CD Projekt, developer of award-winning PC title The Witcher, is taking a retro step into distribution future with GOG.com, a digital platform that allows you to download classic titles for a very modest fee. These will be optimized for Windows XP and Vista, and will be available for a modest $5.99 or $9.99. More significantly, they’ll all be DRM free and once paid for, downloadable as many times as needed - giving GOG.com a clear advantage over Steam. CD Projekt has already secured licences for games from Interplay and Codemasters’ back catalogues and hopes to add Lucasarts titles such as Sam & Max and the Monkey Island games in the near future. Currently CD Projeckt have a tantlising line-up that includes Fallout, Fallout 2, MDK, Freespace 2, Operation Flashpoint: Game of the Year Edition and TOCA Race Driver 3, with their ultimate goal being to offer “a comprehensive collection of classic PC games from the 80s, 90s and 2000s.”

Check out our GOG.com competition on the TPCG forum.

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According to reports from Videogame247 and Kotaku, the game development and publishing arm of George Lucas’ LucasArts has laid off between 75-100 staff across all departments, including game designers and programmers. It’s a sad sight for a company that has produced so many bona-fide PC classics in the past, but an interesting side effect for gamers are the rumours being spread by disgruntled LucasArts employees revealing unannounced titles. A post on Kotaku claims that the web site has received emails about a Knights Of The Old Republic MMO being developed in partnership with Bioware, another Lego Indiana Jones and a third Battlefront game. And just to rub salt in LucasArts’ wounds Kotaku also got a message describing the upcoming action game Fracture as “an absolute piece of garbage”. Ouch.