GOG expands preservation program to protect delisted games

Last month, GOG committed to restoring older PC games through its preservation program. As of today, that initiative will include titles delisted by their individual developers, starting with Warcraft 1 and Warcraft 2.

In its blog, the PC platform revealed Blizzard requested the two titles be pulled from its storefront on December 13. GOG confirmed it would comply with the request, but ensured the games would live on through its program. Going forward, it pledged to "maintain [a game's] compatibility, even if it gets delisted from the store."

Players who own those delisted games "can still expect a seamless experience and tech support for those titles," continued GOG, and the support will also take any "potential changes in Windows OS" that would impact a game's playability into account.

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The GOG Preservation Program offers a commitment to the older games on the platform, guaranteeing they are compatible with modern or future PC hardware Currently, the Program only covers Windows platforms, and features such titles as the first three Resident Evil titles, Alpha Protocol, and the Ultimate Edition of Dragon Age: Origins.

Last month, the company explained it wanted to address the concerns of game preservation which have grown in the past year. A 2023 study revealed nearly all games released pre-2010 are inaccessible, and a separate study earlier this year revealed Australia's game industry has its own problems with preservation.

Organizations like the Video Game History Foundation (VGHF) have tried to find a way for libraries and archives to share remote access to digital out-of-print games, which was previously blocked by Section 1201 of the DMCA. The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has actively resisted these efforts, and believes the onus for preservation and archiving falls solely to publishers.

In late October, the U.S. Copyright Office rejected the Foundation's proposal to make an exemption for DMCA rules so libraries and archives could share their digital games. The Office backed specific comments from the ESA that critiqued the VGHF's stance and claimed it failed to show "that reproducing works to allow for multiple simultaneous use in the computer program class is likely to be fair."

Speaking to the two Warcraft games, GOG said it was "incredibly proud of the work we've done bringing them back to life after decades of unavailability. While the delisting is unfortunate, we assure you that every user who already owns these games on GOG will continue to benefit from our commitment and have access to versions that remain compatible with modern systems, preserving their experience for years to come."