GOG working on future partnerships, The Witcher coming May 10, Alone in the Dark series out now

Digital distributor GOG has revealed its plans for the future, covering a new client, messaging, The Witcher and big-name publishers.

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Big plans are afoot at Good Old Games, the digital distributor revealed during owner CD Projekt's CDP Days 2011 Spring Conference today. These include a new downloader, messaging, new releases and the landing of big-name publishers.

GOG cruelly teased that it has signed a deal with either Electronic Arts, Square Enix, Take Two, LucasArts or Microsoft Game Studios, declining to specify which. Over 25 games from the mystery publisher will start arriving on GOG in early summer.

Names of much-loved series from the five publishers, including Wing Commander, Sam & Max, Age of Empires, Dungeon Keeper, Legacy of Kain, Grim Fandango, and Grand Theft Auto were tossed around casually, to make us all even more excited and annoyed.

The company is also in talks with another two of those publishers, whose catalogues are those most requested by GOG users. Again, it didn't mention which two. GOG hopes to settle these deals by the end of summer and begin launching games this fall.

Hopefully, GOG will soon actually specify which of the five publishers it's dealing with. Unfortunately, fans of at least two publishers have now had their hopes raised and will soon find them dashed. It'll be like the fake shutdown fallout all over again.

A new Good Old Games downloader client is also on the way, complete with error checking and multithreaded downloads to fully utilise your connection. Each 10MB chunk of a download will be checked to ensure it's intact, then only re-downloading bad chunks rather than the whole file. The new client will also bring messaging, though GOG stressed that it's still lean and not a bloated beast.

The new GOG client is due to launch later this month.

Back on future releases, GOG announced that The Witcher, developed by its sibling studio CD Projekt RED, is coming to the store on May 10. It'll initially be priced at $4.99 to celebrate the launch of The Witcher 2, before rising to the regular price of $9.99 on May 24.

GOG will offer the Enhanced Director's Cut Edition of The Witcher plus extra goodies, giving you a 2011 calendar featuring erotic artwork from the RPG's 'sex cards,' a PDF version of the art book from the Collector's Edition, the soundtrack, a short story, and more.

For impatient gits who demand new old games right now, today also saw the GOG release of Alone in the Dark, Alone in the Dark 2 and Alone in the Dark 3. The three vintage Infogrames survival horrors come together in a handy $5.99 bundle. Downloadable soundtracks and other goodies are also thrown in. More Atari games are also on the way.

From The Chatty
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      April 14, 2011 11:32 AM

      The AitD trilogy is hella flawed by modern standards, but they were pretty important pioneers in survival horror. Loved 'em when they came out and totally rebought the new trilogy pack.

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        April 14, 2011 2:33 PM

        I still think the first game is cool though. It did a really good job establishing a creepy atmosphere and the environment is more interactive than most survival horror games.

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          April 14, 2011 8:37 PM

          My strongest memory of seeing this game when it came out was... WHOA POLYGONS! It was a very cool thing at the time.

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      April 14, 2011 11:36 AM

      This really doesn't deserve to be a news item unless they are being mocked in someway.

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        April 14, 2011 1:01 PM

        Funny how a gaming news website would make articles about games. Curse them! :D

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          April 14, 2011 1:05 PM

          It's an article about a presentation where an as yet unnamed publisher is going to release as yet unnamed titles onto a service, which is also in talks with two as yet unnamed publishers to possibly bring their catalogues to the service as well.

          Definitely a wealth of info there.

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      April 14, 2011 12:00 PM

      News about an announcement that something might be announced in the future?

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      April 14, 2011 12:02 PM

      Day of the Tentacle/Maniac Mansion. For the love of God why can't we get those two games out?!

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      April 14, 2011 12:09 PM

      So, really, GOG is just trolling us hard.

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      April 14, 2011 1:11 PM

      [deleted]

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        April 14, 2011 1:12 PM

        [deleted]

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          April 14, 2011 1:14 PM

          FF7 and 9 were both released for PC. They require some heavy fixing before they're playable even on XP, though, so I'm not sure how they'd deal with that. But I'd get them and get tinkerin'. I did get FF7 to work quite well on my XP rig, with the original music (instead of midi), proper gamepad behavior etc. I seem to remember being able to fix some timing issues as well.

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            April 14, 2011 1:27 PM

            I never got them to work in XP :( The video files were the culprit though.

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          April 14, 2011 1:16 PM

          Why? Eww...midi music and bugs...

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        April 14, 2011 2:34 PM

        I think SquareEnix owns Eidos, so it would include all of those games.

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        April 14, 2011 2:45 PM

        THIEF and THIEF II

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          April 14, 2011 2:45 PM

          Also, Anachronox. I do find it amusing that SquareEnix now has the rights to that game.

