Game Preservation: Two Years of Community-Driven Progress

The platform’s full name used to be “Good Old Games.” The idea was simple. Classic PC games were disappearing, trapped on dead operating systems or locked behind DRM that stopped working. GOG committed to bringing them back DRM-free, compatible with modern systems, and yours to keep.

For sixteen years, that’s been the work. Securing rights. Fixing compatibility. Maintaining games long after publishers moved on. If a game got delisted, players who bought it still got updates and support. The game stayed in their library, playable, maintained.

But in 2024, something shifted. The work that had always been happening became visible, structured, and reinforced with a formal commitment.

Sixteen Years of Making Games Live Forever

The work GOG does isn’t new. Every game on the platform gets compatibility testing. Offline installers mean your games stay yours even if GOG’s servers vanish tomorrow. DRM-free means no authentication servers can brick your library.

When a publisher delists a game, GOG keeps maintaining it for everyone who bought it. Updates still come. Tech support still works. The game stays playable.

This has been the promise since 2008. What changed in 2024 was making that promise explicit, structured, and permanent.

The GOG Preservation Program: 2024-2025

What the Stamp Means

The “Preserved by GOG” stamp is a commitment. For a game to receive it, GOG runs extensive quality tests on Windows 10 and 11. If tests fail, the team fixes the game until it meets quality standards.

The stamp promises three things:

1. Compatibility — Works on current and future PC configurations
2. Completeness — Best version available anywhere, with all DLC and content
3. Long-term support — GOG maintains the game even after publishers move on

GOG Preservation Program

The GOG Preservation Program ensures classic games remain playable on modern systems, even after their developers stopped supporting them. By maintaining these iconic titles, GOG helps you protect and relive the memories that shaped you, DRM-free and with dedicated tech support.

Learn more

This is different from what GOG was already doing. Every game on GOG gets some level of maintenance. The Preservation Program adds formal commitment and ongoing resource allocation. Games with the stamp will be maintained as operating systems evolve, as hardware changes, as decades pass.

From Wishlist to Dreamlist

GOG’s Community Wishlist has existed for years. Players voted for games they wanted to see on the platform. The votes became leverage in negotiations with rights holders. When GOG approached publishers, they brought numbers.

But the old Wishlist had problems. The interface was clunky. Game entries got duplicated. Finding and voting for specific titles required patience.

In January 2025, GOG rebuilt it as Dreamlist.

What Changed

The new system gave each game a proper page — descriptions, screenshots, trailers. Duplicate entries got consolidated. The interface made browsing and voting simple.

The biggest addition: Stories. Players could write about why games mattered to them. Not just “I want this game,” but “here’s what this game meant to me.”

The community responded.

Over 57,000 stories were written in 2025. Some were paragraphs. Others were essays explaining how a game shaped what they understood games could be.

These stories matter. When GOG negotiates with rights holders, votes are numbers. Stories are proof that people care.

What’s at the Top

The most-voted games reveal patterns. Black & White sits at the top with over 122,000 votes. Freelancer closing in with over 118,000 votes and Silent Hill has nearly 114,000.

Some games on the list are available elsewhere but not DRM-free. Others haven’t been legally purchasable anywhere for years. And some, like Black & White, remain locked because rights holders haven’t been convinced yet.

The votes keep growing. The stories keep accumulating. And sometimes, years of voting pays off.

Games That Came Back

In 2025, 312 games joined GOG’s catalog. Many came directly from Dreamlist votes. Some entered the Preservation Program immediately. Others joined the catalog first, then received the preservation stamp after testing.

Here’s what the distinction means:

• Joining GOG’s catalog = The game becomes available to buy DRM-free on GOG
• Joining the Preservation Program = GOG commits to maintaining the game long-term with the official stamp

A game can do both at once, or catalog first and preservation later.

The Capcom Breakthrough

articleRelated ArticleDino CrisisI have to be honest. I was never a big fan of zombies. It’s not the gruesome looks of decay…arrow_forward

January 2025 started with Dino Crisis 1 and 2. Shadow-dropped. No announcement. Players who’d been voting for years opened GOG one morning and there they were.

Both games had been unavailable on PC since the early 2000s. The last official English PC release was in 2000. For 25 years, playing them required hunting down original discs or using unofficial methods.

GOG brought them back with visual improvements, stability fixes, and Windows 11 compatibility. Both entered the Preservation Program immediately.

Then came more Capcom titles: Resident Evil HD Remaster. Devil May Cry HD Collection. Breath of Fire IV (which had never been on PC before). Cold Fear, which had been delisted everywhere.

Marcin Paczyński, GOG’s senior business development manager, said the relationship with Capcom “definitely grew in the process.” That’s code for: it took work. Legal negotiations. Technical discussions. Proving the market existed.

Preservation Program Waves

Not every game that joined GOG’s catalog in 2025 entered the Preservation Program. Some don’t qualify yet — they’re still supported by publishers, or they need more work before meeting quality standards. The Program has a backlog of games being evaluated.

Industry Recognition

[IMAGE PLACEMENT: Photo from GDC, Digital Dragons, or other conference where GOG spoke about preservation]
Caption: GOG’s preservation work became a visible industry topic in 2025 with conference appearances and panels

Game preservation became louder in 2025. Not just as something enthusiasts cared about, but as a topic the industry started taking seriously.

GOG joined the European Federation of Game Archives, Museums, and Preservation Projects (EFGAMP) as the first Polish institution to become a member. Founded in 2012, EFGAMP is the largest European organization focused on preserving games as cultural heritage.

