DRM-free PC gaming store GOG has a pair of notable announcements today. Not only has GOG brought us an upgraded re-release of the original two Dino Crisis games, it's also launched what it's calling the Dreamlist - a way for fans to influence which games the store preserves and re-releases next.
The GOG Dreamlist is basically a community wishlist where players can vote on games they'd like to see released on the store. GOG notes that it can't guarantee highly-requested games will definitely be added, but "these votes help GOG demonstrate community interest to IP owners and bring these games to life on our platform."
In other words, Dreamlist votes give GOG a concrete measure of community demand that it can use to help convince IP holders that it's worth investing in modern re-releases of their games. The games on the list right now have migrated over from GOG's old wishlist system, and I'd expect quite a few of the top picks to stay up there.
At the top of the list is the classic god game, Black & White - a Peter Molyneux game published by EA that's as beloved by fans as it is difficult to get running on modern PCs. Other top picks include Diablo 2, though that one may be a bit less necessary these days with Resurrected offering a modern experience and the original version available on Battle.net. Fans are also big on Final Fantasy 7, a classic JRPG that's still readily available on PC, though admittedly not in a nice DRM-free package.
But obviously, it's the harder-to-access games that are most interesting here. Today, GOG launched new versions of Dino Crisis 1 and 2 as part of its preservation program, which promises full compatibility with current and future Windows PCs. Whether GOG can actually maintain that future-proofed promise remains to be seen, but for now this is still a great way to get into the dinosaur horror classics - especially Dino Crisis 2, which is not currently available on any other modern platform.
GOG has increasingly promoted itself as a bastion of game preservation, and it's made some compelling arguments - not the least of which is the fact that players never have to lose access to the DRM-free installers the store provides, or its work in porting games to run consistently on modern PCs. Here's hoping the Dreamlist keeps that work going.
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