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          April 14, 2011 2:59 PM

          Thief Gold please, I never got to play the extra levels.

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            April 14, 2011 3:36 PM

            Oh god, Thief Gold is so great. It's not just extra levels, either. They retweaked and reblanced the hell out of the existing ones. Thief Gold came out just a few weeks after I bought Thief and I still bought it anyway because I figured, fuck it, why not. Best FIWN buy ever.

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            April 14, 2011 3:37 PM

            Sorry, yes. I forget that some resellers still only provide regular Thief. THIEF GOLD or GTFO.
            (Though if they packaged both, that would be neat. I never played the original 2 item levels.)

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      April 14, 2011 1:23 PM

      [deleted]

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        April 14, 2011 9:05 PM

        I remember their stupid shit however its the games I want not their marketing strategies.

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        April 14, 2011 11:22 PM

        Dude, I can't believe you're STILL butthurt about that.

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        April 15, 2011 1:08 AM

        But last year's bullshit lead to us damn near every fantastic PC RPG from 98-01 or so, why be mad?

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          April 15, 2011 6:17 PM

          That's just how he's been ever since it happened. You'd think after getting all those great games, he'd be able to forgive, but nope.

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      April 14, 2011 1:24 PM

      I wish for Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper (yes, it is listed!), SimTower, Afterlife, Startopia, Transport Tycoon, and many more finance management, city building games and let the genre make a come back.

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        April 14, 2011 1:34 PM

        startopia! love that game :D

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        April 14, 2011 2:05 PM

        I really enjoyed Theme Hospital.

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          April 15, 2011 1:32 AM

          If you google Theme Hospital, there's a full download + windows 7 patch available.
          Not entirely sure if it's abandonware, thus legal...

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            April 15, 2011 4:57 AM

            abandonware isn't legal either, it#s just some made up term so people can play old games without paying

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        April 14, 2011 2:06 PM

        Have you played Cities in Motion? It's sort of a new take on Transport Tycoon.

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        April 15, 2011 4:11 AM

        Dammit I'd play the hell out of Theme Hospital.. Heck, I'd play the hell out of all those.

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      April 14, 2011 1:37 PM

      For the last time, Tie-Fucking-Fighter or GTFO

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      April 14, 2011 2:06 PM

      this type of a tease...I'm guessing it's all those publishers and all those games....this has to be it

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      April 14, 2011 2:58 PM

      system shock 1+2 plz

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        April 14, 2011 8:38 PM

        Oh man... I'd love a chance to play these games. I totally missed them somehow and have heard so many good things.

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          April 15, 2011 1:12 AM

          It's times like this that I wish I had multiple copies of System Shock 1 & 2, Deus Ex, Terra Nova, etc. Actually, at one point, I did have SS1 on 3.5s, but traded it away when I got the Enhanced CD version. I want to say I got Forgotten Legions for it.

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      April 14, 2011 3:49 PM

      I guess it will keep people focused on them, but GOG strikes me as a company which should fire its marketing department.

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      April 14, 2011 8:56 PM

      I just realized that Incubation: Time is Running Out is on there...purchased.

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        April 15, 2011 1:00 AM

        Awesome game, and great multiplayer. 4 player dm in that was epic for its time.

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      April 14, 2011 11:51 PM

      I would like them to take some games an extra mile if they can. Like Age of Empires 2 supporting higher resolutions. That. Would. Be. EPIC.

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      April 14, 2011 11:54 PM

      It would be great if they can take some old games a step further. Like Age of Empires 2 in higher resolutions. That. Would. Be. EPIC.

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      April 15, 2011 12:56 AM

      if they release Crusader, Ultima, Magic Carpet 2 or System Shock 2 I will definitely go back there.

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        April 15, 2011 1:49 AM

        "go back there" You left for some reason?

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          April 15, 2011 4:09 AM

          maybe it seems childish but that SHUT IT ALL DOWN pr didn't go well with me.

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            April 15, 2011 4:26 AM

            Me neither. I haven't bought a game from them since. I'm not actively boycotting them but I don't have much respect for them anymore. I rank them along with gamestop.

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              April 15, 2011 5:04 AM

              I wouldn't go THAT far... let's say before I was willing to buy a ton of games I already had for convinience. Now I'd only get those which I could not play and/or buy otherwise.

              They COULD go down any time and while this is true for steam as well, I still would think that would be the last online service to ever be shut down.

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      April 15, 2011 4:08 AM

      Im ok with the Witcher 2 as its from their company but other new games? Not ok with that, unless i've misunderstood something here

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        April 15, 2011 6:22 PM

        You have. They're talking about "new old" games.

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      April 15, 2011 10:07 AM

      Wing Commander series, Mechwarrior series, Tie Fighter and X-Wing please!

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