Article on RPS.

Do you think it matters whether the original developers get royalties or not? It would be nice if they got something, but ultimately most of these games are past what the developer could reasonably have expected their commercial life to be...

I agree that it would be nice if they got something. But, I still don't have a problem buying old titles through GOG because I admire their service and respect their business model and what they are trying to accomplish. I half-expected a "So go ahead and pirate" coda on the article, though :-p

But it is a good point that I hope clears up a few peoples' delusions.

I don't care. If the original devs willfully gave up their rights to the IP then they're not entitled to any more profits from these old games. If new game sales suffer due to competition from old ones then we must have an oversupply of already developed quality games.

the problems with buying new games are much much bigger, if you buy old games you support the #1 rule that the customer is always right, if you buy new games you support the only business where the most important rule doesnt apply

Well, it certainly would be nice if the devs would get royalties for these old games, but I wouldn't have expected them to. The problem is not the way the games are distributed though, the problem is that for at least 2 decades, business was so bad for independent developers that powermongers like EA could gobble them up and dictate the conditions.

Still, NOT buying these old games would do even less for their developers. By buying them, we at least send a signal to the publishers ("These are the types of games we want!"), and we strengthen the reputation of the respective devs in the industry (it's an indication of quality if you've developed a game that's still selling strong 15 years after release).

On the other hand, the rise of services like GOG might mean that publishers considers games to be more of a long term investment, rather than a quick cash-in, after all, a game that continues to generate revenue 10-15 years after its release might be worth a bit of extra development money, right? And it is generally speaking only the really good games that stay on the market for so long, that gets the fan support to be commercially viable long after their release. Most people don't remember a game like say Shadow Master, it was nothing special, but we do remember, and are eager to pay for, games like Dungeon Keeper.

I probably buy gog games more for gog than for the games themselves, :P But yes, it is quite a downer, especially when it's an EA game.

Yeah, it's a bummer when no one involved in making the games gets rewarded.

Still, games get greenlit with the idea of long-term gain.

I don't care since most developers don't own the IPs they work on. Most dev studios are like artists, you hire them for a few years to work on a game or two of yours, and that's that.

I dont have an issue buying the old games through GOG.

I do think that the origional developers should get a little something from their I.P, would probably also bring a lot more of the older games forward to be appreciated to the newer generation of gamers.

I second this, I buy a lot of games that I already have on CD to help GOG build more credibility and aquire more games

Indeed it's a shame to learn this, (although it's probably a tad naive to think the original developers would still get paid), however supporting GOG shows the industry that there are some people who want to be treated like a customer rather than a criminal or 'consumer'.

Personally I would love more developers supporting GOG (including newer games) with the same flawless service, ease of use (a single .exe) and DRM free without any standalone clients (e.g. Desura / Steam / Origin).

I have a great deal of respect for GOG and what they're trying to accomplish and only hope they can continue the great work they do.

Edit: A little housekeeping.

So much for the argument that "copyrights make sure the artists get their due" ... :(

The money has to go somewhere, and when the original creators aren't around anymore, someone else gets the dough. That's just the way it works, and I'd rather see my money go to the current copyright holders than not see the games re-released at all.

I also wish to support GOG because I think this is an excellent service.

While it would be nice for the original devs to receive their cut, the matter of fact is that even with brand new games, we don't really know if and how the sales numbers generate income only for the publisher or for the developers too.
By that I mean that we rarely know what kind of contract is between publisher&developer... sometimes they don't split % but are payed a fixed amount on a project-by-project basis