GOG Returns to Its Roots as Co Founder Michał Kiciński Acquires the Storefront from CD Projekt
GOG is entering a new ownership chapter that feels less like a corporate shake up and more like a deliberate reset back to first principles. Michał Kiciński, co founder of CD Projekt RED and one of the original founders behind Good Old Games, has acquired GOG from CD Projekt RED, with the announcement published through an official update on the platform’s blog. In the announcement, Kiciński positions the move as a values first decision designed to protect what made GOG stand out in the PC storefront arena in the first place, namely player ownership, long term access, and a marketplace philosophy that does not treat your library like a temporary rental.
At the center of the messaging is a clear mission statement that aims to resonate with players who have grown increasingly skeptical of modern digital distribution norms. Kiciński states that GOG stands for freedom, independence, and genuine control, framing the acquisition as a way to keep the platform’s identity intact while enabling it to push harder on the things it already does best. That direction was reinforced by GOG’s own public messaging, where the platform says the mission stays the same, and that going back to its roots allows it to double down on reviving classics, building a library you control rather than one that controls you, and maintaining gamer friendly policies.
GOG is entering a new chapter.
— GOG.COM (@GOGcom) December 29, 2025
Michał Kiciński, co-founder of CD PROJEKT and GOG, has acquired GOG from CD PROJEKT.
The mission stays the same: Make Games Live Forever.
Going back to our roots allows us to double down on what we do best: reviving classics, giving you a library…
From an operational perspective, the most important point for users is the one GOG highlights directly: nothing meaningfully changes for players on the account side. The blog post FAQ says users do not need to do or change anything, and the company’s tone strongly signals continuity rather than disruption. The platform also reiterates that DRM free is more central to GOG than ever, a key differentiator that continues to define its market positioning against competitors that rely on platform lock in and always online dependency for long term access.
GOG also addresses the obvious concern that tends to follow any ownership update in the PC gaming space, financial stability. The message is that the platform is not making this move from a position of distress, and instead frames it as a proactive play to protect and accelerate what is unique about GOG. In corporate strategy terms, the narrative is brand protection through ownership alignment: the person buying the company is one of the people who built the original promise, so the buyer incentive is tied directly to keeping that promise credible over the long haul.
For PC gamers, this matters because GOG has carved out a specific lane that goes beyond price competition. It is a preservation and ownership platform, a place where older titles remain accessible, where long term playability is treated as a product feature, and where community driven projects can thrive within a store culture that generally favors user control. That identity is also why GOG has remained a meaningful alternative for players who want a library that stays playable over time, even as the wider storefront ecosystem leans into subscriptions, rotating catalogs, and platform level constraints.
If you are looking at the headline impact, it is significant in the sense that a recognizable digital storefront is changing hands, but it is also unusually reassuring because the buyer is not an outside investor, a rival publisher, or a private equity style operator. It is one of the platform’s original architects, and the messaging is explicitly about continuity, preservation, and doubling down on the defining principles that made GOG matter to begin with.
Do you think GOG staying aggressively DRM free can become a bigger competitive advantage in the next few years, or will convenience and subscriptions keep dominating how most players buy games?
