GamingNov 4, 2026, 7:25 AM UTC·2 min read

GOG Dreams of Letting Players Order Physical Copies of Games

GOG's Marcin Paczyński says he wants players to order physical copies of games from their digital library. It is a long-held wish, not an announced service.

A retro PC game big box next to a laptop showing a digital game library. — Image: Spider's Web

SUMO

Dialo

ediviewer

GOG would like to let customers order physical copies of games already sitting in their digital libraries. Marcin Paczyński, who leads business development and partnerships at the Polish store, described the idea as his dream scenario in an interview with GamesRadar+. It is a wish for now, not an announced service.

The model is simple on paper: open your GOG library, pick a game, place an order and wait for a package to arrive at home. In practice, Paczyński called building such a business "very, very complicated". GOG is primarily a digital distributor, so physical editions would mean production, warehousing and logistics. Rights are another hurdle, because a licence to sell a digital version does not automatically cover manufacturing physical copies, so publishers would have to agree.

Small steps already taken

In September, GOG teamed up with the Big Box Collection project, which digitally preserves original game boxes, as part of the GOG Preservation Program. Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Armikrog joined the programme, while Descent, Hitman: Codename 47 and Myst, already included, received extra material. For these five titles there are full 3D scans of the front, back and spine, plus flat print-ready artwork so fans can cut out and assemble their own replica boxes. GamesRadar+ notes that GOG treats such efforts as small steps in this direction.

Which format, and why DRM-free matters

GOG has not said what physical medium it would use. Optical drives are no longer standard on PCs, and modern games can take tens or even more than 100 GB, so classic discs look impractical. Flash storage is conceivable, but that is speculation, not a GOG plan.

The idea matters mostly because of GOG's DRM-free model: offline installers are available and the GOG Galaxy client is optional. A physical edition would make sense only if it truly contained the game rather than serving as a pass to a digital service. It would be an optional product ordered for a specific game a player already owns, not a return to boxes on shop shelves. That logic is far removed from old-style mass distribution and could change the economics of the whole effort.