GOG has spent years selling old PC games without DRM. One of its managers now says the next step he would like to take is putting some of those games back in a box.
Marcin Paczynski, GOG's senior business development and partnerships manager, told GamesRadar+ that his ideal would be letting customers buy physical versions of games on the store. "You go to your shelf on GOG, you click on the game that you would like to receive a physical copy of, you order it, and it gets to you. That would be a perfect scenario," he said in the interview, which GamesRadar+ published on 31 October.
This is a hope, not a product. Paczynski gave no timeline, GOG has not announced physical releases, a date or a price, and we couldn't find a GOG announcement of its own to check the remarks against. The reporting here, up to the take at the end, comes from the GamesRadar+ interview and from the reports on it by Tom's Hardware and PC Gamer.
Why it hasn't happened yet
Paczynski was open about the obstacles. PC Gamer quotes him calling it "a very, very complicated thing", the same phrase GamesRadar+ uses in its own write-up for building a business around physical sales. He told GamesRadar+ that running a retail business focused on physical goods is "totally different from what we are currently doing."
"Because we are talking about physical media, we need to think about logistics," he told GamesRadar+. "We need to think about storage." GamesRadar+ adds that GOG would also need "additional approvals" from publishers to sell the games physically.
Tom's Hardware makes the same point from a different side: GOG has never had to keep a physical inventory of games or handle shipping. Its report also notes that Paczynski hasn't said what format such copies would use. Tom's Hardware suggests that optical discs seem unlikely now that few PCs have drives, and floats USB sticks or SD cards as possibilities. That is the outlet's own speculation, not anything GOG has said.
Not a new idea inside GOG
Paczynski told GamesRadar+ that "this is an idea that has been floating around GOG for years now," adding: "and still, I really hope that at some point we will be able to do it. We'll see."
For now, GamesRadar+ points to a smaller step: GOG's initiative to preserve classic big boxes with 3D models and box art people can print and build themselves. Paczynski described that as "small steps in that direction." PC Gamer, reporting on the same interview, notes that the idea has been on the company's mind "for years now" and that Paczynski isn't ruling it out.
The timing
Tom's Hardware ties GOG's interest to recent plans by Sony and Microsoft to stop producing physical games on their consoles. It also suggests physical copies could revive a used market where players swap or resell games. That's another point the outlet raises, not GOG.
Mason's take: The most interesting part of this interview is the word "approvals." GOG's whole pitch is that the copy you buy is yours, and a physical copy would be the strongest version of that promise. I suspect it's also the version publishers may be most cautious about. Logistics and warehousing can be bought. Publisher sign-off, game by game, is the part that decides whether this ever becomes more than a nice idea. Until GOG puts a format, a price or a first title on the table, I'd treat it as a stated wish from a company whose instincts on ownership are usually right.
Reporting notes
