This could be the case, or could not be. They shared a post on Reddit 19 hours ago from their official account, and I thought it might be nice to share that here, at least to spark some discussion.
They simply shared a post titled:
Shall we? š¦šæ
With the following image:
Link to the Reddit post is here if you want to see what others are saying about it!
142 Comments
tixooo@lemmy.zip · 62 pts · 55d
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 39 pts · 55d
Gog already are no drm and you could write it to a disc if you really wanted to. It's been like that for a very long time. Given you would be writing a data disc you can even put multiple games on a single DVD in some cases.
Their windows installers are usually split at 4GB - huh, guess what fits nicely on a 4.7GB DVD...
tixooo@lemmy.zip · 23 pts · 55d
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 7 pts · 55d
They could sell decent USB optical drives to go with them
bryndos@fedia.io · 2 pts · 55d
Is there such a thing?
I've had a few crappy ones, they're basically e-waste after a few uses or trips. So I revert to a full size internal sata one or the same but in a 5.1/4" external caddy (powered).
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 55d
No idea, haven't used optical media in like 2 decades.
bryndos@fedia.io · 1 pts · 54d
oh right, cool. i'll stick to my chunky chunks then.
tixooo@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 55d
daggermoon@piefed.world · 12 pts · 55d
Why am I the only one that has a BD-R drive?
michaelalf@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 55d
There are dozens of us! Dozens!!
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 55d
You can buy am external DVD burner for like 25 bucks these days, but blue ray is still over a hundred.
daggermoon@piefed.world · 5 pts · 55d
It wasn't until recently. They used to be considerably cheaper.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 55d
Sorry. A blue ray BURNER is pretty expensive. A drive is cheap
daggermoon@piefed.world · 3 pts · 55d
That's not why those drives are expensive. They're expensive because they can run cfw to enable ripping of UHD and now xbox and nintendo discs.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
Pretty sure I bought my Blu-ray burners for like $40 long ago
TrickDacy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
I have one. I rarely use it but I still do occasionally. I'm due a BR dump in the near future actually
vagullion@lemmy.world · 32 pts · 55d
Maybe for certain Collector's Editions, but overall I don't need optical media when the games are DRM-free anyway.
MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz · 14 pts · 55d
Makes sense to me, actually.
It'd be an easy way to get and also store the DRM-free offline installer, in where you don't have to permanently allocate active storage to keep the installer around.
terabyterex@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 55d
burn it yourself
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 55d
Consumer burnable CD and DVD disks often have an astonishingly short storage life, especially if they are not stored very carefully. They're not an archival medium. Competently pressed commercial (aluminum) disks meanwhile have a storage life that is near as makes no difference to infinite provided they are not physically damaged in some way.
I've got tons of burned disks of pirated old games from the early aughts that don't read anymore. This is highly annoying from a preservation standpoint as I can't get them to play despite possessing them on disk, and they're now unpopular enough that they're likewise difficult to impossible to pirate again.
terabyterex@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
i realze now the guy was talking about backup. i thought it was for display. i knew dvds were bad foe navkup but didnt realize commercial dvds were so much better.
EDIT: i just checked they do seel commercial frade "archive quality" on amazon. they arent that mich more.
rozodru@piefed.world · 27 pts · 55d
do it. I don't care about the practicality of it all I loved those big boxes. But they also need to have the big manuals inside also.
Some of those manuals were absolutely awesome. Like the one for the first Heavy Gear. or the old flight sim games. Or like the original release of Final Fantasy 7 on PC by Edios came with a brady's strategy guide. Heck bring back strategy guides too! I remember when World of Warcraft first came out I picked up the strategy guide with it cause it was full of WoW related Penny-Arcade comics in it and I was (heck still am) a massive fan of Penny-Arcade.
content_educator_94@thelemmy.club · 6 pts · 55d
100% feel you I miss picking up a game with a phat manual, I am smell the fresh ink from the manuals when I think about it hard enough lol
Or buying a large paged, glossy, color printed, gorgeous strategy guide I would read for pleasure and enjoy as a piece of art as well as a walkthrough
Ahh fuck I miss being younger. The late 90's and early to mid 2000's were an incredible time for video games
merc@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 54d
What I miss is cloth maps. I don't know what I did with mine, but if I ever open a moving box and find one, I'm framing it and putting it up on my wall.
