www.gog.com brings up the following message:
 

Dear GOG users,

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.

We're very grateful for all support we've received from all of you in the past two years. Working on 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.

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.

On a technical note, this week we'll put in place a solution to allow everyone to re-download their games. Stay tuned to this page and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates.

All the best,
GOG.com Team
 

 People, relax. It's just a marketing stunt. Worse one ever. I don't know who at CDP thought this was a good idea to drop the beta and go final in such manner, but he's a moron.

And yes, it is a stunt, CEO warned financial forums couple days ago to ignore what will appear on Gog site soon. .t. It's a mess overall...23rd there was supposed to be full blown conference (like the one in Spring, when they've shown Witcher 2 for the first time), but it was just annouced it won't happen and there will be online conference instead.

Anyway, bassicaly GoG is simply ending it's beta phase and going final, that's all. Some speculate it will get a standalone client too.

UPDATE 20.09.2010
First of all, we apologize everyone for the whole situation and closing GOG.com. We do understand the timing for taking down the site caused confusion and many users didn't manage to download all their games. Unfortunately we had to close the service due to business and technical reasons.

At the same time we guarantee that every user who bought any game on GOG.com will be able to download all their games with bonus materials, DRM-free and as many times as they need starting this Thursday.

The official statement from GOG.com's management concerning the ongoing events is planned on Wednesday. If you want to receive further information about GOG.com, please send an email to update_media@gog.com if you're a media representative or to update_users@gog.com if you're a user without a GOG account.

 

That's disappointing ;(

Man, GOG was awesome. :( 
 
Welp, at least I still have Steam.

This is just fucking awful news. The last glimmer of hope for less restrictive DRM is dead.

Thats sad but the only business I did with them was buying Freespace 2 for 2 euro.

Awe hell and I didn't get Raptor remake 'fore they died.  Son of a...

God dammit.  There was still games I wanted to buy. If I knew they were gonna go belly up I would have done it already...

Very disappointing, to be fair I only downloaded Beneath the Steel Sky when it was free, and was never attached to most of the games on there. But it's a necessary site for people with that affinity. It would be nice if steam now started a similar service.

Very sad news - it's a real pity that services like this struggle to stay alive.

Guess I'll go play some Giants, Sacrifice, and Divine Divinity in their honor. Thanks for the old games GOG!

Worst news I've heard all day. 

I did buy quite a few games from them. Not as many as I would have wanted, but around 15-20 I think, and some of them I haven't had the time to download yet, especially not the bonus content. I really hope they make that stuff available for us who purchased the stuff, my last purchase was just 2 days ago, and thankfully I downloaded both those purchases - Jagged Alliance 2 and Psychonauts (sans any bonus stuff) earlier this morning. Now I have to make sure I have all that stuff backed up.

Wow. I just bought Age of Wonders and Master of Orion from them no less than two days ago. Thank goodness I did. While it perhaps didn't have the largest selection, GOG definitely had quite a few important games that weren't on steam. Heroes of Might and Magic I-III, Might and Magic I-VI, Arcanum (some people like it. I guess), aforementioned Master of Orion 1 and 2 and Age of Wonders, All 8 king's quest games, and Master of Magic. What a shame...

Yeah this is really sad news, GOG was a great service for those of us who still want to play classic computer games.  This closing came out of the blue too - I had no idea they were in trouble, I would have helped them out and bought a few of the gems I was waiting on from them if they had let us know ahead of simply closing the site.  Hopefully we can eventually download all the extras they included in their games (wallpapers, soundtracks, manuals, etc.) as well, though I'm a little worried about that at this point.  What a sad day for old computer games - now piracy is assured to be the dominant way these games are played.  At least GOG tried.

too bad they shut their site down in an extremely shitty and unfriendly way. makes me quite mad not being able to download the stuff i paid MONEY for without any warning whatsoever. Extremly poor service from GOG. 
 
@fisk0 said:

" I did buy quite a few games from them. Not as many as I would have wanted, but around 15-20 I think, and some of them I haven't had the time to download yet, especially not the bonus content. I really hope they make that stuff available for us who purchased the stuff, my last purchase was just 2 days ago, and thankfully I downloaded both those purchases - Jagged Alliance 2 and Psychonauts (sans any bonus stuff) earlier this morning. Now I have to make sure I have all that stuff backed up. "

This makes me fear that old game services like Nintendo's Virtual Console and Sony's Playstation 1 downloads and such arent really turning a profit for anybody. Not to mention this is exactly what people fear about digital downloads when the service shuts down. 
 
