Good Old Games Closure Hoax Editorial

Gamasutra senior news editor Kris Graft editorializes on the Good Old Games closure hoax, speaking with managing director Guillaume Rambourg about the events.

“I think we underestimated the fact that users were so much relying on the platform to access the game they had purchased,” he said in a phone call from Poland. “We clearly underestimated this risk.”

“I think more and more games are becoming internet-dependent,” he added. “…We simply misjudged the fact that our users possibly were not fully aware of the fact that you can come back and enjoy the games many times.”
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I think a more likely reason for the furore is that people — users and the press — were upset because they felt like they were being jerked around, that they were the butt of a joke played by a company that’s supposed to be about service and community.

But the people that are truly upset, the ones that are promising never, ever to return to GOG, are in a niche of a niche — a very vocal minority. Rambourg agrees.

“Looking at the traffic we are having right now on the site, I think it’s fair to say that [the people who are upset are] a minority,” he said. “But they’re a very important minority. People get pissed off when something happens to something that’s important to them. So of course we are more to blame here but I think we’ll be able to convince them to come back.”