The Polish game store GOG is bringing back large cardboard boxes for PC games as printable goodies. Currently, only five games are included, but the catalog is expected to grow significantly in the future.
Meanwhile, the trend in the gaming industry is clearly shifting toward digital. Sales of physical games have been declining for years; Sony even recently announced that it would completely discontinue production of its games on physical media by January 2028.
Stylish boxes for your own game shelf will then clearly be a thing of the past. And this despite the fact that—as the public outcry over Sony’s move shows—they certainly evoke feelings of nostalgia in many gamers. That’s why the Polish game store GOG is now taking a step in the exact opposite direction.
For years, the platform has been campaigning against digital rights management (DRM) measures in games; now, as part of its Preservation Program, GOG also wants to bring back the classic cardboard boxes for your game shelf.
If they won’t give you physical games, make your own.
GOG’s Preservation Program has just expanded to include Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Armikrog, joining Descent, Hitman: Codename 47, and Myst. In collaboration with Big Box Collection, this wave preserves far more than just… pic.twitter.com/0iabpBODg7
— GOG.COM (@GOGcom) September 8, 2026
3D Scans and Do-It-Yourself Boxes
We don’t send pre-printed boxes by mail—so we’re afraid we’ll have to lower your expectations a bit. GOG remains a purely digital store and won’t be acting as a mail-order retailer for these boxes. Instead, GOG is also providing the nostalgia packages in digital form for you to assemble yourself. Buyers of select titles will now find high-resolution scans of the original game boxes as a bonus in their library.
The files are available in common formats such as PDF or SVG and serve as templates for your own papercraft project. You print out the templates, fold them together, and display them on your shelf. In addition, GOG includes the boxes as animated 3D models for your digital desktop. The following five classic games are included at launch:
- Armikrog
- Descent
- Myst
- Star Trek: 25th Anniversary
- Hitman: Codename 47 (we’ve embedded the gameplay video below for that real nostalgia kick)
For the return of the boxes, GOG is collaborating with Benjamin Wimmer’s “Big Box Collection” archive project. Since 2015, Wimmer has been collecting and scanning the physical boxes of old PC games to preserve them in 3D for posterity. He has already cataloged over 1,000 games in this way.
GOG justifies the new initiative as a way to preserve an important part of gaming culture: If they don’t want to give you physical games anymore, then just make them yourself! [… ] Physical media don’t stand the test of time as well as software; cardboard boxes get lost, crushed, or simply end up in the trash.
The printable templates are a logical step for GOG to preserve not only its DRM-free games but also their physical cases. Plus, the cardboard slipcases simply look much better on the shelf. A full Steam library simply can’t match the sense of pride you used to feel when showing a friend your own game shelf packed to the brim.
With only five titles, GOG’s boxed-set catalog is still quite limited at the moment. However, it’s expected that the collection will grow significantly in the future through the collaboration with Wimmer; otherwise, GOG probably wouldn’t have made such a big deal about the initiative.
What do you think about the return of physical game boxes at GOG? Is it a good thing, or do you not care at all about having physical media on your shelf? Let us know in the comments!
