“Noclip did an interesting documentary about GOG.”
Documentary about GOG
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Noclip did an interesting documentary about GOG. "GOG: Preserving Gaming's Past & Future" this video
GOG: Preserving Gaming's Past & Future
459K views · Jul 23, 2018 · 42:47 · 2 HN recommenders · 6 mentions · discussed 2018–2025
A /noclip documentary on GOG, covering how it finds and re-releases classic games and pushes DRM-free releases. It also touches on the company's origins in Poland.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN points to it as a good documentary on GOG's history and the difficulty of tracking down rights holders.
“Noclip has a great documentary about it”HN comment, 2022
What Hacker News said 6
“Noclip has a great documentary about it”
History of GOG's origin in a piracy-heavy market
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An interesting point from the history of GOG is that it originated from a market where piracy was the norm, Noclip has a great documentary about it: this video
“GOG.com[1][2][3] revives and preserves old video games.”
Documentary on GOG preserving old games
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GOG.com[1][2][3] revives and preserves old video games. [1] gog.com [2] link [3] GOG: Preserving Gaming's Past & Future Documentary: this video
“Check out this brief description of how software proliferated in Poland during the early years of computers (3:09-8:27)”
Describes how software proliferated in Poland during early computers
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Something else to consider is motivating piracy. If they sell a piece of software for a flat price in all geos, the ones who can't afford it will invest more time in pirating the software. As a side effect, piracy is normalized in those communities as a necessary way of life in the digital world. Naturally, their tools and methods will leak out to other communities and make piracy easier in places that CAN afford them. Devs would rather sell to those communities at a "loss" than ostracize them and deal with the fallout. Check out this brief description of how software proliferated in Poland during the early years of computers (3:09-8:27): this video
“half of the battle was tracking down rights holders”
Notes difficulty of tracking down rights holders
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I'm sure this was alluded to in NOCLIP's YouTube documentary on GOG[0]. It was said then that half of the battle was tracking down rights holders as IP had sometimes been absorbed through multiple acquisitions by the time they came to restore some games. [0] - this video
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GOG shows that paying for drm-free games in a country where copyright was unenforced and piracy offered a better UX can still be profitable: link , this video