Gremmi: This isn't true though, is it? It goes to the copyright holders, which 9 times out of 10, especially for older games, aren't the developers.
It is actually fairly mixed from what I understand. According to an interview with PC gamer, the rights for some games have reverted back to the developer, and GOG is able to make deal directly with them. So it really just depends on the game, as it could go either way.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2010/09/24/good-old-games-on-online-activation-its-just-bollocks Rich McCormick: Have any old developers thanked you for putting their games on GOG?
Guillaume Rambourg: We have direct deals with developers, and that’s another beauty with GoG because again, the titles are really old and the rights have quite often reverted back to the original creators. Then we have the opportunity, instead of making one big deal with the publisher, to go to the developer and say “We are huge fans of your games, let’s make a deal together.” It’s two different worlds because, you know, publishers are publishers. They have big structures and they have to take care of their business but, there is a good example. On Thursday we are releasing Age of Wonders, which is a game from Triumph studios, and basically the rights for those games, the three games of that series, they used to belong to Take Two, and those guys they got back the rights, and they approached us as developers. “Guys, can we have those games on GOG?”
