GOG.com/GOG Galaxy Interview
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Polygon is featuring an article-style interview with GOG.com's Magda Oracz-Chomiuk, Ewa Stiller, Marcin Paczyński, and Guillaume Rambourg about the popularity of the digital distribution service, the forthcoming GOG Galaxy client, and the North American headquartesr they're currently setting up in Los Angeles. In short, this means that they'll be able to convince more publishers to let them sell old school RPGs:
Guillaume Rambourg's office in Warsaw is almost entirely empty. That's because Rambourg hopes to be leaving soon to become GoG.com's Vice President of North America, a title specifically created for him to fill in the soon-to-be built U.S. office in Los Angeles.
"America is the number one territory for GoG.com," he says. "We have to be closer to them, to give them faster access to news and information."
They also need to be closer to their dig sites.
"When it comes to classic games, we are still chasing a handful of publishers. Funnily enough, all of them are based in the LA area."
But GoG.com is running out of older titles. A few, like Maniac Mansion, Rambourg calls his "holy grail." But the main reason Rambourg is coming to America is to go head-to-head against the biggest online games distributor in the world, Steam.
"One of my key missions will be to evangelize GoG.com as the number of alternative source of revenue after Steam," he says. "Our goal will be to develop that [market]."
Over the last few years GoG.com has augmented their regular lineup with new games. But it's more than just highlighting the part of their catalog that features titles made after 2005. GoG.com is now in the business of day-one releases. And soon they'll offer their customers even more.
"It's called GoG Galaxy," Rambourg says. "It's a set of online features that will make the GoG.com experience better for gamers."
GoG Galaxy will allow players to receive automatic game updates, news on events and sales promotions, and multiplayer features. In short, GoG Galaxy will eventually put GoG.com on an even playing field with Valve's Steam client.
But Rambourg is quick to point out what makes their solution different digital rights management or DRM.
"We wanted to have online features inside the online games, but we believe that those features should be totally optional. If the player doesn't want to get online to upload his achievements to his GoG account, or simply he just doesn't want to play online, he will not be requested ever to get online to play the single player mode. The core of the game will remain 100 percent DRM free at all times.
