GOG’s AI Hard-Pivot: Is the "Good Old Games" Soul Being Automated?
The Bottom Line Up Front: GOG is currently under fire for using AI-generated artwork in its New Year Sale banners and mandating "AI-assisted development" in new job listings. These moves signal a jarring shift in direction for a storefront that has historically built its brand on the "human touch" of game preservation and pro-consumer, DRM-free values.
We’ve seen this story before with other platforms, but for GOG, it feels like a glitch in the matrix. After years of positioning itself as the artisanal alternative to Steam’s algorithm-driven wasteland, the sudden injection of generative AI into its marketing and backend development is a massive red flag for its core community. While new owner Michał Kiciński is making the right noises about sticking to GOG’s roots, the boots on the ground—and the job descriptions—suggest a different roadmap entirely.
The "New Year Sale" Controversy
The alarm was first raised by Reddit users who spotted unnatural blurring and typical "AI artifacts" in the current New Year Sale header. The smoking gun came from within GOG itself. A senior graphic designer, posting under the handle KosmicznaPluskwa, confirmed the suspicions on the official forums, stating the banner is "fully AI."
Our analysis suggests this isn't just a cost-cutting measure; it’s a symptom of a shrinking creative team. The designer noted that their team is "much smaller now than it used to be," implying that AI isn't being used to buff the team's output, but rather to fill the gap left by staff reductions.
- Current Status: AI-generated New Year Sale banner confirmed by internal staff.
- Job Mandate: Senior Software Engineer roles now require "active use and promotion" of AI tools.
- Ownership Change: CD Projekt recently sold GOG back to co-founder Michał Kiciński for approx. £18.6M.
- Team Health: Internal reports indicate smaller creative teams compared to five years ago.
The Mandatory AI Workflow
The shift isn't limited to the art department. A recent job listing for a Senior Software Engineer for GOG Galaxy reveals that AI usage is no longer optional—it's a core KPI. The role specifically requires:
- Active use of AI tools in daily development workflows.
- Enthusiasm for helping the team increase AI adoption.
- Promoting AI-assisted tools to increase "efficiency and code quality."
In our experience, forcing "enthusiasm" for AI in a job description is often code for "we’re looking to do more with less." While AI can assist with boilerplate code, GOG Galaxy has a history of being a resource-heavy client that many users already find bloated. Adding AI-generated code to the mix risks introducing technical debt that could hamper the QoL (Quality of Life) updates the community has been begging for.
The Consequences: Preservation vs. Automation
For a platform that built its reputation on the painstaking manual work of patching 20-year-old executables to run on modern rigs, this pivot feels cynical. GOG's "Experience" factor has always been its human expertise—knowing exactly how to fix a broken DLL or bypass an ancient DRM check. If the company moves toward an "efficiency-first" AI model, that specialized knowledge could be the first thing to get nerfed.
| Platform Pillar | The "Old" GOG Way | The "AI-Assisted" Risk |
|---|---|---|
| Curation | Hand-picked classics and boutique support. | Lower barrier for low-effort "AI-enhanced" assets. |
| Client Dev | Human-optimized code for Galaxy features. | Potential for more bugs via AI-generated logic. |
| Brand Trust | Pro-artist, pro-consumer stance. | Alienation of the creative community. |
We believe Kiciński has a massive uphill battle. You can’t claim to be the savior of game preservation while simultaneously replacing your creative staff with "AI-assisted" workflows. If GOG wants to keep its high-authority status among veterans and hardcore collectors, it needs to stop the "AI bollocks" and return to the high-effort, human-driven quality that made us fall in love with the storefront in the first place.