EDIT: Whoops, didn't mean to put quote marks on my subject above.

"The virtual landslide of great, highly-desired games (since Disney came aboard) has been interesting"

From what I recall (my memory could be wrong), much of 2013 - 2014(pre-Disney) was pretty dry in respect to GOG releasing highly-desired games (of course that's a relative term; I mean compared to the past few months), and perhaps that was the high point of complaints like "where are the Good Old Games?" since for some it felt like GOG was only interested in indies. Mid-2011 had EA and late-2011 had Squeenix, but afterwards things seemed to be "dying" for a period of time (at least towards late 2012 or maybe early 2013, since Activision, Ubisoft, and co. stopped showing interest; we still haven't gotten Activision "back", and we need the final Impressions game!).

Yet since Disney hopped aboard (though there was a big gap between 6-releases days - Oct. and Jan I think), the waves of great, highly-desired games has just kept coming.

And well, http://vocaroo.com/i/s1FpiHE540KX

Makes me wonder if we can thank Disney for showing other pubs GOG is worth their time, or if other things behind the scenes just fell into place, or what happened.

I think that after System Shock 2 came,big publishers started showing interest on GOG but after Disney came then they saw that the site is worth the investiment.

Ha, can't believe I forgot about SS2 release.

I think the Witcher series also helped. First The Witcher 2 getting rid of DRM, and then the Witcher 3 hype.

HERESY!*BLAM*

No. Talks take much longer than we think, and they are usually kept under wraps. So Bethesda was most likely in talks with GOG before the first Disney game was released, while Paradox and Warner Bros were almost certainly.
Not sure if GOG had any new faces in its marketing and licensing department that made it happen, or if the other companies had a change in their management that made it happen.

TBH I think the flow of "good old" titles has never let up. Of course big players like Disney and BethSoft have (accumulated) large portfolios of classics, be they Monkey Island or DOOM.

And yes, I think getting a big one like Di$ney on board, may have caused a landslide of recognition for GOG. If they recognise them, other companies will too. And I think it will continue. I really didn't anticipate pro-DRM Bethesda making this step. Now even having GTA 3, Vice City and Canis Canem Edit don't seem that far out of reach.

But let's not forget that GOG achieved a lot even without the Big $$$. I (literally) had tears of joy in my eyes when System Shock 2 (one of the most elusive games ever) finally showed up here. They brought us forgotten classic like Cover Action or Sword of the Samurai. They even became publisher and brought us the SSI games. Especially the Gold Box games had always been considered a legal nightmare with so many parties involved. Image i.e. Eye of the Beholder. There's the D&D license, separate from the Forgotten Realms license, the game published by (defunct) SSI but developed by Westwood Studios whose rights also went through hands.

It's Bully. I won't accept this ridiculous title. :P

Canis Canem sounds like a spell

I actually made a comment about how I felt Disney was the "perfect sell" for GoG - I can't remember if it was right around the time Disney purchased LucasArts or when GoG was hinting at a new publisher.

But at the time, my thought process was that a Disney exec has no vested interest in DRM, a Disney exec doesn't care about software development, a Disney exec has no attachment to a 20 year old piece of musty code. Show a Disney exec a revenue stream for literally doing nothing more than signing a piece of paper and they're liable to bite if the numbers look good enough - they have no preconcieved bias.

After that - well companies can be "me too" when it comes to this stuff. In a boardroom, I can picture others saying "Disney is getting a footprint on this new market" "We can't let Disney wholly capture this new platform" "A company as large as Disney sees value here, what are we missing that we don't..." etc etc etc.

My fear was always that the market would segment as individual companies each attempted to create their own exclusive digital distribution platform. My guess is EA and Ubi are finding them to be a bit cumbersome to maintain and facing some backlash. Perhaps that's also pushing other companies to use existing platforms - and instead of "holding off for their own service" to come online, they're just turning to GoG to handle the sales of their old games. And as GoG grows, it's going to get harder and harder for companies to continue ignoring potential sales here, espcially as others seem to be gaining the benefits of it.

Regardless, I'm super excited we're getting all this great content! From the "big" like today to those wonderful little nuggets that keep showing up... Hell, two years ago, nothing else at all, "just" Star TREK, Cthulhu OR Warhammer would have been huge - nevermind all this!

I like the original title :-P

I might have some gripes about how GOG communicates with their customers (the recent radio silence on the gifting restrictions definitely irks me), and some of the stories I've heard about turning down indies and being difficult to work with still confuse me, but I have to give massive credit where massive credit is due. Like the OP said, I'm not sure exactly what it is, but GOG has done a phenomenal job getting games and publishers on the site lately. Disney, WB, renewed interest from Ubisoft, the return of Bethesda, and dabbling in publishing themselves have resulted in a torrent of DRM-free goodness. I love it. I just read this article about the recently released goldbox games and it warms my heart:

http://www.pcgamer.com/how-gog-rescued-13-forgotten-realms-games-from-licensing-hell/

I and many other forum-goers are quick to criticize GOG for perceived slights and missteps, but, in my case at least, it's only because we like what GOG does so much and know how much potential this service has. Keep those games coming, GOG.

Relevant :

https://www.cdprojekt.com/resources/document/okresowe/2Q2015_Summary_of_Consolidated_Reports_of_CDP_SA_eng.pdf

Seems like GOG grew three times its size during the six first months of this year. Witcher 3 takes a good third of it, but the rest grew more than decently. So yeah, things are going well on the drm free revolution front. :)

Regional pricing, flexible price points (not 5.99 or 9.99 for classics like Morrowind or other old games like Assassin's Creed), Galaxy and market share. That's what happened.

I think it just a combination of things that GOG is doing, and of course Disney was one. I also think Galaxy announcement also has a lot to do with it too in addition to the Witcher 3 success. I know some older client disliking members won't agree, but it's very clear that publishers want that Steam style ecosystem. Not DRM really, but the ability to offer community features and other stuff that a client is good for. No doubt JMich is right in saying that talks have taken a long time for this to happen, but that does not mean that recent events have not pushed those talks to becoming a reality and more than just talks.

Of-course none of these games utilize Galaxy features (other than what is standard like auto-updating) but the Witcher 3 put Galaxy in the hands of nearly 600,000 people (I believe). Sure many of them will only use Galaxy for Witcher 3, but thousands if not hundred of thousands will open Galaxy and see the store and purchase new stuff on impulse. No longer do you have to open a webpage and go to GOG to check for game (which many people won't to), every time you open Galaxy to play a game you will see the store now. To publishers that stuff is going to matter. No doubt GOG had quite a few fans, most of which never post in the forums or community... but it's pretty clear Galaxy and the Witcher 3 have pushed GOG to a new level, and it's a level that publishers no doubt want to be a part of.

Right now GOG is the biggest it has ever been and it's success is growing by the day...