New Blood boss Dave Oshry 'quadruples down' on supporting GOG after worrying about its future, committing to sales, demos, one-click mods, plus day-and-date releases alongside Steam

After expressing worry about the future health of games storefront GOG in an RPG Site interview, New Blood CEO Dave Oshry has recommitted to supporting the platform, including fuller parity with the Steam releases of its games.

GOG's clear remit⁠—offering the titular "good old games" you can't get elsewhere⁠—has been long been challenged by Steam's inclusion of many classic games in its own catalogue. In 2021, GOG had a particularly bad year, proving a net loser for then-parent company CD Projekt. This prompted GOG to refocus on classic games after experimenting with with more new releases⁠—including a version of Hitman whose DRM kinda flew in the face of GOG's "no-DRM" promise.

Oshry had argued that GOG was failing to keep up with Steam, not offering players enough of a reason to buy into the platform. "I love their preservation efforts and everything they're trying to do," he told RPG Site, "But they need enough people to give a shit, or how long are they even going to be around?" That criticism elicited an official response from GOG on X, "The Everything App."

"We appreciate Dave’s honesty, and he’s right about one thing: game preservation only works if people care," GOG wrote in its post. "GOG was built to make sure the games that shaped us live forever. And with the support of our community, we’ve been doing exactly that for almost 20 years.

"The future of preservation is decided by players who give a shit. So buy DRM-free, vote on the Dreamlist, join GOG Patrons. If games matter to you, show it. And let’s prove together that preservation isn’t niche. It’s necessary."

And Oshry seems committed to giving a shit about GOG⁠—New Blood ran its anniversary sale on GOG concurrently with the Steam version, and has promised to release Dungeons of Dusk and Tenebrous Somnia concurrently on Steam and GOG, while it also offers demos of both on GOG as well. New Blood has even "quadrupled down" by bringing the Dusk HD remaster to GOG as a one click install, similar to its Steam Workshop version.

I like and use GOG Galaxy on the regular, but one of its big selling points is that you don't have to: You can download your games straight from GOG's website with no strings attached, which feels like you're getting away with something in the year of our Lord 2026. There are also still retro games on GOG that you can't find on Steam: Icewind Dale 2 and Star Trek: Elite Force are two in my own library.

It's been a big year for the service, and aside from some flirtation with generative AI, a good one. GOG is now independent of CD Projekt and led by Michal Kicinski, who co-founded both companies. GOG also offers a patrons program for users to contribute to its game preservation efforts.

GOG is also currently running its own Spring Sale in parallel with Steam's, if you'd like to show you give a shit yourself by, uh, buying a cool game or two for cheap: Dusk is only seven bucks right now, if you somehow haven't played it yet.