rozodru@piefed.world · 2 pts · 54d
yes! the maps were awesome. Or some other stuff you'd get with the game. Like with the first Max Payne you got a really cool mousepad. used that thing for years. Also had one that I believe came with Star Wars Rebel Assault.
placebo@lemmy.zip · 15 pts · 55d
merc@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 54d
I never liked the jewel cases. Not enough space for anything interesting inside other than just the disc.
Quokka@quokk.au · 15 pts · 55d
Did GOG ever end up meaningfully addressing that neonazi shit?
PerfectDark@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 55d
No. At least not to my satisfaction.
Quokka@quokk.au · 18 pts · 55d
That's disappointing to hear.
Guess I'll continue to not use them any more.
VitoRobles@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 55d
No.
Because they don't feel sorry about doing it on purpose, just that people didn't like it.
DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 54d
They said it was a bank holiday and they were understaffed and that is most of the root cause of it going out as well as suspecting of using AI to make headers for their emails which is not uncommon.
They apologized and explained it that way
gamesieve@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 52d
MichaÅ KiciÅski, the new owner, just posted a thorough apology: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/nazi_symbols_in_an_email_and_bs_excuse/post277
(If you're on the default 20 posts per page view, you need to go back a page (to the bottom of page 18) to actually read post 277, as deleted posts in that thread means the linking to specific post numbers is broken.)
Quokka@quokk.au · 1 pts · 51d
He's had like what 2 weeks and all he can say is "I'm sorry, we're not Nazis"?
What I want to see is accountability, I want a real explanation for how it was created in the first place. I want to know why their first 2 responses were so all over the place and didn't explain what happened but tried to deflect. I want to see what their plans are to ensure this cannot happen again. An apology on its own doesn't cut it.
explodIng_lIme@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 55d
Itās fun for nostalgia but my pc doesnāt have a disc drive, nor even the space for one. Depending on your internet connection downloading is faster than reading from a disc even. If they were to somehow re-release old collector edition boxes that would become tempting.
iamthetot@piefed.ca · 21 pts · 55d
For what it's worth, an external disc drive is not very expensive and they are quite small.
yakko@feddit.uk · 4 pts · 55d
Why not just sell it in a cheap little thumb drive? Most games like this are very modest in size, would save people the cost of a disc reader.
mastertigurius@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 55d
What would be the priority from a business perspective? Saving customers the cost of a disc drive, or saving the company the cost of shifting production over to a proprietary thumb drive, most likely costing several times the price per unit of a disc?
yakko@feddit.uk · 2 pts · 55d
I think the priority for the business is what people will buy. PCs don't have disc readers as standard anymore. Now the barrier to entry for physical media is either pay more for a thumb drive or pay a lot more for a disc reader.
What if they adopted the C02 canister model. Slightly joking here, but why not treat the thumb drives as a recoverable container you can get a rebate for reusing?
daggermoon@piefed.world · 8 pts · 55d
Optical discs can store data way longer than nand flash storage.
bufalo1973@piefed.social · 2 pts · 55d
Then maybe EP/ROMs instead of flash.
yakko@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 55d
Do they need to?
daggermoon@piefed.world · 6 pts · 55d
5 years vs. 80. I'll leave that up to you.
yakko@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 55d
Ideally we'd get to keep both around. I can see a world where we're trading digital media around on discs deep into the next century, but I can also see how currently there's also room for more transient media to serve less preservation-conscious people who don't go out of their way to own a disc drive.
athatet@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 55d
You make it sound like they are hard to get and not just able to be purchased online like everything else.
rozodru@piefed.world · 2 pts · 55d
they cost about the same though. An Asus slim external 8x DVD usb 2.0 writer costs $50. a 256gb thumb drive costs $50. And i'm using 256GB as an example for modern games that can potentially be well over 100gb. Add to the fact said DVD drive is going to last a lot longer than a USB thumb drive. those thumb drives have a lifespan of like 5 years.
yakko@feddit.uk · 3 pts · 55d
In this specific case, that's not apples to apples since most of the games on GOG are very small.
