GOG.com, the digital distribution website for DRM-free classic PC games, unexpectedly closed over the weekend, with management hinting at a possible reboot.
Management for GOG, short for "Good Old Games,"
issued a vague statement on the website that leaves the door open for a possible return of the service: "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."
The statement added that "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."
An update on the site said the apparent closure was "due to business and technical reasons," and an official statement "concerning the ongoing events is planned on Wednesday" this week.
GOG launched in 2008 from Polish
The Witcher publisher CD Projekt. Games on the digital storefront were priced for $5.99 and $9.99, including games such as the original
Fallout games,
MDK 2 and
Giants: Citizen Kabuto.
One of the main draws of GOG was that all of the games were free of DRM -- there were no security measures in place to keep users from copying and illegally distributing games from the site. The site's operators touted the DRM-free approach, assuring that GOG users wouldn't be hassled with intrusive security measures.
But being DRM-free may have been a difficult policy to uphold. A statement on GOG's
official Twitter account said, "Sometimes it's really hard being DRM-free... hard to keep things the way they are and keep management and publishers happy."
The GOG team said that on Thursday it will post a solution for GOG customers to re-download games that they purchased. Management added that 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."
[
UPDATE: Added information from GOG.com site update.]
