This could be the case, or could not be. They shared a post on Reddit 19 hours ago from their official account, and I thought it might be nice to share that here, at least to spark some discussion.
They simply shared a post titled:
Shall we? 📦💿
With the following image:
Link to the Reddit post is here if you want to see what others are saying about it!
Would it be feasible (if thats not what’s happening here already) to just have blank boxes, blank discs, blank sleeve inserts, and just fire up the printer when an order comes in?
I could see it being “fairly easy” to automate, but no true understanding of if it would be realistically cost-effective or if it would scale appropriately or whatever.
It’s fun for nostalgia but my pc doesn’t have a disc drive, nor even the space for one. Depending on your internet connection downloading is faster than reading from a disc even. If they were to somehow re-release old collector edition boxes that would become tempting.
For what it’s worth, an external disc drive is not very expensive and they are quite small.
Why not just sell it in a cheap little thumb drive? Most games like this are very modest in size, would save people the cost of a disc reader.
they cost about the same though. An Asus slim external 8x DVD usb 2.0 writer costs $50. a 256gb thumb drive costs $50. And i’m using 256GB as an example for modern games that can potentially be well over 100gb. Add to the fact said DVD drive is going to last a lot longer than a USB thumb drive. those thumb drives have a lifespan of like 5 years.
In this specific case, that’s not apples to apples since most of the games on GOG are very small.
It’s kind of hilarious to imagine, but I can imagine doing a “BYO thumb drive” sale for physical media. They could even mail it back in the big box
What would be the priority from a business perspective? Saving customers the cost of a disc drive, or saving the company the cost of shifting production over to a proprietary thumb drive, most likely costing several times the price per unit of a disc?
I think the priority for the business is what people will buy. PCs don’t have disc readers as standard anymore. Now the barrier to entry for physical media is either pay more for a thumb drive or pay a lot more for a disc reader.
What if they adopted the C02 canister model. Slightly joking here, but why not treat the thumb drives as a recoverable container you can get a rebate for reusing?
Optical discs can store data way longer than nand flash storage.
Do they need to?
5 years vs. 80. I’ll leave that up to you.
Ideally we’d get to keep both around. I can see a world where we’re trading digital media around on discs deep into the next century, but I can also see how currently there’s also room for more transient media to serve less preservation-conscious people who don’t go out of their way to own a disc drive.
go out of their way to own a disc drive.
You make it sound like they are hard to get and not just able to be purchased online like everything else.
Then maybe EP/ROMs instead of flash.
I know but that doesn’t change the reality. Most PCs don’t come with disc readers anymore. Anyone who does have an external disc drive can already burn a GOG game to disc if they so choose. Or put the game on a usb-stick/SD-card/external drive all of which are more convenient options than using a disc. Shipping boxes for an outdated technology is a purely wasteful exercise for a company like GOG because most of their games are older releases and have no DRM. I see the benefit of discs for new console releases because it allows people to offset the cost of a game by trading it in. That has always been one of the aspects of console gaming. But that doesn’t hold for GOG
deleted by creator
Yeah, they can keep the disc, but I’ll gladly for a box, book and map or whatever goodies they came with
Most GOG games already allow you to download a pdf of the manual and extras if they had them
Yeah but squinting at a pdf on your monitor pales in comparison to whipping out the glossy colour print instruction booklet. I remember playing Morrowind and it came with an actual map. It was so much fun I forgot the game itself had that feature. More games should come with maps, man. Where’s my BOTW map?
I’d rather see them just list the ISOs so we can burn them to disc ourselves. These are fun, but niche. Listing an ISO isn’t far off from what they regularly do.
I mean that’s also woefully outdated. Just use the installers they already provide and put them on a thumbdrive, there’s a solid chance that’ll last far longer than a burnt disc would, too.
I would prefer them to focus on bringing more games to the Store. If people want CD everyone can print them by themself with the already DRM Free games.
I don’t care about the disc, but I would happily pay 20 bucks to get a map and 80 page booklet for some games.
PS controller peeking through 👀
A jab at Sony’s recent announcement with completely ditching physical games!
I can’t say I want to pay extra for these large boxes with extra stuff, but smaller boxes like this I would definitely consider purchasing:
I never liked the jewel cases. Not enough space for anything interesting inside other than just the disc.
