This news doesn't do anything crazy like worry me, but it certainly does concern me.

It's been stated there will be no loss of focus on older games.... I don't see how this is possible, with the different working relationships that will have to be set up and the hoops that GOG will have to jump through for this extension to their business to work, then ABSOLUTELY INEVITABLY the focus will be moved from what we accept as "good old" to what will probably be classed as "newer old"... and there are far too many old games missing from GOG's offerings for any emphisis to be lost there.... we ALREADY see proof of a move away from the the "Good Old" mindset with us being persuaded that GOG is just a name, instead of being the acronym we know it to be... The shift has started, that much is obvious.

It will all probably still "work", but there a few things that I DO NOT want to see happen.... For certain, the publishers are going to (try to?) persude GOG to take their crap.. all of the bullshit quality games (that we KNOW are bullshit, that being the reason we wouldn't touch them first time round) are now going to be re-pimped to us, so the overall quality of GOG's offerings will certainly be reduced in terms of pure numbers (GOG will HAVE to sell their shit in order to get access to the 'better' releases and the shit FAR OUTWEIGHS the quality) more shit to wade through plus you just KNOW that the 'first' offerings are going to be The Sims, FIFA and EA's sports titles, add in the built in obsolescance of yearly itterations and removal of activation servers (you do know that the big publishers don't consider activation to be DRM, right?) and I'm left with a horrible sinking feeling that we'll get releases with a limited shelf life or online features being unavailable.

Also what I don't want to see is a dirth of $20 games.. and I don't see how this won't be a certainty, we already get shafted over new digital releases being the same price, and often DEARER than retail box price, the rampant profit whoring isn't going to suddenly stop just because the game is a year or two old, pubs are not going to give GOG a licence to sell games cheaper here than would be available on other distribution methods which WILL mean a closing of the distance between GOG and other distributors that makes GOG stand out.. not a nice direction to be going head first in, and we are, because the 'closer working releationship' required by GOG and the publishers to get this system going IS going to mean that GOG has to become more like them.. it can't be done any other way, the publishers are still going to be in the position of dictating certain terms to GOG.

One thing that IS a certainty however.. and believe me I'm dreading it, the forums are going to devolve in to a nasty bitching mess... just like EVERY OTHER GAMESITE OUTHERE, it's inevitable. With the change in focus of type of games being bought and played you will see an increase of users.. but they will be users with a different priority for their gaming, there will be a drastic upturn in graphics whores, fanboys and in general, ADD asshats that upto now have ignored the site due to the content not being 'bling' enough for them. The site will no longer have the common denominator that draws us together atm... we can all, to a person pretty much, ignore graphical whimsy in favour of a good game, but where else do you see that with all the shallow, shiney, fastfood games that the ridilin poppers play these days.

Upto now, GOG have always smelled like sweet, sweet pie to me... however with the advent of this news I'm now getting a whiff of rotten eggs.

I honestly hope I'm wrong, but I'm also pretty sure that the terms the pubs will want enforced are not going to be upto the GOG standard so far.

As for 'The Witcher 2'.. that BELONGED here because of the relationship between GOG and CDP, I was GLAD to be able to support CDP with the full price of my monies, that was revolutionary, but I don't want to be whored out to other inferior publishers as a source of profit.

EDIT.. concerning the multiple platform points...... NOT GOING TO HAPPEN, honestly peeps the logistics of tracking these companys/rights holder would be an unmitigated nightmare and certainly not worth the miniscule profit they'd get back in return.

...And please, a reply about how innacurate I am about this issue, or about how 'YOU' know it can be made all simple and would work is POINTLESS.. IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN and any further discussion of this absurdity is just dragging the thread away from any valid points it may be making... so please, no more emulator talk, it's silly.. seriously, it's silly. ANYWAY, if you don't know how to acquire all the emulated software you'll EVER EVER want by now, then you should have your access to the internet taken away from you :P