It's kind of hilarious to imagine, but I can imagine doing a "BYO thumb drive" sale for physical media. They could even mail it back in the big box
tixooo@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 55d
explodIng_lIme@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
I know but that doesnāt change the reality. Most PCs donāt come with disc readers anymore. Anyone who does have an external disc drive can already burn a GOG game to disc if they so choose. Or put the game on a usb-stick/SD-card/external drive all of which are more convenient options than using a disc. Shipping boxes for an outdated technology is a purely wasteful exercise for a company like GOG because most of their games are older releases and have no DRM. I see the benefit of discs for new console releases because it allows people to offset the cost of a game by trading it in. That has always been one of the aspects of console gaming. But that doesnāt hold for GOG
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 55d
Yeah, they can keep the disc, but I'll gladly for a box, book and map or whatever goodies they came with
explodIng_lIme@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 55d
Most GOG games already allow you to download a pdf of the manual and extras if they had them
Zarobi@aussie.zone · 5 pts · 55d
Yeah but squinting at a pdf on your monitor pales in comparison to whipping out the glossy colour print instruction booklet. I remember playing Morrowind and it came with an actual map. It was so much fun I forgot the game itself had that feature. More games should come with maps, man. Where's my BOTW map?
Action_Bastid@lemmy.world · 14 pts · 55d
If they do a print to order thing, I could see it maybe working out as a cool side business. Or it could be a chance for them to go really harder into the vintage games market if they can get some publishers on board or get the rights to some older stuff. Doesn't seem like a winning market though on a mass market front, more just a form of advertising or a specialty service for physical collectors.
DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 55d
Print to order is the best way I was wondering why they "announced" this and then your comment made it click I bet that is how they do it.
Actually super cool I won't lie.
hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 55d
Please don't team up with Limited Run Games to do this.
Squizzy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 54d
Who are they?
hal_5700X@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 54d
A scum company. They got caught using burned CD-Rs for their 3DO games instead of actual pressed discs, insanely long wait times, used to openly cater to scalpers. Insanely expensive for what they offer, and are playing a hand in the death of physical games by creating false scarcity.
mrixrt's videos on them
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 55d
Optical media? Maybe not.
Custom flash drives? That would be gravy.
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 55d
You do realize that flash drives are not near stable enough for long term storage, much less archival storage, right?
bilb@lemmy.ml · 4 pts · 55d
Not to take away form your point at all, but optical media degrades, too. Usually much slower, though. In the long run, regular transferal between backups is the only option. (In the long-long run, we will succeed in preserving nothing and all traces of our existence will be obscured! Ahhh!)
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 55d
Yes, thats my point.
You have maybe a year, if you're lucky, on a flash drive.. and very few'd probably make it that far, and the ones that did would be egregiously expensive.
on optical media you have time that can be measured in decades, possibly even a century if proper storage practices are used.
That is a significant difference in stability
yogurtwrong@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 54d
One time programmable flash could be a good a solution to this
MortUS@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 55d
Ugh, I would love a portable/offline launcher/installer for my GoG game files.
DarkMetatron@feddit.org · 10 pts · 55d
GOG already offers offline installers for all games they sell.
MortUS@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
Nice - I didn't realize that the GoG installer was portable.
I wish their settings had custom connections. Like, If I could have a portable version that connects to my NAS and downloads/installs my offline/saved GoG games; that'd be the sweet spot. If anyone has suggestions for a setup like this lemme know!
DarkMetatron@feddit.org · 4 pts · 54d
I have the offline installer stored on my NAS and use GameVault[1] as a local installed web interface to access my digital game library.
