Last year, CD Projekt, the same company behind the PC role-playing game The Witcher, announced a unique initiative that seemed as much a PC fan's pet project as a legitimate business venture: Good Old Games.

Good Old Games, or "GOG," which is currently in beta, is a digital distribution and community site that offers classic PC games (Fallout, Painkiller, Messiah, et al) that are compatible with Windows Vista and XP, under $10 and, perhaps most notably, DRM-free. Since GOG's July 2008 announcement, CD Projekt has been working to sign more deals with publishers, but there has been some resistance from companies wary of GOG's staunch "no-DRM" stance.

This week, Edge spoke with CD Projekt's PR and marketing VP Tom Ohle to catch up on the latest developments at GOG, as the community and digital distribution site continues its beta phase.

Why aren't you worried that people will just pirate these no-DRM games? Or are you worried?

Of course we can’t totally forget that piracy exists. But, well, it already does, so why not be progressive in the way you try to actually encourage sales of legal games? I can go on a wide variety of sites and search for a classic game that I want, and I can find it--with the CD check removed or a crack that circumvents copy protection. So these games are practically DRM-free anyway. Now if you’re a gamer and want to play one of these games, but can’t find it in stores or don’t want to pay crazy prices on eBay, your only option is to get an illegal copy. Gamers (most of them) don’t want to do that and feel a bit guilty about it, publishers don’t make any money, and the piracy issue becomes more prevalent. We just want to give people legitimate copies of these classic games without putting any hurdles in their way.

That being said, the lack of DRM is still our biggest hurdle to getting publishers to sign on [for GOG]. We’re having fewer issues with getting companies on board now that the site has shown some sustained success, but we really want to get every possible game up at GOG.com; that means that we still need major publishers to sign on. It’s a great deal for them, as they can start making good money from their out-of-print games, and it’s great for gamers who can find working copies of old games they love without having to lower themselves to piracy.

How is developer and publisher interest in GOG? Has it grown much since launch; is it meeting, maybe surpassing expectations?

We’re really happy with the fact that we’ve been able to maintain a really solid release schedule since going into beta, adding two or three games each week. Those games have come from a steady flow of new publishers and developers that want to bring their games to the site, and I think we’re starting to build some momentum on that front. Originally we had to do a lot of the legwork ourselves to get new deals, but it’s started to snowball a bit and now we have a lot of companies coming directly to us. Some of the deals we’re working on right now – which should close in the next few weeks or months – should help to further increase our credibility, and will hopefully encourage some more major publishers to monetize their back catalogs at GOG.com.

What's next for GOG besides expanding the library?

Expanding the library. Oh. You already said that. We’re doing a lot of work behind the scenes to extend the site’s functionality and features, like more robust user profiles, better integration with things like our Twitter feed and YouTube channel, and some more GOG-generated content like our editorials. We want to make the site even more appealing for people who are just looking for a great community of people interested in classic games. One of our highest priorities is trying to expand the audience – encouraging people to tell their friends about the site. If you’ve got any ideas on that, I’d love to hear them. [Laughs] Just kidding… sort of. We have a lot of ideas, but since we’re relying heavily on word of mouth, we want to give fans a reason to spread the word.

What happens if places like Steam start selling more old cheap games, encroaching on GOG's territory? Is that a concern?

They’ve already started doing that--these Steam weekend deals are pretty good, you know. ... We’re still really confident in our business model and the unique value we offer, so we’re not too concerned about others making moves into classic games. Gamers want a hassle-free experience and great value–we’ll always be pushing DRM-free games that work on modern operating systems, are cheap and packed with bonus materials. It’s a hard deal to beat.