GOG was also elected to EFGAMP’s board.

In May, the Checkpoint Award 2025 for preservation activities went to GOG. The award recognized the Preservation Program’s impact and scale.

Conference appearances multiplied. GOG staff spoke at Digital Dragons, Gaming Ground, and the History of Games Conference. They appeared on the Future Games Show. A dedicated game preservation panel is scheduled for GDC 2026.

Industry podcasts invited them on. Magazine covers featured the work.

[CUSTOM CTA BOX]
Game Preservation Matters
Watch GOG’s “Video Game Preservation Recap 2024” featuring insights from industry experts and institutions dedicated to preserving gaming history.
[Link to video]
[/CUSTOM CTA BOX]

This visibility matters. When preservation shows up at GDC, when it wins awards, when conferences dedicate panels to it, the topic moves from niche concern to industry responsibility. Publishers pay attention. Developers pay attention. Players who didn’t know preservation was even an issue start asking questions.

GOG Patrons: Funding the Future

[IMAGE PLACEMENT: GOG Patrons logo/branding or Discord community screenshot]
Caption: GOG Patrons launched in late 2025 as an optional way to directly fund preservation work

In October 2025, GOG quietly launched GOG Patrons in early access. By December, it went public.

The concept is simple: $5 per month. The money funds preservation work. That’s it.

Why This Exists

GOG’s been doing preservation work for sixteen years. The Preservation Program formalized the commitment. But preservation costs money.

Securing rights from publishers who’ve forgotten they own a game costs money. Hiring engineers to rebuild missing features costs money. Maintaining compatibility as Windows updates costs money. Legal work, testing, historical research — it all adds up.

GOG Patrons creates a dedicated funding stream for work that doesn’t generate immediate revenue. It’s not a lifeline. It’s a way to go further, faster.

What You Get (and What You Don’t)

Power the Preservation

Preserving games is resource-intensive. It requires legal work, engineering hours, and server infrastructure. The GOG Patrons Program allows you to directly fund these efforts.

• Exclusive Profile Badge
• Vote on the Next Restoration Project
• Access to Private Discord & Dev Diaries
• Your Name on Preservation Pagesasdasdasdasd

Learn more about Patron Program

GOG Patrons is not a game subscription. Nothing changes about how GOG works. Your library stays yours, DRM-free, forever. Every game you’ve ever bought remains accessible. If you don’t join Patrons, your experience is identical to what it’s always been.

What Patrons receive:

• Access to Discord server with preservation content
• Behind-the-scenes videos about restoration work
• Name credited on Preservation Program game pages
• Profile badge
• Input on preservation priorities

No exclusive games. No early access to releases. No paywalled content. The perks are recognition and involvement, not access.

The Response

Some players joined immediately. Others questioned whether a company should ask for donations. The GOG team was direct: this isn’t about survival, it’s about scope.

GOG operates. It makes money. But preservation work operates on a different timeline than selling new releases. Games that need preservation often have complex rights situations or require months of technical work before they’re sellable.

Patrons lets people who care about preservation fund it directly. Simple as that.

What Preservation Actually Requires

[IMAGE PLACEMENT: Behind-the-scenes screenshot or diagram showing preservation workflow]
Caption: Game preservation requires technical expertise, legal work, historical research, and long-term commitment

Preserving a game isn’t just making it run. Here’s what it actually involves:

For Dino Crisis, GOG worked with Capcom to secure rights, then rebuilt compatibility for modern systems. The games used outdated rendering techniques that Windows 11 doesn’t support natively. The team added visual improvements, stability fixes, and quality-of-life updates.

For Silent Hill 4: The Room, they restored content that had been missing from the PC version since its original release. Content that existed in console versions but never made it to PC. Finding that content, integrating it, and verifying it worked required research, technical expertise, and extensive testing.

For Heroes of Might and Magic III, the community had maintained the game through fan patches for years. GOG integrated essential fixes, verified compatibility across systems, and committed to maintaining it as operating systems evolve.

This work requires:

• Technical expertise — Engineers who understand legacy code and outdated systems
• Legal work — Securing rights from publishers, tracking down current owners
• Historical research — Finding original content, understanding what’s missing
• Long-term commitment — Maintaining games as technology changes over years and decades

And time. Preservation doesn’t run on schedules. Some games require months of legal negotiations before work can even begin.

Looking Forward

The GOG Preservation Program stands at 267 games as of January 2026. There’s a backlog of games being evaluated. More will join as testing completes and rights get secured.

The Dreamlist continues growing. Black & White still sits at the top. Some games that seem impossible might surprise us — Dino Crisis proved that.

GOG Patrons is live, funding the work directly. The early access phase taught GOG what the community wanted. The public launch refined the approach. Now it scales.

[CUSTOM CTA BOX]
Three Ways to Support Game Preservation

Join GOG Patrons — $5/month directly funds restoration and maintenance work
[Link to Patrons page]

Vote on Dreamlist — Show publishers which games matter to the community
[Link to Dreamlist]

Buy DRM-Free on GOG — Every purchase demonstrates the market exists and supports operations
[Link to GOG store]

Or just play the games. That works too. [/CUSTOM CTA BOX]

Here’s the reality: GOG’s been doing preservation work since 2008. The Preservation Program formalized it. Patrons funds it directly. But the core mission hasn’t changed.

Games should remain playable. You should own what you buy. Publishers shouldn’t be able to take away access years later.

That’s been the promise for sixteen years. The past two years just made it bigger, more visible, and better supported by the community that cares about keeping games alive.