Its a damn shame too, because there were a number of games on the service that I wish I had the time and money to check out. But...now its gone.

This is soul-suckingly shitty news. 

"too bad they shut their site down in an extremely shitty and unfriendly way. makes me quite mad not being able to download the stuff i paid MONEY for without any warning whatsoever. Extremly poor service from GOG. 
 
@fisk0 said:

" I did buy quite a few games from them. Not as many as I would have wanted, but around 15-20 I think, and some of them I haven't had the time to download yet, especially not the bonus content. I really hope they make that stuff available for us who purchased the stuff, my last purchase was just 2 days ago, and thankfully I downloaded both those purchases - Jagged Alliance 2 and Psychonauts (sans any bonus stuff) earlier this morning. Now I have to make sure I have all that stuff backed up. "

expect a class law suit otherwise, I can smell it already "

Sad, my only complain with gog was their title selection, they shouldve worked to get stuff like the old bullfrog games (populous the begining, syndicate), and maybe some other newer classics like the homeworld series, battlezone; stuff that steam still doesnt have for whatever reason.

Yes, giving no advance warning at all was really poor customer support. I'm sure there were many people who bought stuff from them yesterday or today who haven't downloaded their stuff yet. They really should have given a few days or a week's notice, especially since everything seemed to run smoothly up until this. They were in the middle of two sales, announced 2 upcoming games ... this was certainly not the time I expected it to close down.

@JudgeDread said:

" too bad they shut their site down in an extremely shitty and unfriendly way. makes me quite mad not being able to download the stuff i paid MONEY for without any warning whatsoever. Extremly poor service from GOG. 
 
@fisk0 said:

" I did buy quite a few games from them. Not as many as I would have wanted, but around 15-20 I think, and some of them I haven't had the time to download yet, especially not the bonus content. I really hope they make that stuff available for us who purchased the stuff, my last purchase was just 2 days ago, and thankfully I downloaded both those purchases - Jagged Alliance 2 and Psychonauts (sans any bonus stuff) earlier this morning. Now I have to make sure I have all that stuff backed up. "

expect a class law suit otherwise, I can smell it already "

That's horrible news. And I relied on them to keep distributing classic games to the younger generation who still enjoy those games. It's reasons like this I generally don't like digitally distributed games but that's another story. Anyway, hope it works out for the lads.

" Sad, my only complain with gog was their title selection, they shouldve worked to get stuff like the old bullfrog games (populous the begining, syndicate), and maybe some other newer classics like the homeworld series, battlezone; stuff that steam still doesnt have for whatever reason. "

That stuff was owned by Electronic Arts which they didn't get an agreement with.

And yes, this is the stuff I've always been afraid of when it comes to digital distribution, and why I've been wary of purchasing anything digitally up until last year.

@eroticfishcake said:

" That's horrible news. And I relied on them to keep distributing classic games to the younger generation who still enjoy those games. It's reasons like this I generally don't like digitally distributed games but that's another story. Anyway, hope it works out for the lads. "

" @JudgeDread said:

"too bad they shut their site down in an extremely shitty and unfriendly way. makes me quite mad not being able to download the stuff i paid MONEY for without any warning whatsoever. Extremly poor service from GOG. 
 
@fisk0 said:

" I did buy quite a few games from them. Not as many as I would have wanted, but around 15-20 I think, and some of them I haven't had the time to download yet, especially not the bonus content. I really hope they make that stuff available for us who purchased the stuff, my last purchase was just 2 days ago, and thankfully I downloaded both those purchases - Jagged Alliance 2 and Psychonauts (sans any bonus stuff) earlier this morning. Now I have to make sure I have all that stuff backed up. "

expect a class law suit otherwise, I can smell it already "

apparently you dont know how to read things  
 
quote from gog.com  
 
"On a technical note, this week we'll put in place a solution to allow everyone to re-download their games. Stay tuned to this page and follow us on Twitter and Facebook for updates." "

?  
 
I thought GOG was doing fine, what other services provide DRM-free classics?  
 
Anyway, I think this is the first shutdown of a major digital distribution service. I hope they set some good precedents. 

Not all that surprising really, it was always going to have limited appeal.  In a market where PC games are practically given away after 12-18 months, it's hard to justify charging much, if anything, for 10 or 15 year old games.  It's sad that the service will no longer be available, but I can't imagine it will be a massive blow for CD Projekt or anything like that.

