GOG.com
GOG.com is a digital distribution platform for video games and films. It is operated by GOG sp. z o.o., which was a wholly owned subsidiary of CD Projekt until December 2025, based in Warsaw, Poland. CD Projekt sold GOG to co-founder in December 2025.
GOG.com delivers DRM-free video games through its digital platform for Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux.
History
Launch of Good Old Games
During communist government rule of Poland, copyright laws went largely unenforced, and copyright infringement was rampant across electronic media. Following the change of government, consumer perception of copyright in Poland remained largely the same, making it difficult for legitimate sellers of electronic media; pirated and bootlegged versions were often sold in open markets right next to boxed copies of legitimate items, but for a fraction of the cost.CD Projekt was founded by and in 1994 for the purpose of trying to bring legitimate sales of foreign game titles into Poland, knowing they would have no easy way to compete against pirated copies. They would obtain import rights from foreign publishers, and where possible, provide in-game localization for text and voice lines, typically through reverse engineering to decompile the game's code. They would then package the game with localized instruction manuals and other physical goodies, hoping that the added features would draw buyers away from pirated copies. Their first major success was with Baldur's Gate with which they had 18,000 units sold on its first day of release in Poland. Due to this success, Interplay, the publisher of Baldur's Gate, asked CD Projekt if they could do a similar treatment to Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, a console title released in 2001. As their past work had been strictly on personal computers, the company accepted to try to port it, but the project fell through before it was completed. However, as a result, CD Projekt realized they had the ability to make their own games, and moved into games development. This eventually proved fruitful, as it ultimately granted the company the rights to The Witcher video game series. The company's interest in game distribution has declined since then.
Digital distribution grew in the 2000s, along with the use of DRM to control access to games, which raised some resentment with players. CD Projekt saw potential to look back at their distribution days to offer DRM-free versions of classic games through digital distribution, using their past experience in reverse engineering to make the games work on modern platforms and provide a wide array of localization options. In this manner, they would have a reason to draw players to buy their product instead of simply downloading it for free from pirate game websites and services. They founded a new subsidiary, Good Old Games, to serve this purpose in early 2008. Their first challenge was to find a publisher that would be willing to work with them; they spoke to several who were generally unaware of CD Projekt; their first big break was from Interplay Entertainment, who knew of the company's past work, and allowed them to offer their games on the service. After some time, Good Old Games was approached by Ubisoft, who were interested in selling their older titles through the service as well. Once Ubisoft was signed, it became easier for Good Old Games to convince other publishers to allow them to offer older titles on the service.
Marketing stunt and relaunch
From 19 to 22 September 2010, the GOG.com website was disabled, leaving behind messages on the web site and their Twitter accounts that the site had been closed. A spokesman for Good Old Games reiterated that the site was not being shut down, and confirmed news would be forthcoming about changes to the service. A clarification posted on the site on 20 September 2010 said they had to shut down the site temporarily "due to business and technical reasons", with industry journalists believing the shutdown may be related to the nature of DRM-free strategy, based on Twitter messages from the company. On 22 September 2010, GOG.com revealed that this shutdown was a marketing hoax as part of the site coming out of beta. The site's management, aware of the reactions to the fake closure, stated: "First of all we'd like to apologize to everyone who felt deceived or harmed in any way by the closedown of GOG.com. As a small company we don't have a huge marketing budget and this is why we could not miss a chance to generate some buzz around an event as big as launching a brand new version of our website and even more important, bringing back Baldur's Gate to life!"The site returned on 23 September 2010, with an improved storefront and additional benefits, as outlined during a webcast presentation. During the presentation, GOG.com's co-founder Marcin Iwiński and managing director Guillaume Rambourg had dressed as monks to atone for their sins. The relaunch of the site was considered by Rambourg to have been successful, having brought new customers that were previously unaware of GOG.com. As promised after its relaunch, GOG.com was able to offer several Black Isle Studios games such as Baldur's Gate, Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale which have previously been unreleased through any download service due to legal issues about the ownership of Dungeons & Dragons-related games between Atari, Hasbro, and other companies.
On 27 March 2012, Good Old Games announced that it was branching out to feature "AAA" and independent titles in addition to older games. The site was rebranded to GOG.com.
OS X and Linux support
In October 2012, GOG.com announced support for OS X. They included the previously Steam exclusive The Witcher and The Witcher 2, both made by CD Projekt Red. GOG.com gathered user feedback in a community wishlist, and one of the most demanded feature requests was support for native Linux games, which gathered close to 15,000 votes before it was marked as "in progress". Originally GOG.com representatives said, that there are technical and operational issues which make it harder than it seems, however it's something they would love to do, and they have been considering. On 18 March 2014, GOG.com officially announced that they would be adding support for Linux, initially targeting Ubuntu and Linux Mint in the fall of 2014. On 25 July 2014, Linux support was released early, and 50 games were released compatible with the operating system.Expansion to DRM-free video
On 27 August 2014 GOG.com announced the launch of the new addition to their service – distribution of DRM-free films. GOG.com offers DRM-free downloading in mp4 format and streaming of video in standard and DRM-free HTML fashion which doesn't bind users to any specific platforms or devices. Movies are made available in Full HD 1080p, 720p and 576p for limited bandwidth or download quotas; however, a few titles do not have the Full HD 1080p format available. GOG.com started by adding 21 documentaries about Internet culture and gaming. They also have plans for adding fiction films and series; according to GOG.com's managing director Guillaume Rambourg, they were in talks with many major studios. While studios' representatives liked the idea, they also were reluctant to let go of their current DRM approach until some other major studio would make the first step. Still GOG.com plan to work on overcoming the initial reluctance and moving DRM-free video forward.Policies
On 9 December 2013, GOG.com introduced a money-back guarantee for the first 30 days if customers face unresolvable technical problems with a bought game. On 26 February 2020, GOG extended this policy to offer a full refund up to 30 days after purchasing a product, even if it was downloaded, launched, and played.Beginning 2 April 2015, GOG.com began to offer DRM-free downloads to holders of game keys from boxed copies of select games whose DRM validation systems no longer operate; examples are the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series and the Master of Orion series. Over $1,700,000 of retail game purchases had been redeemed through this system by November 2017.
FCK DRM Initiative
In August 2018, GOG created an anti-digital rights management program called "FCK DRM". The homepage of the initiative offers links to the websites of Defective by Design, the EFF, Bandcamp, itch.io, Wikisource, Project Gutenberg and other projects that promote free culture.Layoffs and end of the Fair Price Package
In February 2019, GOG announced layoffs and the end of its Fair Price Package program. When a game was purchased in a region with higher prices than most others, this program would provide the purchaser with store credit equal to the difference in price.Some insider sources in GOG told Kotaku that GOG was "dangerously close to being in the red" and that the market's move toward higher developer revenue shares would affect the company's profitability.
Partnerships with cloud streaming services
On 19 November 2020, Nvidia and GOG announced a collaboration that allows GOG.com users to launch Cyberpunk 2077 through the cloud gaming service GeForce Now. Both companies announced they also expect to support The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt in the future and that they "have more news coming soon".On 18 March 2024, GOG announced a partnership with Amazon to integrate their large library of games directly into the cloud gaming service, Amazon Luna. Then on 19 June, the first wave of GOG games were integrated into the streaming platform, including Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Stardew Valley, and Hollow Knight, with more games to come later on. According to GOG, users will need an active Prime or Luna+ subscription to access their library through the service, but will not need to repurchase their games through Luna to play them. Additionally, supported games purchased through Luna will be automatically added to the user's GOG library.