Wrestling the Steam 'Goliath,' pulling a Nightdive, and seeing off vulture capital: GOG chats the dangers and alternatives of its future as an organization with out CD Projekt
In an trade whose most up-to-date high-profile buyouts price tens of billions of {dollars}, the December sale of GOG—for the comparatively humble sum of round $25 million—may appear to be barely a ripple within the pond. However the affect of the buyout was incommensurate with its price. For years, GOG has marketed itself because the videogame storefront with values: preserving video games, preserving them DRM-free, and letting you truly personal them. However values tend to fall by the wayside within the tumult of a company sale. Gamers have been involved.
However maybe there’s consolation to be taken from the truth that GOG’s new boss is, fairly actually, the identical because the previous boss. The shop was acquired by Michał Kiciński, its authentic co-founder, beneath the express banner of preserving its integrity and mission assertion.
“I believe it has a really stable basis as an organization,” Kiciński tells PC Gamer. “Good outcomes, an excellent model—recognized, revered—with very clear values, and prospects find it irresistible and stand behind it.”
Plus, Kiciński has a sentimental attachment: “The much less enterprise[-y] causes [for buying GOG] have been: I am type of a mum or dad of the corporate. I invented it again in 2005 along with Marcin Iwiński, and, for a second, I used to be the primary boss of the corporate… So I do know the enterprise. I do know the corporate, and I did not need it to be bought to, I do not know easy methods to say it, to some random firm.” , the sort that may see all that chatter about DRM and sport preservation as an impediment to maximising revenue.
Gold rush
The sale itself occurred in a remarkably compressed timeframe. “It was moderately quicker than it normally occurs,” says Kiciński. “Round September [2025], I discovered that CD Projekt deliberate to promote GOG,” remembers Kiciński, “so I joined the method round September.” The following few months have been a flurry: “It was fairly an intensive few months: September, October, November, and particularly December—the method was fairly aggressive.”
Kiciński does not truly know who he was competing with for possession of GOG—”We all know solely that there was one, in all probability large firm competing with me,” he says, and “some science exhibits” it was seemingly a US one—however he says he was involved however. “I’ve seen some M&A [mergers and acquisitions] processes previously, and I noticed smaller corporations being bought by greater corporations, after which inside a yr or two disappear from the market.
“The database of shoppers was taken, the database of merchandise was taken, groups have been fired, issues like that. I did not need it to occur to GOG.”
The database of shoppers was taken, the database of merchandise was taken, groups have been fired, issues like that. I did not need it to occur to GOG
Michał Kiciński
Why was CD Projekt seeking to promote GOG, an organization it owned for 17 years? A part of the rationale is not too laborious to guess—GOG’s merely not that worthwhile part of the corporate in comparison with the megabucks the remainder of it pumps out. Its internet revenue of, say, $1.2 million in 2022 may sound very good to mere mortals such as you and me, however CDP as a complete reported income of over $120 million in 2024. These are two fairly totally different financial realities.
However there are broader, strategic causes too. “I believe it is turn out to be fairly clear for CDPR and GOG that we’re pursuing two totally different methods,” mentioned Maciej Gołębiewski, GOG’s managing director. “CDPR has their technique of creating triple-A video games [with] story-rich, immersive worlds and creating franchises round them.
“GOG has its personal technique of bringing the best visions of recent classics to players and making a group round it… it doesn’t make plenty of sense to maintain them collectively for the long-term.”
For Kiciński, “it was a really pure determination to separate the corporate.” The sheer distinction in scale between GOG and CDP’s different operations meant the storefront ended up overshadowed. “When you’ve got two entities in a single household, and one is far greater and extra worthwhile, it’s extremely laborious for the smaller entity to get sufficient consideration, and it’s extremely pure that the main target and a spotlight goes into the larger a part of the corporate.”
“I all the time felt that there was good religion and kindness coming from CDPR,” says Gołębiewski, however “it was additionally seen that they’ve actually formidable initiatives, they’ve quite a bit on their plates, so… it could possibly be felt that their eyes have been on their challenges and on their technique.”
“This [sale] offers the chance for GOG to be absolutely targeted on itself, for instance,” concludes Kiciński, “and it is not like you’re a smaller a part of a much bigger group, the place there’s one thing extra essential [happening], as a result of a brand new sport is popping out, or one thing like that.”
