In late June, GOG delisted four classic titles from their library. Those titles were Ultima Underworld 1, Ultimate Underworld 2, Syndicate Plus, and Syndicate Wars. Normally when a delisting such as this occurs, there’s little to no mention of it. Fast forward to earlier this month and now all four titles are not only back on GOG, but they’re all free to own until September 3. These aforementioned games, which are all owned by EA, were apparently removed at the behest of the video game giant in June. According to Gamesindustrybiz, the company allowed them to return to the platform because they “didn’t fully consider the players’ perspective.”
Speaking to the publication directly, EA’s Executive Vice President for Marketing Chris Bruzz states that they removed the titles initially due to a process that the company goes through on older titles on platforms. “When making decisions that affect players we take the time to review exactly what the potential impacts are and whether they serve the player’s best interests.” As we know in the statement at the beginning, EA did not take that step which apparently resulted in a backlash of sorts. “From the level of interest players showed in delisting these games, it was clear that people still wanted them to be available,” Bruzzo said in the article.
Bruzzo also mentioned that they are now going to add more steps to this delisting process to ensure that they don’t make this mistake in the future. He adds that this will focus on the “player perspective” when deciding to remove titles from platforms, and will apply this to all classic titles going forward. If anything, classic PC gamers around the world will more than likely see this as a small victory, especially since all four titles are completely free to claim until September 3.