[1] https://gamevau.lt/
phx@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
I'd kinda love to see a comeback for optical given the supply issues for flash memory, but I'll about that a custom USB ROM stick or SDCard style carts for PC would be kinda sick
logannic@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 55d
~thinks about cloth maps from Ultima games
~ heavy breathing
clubb@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 55d
They used to make them out of cloth???
logannic@sh.itjust.works · 13 pts · 55d
A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
you used to get all kinds of really cool and amazing shit when you bought games, maps, manuals, pewter figures, and more.
lyrial@anarchist.nexus · 2 pts · 54d
I still have my cloth EverQuest maps framed on the wall.
master94ga@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 55d
I would prefer them to focus on bringing more games to the Store. If people want CD everyone can print them by themself with the already DRM Free games.
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 55d
I don't care about the disc, but I would happily pay 20 bucks to get a map and 80 page booklet for some games.
Carighan@piefed.world · 8 pts · 55d
I mean in a way this is exciting, sure.
In particular if they do this in a somewhat eco-friendly fashion, that is, it's just about the box and the manual and all that. No actual disc/thumbdrive/whatever. Granted GOG in particular would be in a position where they can do this due to their installers, but it'd still be absurd materials and logistics-wise, in particular old-style big box PC releases.
To add, I just recently finally got rid of the last of my old PC games boxes like DAoC or the ME games. I had already thrown out most older games such as Homeworld or Battle Isle years and years prior when I moved where I live right now.
Was it a kinda cool-looking collection in the living room? Yes. Did it take an absurd amount of space for no reason and it's not like I even had a disc drive in the past 20 or so years? Yes. I nowadays have a pretty large board games collection, and that needs the space the books and video games previously took. So I donated books to hospitals and jails and so on, and games I gave away, sold or in some cases just tossed. Fond memories, but not enough to justify the amount of physical space used for a physical medium I cannot even use.
Lumisal@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 55d
Anyone know what was up with the Nazi symbolism they emailed purposefully? I would really want to support them but I need to know that it wasnt something terrible they did. Physical releases is definitely a plus as well.
mushroommunk@lemmy.today · 10 pts · 55d
They released a standard non-apology claiming it was part of their culture and that people just didn't understand. They also stated their German team raised issue with the email and that they just ignored it
Lumisal@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
Wait really?
mushroommunk@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 55d
They went back and forth with the community more and the devs but basically repeated themselves
gamesieve@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 54d
The explanation which makes most sense to me - but which hasn't been confirmed by GOG - is that the newsletter person did a web search for "slavic emojis", for which the top hit is a horribly racist website masquerading as an emoji site, which lists all the used glyphs on the first line of the results. (There is no "Slavic" unicode block or anything similar, and the characters used are from Malaysian, Greek and Cameroon script blocks, so not something you'd easily assemble on your own, no matter what your intentions were.)
That site (or at least the users contributing its content) intended all the dog-whistling which was picked up on. However, with a default macOS font installed, the most objectionable "SS" (presented on that site as a single glyph) shows all curly and non-objectionable (5th 'character' in the screenshot). So with the newsletter person in a hurry and never scrolling down to the more obviously racist content (or using an AI-assisted interface?), the characters they saw didn't trigger any alarms. As GOG is perpetually understaffed plus it was a long-weekend, QA was nearly non-existent and communication fumbled.
This was their final apology and communication about it: https://www.gog.com/upload/forum/2026/06/c1cdf9fda39aaa5532ee375b38abb04376c7505d.png - so an apology about the newsletter, but nothing about the tone-deaf first followup from the new-on-the-job "community specialist" who was posting the heritage stuff on reddit and ineffectually trying to make sense of the rendering differences without any proper understanding of unicode characters and glyphs and thus muddying the waters further.
DarkMetatron@feddit.org · 3 pts · 55d
It was not Nazi symbolism, well not intentionally at least. They used Slavic runes that, in the intended fonts, looks very different from the Nazi symbols. It came to the issue because in some fonts the Slavic runes are displayed without serifs and with hard lines which makes them appear problematic. So it was kind of a self inflicted homographic attack.
https://tbreak.com/gog-apologizes-nazi-runes-newsletter/
Lumisal@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
Well, I know the cause now but it's still not that good a reason if they were warned and decided not to use it in Germany....
DarkMetatron@feddit.org · 3 pts · 55d
Oh, it was used in germany, as I as a german had the newsletter in my inbox too, and found it very problematic.
