They could not formally be known as Good Old Games any extra, however GOG nonetheless sells loads of video games which are each outdated and good alongside new releases like Hollow Knight: Silksong. Speaking to Automaton, senior PR rep Piotr Gnyp emphasised that by saying, “GOG has been doing this for well over a decade, and we’re constantly reaching out to secure iconic games. Sometimes, it takes years. Diablo came to GOG after almost a decade of conversations. Preservation often means knocking on the same doors again and again, hearing ‘no’ most of the time, until one day, it’s finally a ‘yes.'”
That paid off with GOG finally attending to re-release a handful of Japanese video games that have been troublesome to pay money for within the west like Silent Hill 4: The Room, among the early Metal Gears, and the OG Castlevanias and Contras. Capcom finally agreed to let GOG re-release Dino Crisis and the primary three Resident Evils, although it took “time, persistence, and trust-building,” Gnyp says. A re-release of Breath of Fire 4 earlier this yr was one of many stand-outs of GOG’s preservation initiative launched in late 2024.
“Working with Japanese partners often requires demonstrating both technical capability and cultural understanding. In this case, Capcom treated these launches as full new releases, so we followed a complete QA and certification process, just like we would for a brand-new game.”
Gnyp went on to say that, whereas typically a sport’s creators or an exterior companion is concerned at this stage, “in most cases, it’s GOG handling the porting and compatibility work.” Games within the GOG Preservation Program get some additional care and a focus, whether or not they’re packaged with fan-made mods or in any other case altered to run on trendy working techniques, have controller assist, and usually embrace the trendy world.
“Our internal tech team analyzes each game,” Gnyp mentioned, “builds custom wrappers or tools when needed, and thoroughly tests the result. That’s how we make sure the experience is authentic but also practical for today’s players.”
Not each sport that makes it to GOG will get to be preserved endlessly. The first two Warcraft video games have been pulled by Blizzard, as were Adult Swim games like Westerado and Fist Puncher. Sometimes GOG has to remove a game from sale when it’s delisted for a rights issue and sometimes it’s because the publisher wants to sell it on their own storefront, but recently there’s been a more censorious group trying to get games removed from sale. GOG responded by giving 13 horny games away for free.
“At GOG,” Gnyp said, “as a platform devoted to Good Old Games and videogame preservation, we see it as a game preservation issue. Every year, many games are disappearing, for various reasons. Every game that disappears from distribution is potentially lost to game preservation efforts. It is particularly worrying when games are potentially vanishing due to external pressure.”