Like Jimbo said, not surprised.  In the era of the remake I personally don't want 15 year old games unless something has been done to improve them.
 
I can see how this is bad news to all those DRM rebels but I could care less as a person who much prefers Steam.  Looks like I'm not the only one.

GoG.com was good for more than just the people who hate DRM, though. They'd usually tweak the games to run on modern OSes. I love Steam as much as anybody, but from what I understand their version of Jagged Alliance II has some issues that aren't present in the GoG.com version. It's been a while since I looked into that, but I know there were people screaming bloody murder about it on the Steam forums when JA2 was launched.
 
So while the lack of DRM is nice, I was always more of a fan of them just making these games work without me having to tweak things on my PC.

" GoG.com was good for more than just the people who hate DRM, though. They'd usually tweak the games to run on modern OSes. I love Steam as much as anybody, but from what I understand their version of Jagged Alliance II has some issues that aren't present in the GoG.com version. It's been a while since I looked into that, but I know there were people screaming bloody murder about it on the Steam forums when JA2 was launched.  So while the lack of DRM is nice, I was always more of a fan of them just making these games work without me having to tweak things on my PC. "

This.

Of course, since they don't use DRM you were always assured that the games would still work if what just happened would happen, which certainly is a plus, but that I was pretty much guaranteed that the old games I bought would work on modern Windows versions was the major reason I decided to purchase most games on GOG, even when they occasionally also were available on Steam cheaper.

Worst gaming news this year, gog was awesome yes it was a niche business but still :( The worst part is that some classic titles will not be available for purchase anymore, hopefully some other service will pick them up and by other service i mean Steam, they were never as good as good as gog but they are my second favorite DD store. Oh god this whole thing sucks :(

I never used this site (I have a mac) but I loved everything about it. Shame.

Even after the fact that their site has been shut down by their own hands we have not yet recieved an email regarding this from gog.com .
 
I say fuck them.

" Worst gaming news this year, gog was awesome yes it was a niche business but still :( The worst part is that some classic titles will not be available for purchase anymore, hopefully some other service will pick them up and by other service i mean Steam, they were never as good as good as gog but they are my second favorite DD store. Oh god this whole thing sucks :( "

Yeah, some games were published both on Steam and GOG (and I guess that's also part of why GOG failed - Steam often managed to get lower prices for those games, getting advantage both in being a more well known service and providing the same product for a better price), hopefully the publishers still realize there is a demand for older titles and keep releasing them on Steam, GamersGate, Impulse, etc. even after GOG can't lead the way anymore.

That sucks :( I got a bunch of games from them last Christmas. It was awesome!

Guys, apparently it's a stunt. They are just moving from beta to final.  
 
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=23418875&postcount=240

god this is the worst marketing stunt ever.

Wow, that's terrible if true.

" Guys, apparently it's a stunt. They are just moving from beta to final.  
 
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=23418875&postcount=240 "

" @Geno said:

" Guys, apparently it's a stunt. They are just moving from beta to final.  
 
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=23418875&postcount=240 "

God, what assholes. They really though this was a great marketing tool? "

" Guys, apparently it's a stunt. They are just moving from beta to final.  
 
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=23418875&postcount=240 "

Wow, if that's true that's really the must stupid and respect less stunt I've ever heard off. Scaring a lot of their customers that they might just have wasted a lot of money on games that they can't access and such.

I hope that is correct though, then we could just put this crap behind us and enjoy getting more awesome old games. 

Yeah they were awesome...

I did buy Fallout 1 and 2 from them, that's a shame. 

Sigh >_>
 
I suppose the message on their site doesn't actually mention that they are shutting down <_<

Someone please tell me what to think: marketing stunt/transition to 'final' or end of the journey?

If they're really pulling a stunt I'm glad I never bought anything from them (because they're being manipulative).
If they're really dead I'm glad I never bought anything from them (because I'd risk losing my purchases).

Son. Of. A. Bitch.

Just to add another note to this, apparently it's been circulating in Polish news sites that the founder is quoted as saying it's not actually shutting down. Also, it says on CDProjekt's website that part of their strategy is to expand GOG.com, so it seems odd that they would shut it down so suddenly. 
Oh well, could be wrong, but if it's true that this is a stunt I want cheap old games by the bucketload as recompense.

If this is just a big marketing stunt, it's TOTALLY the wrong way to go about it. I imagine that they'd be hoping people to be happy that the site continues on (likely in new and improved form) but I think that what they've got are a bunch of people wondering how they're going to be able to download and keep the things they've spent their hard earned cash on.