The warning from the german team was not ignored, as far as I understood it, but just arrived too late while the newsletter team was already sending the mails. I also work in a international company with teams all over the world, stuff like that can happen without any ill intend, and so far GOG has shown no negative signs at all. So I tend to accept the explanation that it was only a error, especially with the very bad history that poland had with the nazi regime, Blitzkrieg and all.
Sure one can, and should, put GOG on a personal "watchlist" in case other strange or ugly stuff like this happens, but as long as that is not the case I don't see any reason to change my use of GOG at all. Humans, and with that companies too, can make and will make errors and I am a big fan of second, or even third, chances. I try to judge by intend not by looks.
PerfectDark@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
Nope, it was blocked. They asked, were told this is wrong and knew why.
The reason you had it delivered in Germany is because your email preferences are set to English. They only skipped Germany by blocking the German language. They knew it was wrong, avoided the German language and set it to everyone else. Rather than hitting backspace once or twice.
DarkMetatron@feddit.org · 1 pts · 54d
My preference are not set to english, but GOG sometimes things I am in France and from time to time sends me Mails in that undecipherable language so who knows what happened exactly in my case and why I got the mail.
But even with all that information I still classify it as a badly managed marketing stunt then a right wing outing or something like that. Nothing else they do, as far as I know, shows any signs of that.
mushroommunk@lemmy.today · 0 pts · 55d
Except their excuse that it was part of their culture and why they use it in the first place holds no water according to the developers of the game (part of said culture) as well as many others.
DarkMetatron@feddit.org · 2 pts · 55d
I can't find a official statement from GOG with that content, only statements where they say that it was a error both in the internal processes, with not waiting for the responses of all internationale, especially in this case the german, teams before sending the newsletter and with checking if the runes could be problematic in some fonts.
The runes themself are both from the intended design and from the connected meaning and symbolism unproblematic, yes they can look problematic in the wrong fonts but that is more a problem of font design then of ill intent.
mushroommunk@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 55d
https://www.reddit.com/r/gog/comments/1txmcyd/comment/opxtour/?share_id=CwegTdIv6g3YU-MQmBT0_
Second sentence is literally the GOG rep stating is part of their culture. The reply is the dev explicitly stating they avoided several of the runes sent because of the connotations. Comments are full of people pointing out that they did not use the rune they claimed they did based on the Unicode and pointing out that in history using the double rune has had no meaning.
The developers also pointed out in a different spot they changed their logo because the old one had connotations they wanted to avoid but that GOG used the old one, despite having the new less problematic one.
Nothing GOG said passes the sniff test.
brsrklf@jlai.lu · 3 pts · 55d
I agree, the combination of the incorrect character, the "random" doubling of it and the way they did not respect the developer's decision to change their logo makes it hard to believe it was a mistake.
To me it really sounds like the change of logo made some piece of shit angry, and then they thought they'd "correct" it.
DarkMetatron@feddit.org · 2 pts · 55d
Well the games name is "End of the Sun" and it is a Slavic game, so using a slavic sun rune is not that extremely far fetched. Why using it double, which lead to the SS appearance, i``s another question and it was dumb at least. But I still don't see ill intent, when something like that happens once I am fair enough to accept that people can do things in error. I still try to see the good in people
Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 55d
I donāt think we should create more waste in our world, so Iām voting against it.
Iād want GOG to focus more on Linux and on getting more games on their store.
DarkMetatron@feddit.org · 11 pts · 55d
Those would be collectibles, and as that more or less art pieces, so not really waste, unless you classify all art as waste which would be sad in my eyes.
Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 55d
I understand this.
Still plastic waste is a huge problem.
Dependeing on the price, anyone could be tempted by collecting these, where collecting psintings would be too prohibitive.
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 54d
i mean i did run out of wall space two paintings ago, but that's what local art fairs and farmers markets are for. plus you get to meet the artist.
my favorite painting cost $60
DarkMetatron@feddit.org · 1 pts · 54d
Such boxes are made mostly of cardboard, the amount of plastic is rather low even more so should they leave out discs, by replacing them with flash storage for example.
