Thief Gold joins GOG Preservation Program with controller support, new localizations, and engine update

Thief Gold is the latest game to enter GOG's Preservation Program — and it's arriving with a surprisingly meaty set of upgrades that make it feel less like a compatibility patch and more like a mini-remaster. The timing is notable: Nightdive Studios just announced a full Thief remaster at the PC Gaming Show, so the original 1998 stealth classic is suddenly having a moment.

GOG is adding German, French, and Polish localizations, updated graphics and audio defaults, improved UI scaling, optimized controls, and the NewDark 1.27 engine update. On top of that, the original pre-Gold release — Thief: The Dark Project — is bundled in. The headline addition for couch players is full gamepad support via the integrated Gamepad Mod and GOG Input Wrapper, covering radial menus, customizable controls, rumble, and compatibility with PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Logitech, and Amazon Luna controllers. Anyone who already owns Thief Gold on GOG gets all of this for free.

The Preservation Program is GOG's commitment to keeping older games running on current and future versions of Windows, backed by technical support if something breaks. Thief Gold is the first title added to the program through GOG Patron voting — a system where subscribers paying $5 a month get a say in which games receive the Preservation treatment. That community mandate likely explains why GOG went further than the usual compatibility check-and-move-on approach. Thief itself is one of the foundational titles of the stealth genre, developed by Looking Glass Studios and released in 1998 — a game that still has an active modding community decades later.

Voting for the next Preservation Program addition is already open to Patrons. The candidates are Nox, Lands of Lore 1 & 2, Might and Magic VII: For Blood and Honour, Silver, and Albion.