.com, either search for your game or start browsing, we've got a pretty deep browse feature for different categories.
The games are gonna be priced at either $5.99 or $9.99. You buy it, pay for it, download it and install it. You can go back and re-download it any time you want.
Shack: How far back do these games go?
Tom Ohle: I'd say most of the games that we've got in our initial pack will probably be from the, let's say, mid-90's to mid-2000's. The range of titles that we're looking for is anything that's not brand new, and going back as far as we can. As far back as stuff like Zork, who knows. We can go back as far as we need to. I shouldn't have mentioned Zork. At this point, we don't have it.
Our main goal is to try and deliver the best games of all time for PC. We've got a pretty long history to work with there.
Shack: What about DRM? Online activation? Can I download Fallout at home and then go to work and download another copy? Maybe put it on my laptop?
Tom Ohle: Nope. The whole goal is basically totally free of copy protection and DRM. We've got custom installers that come with each product. Run it [on one PC], and if you go to your laptop or whatever, you can just download it again.
Shack: If there's isn't any copy protection, aren't you concerned about piracy? How do you ensure this will be a profitable and long-lasting enterprise?
Tom Ohle: Realistically, it's probably out of our hands. What we wanted to do is kind of, provide that unique value in terms of--it's something that other competitors don't offer. Separate just from the games catalog itself, every other digital distribution platform basically requires some kind of online authentication, some sort of copy protection in there.
For us, it's basically log into your account and download any game [you've bought], any time. The concern about piracy is something that we've gotten from publishers, who kinda go, "We'll give you these games, you sell them, and then they'll just be out on torrents immediately."
We're hoping that with the low price point--we're also adding a bunch of added value features. For some of the key games, we're gonna have really in-depth game guides. And just trying to have that low price point, plus the no DRM, sort of working on a bit of an honor system.
The gamers that we're targeting are going to end up being a more mature audience anyways, because they're these hardcore, old-school PC gamers. For $5.99 or $9.99, it's pretty cheap. Hopefully people won't be too tempted to copy it and give it to their buddies, because it's pretty cheap. And hopefully the more sales we get, obviously, the more likely we are to bring on additional publishers and different titles. If everyone's pirating games right off the bat, then I guess we'd be in a bit of trouble.
Keep reading for more on GOG's attitude towards piracy, community features, "holy grails" and beta details along with the the possibility of achievements and boxed retail copies. _PAGE_BREAK_
Shack: Both Fallout and Fallout 2, both of those have been pretty difficult to find at retailers for a while now. Honestly, I can't imagine piracy of those titles going up.
Tom Ohle: One of the biggest arguments against copy protection is no matter what you put in your game, there's always going to be piracy. At this point, we haven't created anything that's totally piracy-proof, except for, to some extent, World of Warcraft and other MMOs. Beyond that, somebody's going to pirate your game.
We want to make sure it's as easy as possible for people who legitimately bought [the game] to play it and download again. In terms of digital copy, this is just like owning the game. You could buy the game, back it up on CD, and you've got it.
Our argument is that games are going to get pirated. I'm sure there's probably already a million torrents out there with a lot of the games we're going to be offering.
We're giving gamers a version of the game that works on Windows XP, works on Vista, we've tested it. You get our support to make sure the game works for you, you get game guides if we have them, and basically just the fact that you can download it at any time again I think is worth people just spending that little bit of money to buy the game.
Shack: So there's no limit as to how many times you can re-download a game once you've purchased it?
Tom Ohle: Nope.
Shack: Will you be keeping an eye on accounts to make sure someone doesn't buy the game once and then share their login info?
Tom Ohle: Yeah, possibly. Personally, that's nothing I've really thought about. I'm sure our programming team has given it some thought. Ultimately, I think we'll deal with situations like that as they arise.
Right now, the plan is sort of a power to the people sort of thing. It's a trust system. If people start abusing it, then maybe we have to come in and deal with it in some way. For now, we want to make sure that we give people a lot of really good games.
For me, I want to have a copy of the game on my laptop so I can take it on trips. I want it at home so I can play it while I'm at home. It's nice to have access like that.
Shack: You've got Codemasters and Interplay, what other publishers and titles are you eying for Good Old Games?
Tom Ohle: Some of our holy grails are probably going to be TIE Fighter or X-Wing, some of the other LucasArts adventure games. Stuff like that would be awesome. I'm sure EA has a lot of stuff sitting in their catalog, Wing Commander and things like that.
Shack: Don't forget Dungeon Keeper or Syndicate.
Tom Ohle: Yeah. Our goal is to be, ultimately, the one-stop place where you go, "I wish I could play this game. I'm going to go there and buy it."
Other stuff like Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate are remnants of a really good time in PC gaming, where we had all these really strong gameplay experiences. Early to mid-90's, I'd say. Anything in that period is really what we're aiming for. Think up a game that you want to play and hopefully we'll have it in the future.
Shack: What about support for fan-made patches that enhance the game, like the Fallout widescreen patches?
Tom Ohle: That's one of the areas where I'm hoping we can stand out. We're going to be doing as much as we can to support, or at least push people to, useful patches, different game enhancements. We're hoping the community also contributes some of that info. Ultimately, we want to make sure that people are playing the best possible game.
We do plan to offer community achievements, to reward getting involved on the forums, rating games, buying games, stuff like that. People will be able to submit their own game guides, screenshots, hints, all sorts of things.
Shack: And game-specific achievements? For example, finishing Fallout or beating 100 enemies bare-fisted?
Tom Ohle: Nothing planned that I know of, but that's certainly something interesting to consider. I'll mention it to the team. It would require us to modify the game code.
Shack: Any chance that GOG will offer boxed copies in addition to digital downloads, a la Stardock and Impact?