SolarPunker@slrpnk.net · 7 pts · 54d
Every time I read this fake ecological motivation I aks myself why people think we can save the planet without some plastic and paper in a little box of human art, instead of considering real problems like big industry procedures and food packaging. Priorities.
Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 54d
Iām a vegetarian, using my muscular bike a lot and trying to buy as much local food as possible, so Iām trying to do what I can.
Iām sorry if I offended people, by saying these physical dics would be an ecological problem for me. I agree that just a few people would probably buy them and it wouldnāt be a big deal.
Itās just that, as long as we have a DRM free digital games, I donāt really see what physical games would bring except easier resale (and collection/decoration).
If it helps GOG bring better features and games, Iām not really against it then, even if I wouldnāt buy their physical games.
makeshift0546@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 55d
They aren't a publisher They won't make a dent in the market.
I just want transferable perpetual licences.
Fuck Gabe, fuck Sony. Scumbags.
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 55d
Much rather have them create read-only (or semi read only to import patches?) flash-storage USB sticks.
Who the hell has a built-in CD player or even a BD-player in this time and age?
I have an external USB-CD player but only so I can digitize the CDs I buy online.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 55d
The answer is nerds. The specific answer is the type of nerds who would buy this sort of thing.
You're looking at one right now, in fact ā I have an internal 5.25" Blu-Ray burner in the lone singular bay in my current case. (The machine with the conga line of nearly every type of floppy drive ever created down the front of it lives in the basement.)
Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 55d
Automatic Ripping Machine doeant count ;)
Idk if ripping CDs every few months counts towards nerdy tasks :D
forestbeasts@pawb.social · 1 pts · 54d
Hey, I'd burn the entire box set of Debian (yeah, ALL OF DEBIAN! 27 discs!) to some DVD-Rs if we had any DVD-Rs! All we've got are CD-Rs and those ain't big enough.
-- Frost
SolarPunker@slrpnk.net · 6 pts · 54d
It would be fucking awesome. I can totally see others doing this in the future but GOG is the perfect player for selling drm-free physical stuff at the moment. People who think "full digital is the inevitabile future everything" are just sad analysts watching their own garden, we already know PS5 selling datas were manipulated from Sony, people need physical like in any other art medium.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz · 5 pts · 55d
I mean box art is kinda cool, but who even wants to use optical media? It's not the 2000s anymore.
Possible idea, memory stick? Faster transfer speeds. Downside is it would cost quite a bit extra. But then posting internationally is probably going to cost a fair bit too so for a collectors item it might not be too bad and makes it actually usable.
64bithero@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 54d
While this is something Iād love to see I have a hard time fathoming how they could do this to any level of scale. They would have to pick a few games and probably a language or two.
I think GOG would be best suited to just offer cover art as a download and maybe build tools right into GOG galaxy to let you burn games to DVR.
But I do love GOG if I can I always buy through there store front. Sadly itās rarer then Iād like
daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 55d
If they came with manual, posters, artwork and all the goodies of old game boxes could be a win.
Also better done with completed games that are no longer to be updated.
For an empty box with a cd that once installed you need to download a 50Gb patch for it to be playable would make no sense.
skisnow@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 54d
Discworld (1995) came with an actual t-shirt in the box. But there was an insane period in the early 2000s where they'd stopped doing manuals, maps and other extras but still packaged the disc in a box the size of a 450g cornflakes packet.
I'm ok with manuals not being a thing, because it's a reflection of improvements in both software and game design where you don't need to read 24 pages of text before you can play a game. But I'm not ok with publishers basically killing the secondary market.
EggInDisguise@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 4 pts · 55d
I don't have the fancy boxes and art, but I've been taking all my offline installers and burning them on cds and dvds.
My little USB disc drive has been working overtime this year.
I'm hoping to get a desktop with cd storage framing the monitor like I used to have.
Practical? Not really. I just think it's neat.
Zephorah@discuss.online · 4 pts · 55d
Theyāre DRM free, so why not burn it to physical media with a label? Even so, Iām ok with GOG downloads. Whatās fun is you can share your account with your partner or your kids and no one will care.
psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 55d
PS controller peeking through š
PerfectDark@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 55d
A jab at Sony's recent announcement with completely ditching physical games!
ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 55d
I think physical copies are still important, and if I ever go as far as selling my own games, I plan to sell them alongside the digital copies. I'll see how much I can put into it after losing the 30% Gaben tax, likely a small box with installer DVD (or optionally USB stick if I will be able to find quality ones for cheap) + printed manual will be the baseline, then a Big Box edition for more money with some more goodies (soundtrack CDs + artbook + posters + other tats).
turmacar@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 55d
That's the thing. Steam caught on in part because compared to physical retail "only" 30% was a massive improvement for the average game company. I've heard 60-70+% going to buying/printing floppies/CDs, packaging, distribution, etc. at the high end. I'm sure the big companies got bulk discounts or multi-year deals for supplies.
Yes that meant that since those aspects were a significant amount of the cost anyway you could do stuff like the StarCraft Battlechest that was crammed with extras. But it also did a lot of gatekeeping in it's own right.
Now you could probably do some kind of limited run thing that would be a lot more viable, but it's definitely a luxury step up.
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 55d
I really don't want more packaging. Just give me a download to the file.
I see zero reason to want more plastic like a disc, but I could understand why someone might want a box with a book, a manual, maybe some items from the game.
My kids order stuff like this all the time from the independent game makers they like to support. Their book shelves have their favorite books and box sets of games, and they like it.
I guess my point is: for indy game makers, this is already a thing.
MortUS@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 55d
GoG already does this though, so presumably it would just be the consumers choice. Some folx just like bookcases and collectibles.
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 55d
Gog already makes books and collectibles like I mentioned?
Taleya@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 54d
They do? Where?
Joelk111@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
skisnow@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 54d
Publishers have proved time and time and time again that they can't be trusted to keep that download available to you after you've handed the money over.
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 53d
I don't think it matters for this discussion. As long as I can download the files once, that's fine. Just like if I bought a disc: once I take possession of it, I need to manage it.
I don't expect that I can walk into a store 5 years later and just get another physical disc, so why would I expect that with a file? I need to take care of them myself.
That said even though they are not publishers, GOG, Steam, and humble bundle have been pretty good about keeping things available long after i bought them. I can still pull my whole humble bundle catalog (and soundtracks) down with a script.
skisnow@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 53d
So youāve never run out of space on your HDD, or replaced your machine, or wanted to lend or sell your game? Youāre in the minority.
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 53d
Will the physical media get scratched, have bit rot, or no longer have a device it will work in?
At least with a file I can simply back it up, buy a new drive, put it into my server, leave a copy at a friends house and all the other ways we back up our data.
I dobt really care about lending a game, but they can come over and play it if they want.
Selling it seems like more hassle than its worth, and frankly even now we (collective we as in all of us) are simply throwing away DVDs, cds, and until recently older games.
I would rather just know that I have a game I can play anytime forever and that's that.
skisnow@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 53d
You're just grasping now.
NewNewAugustEast@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 53d
Lol what? I'm "grasping"?
I do not want physical media. It's wasteful and gives me no benefit, takes up space and has a limited lifetime.
How is that grasping?
Simulation6@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 55d
If they made manuals, maps and art work available online for download, even if it was an extra cost item, I would be interested. I don't have room for the boxes.
Aidinthel@reddthat.com · 8 pts · 55d
Those things are already available for many games on the store, free with purchase. Always have been.
zerofk@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 54d
I interpret it more as preserving those big box games from the past, not releasing new boxes. Riding the current wave for marketing.
BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 55d
Maybe for collector editions? Otherwise digital via GoG galaxy client is preferable
MortUS@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
Yeah, I could see this too. I see a lot of other devs / indie devs doing Design Works for their games and GoG offering something like this could be cool.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 53d
They can do this for the upcoming Thief remaster...
yermaw@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 55d
Would it be feasible (if thats not what's happening here already) to just have blank boxes, blank discs, blank sleeve inserts, and just fire up the printer when an order comes in?
