GOG.com: 'We are totally not interested in being bought by anybody'

Just minutes after Guillame Rambourg, managing director of GOG.com, made the announcement that the digital game sales platform would carry much of EA's classic back catalogue, Joystiq pulled him aside on the roof of a hotel in downtown Venice, CA to chat about the announcement.

First up, we talked about GOG's other efforts lately, including releasing a dedicated downloader client for Windows, and a private messaging system. Rambourg says both have been going gangbusters. "The downloader is definitely the favorite way of getting games from GOG," he told us. "We've had up to 20 million API calls since we launched the downloader, and the peak was 2 million calls in an hour." The downloader isn't required to use the service, and Rambourg said since it doesn't support Mac or Linux users, it probably won't be for a long time, if ever.
EA titles are a big get for GOG, of course, but Rambourg sees them as one company in a line of big companies to sign on to the service. "It's all about building up your credibility. Every huge publisher we have signed in the past is one step forward to get higher and go to the next level." This particular deal took about a year to accomplish, and Rambourg hopes it leads to more big deals. "We do hope that EA will be a door opener for us to commit the few remaining publishers. The users can read our minds -- we think of LucasArts for example, a few others like Take Two and so on, we hope to bring them all on."

There's no question that the digital download market is growing, and with GameStop buying Impulse and Direct2Drive potentially being sold, GOG seems ripe for a buyout. But Rambourg disagrees. "We are totally not interested in being bought by anybody," he says.

"We want to remain free and have full control in what we are doing. I receive some emails from time to time from some VCs and stuff, they want to buy us, and we politely tell them to forget the idea with a smile on our face." Other digital sales companies are competing head on with Valve's Steam service, but Rambourg says he has a different plan in mind for the company whose name stands for Good Old Games. "I am trying to speak humbly right now, but I think when people want to buy new games, they go on Steam, and when it comes to classics, the first thought that comes into their mind is going to GOG, and I'm quite happy with that."