Tom Ohle: It's something we've discussed. There's no specific plan in place right now, but I think it's definitely something that would be good to look at in the future. Obviously, a lot of people like to have the box and disc in hand.
No plans right now, but potentially we can open the door to that. It might end up adding cost. At the price points we're looking at--$5.99, $9.99--it's a little less feasible than [the full-priced retail games] Stardock might have.
Shack: What about game manuals and original box covers? Will scans of those be Included in the download?
Tom Ohle: Not at the moment. I think that's again something that would be good to look at in the future. We'll have the covers and stuff as images on the site. At this time, we're basically just sticking to the game.
Shack: What happens when there's a complicated game that doesn't have a good tutorial and basically requires a manual?
Tom Ohle: We'll be providing whatever we can. If we have the ability to put manuals and things like online, then we'll do it. But where it's not possible, for whatever reason, the fans can basically put up whatever info they want. We'll start trying to push that along.
If we see that we have a lot of concerns about people not being able to play games because they just don't know how or the in-game info is lacking, we'll look at it from there. Our whole goal is to make this the easiest to use site that it can possibly be. Initially, every game will have its own little sub-forum.
Turn the page for more on the formation of Good Old Games, beta details, and additional community features. _PAGE_BREAK_
Shack: How did Good Old Games come about?
Tom Ohle: A couple of guys from CD Projekt were sitting around, trying to figure out some old PC games they wanted to play. They tried to find them and couldn't--that's basically where the idea came from. I think that was about GDC 07.
We've ramped up the team a bit in the last four or five months. I think it's about 15-20. It's been a long process. There's obviously building out a pretty significant backend, trying to get our custom installers going, tracking down potential licensers, different publishers we want to work with.
Once we have the publisher agreed, then we need to hunt down the masters, and do whatever we can to make sure the game works in Vista and XP. Otherwise we do what we can in terms of making sure the game works in Vista and XP.
Now the backend's in place and everything's ready to go, with the beta launching for media in the middle of July, and then we're doing the public closed beta on August 1. We'll keep adding titles and functionality throughout the beta, and obviously keep going after the site launches.
Shack: Will the beta offer free games?
Tom Ohle: We have to figure out the exact number of things we want to offer, but people in the beta will get at least one free title.
Shack: Do they get to keep that?
Tom Ohle: Yeah. We'll have a fully-functional site during the beta. Anything they buy during the beta, and the free game, will carry over to the final site.
Shack: Will that public beta be open or closed?
Tom Ohle: It'll be a closed public beta. We're going to be launching a signup thing on the site, right around the time the announcement goes up, so people will be able to sign up and get entered for a chance to get into the beta. We'll also try to do a couple giveaways here and there.
Shack: Valve started Steam because they wanted to distribute their games online. What's stopping CD Projekt from using GOG as a means to begin delivering its new titles?
Tom Ohle: Not a lot. Once the backend's in there, then technically it's quite feasible for us to deliver our products, and potentially other people's products.
Right now, the main goal is to focus on classic titles. We don't want to start trying to enter the digital distribution space at this point. Valve's got that pretty locked up. Impulse is also pretty good, and GamersGate and Direct2Drive and whoever else is out there. There's a lot of really good companies.
There's not a point to us entering that market and trying to make a big push, so we're just focusing on the core competency we've got right now: classic games.
Shack: Along with the games, Good Old Games will offer strategy guides for certain titles. Where do those come from?
Tom Ohle: To some extent, we're going to be working with people that already worked on the game guides. If there's already somebody who's done a really good job, for example. Where we can, we'll solicit game guides in the future for upcoming titles or we may have guys on-staff that are really well-versed in certain games. All of our guys are really hardcore PC gamers.
It's basically whatever we can do. We're working with a relatively small team on the site, so we're pushing as hard as we can and trying to do as much as we can with whatever resources we have available. We're all just working hard to try and make things happen whenever we can.
One of the biggest things that we're trying to do is really, wherever possible, push community self-help and contributions. The community aspect of the site is probably going to be one of the major reasons we're hoping that people will come back to the site, to get involved in the communities, rate and review games. We'll have a custom shelf, a graphical bookshelf, that has all your boxes stacked next to each other.
Shack: The X-Wing and TIE Fighter strategy guides were like phone books. Any chance we'll see something like that appear on GOG?
Tom Ohle: Maybe. It's always potential, trying to figure out what we can do with what we've got available. Some of the game guides that we're looking at trying to get are pretty big game guides. I was always pretty good at X-Wing and TIE Fighter so I never really needed that kind of thing...
Shack: Hey, they had entire pages of story in there too. It was like a novel crossed with a strategy guide.
Tom Ohle: I think I might have had the TIE Fighter one. We've got a pretty good web backend, so in terms of the size of things, it's not too much of an issue. The main thing that we want to do with the strategy guides and game guides is, we put a lot of work into them from a visual presentation standpoint. We'll have our art team actually go in and do a nice magazine-style layout with them.
Just from that angle, it's probably quite a bit of work to do something really huge. But for some of our key titles, as we move forward and as we roll out some new games, we're going to have these big name games we want to push. And we're going to put a lot of effort into those.
We ultimately see all this stuff as an investment to keep people coming back, and realize that it's just not some other digital distribution website that just happens to sell old games. We're trying to make it a little more valuable.
Shack: If you could guarantee a cheap X-Wing or TIE Fighter...
Tom Ohle: I'd probably stop working for a while. Those and man, there's so many games. There's so many games that we could get and that we're in discussions to get right now.
Located at GOG.com, CD Projekt's Good Old Games will launch in September, with a closed public beta set for debut on August 1. The site is currently accepting beta applications.
