Dan: One of the key selling points of your service is that the games come free of any DRM. Obviously, that’s a good thing for your customers, but I’m curious as to how you’re pitching it to publishers. Why should a publisher put their old games on GOG without DRM when they could sell them with DRM through Steam or something similar?

Lukasz: I must say, the lack of DRM doesn't make it any easier to convince publishers to sign-up with us. But it’s also something we’re very proud of and so we put a lot effort into showing them why it shouldn't be an issue. We know that the games we sell on GOG.com are already easy to get on torrent sites, but we believe gamers would prefer to buy them legitimately, and we’re trying to encourage that by leaving out unnecessary complications. More positively, the games we sell are affordable, optimized to run on modern operating systems, and often come with cool bonus materials. 

Dan: Speaking of publishers, who have you approached aside from Codemasters and Interplay? Specifically, I’m interested to know if you’ve spoken to any of the major players like Activision or EA. If so, what has the response been like?

Lukasz: We are closing a couple of deals right now, but since they’re not finalised, I can't talk about the details. During the Leipzig Games Convention in Germany, we had meetings with a number of publishers, including the major ones, and all I can say is that their reaction was great. All we need now is a little bit more time to show them that gamers are interested in our service and that we have the sales to back that up!

Dan: How have sales been so far? Was the beta a success?

Lukasz: The whole early access beta has been a great experience for us. We're getting lots of positive feedback and a lot of good ideas on how to make GOG.com even better. We've definitely met our target in terms of sales, and general interest in GOG.com exceeded our wildest expectations. 

Dan: It seems to me there’s a kind of contradiction inherent in the whole idea of GOG, in that the people I assume would be most interested in it – i.e., people who love old videogames – might not need it for exactly that reason. For example, when I checked out the beta version, I discovered that I already owned all the games that appealed to me.  Is that an issue, do you think?

Lukasz: I don’t think so, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we’re going to expand our catalogue constantly, so even the most dedicated classic games fan is unlikely to own everything we have. But more importantly, we’re not just selling classic games as is. We’re selling classic games guaranteed to run on both Windows XP and Windows Vista, so you don't have to worry about using programming tricks to play them. Plus, as I already mentioned, many of our games come with cool additional materials like guides, wallpapers, artwork etc. And finally, there’s our community – which we feel is the best classic games community on the web, or anywhere else for that matter.

***

Big thanks to Lukasz for answering all my questions and not getting mad at me when I repeatedly spelled his name wrong. 

Naturally, I recommend that each and every one of you visit GOG and check out what they have to offer. Having participated in the beta, I can honestly tell you that it's already an excellent service and well worth supporting with your hard-earned monies. So go on – go and have a look already.