Due to issues between Interplay and the developers Parallax GOG has taken down Descent from the store.

Descent, for those of you that aren't in to retro PC gaming, is a really unique classic FPS where instead of being a guy on the ground you piloted a ship that could move freely in 3D space, meaning you could go up, down, left, right and even rotate yourself so the ship would be upside down. Add to that some kickass music and action packed gameplay and you've got Descent and its sequels.

The reason I'm bringing Descent up is because GOG is unfortunately bringing it and its sequels down due to Interplay, who holds the rights to sell the Descent games, not paying royalties to the developers.

The trio of Descent games has already been removed from GOG and will be unavailable for sale until the situation between Interplay and Parallax is concluded. The only reason we even have any information about this is because a couple of guys from Parallax posted an explanation on the GOG forums. Here's what they said:

Hey, Folks. Here's the story.

Parallax Software still exists and still owns the copyrights to the Descent games. Under our 21-year-old agreement, Interplay has the exclusive rights to sell Descent and Descent II, and they have been doing so on Good Old Games and Steam.

The problem is that Interplay has not paid to Parallax any royalties since 2007. We've talked to them about this numerous times over the years, and finally took action this fall. We served Interplay official notice that they were in breach of the contract, and when they still failed to pay we terminated the agreement.

This means that Interplay has lost the right to sell the Descent games, which is why they came down from GOG. (We're not sure why they're still on Steam; they shouldn't be.)

Interplay does, however, still own the Descent trademark, which they are free to use or license as they see fit (such as for Descent: Underground) as long as they don't violate our copyrights.

As for whether Descent and Descent II will be available for purchase again, we hope so. We'd be very happy to work things out with Interplay.

Matt Toschlog & Mike Kulas
Parallax Software"

What I find interesting in all of this is that Parallax waited for 8 years before issuing a termination notice. If I would hazard a guess its probably because of Descent: Underground which released in Early Access a couple of months ago increasing the series popularity somewhat.

The saddest thing in all of this is how far Interplay has fallen. They used to have the very best PC games behind them: Baldur's Gate, Battle Chest, Fallout, Earthworm Jim, Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment and obviously Descent. And now they apparently can't even honor an agreement due to most likely owing a ton of money themselves. How far have the mighty fallen.

As of right now there is no official statement from either party but if anything pops up I'll make sure to let you know.