GOG aims to revive physical PC games

GOG has long been a proponent of game preservation, with its Game Preservation Program seemingly working tirelessly to make old PC games operational on modern hardware and providing downloadable, DRM-free offline installers for those games, and recently even partnering with Big Box Collection to host printable game covers and 3D scans of physical game boxes. In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, Marcin Paczynski, GOG’s senior manager of business development and partnerships, said the DRM-free gaming storefront aims to bring physical media back into PC gaming.

Marcin Paczynski via GamesRadar+Ideally, my dream would be to be able to purchase physical versions of these games on GOG. You go to your shelf on GOG, click on the game you want to receive a physical copy of, order it and it comes to you. That would be a perfect scenario.

Aside from potential legal hurdles to distributing physical games, which would require “additional approvals” from publishers, Paczynski explains that some of the most difficult aspects of relaunching physical games for PC come down to the added complexity of distributing physical media.

Because we’re talking about physical media, we need to think about logistics. We need to think about storage… It’s an idea that’s been floating around GOG for years now, and yet I really hope that at some point we can do it. We’ll see.

Cost and simplicity are often cited as common justifications for Sony’s recent decision to stop producing physical game media for the PlayStation 5. Recent reports from industry experts suggest that companies like Sony could save up to $10 or more per game copy sold after ditching the disc. Even Microsoft’s recent move from disc to digital seems primarily intended to prepare the Xbox ecosystem for a disc-less future.