I could see it being "fairly easy" to automate, but no true understanding of if it would be realistically cost-effective or if it would scale appropriately or whatever.
shweddy@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 55d
Oh man the first 2 fallouts with box art and discs would go crazy for me
goodboyjojo@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 53d
I think it would be cool to have physical copies of your fav pc games. I think physical media in general should have a comeback
cenariodantesco@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
they should've used the meme of LOTR Frodo's uncle or whatever - ' after all, why shouldn't we š¦šā¹ļø'
GarboDog@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
YES YES YES YES
chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
I'd rather see them just list the ISOs so we can burn them to disc ourselves. These are fun, but niche. Listing an ISO isn't far off from what they regularly do.
Carighan@piefed.world · 4 pts · 55d
I mean that's also woefully outdated. Just use the installers they already provide and put them on a thumbdrive, there's a solid chance that'll last far longer than a burnt disc would, too.
chemical_cutthroat@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 55d
Optical storage is much cheaper than physical storage at the moment. If I wanted to back up my entire steam library, it would be less expensive to do it with a mix of Blu-rays and DVDs. Blu-rays are also good from 10-50 years, with archival grade good for up to 100 years.
Now, yes, I can just burn the installers to the disc, so that's fine, but I'm talking specifically about them released big box games, where I don't necessarily want the game, but I do want the launcher/installer experience as it was when it was first released.
ClassifiedPancake@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 54d
As long as it doesnāt raise prices of the regular digital games
brsrklf@jlai.lu · 0 pts · 55d
Funny, I have the original standard NWN box, it was already a lot smaller than the big old school boxes, and definitely a lot smaller than the NWN 2 here (I'm assuming it's a collector edition of sort, maybe?).
I still have a few old big boxes like that though. The only one I really like to the point it earned a spot in my game shelf is the Creatures one. It looks so cool.
Can't find the exact one I have (early French edition I guess) but it's that art with (fortunately) a lot less crap tacked over it :
https://creatures.wiki/images/f/f2/Creatures_1996_Windows_Cover_Art.jpg
Mine just has GT and cyberlife logos in corners and the silly digital DNA warning.
Prathas@lemmy.zip · 0 pts · 55d
Interesting. *Starts watching Cold Fear (No Damage) (Extreme Difficulty) (All Documents)*
GeneralEmergency@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 54d
PerfectDark@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 54d
Maybe this is just a 'thing' I don't understand (super likely), why are you censoring 'gamers'? Or any word on Lemmy? Being a mod here, I can tell you with 100% certainty that if you follow our rules, you don't have to censor any word you're using like you have to on TikTok.
cyclonedusk@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 53d
there's an ongoing memetic flashmob-style recurring gag where people pretend that the entire population of gamers are universally so toxic and evil that talking about them is a curse. stereotypes that gamers are racist, misogynistic, etc.
and like, yeah, too many self-avowed gamers ARE toxic in that particular way--the stereotype exists for a reason after all--but i don't like gatekeeping and the 'joke' reeks of it, in that it conveys the implication that playing video games is causative of acquiring fascist views and that if you play video games people will assume you are cultivating a fascist viewpoint and supporting an inherently fascistic and ontologically evil industry, which may cause some people, especially people who are already marginalized, to feel like they are either unwelcome to participate in a recreational activity or that they will be further ostracized for participating in a recreational activity.
i for one would merely like to see people not being discouraged from enjoying stuff, y'know...?
edit:
but i would like to acknowledge that it's also at least relatively obvious that it's not actually aimed at literally all people who play video games, but more so at the niche demographic subsection of individuals who identify themselves as Capital-G "Gamersā¢", which is a worthwhile distinction.
also ... i'll admit that i'm speaking a little bit from experiences where this has personally affected me due to people assuming I was a self-avowed "Gamer" and projecting upon me a bunch of disgusting political positions that I never have, and never will, endorse. It hurts being accused of doing something that is antithetical to who you are... and I'm sorry to acknowledge that this is quite likely to have tainted my judgment about this ._.
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 54d
please forget we are Nazis! we promise we won't let it slip again.
creamfresh@lemmy.world · -1 pts · 53d
please donāt produce more waste