The contingency plan is the backup offline installers. Just download them as soon as you buy the games. If GOG suddenly vanished today, I would lose zero games. I have never seen an official confirmation of this (it's not on Steam's terms of service).

At this moment, as far as I know, we don't have any official statement for such (hypothethical) situation.

Now, about possibility to download games, this is a bit complicated. For example, Boxoffstore, digital store connected with Techland, was shut down in May 2018, but up to this day people who have their games there can still log in and download them (as well as obtain steam keys, since shop was delivering games both DRM-free and for steam).

DotEmu on the other hand, is still "operational", but closed its digital store and with that is no longer offering download of their games.

How would it be in GOG's case? Can't say for sure, but unfortunately, it's safer to assume that it would be"second variant".

I personally went through backup of my library with gogrepo.py and I've got to admit, it wasn't nice and easy trip (with more than 1000 games, including some really "big size" titles, like Spellforce 3). Not to mention about necessity of buying huge external hard drive (now I've got bigger external hard drive for GOG copies than the SSD+HDD mix I have in my PC).

Good thing is, that now when I'm just make updates (to add new games from my library) it's like walk in the park (comparing to the downloading entire library). Gogrepo.py is not official tool, but extremely useful.

There's a Python script somebody made to automatically download all your games, but I don't have the link because I don't use it. Maybe somebody will post it.

The easiest way I found - it's not easy, just the easiest I know of - is to download all your installers & extras through Galaxy.

Somebody suggested this method to me, because when you download the backups through Galaxy, they don't have Galaxy bundled in them. It's also a lot easier than going through the website and/or using GOG Downloader, since everything is easier to find.

It took me a few days. Maybe a week, or so. I'd download a few every day after work, and now I just look at my account every now & then, to see if there's any update. That has to be done through the website, because Galaxy won't show game updates.

It's all very user-friendly.

It is not that difficult to backup your games. With my 1000+ games I used two 3tb drives for two backups. It costs a bit of money, but feels much safer that way.

I, like probably everyone in this forum, sincerely hope that GOG will never go down. Just purchased a few more games, I know this is like nothing to their overall financial situation but at least showed my support, I guess.

I'd suggest buying a NAS with 3+ drives at some point. That way with the right Raid settings you don't need to 1:1 clone to have redundancy and you'll be safe if a hard drive fails.

Yeah, definitely something to consider in future. Thanks.

The recent layoffs doesn´t mean GOG is going to shut down, and I believe they would give us time to backup our games more considering this a non DRM place. So I should be CALM for this part.

What it doesn´t make me feel calm, is the fact itself GOG is maybe not going in the right direction, because I loved and still love this place. I been here since the very beginnin, my library is actuall near 1000 games, and my wishlist includes around 200 more titles.

I need to say i lost part of my interest in the website, I want to be constructive with my criticism because I really want this site to continue doing well, I am not inside GOG, or maybe not the biggest expert in the industry even if I been working for several very big and small publishers during my more than 10 years of experience. But I really want to throw here my two cents about this, both as a proffesional and more than that, as user. So here I go:

- I believe GOG.com started as a DIFFERENT thing, giving us something others did not, and I am not talking about the non DRM thing, I am talking about "good old games" before it was even a trend in other stores. This motto is partially GONE, I know a business NEEDs to GROW, and you need to go to more users, and I would need to go throw the numbers to analize what is happening here, but it worths to be checked.

- Collectors, I also believe GOG got a feature about collections, the library, that was LOST. We complained about this and most part of us been mocked, at the end we didn´t care much as live goes on, and business too, but it was a lost. I wonder if we could get back that feeling of "collecting" that extra goodies and that virtual library gave us time ago.

- Galaxy, is good, it works smoothly and was neccesary, but seems even EPIC has problems to beat Steam in their own terrain, so analize again what can Galaxy do better. Implementation of community mods more easily? The library we been talking about THERE and not in the website? Why not!?

- Mistakes from the past - The movies thing, remember the same ones that complained about the previous two things we said that would not make you have any revenue, was interesting? yes, but maybe we weren´t the right target. Check ideas (including mines or whoever) TWICE before going forward with them.

- Competition - it moves fast, is always devastating, and I need to say is not just GOG fault that I buy less games lately. I am not the best example of an user as I use all platforms, but my habits may launch some light here, as I am a "whale consumer":

a) Nintendo Switch absorved my whole interest for INDIE GAMES or mostly, Indie Games was probably a good idea here, I enjoyed many in GOG.com. But now we have more platforms for them, we lived the golden age of indie games, but probably we are already in a "bubble".

b) AAA games, I never or very rarely bought any AAA here as I always consume these games on PS4 or XBOX ONE even if I have 2 powerful PCs. I prefer consoles for these games.

c) Online Games, STEAM or Consoles, never here. But Galaxy cross-play features are interesting if GOG pushes these games here, somehow.

d) Good Old Games, again, I know is NOT enough to maintain this business with just this (How many of these titles you already published? How many of us like old games? questions to answer) , I know these games need your own expert QA and programming team to make them work in new systems, I know some licenses may be a pain, No One Lives Forever, Mechwarrior, even lost games as Heretic 2... but is still the main reason this Store made a difference at the very beginning.

