Good Old Games - Update, Announcement Wednesday

Dhruin

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There's a new statement up at GOG offering an apology and saying they "had to close the service due to business and technical reasons". A full announcement will come on Wednesday. It certainly doesn't sound like a PR stunt to me but time will tell:
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.
Ironically, Gamasutra posts that NPD says digital sales overtook retail for the first half of 2010.
More information.
 
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That stinks. I wated to download more games. Guess i won't have the chance now.
 
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Rumour has it that this is a PR stunt gone wrong in preparation for coming out of beta; this would make sense in that every site has covered their death and is awaiting updates whereas far fewer would take note of the non-beta state. Either way this is an unfortunate development.
 
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Rumor also has it that steam is taking over or they will be dropping the "No DRM" policy. I'm tired of rumors.

If this is a PR stunt then I forgive them.

If Steam is taking over then it could be worse. At least it's not D2D. I would never be able to buy another game from GoG again if that horrible excuse for a company took them over. Most of their games are restricted to NA.

If they have to have some kind of copyprotection in their future games then so be it. I'm surprised the "No DRM" policy lasted this long. It must of been hell trying to get publishers to go along with No DRM even on products the publishers had no intention of selling again.

So we'll know for sure on Wednesday what is true and what is just BS. Until then abandonware sites around the globe are looking to see if they will have to re-enable their downloads for games that were being sold by GoG O_O
 
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GoG forum members have set up their own message board. Not much new going on, but if you used to go to GoG forums then you'll see some from the old community there.

Edit: I know I said I'm tired of rumors, but I did find something interesting from lazygamer:

According to GoG.com’s twitter account, the DRM-free functionality of GOG is causing hassles with publishers. This is curious since last week, they secured the license to distribute the Age of Wonders series. So someone big must have kicked up a fuss about the DRM situation.

Now this is where things get interesting. Optimus S.A, the company that merged with CD Projekt in 2009 (the company that made The Witcher) and subsequently GOG.com, has scheduled an extraordinary general meeting for this coming Wednesday. This was after it was confirmed that approximately 5.5% of the company will be sold to a unnamed private investor. This naturally sparked concerns regarding a possible takeover, however that is very unlikely since 5.5% isn’t enough to secure control of the company on its own. Unfortunately, this couldn’t be verified since I could not find an accurate list of current shareholders. All the Polish websites produced conflicting information regarding who controlled what percentage of the company. Optimus S.A’s corporate website detailed the two co-founders of CD Projekt as the primary shareholders with an equal 20% each, while a Polish financial site listed another bloke as a holder of around 50%, which is ridiculously unlikely.

Either way, 5.5% is not enough to takeover the company unless one of the co-founders with 20% is trying to screw the other one. And if the claim of someone owning 50% is accurate, then 5.5% is a drop in the ocean.

So, a take over is unlikely. Also, reading through the draft agreement of the EGM didn’t show any mentions of a takeover or change in ownership or control.

Optimus S.A posted a profit for the first half of this year, in contrast to the loss they posted last year. GOG.com is a good, constant revenue source, so closing it down in the wake of a take over is an illogical business decision since its a valid revenue stream that has little or nothing to do with its parent company. I would say 99.9% of GOG users even know its owned by CD Projekt, let alone Optimus S.A.

The only way it would make sense is if a competitor tried to get GOG through a take over, but which publisher would try to take over a multi-million holding company to get hold of one of their smaller revenue streams? Considering the cost to buy of a company, deal with the additional administration, restructure/re-appropriate staff, etc, it would be crazy to go through all that for a part of the revenue stream that you could just purchase straight up from the holding company. It doesn’t quite make sense.

Furthermore, the stock price of Optimus S.A shot up 9.5% on Friday, so something is definitely afoot there.

The following quote comes for the Polish financial site Bankier, translated by Google, so please excuse the broken English:

“The aim of the negotiation and conclusion by Optimus investment agreement was to acquire funding for projects within the group Optimus in connection with the planned development, a significant reduction in debt of the company to shareholders, to improve the group’s balance sheet structure and the possession of Optimus among akcjonariuszy Optimus professional instytucji Financial – the report says the company.