Maybe for certain Collector’s Editions, but overall I don’t need optical media when the games are DRM-free anyway.
Makes sense to me, actually.
It’d be an easy way to get and also store the DRM-free offline installer, in where you don’t have to permanently allocate active storage to keep the installer around.
burn it yourself
Consumer burnable CD and DVD disks often have an astonishingly short storage life, especially if they are not stored very carefully. They’re not an archival medium. Competently pressed commercial (aluminum) disks meanwhile have a storage life that is near as makes no difference to infinite provided they are not physically damaged in some way.
I’ve got tons of burned disks of pirated old games from the early aughts that don’t read anymore. This is highly annoying from a preservation standpoint as I can’t get them to play despite possessing them on disk, and they’re now unpopular enough that they’re likewise difficult to impossible to pirate again.
i realze now the guy was talking about backup. i thought it was for display. i knew dvds were bad foe navkup but didnt realize commercial dvds were so much better.
EDIT: i just checked they do seel commercial frade “archive quality” on amazon. they arent that mich more.
I mean in a way this is exciting, sure.
In particular if they do this in a somewhat eco-friendly fashion, that is, it’s just about the box and the manual and all that. No actual disc/thumbdrive/whatever. Granted GOG in particular would be in a position where they can do this due to their installers, but it’d still be absurd materials and logistics-wise, in particular old-style big box PC releases.
To add, I just recently finally got rid of the last of my old PC games boxes like DAoC or the ME games. I had already thrown out most older games such as Homeworld or Battle Isle years and years prior when I moved where I live right now.
Was it a kinda cool-looking collection in the living room? Yes. Did it take an absurd amount of space for no reason and it’s not like I even had a disc drive in the past 20 or so years? Yes. I nowadays have a pretty large board games collection, and that needs the space the books and video games previously took. So I donated books to hospitals and jails and so on, and games I gave away, sold or in some cases just tossed. Fond memories, but not enough to justify the amount of physical space used for a physical medium I cannot even use.If they made manuals, maps and art work available online for download, even if it was an extra cost item, I would be interested. I don’t have room for the boxes.
Those things are already available for many games on the store, free with purchase. Always have been.
They aren’t a publisher They won’t make a dent in the market.
I just want transferable perpetual licences.
Fuck Gabe, fuck Sony. Scumbags.
They’re DRM free, so why not burn it to physical media with a label? Even so, I’m ok with GOG downloads. What’s fun is you can share your account with your partner or your kids and no one will care.
Oh man the first 2 fallouts with box art and discs would go crazy for me
do it. I don’t care about the practicality of it all I loved those big boxes. But they also need to have the big manuals inside also.
Some of those manuals were absolutely awesome. Like the one for the first Heavy Gear. or the old flight sim games. Or like the original release of Final Fantasy 7 on PC by Edios came with a brady’s strategy guide. Heck bring back strategy guides too! I remember when World of Warcraft first came out I picked up the strategy guide with it cause it was full of WoW related Penny-Arcade comics in it and I was (heck still am) a massive fan of Penny-Arcade.
100% feel you I miss picking up a game with a phat manual, I am smell the fresh ink from the manuals when I think about it hard enough lol
Or buying a large paged, glossy, color printed, gorgeous strategy guide I would read for pleasure and enjoy as a piece of art as well as a walkthrough
Ahh fuck I miss being younger. The late 90’s and early to mid 2000’s were an incredible time for video games
What I miss is cloth maps. I don’t know what I did with mine, but if I ever open a moving box and find one, I’m framing it and putting it up on my wall.
yes! the maps were awesome. Or some other stuff you’d get with the game. Like with the first Max Payne you got a really cool mousepad. used that thing for years. Also had one that I believe came with Star Wars Rebel Assault.
If they do a print to order thing, I could see it maybe working out as a cool side business. Or it could be a chance for them to go really harder into the vintage games market if they can get some publishers on board or get the rights to some older stuff. Doesn’t seem like a winning market though on a mass market front, more just a form of advertising or a specialty service for physical collectors.
Print to order is the best way I was wondering why they “announced” this and then your comment made it click I bet that is how they do it.
Actually super cool I won’t lie.
~thinks about cloth maps from Ultima games
~ heavy breathing
They used to make them out of cloth???
They were beautiful! (this one has extra annotations written on it by the player)
I still have my cloth EverQuest maps framed on the wall.
