GOG Showcase: Warsaw Store Stages Its First Big Show Today

A niche built on DRM-free and preservation

GOG does not try to beat Steam at its own game. Its niche is DRM-free distribution combined with maintaining older titles. Buyers can download standalone installers, keep copies and install games without relying on an online activation server. Games on the service can run offline without a launcher, though buying one does not amount to owning its rights.

The clearest example is the GOG Preservation Program, launched in November 2024 with 100 games. By February 2026 it covered 267 titles and more than 1,400 fixes. The official page now lists 336 games and 1,735 improvements, including Heroes of Might and Magic III, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Gothic, Silent Hill 4, Crysis and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

GOG says the work can include custom DirectX wrappers, rebuilt installers and restored content, and it commits to keeping these releases compatible. The Oblivion Game of the Year Edition Deluxe, for example, gained modern controller support, better Alt+Tab behavior and a fix for a memory leak tied to controller configuration. It was checked on Windows 10 and Windows 11.

The program won the Research Data Alliance Award in the Commerce, Industry and the Third Sector category at the Digital Preservation Awards 2026 in Warsaw on 15 October.

What to expect

No list of games has been announced. The teaser leans heavily on older productions, and GOG has a mechanism that lets the community point to the classics it most wants back, so more retro releases look likely. Whether the "new chapter" goes beyond that will become clear during the broadcast.