That could be construed as a very cookie cutter response from the company, so I’m not sure how much truth is contained in it. The only way we will be sure whats happening at the parent company is when the report of the EGM this Wednesday is released.

Naturally, this could just be GOG.com ending the beta through a bizarre marketing stunt, and the full release pops up soon, but the fact that there is some much happening at the parent company surely cannot be a simple coincidence.

So do I buy shares in the company before the announcement? ;)
 
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I'm pretty much convinced now that it's NOT a PR stunt. A takeover by Steam would be a really sad thing.
 
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Why do these companies always have to be shareholder companies ?

To me, this is like a possible security hole : The PC/Company can be taken over at any time, theoretically.
 
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Keep 'em coming!This is,for me,more interesting than the latest DA 2 preview et al.
This is the removed gamestar news using a webcache trick someone did.
That would honestly be one of the most stupid ways to celebrate a 2 year anniversary,don't you get any ideas for next August.
 
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Dear Green Place
About a week ago Optimus (CDP) sold some of it's shares to a Polish investment fund, or pension fund at a very advantageous price. This caused a lot of commotion and Optimus' stock dropped almost 25% in several days. Now it shot up about 20% back, so it's been probably just a short lack of Optimus' shareholders' trust to it's management (CDP).
The aim of the negotiation and conclusion by Optimus investment agreement was to acquire funding for projects within the group Optimus in connection with the planned development, a significant reduction in debt of the company to shareholders, to improve the group’s balance sheet structure and the possession of Optimus among akcjonariuszy Optimus professional instytucji Financial – the report says the company.
The above is just a CDP's explanation to the unexpected selling shares at a low price. CDP states, that it was the best decision they could have taken at that moment but common opinion is different. Anyway, they just wanted to acquire more money for "developing projects".
Furthermore, the stock price of Optimus S.A shot up 9.5% on Friday, so something is definitely afoot there.
This rise followed the 25% fall I mentioned in the beginning. So, there's probably nothing mysterious about it.
it was confirmed that approximately 5.5% of the company will be sold to a unnamed private investor.
I didn't find any info about this. The only thing I can think about is a situation from the beginning of September, when Jakubas, one of the main shareholders sold about 4.5% of companies shares.
Either way, 5.5% is not enough to takeover the company unless one of the co-founders with 20% is trying to screw the other one.
Very unlikely, IMHO :) Furthermore, the main reason that might lead to a takeover is The Witcher 2 not selling well enough to cover all the investments done (which is probably about 10 mln $).

I've no idea what's going to happen to Gog.com, but I believe it's not going to be anything bad. Otherwise Michal Kicinski (CDP's co-founder) wouldn't have posted smileys in his post on Bankier.pl forum:
Note, the date of the conference is probably 22nd early Wednesday evening. Information about this soon on GOG.com (please do not panic after reading the information contained there:). Please remember that this conference on-line, first organized in such a way:)

Virtually closed the calendar of conferences and we will send an official info about this in the Mon-Tues

MK
CDP
So, there will be an online video conference :)
 
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BTW, reportedly GoG pays their taxes in Cyprus, not in Poland, even though the office is in Warsaw. Maybe they had some legal troubles because of that? Just a thought.
 
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I wanted PS:T but we got Baldur's Gate,can't really complain.

But that still deserves a proper facepalm.
 
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Dear Green Place
I disagree the PR will work.

Folks generally do not like their digitally purchased goods being taken away (even temporarily) especially with no heads up.
 
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Why do these companies always have to be shareholder companies ?

To me, this is like a possible security hole : The PC/Company can be taken over at any time, theoretically.

Only if there is enough float to effect the takeover.
 
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Only if there is enough float to effect the takeover.

I've seen companies trying ... everything to get others.

Some even get themselves into serious debts in order to get enough money to buy the company.
And thus, the company is exploited heavily - only to pay these debts.

And then later, it is simply sold, when it has become sucked out of everything.
 
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