GOG Had to Hire a Detective to Find Rights Holders of Retro Games

About seventy years have passed since the first video games appeared, and their preservation has become more important than ever. GOG, the digital storefront owned by CD Projekt Red, is devoted to restoring classic titles and updating them to run on modern hardware.

Yet, representatives of the company admit the work has been far more demanding than they anticipated.

In an interview with The Game Business, GOG’s Senior Business Development Manager Marcin Paczyński explained that games are deteriorating and failing at a faster rate than expected:

“It’s not just that a title won’t launch. Often it lacks support for modern controllers, widescreen monitors, or even simple functions like window minimization.”

Technical hurdles aren’t the only obstacle. Tracking down the rights-holders for older games can be nearly impossible. On one occasion GOG hired a private investigator to locate a man in the UK who didn’t realize he’d inherited the rights to several projects. Once contacted, he willingly agreed to help preserve his family’s legacy.

Paczyński also pointed out that legacy DRM is especially troublesome. Some famous games today only work thanks to unofficial patches. He urged major publishers to consider removing DRM a few years after release — though he acknowledged that “senior executives are unlikely ever to agree.”

Source: iXBT.games