Seemingly out of nowhere, Alpha Protocol is now relisted and available for purchase on PC via GOG.
This version of the game keeps all of the licensed soundtracks (there’s a boss fight that uses Turn Up The Radio by Autograph as a background song) which was the cause of the game being delisted back in 2019.
Not only that, but this version of the espionage RPG also has controller support, achievements, localisation for eight different languages, cloud saves and most importantly: compatibility with modern PC operating systems. The original PC release was notorious for not being able to boot up for no clear reason, that should be fixed.
Plus, since it’s on GOG, it’s DRM-free. Should there be a case where the game somehow got delisted again, it won’t affect your access to the copy you’ve purchased.
GOG is making an effort in preserving games so that it may last forever. So many games have been delisted or become abandonware in that they are not officially available for purchase anymore- at the time of writing, Delisted Games lists 1909 games that were available digitally but cannot be purchased anymore.
Bartosz Kwietniewski, Head of Business Development at GOG, says in an accompanying video produced by content creator Raycevick that the efforts to relist Alpha Protocol again was a year and a half of work. GOG reached out to the publisher back at Gamescom 2022.
Released in 2010, Alpha Protocol was developer Obsidian’s first original IP, with bold design choices to make the choices you make as secret agent Michael Thorton bring game-changing events. The game was critically panned and failed to meet publisher Sega’s sales expectations. And yet GOG has managed to sort through the legal and technical issues to have this game for sale again. There’s no large fan campaign or movement to get this game relisted again, GOG simply just did it.
As Raycevick puts it in his video: “One of the most convincing ways to show you’re serious about making games last forever is bringing back Alpha Protocol. Because there’s no industry reason to do it. And that’s why it means so much that someone did.”
Video games are starting to be more available digitally than it is on physical media, and the issue with digital games is that at any time, the publisher or the platform you purchase the game from can delist the game, and if the store shuts down, as we’ve seen with previous generation consoles, the ability to even download your purchases will be lost.
So any news about an old game being relisted, despite its quality, should be celebrated. If video games are supposed to be an art form or a serious medium, then surely the efforts of past folks must be preserved and not just tossed away to be forgotten by time.