I am not a GOG staff member, is your business, but I loved what you guys been doing all these years, with ups and downs as every business may have, I still buy games here even if lately less (may not be your fault as I said) , and I dont think at all GOG will dissapear, is just re-adjusting and I just wanted to express my, valuable, or not, feedback.

Best!

PD: I need to say that the last version of the website, specially the way that introduces sales, IS BAD, guys it is... try to check conversion rates comparing with previous versions. May throw light into this.

I used to come to GOG every single day and spend a lot of time on the forums. Hell, used to participate in forum tournaments like Blood Bowl.

But around the time GOG changed it's mission statement and changed the website I fell out of interest with GOG. I think trying to rebrand themselves to focus more on modern games and compete with Steam was a pretty terrible idea. I don't have the financials obviously so maybe things were dire back then but GOG had purpose back then. To bring back old games and more importantly make sure they ran on modern systems. At one point they were the only place to get things like Baldur's Gate to make sure they ran.

But at the same time, the fact that GOG showed there was still a massive fanbase for retro titles invigorated Steam and publishers to reinvest in porting games to Steam, making sure they ran, or making remake/releases like in Baldur's Gate case.

I kind of feel like GOG lost both it's identity in the rebranding and the point of it's creation due to forces outside of their control. Half on GOG and half the business.

I should add though that it is absolutely on GOG that they never got publishers/developers to contractually promise patches and updates to modern releases. The fact that GOG often didn't get critical patches or updates until months later if at all was a critical reason why I (and I assume many others) just don't buy modern stuff on here. It's too much money to get burned because the developer decided it wasn't worth the effort to support GOG releases.

Yup, GOG needs to get back to its roots and stop trying to compete with Steam because that is a fools errand. Many have tried, many have failed. Gabe has built an evil empire over at the Valve offices. Nothing will kick that can going forward. So just be yourself, GOG. Be what you USED to be. Good Old Games. Bring us the oldschool.

Pre-warning huh? Just like banks give you pre-warning before they close their doors and declare bankruptcy? XD

I'm also having trouble getting my head around the idea that someone can get online, navigate the store, purchase a game with a credit card, install and play said game, yet cannot perform basic file management necessary to back up files.
If such people exist it must be an extremely tiny fraction of GOG users. It is a failing of the individual not to be sufficiently trained in the basics of their device before committing more money to online services. The ability to plug in a portable storage device, download a game installer and copy the file to the device can't be any harder than anything else they've been doing so far. This argument sound suspiciously like sour grapes to me.

And I wouldn't trust Gabe Newell for the time if his face was a clock. Chances are his "promise" will disappear once he personally sells out his stake of the company. In fact Steam doesn't have to honor this at any time if it isn't included in the terms of service, and if it is, could even change the terms on the next update without anyone noticing.

Some of you here give people too much credit. Not everyone lives under the same umbrella.

Old games won't keep the store running, they have said that when they introduced regional pricing. Right now the best option is to back up installers for the worst case scenario. That's what I do. The problem is only with newer games if GOG goes down, because they won't get any future patches. As far the older games go, I think they are pretty much safe. And since I usually wait about 2 years before buying a game, it should be ok.

I disagree. The old games that are here aren't going anywhere. At some points, getting classic games becomes too difficult because of IP rights hell (and yet, they still manage to bring some from time to time) or technical issues. Adding new games doesn't spoil the classic games that are already being sold. Vetoing new games and restricting releases to "good old games" would be a sure way to make GOG go stagnant.

+1

With all things said regarding the absolute necessity to have offline backups of your games this
"The problem is only with newer games if GOG goes down, because they won't get any future patches."
would be the major problem - especially for newer games like Galactic Civilizations 3 - that still get lots of game changing patches!

If gog ever goes down we may not lose our games (except for those folks who just could not be bothered to have offline installer backups) but we will probably use the possibility to get further updates as I can hardly believe that game companies will be nice enough to support gog's customers and offer them a way to continue to receive patches, etc...

From the user agreement:

"17.3 It seems very unlikely, but if we have to stop providing access to GOG services and GOG content permanently (not because of any breach by you), we will try to give you at least sixty (60) days advance notice by posting a note on www.gog.com and sending an email to every registered users – during that time you should be able to download any GOG content you purchased."