For its half, CDPR has come out of the deal fairly nicely. The “spirit of the settlement,” as Kiciński places it, is that preparations between GOG and CDPR stay unchanged, at the very least for now. That features the beneficiant royalties CDPR will get from its video games bought on GOG: “They’ve an exceptionally good royalty fee from GOG,” says Kiciński, “And that is nonetheless the case, as a result of there isn’t any different place on the earth the place CD Projekt Pink has such an enormous royalties from each sport. So that they type of, , eat the cake and have the cake.”
Future good
Loosed from the embrace of a studio large with $120 million-worth of irons within the fireplace, what does the subsequent transfer for GOG appear to be?
In case you’ve received a plan, Kiciński and co may like to listen to it. The push to safe GOG’s buy over the previous few months has left valuable little room for grandiose visions of the years forward. “We have simply completed one thing that was each a marathon and a dash,” says Gołębiewski, “so we’ll must take a while to debate our strategic choices.”
Nonetheless, that does not imply there aren’t concepts floating round. Now not beneath another person’s management, GOG is freer than ever to take dangers. “It is pure that in a lot greater corporations, the chance urge for food—particularly being a public firm—tends to be smaller,” says Gołębiewski, “and that removes a few of the nimbleness of the corporate.”
Diminished nimbleness does you no favours when your chief competitor is a behemoth like Steam: “Attacking a Goliath in wrestling is just not a good suggestion,” says Gołębiewski. “One must have good agility.”
“One good instance of risk-taking,” provides Kiciński, “is publishing exercise, as a result of publishing exercise has an incredible quantity of threat.” He is undecided, however Kiciński reckons that threat is what held GOG again from publishing video games when it was a part of CDPR.
However Kiciński is pretty deep in sport publishing—”I am already within the publishing enterprise via Retrovibe—I’ve 50% in that firm”—and he thinks GOG may make a splash there too. “I am completely open to taking dangers in publishing, as a result of I imagine that if in case you have good individuals—understanding the video games, understanding the trade, you possibly can actually minimise the chance to a suitable degree.”
There are different apparent avenues the shop may go down. After I ask if it may be tempted to get extra closely into preservation—not simply importing previous video games to its storefront and ensuring they work, however actively engaged on them à la Nightdive—Gołębiewski performs his playing cards near his chest. “I believe that there aren’t that many corporations that do it nicely,” he says (although provides that “Clearly, Nightdive is likely one of the ones which might be doing it nicely”).
In his view, meaning “there may be area for an additional good firm on that scene. I am not saying positively that it will likely be GOG in 2026, however actually there’s a area there. We’re followers of Nightdive’s work, but additionally we imagine that competitors is all the time good.”
… Definitely there’s a area there. We’re followers of Nightdive’s work, but additionally we imagine that competitors is all the time good
Maciej Gołębiewski
So, doubling down on the issues GOG already does and is aware of, is how that sounds to me, persevering with on with the tack that has seen the shop, over the previous yr, lean a lot tougher into its previous Good Outdated Video games model with a concentrate on preservation and untangling basic rights. Wanting ahead, meaning leveraging connections with builders and rights-holders to discover sport publishing and, perhaps, turning initiatives just like the GOG Sport Preservation program into one thing extra dramatic, extra remaster-esque.
Will that be sufficient to topple that previous “Goliath,” Steam? Properly, no, in all probability not, however neither Gołębiewski or Kiciński are (at present) pitching themselves as out to overcome Gabe Newell’s empire. “I believe hooking individuals off of Steam is a byproduct of us making an attempt to offer superior editions—one thing we name the best editions of basic video games,” says Gołębiewski, “If there is a model of the sport that is clearly higher on GOG, and it has the promise that it’s going to run eternally… individuals will come.”
“We aren’t actually placing direct competitors to Steam [in the sense] that we’ve to unhook any individual from Steam,” says Kiciński. “Slightly, we wish to persuade individuals, ‘Okay, if in case you have an choice to buy a sport—extra buy than hire—and also you worth having your basic, beloved sport to personal, then take a look at GOG. If it is not essential, or you’ve got totally different priorities, go for Steam.”
GOG keen
Will GOG make it by itself? It appears up for the problem, on the very least, and whether or not it succeeds—when you ask me—is down to simply how salient the problems of sport possession and preservation turn out to be over the subsequent a number of years. The problem “comes and goes,” says Gołębiewski, “however so long as GOG exists, we’re a degree of reference on that scale. And if GOG does not exist, then, okay, we are able to truly say that individuals have given up.
“I believe it’s a problem to function on this trade these days, and nonetheless keep true to the values, proper? And to the mission. I believe, judging by the reception we received final yr, it holds up, and we’ll see whether or not it holds up in 2026 and past.”