PC game storefront GOG, which has recently pledged to focus on restoring and preserving Good Old Games, has now revamped its community wishlist for games to bring to its storefront. The GOG Dreamlist serves not only as a way to get notified when a game you loved is newly available for DRM-free purchase, but also for GOG to use as market pressure in its negotiations with rights-holders.
The games GOG members picked out on what used to be called the Community Wishlist still have their votes, and they have been useful. It was often “the fuel for our actions,” Karol Ascot Obrzut writes on GOG’s blog. “When talks with IP owners hit a wall, the Wishlist kept the conversation going.” GOG attributes the newly available Dino Crisis and Dino Crisis 2 (and the bundle) in part to wishlist leverage. Those games had about 5,000 and 3,500 votes, respectively, which helped when, as GOG puts it, “two Polish dudes” approached Capcom to ask about making the games Windows 10/11 compatible and upscaling it.
The Dreamlist has received a complete design and interface overhaul, and it makes it easier to see what other people are demanding. At the top, with more than 57,000 votes at the time of publishing, is Black & White, the 2001 game from Peter Molyneaux’s Lionhead Studios that was a true “god game,” giving you an avatar creature that learned from your actions and treatment. Black & White 2 commands the third-place slot at the moment.
Black & White was intriguing; it had classic Molyneaux over-reach and deserves, in the words of one Ars staffer, a re-release so that “a new generation can realize just how janky it is.” As detailed in a documentary by Noclip, the B&W games are stuck in publishing purgatory. Microsoft acquired Lionhead’s IP and assets, while Electronic Arts retains the publishing rights to the B&W games, and nobody has yet been able to align those two very large planets.
GOG has added its own “Our Pick” tag to games it wants to see brought forward onto modern systems. Among them is Freelancer, which Ars’ Samuel Axon described in our 2024 roundup of non-2024 games as “a sincere attempt to make games like Elite (Dangerous) and Wing Commander: Privateer far more accessible.” GOG selected Freelancer as one of its staff picks for the Dreamlist, citing its “dynamic economy and engaging storyline.”
The main thing GOG would be fixing with Freelancer, as with many games, would be simple availability, as the game is not available on any proper digital storefront. Axon reports that, in having an original disc, installing Freelancer was not too hard, with the installer working in Windows 11. You can apply community patches, like an “HD Edition” mod, but Axon preferred playing at a non-native resolution (1024×768) at 4:3 and adjusting his monitor.
Other notable games GOG and its voting public want to see brought back are Final Fantasy VII (the original, not the remake), the point-and-click Discworld adventure, Command & Conquer: The Ultimate Collection, and The Operative: No One Lives Forever.