GOG’s Printable Big Box Templates Revive Myst, Descent Packaging

GOG has started giving away flat, printable versions of real 1990s PC game boxes so fans can cut, fold and glue their own “big box” packaging at home. The DRM-free storefront confirmed on its official pressroom that five titles in its GOG Preservation Program, Myst, Descent, Hitman: Codename 47, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Armikrog, now come with these printable templates alongside interactive 3D scans of the original packaging.

What GOG Actually Shipped With These Five Games

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Armikrog are the two brand-new additions to the Preservation Program, joining Descent, Hitman: Codename 47 and Myst, which were already being kept alive on modern PCs. Every one of these five games now comes with an interactive 3D scan of its real, physical box art, with the actual boxes scanned front, back and spine, and turned into rotatable 3D models you can download after purchase. There’s no extra software or plugins needed; it opens right in the 3D viewer already built into Windows and Mac.

People are already arguing over whether a papercraft box can scratch the same itch as an actual shrink-wrapped one from a shop shelf:

The Big Box Collection Partnership Behind It

GOG worked with Big Box Collection, a one-person passion project that’s been turning real game boxes into 3D scans since 2015, to deliver flat, printable versions of the same box art so fans can cut, fold and glue their own physical big box at home. GOG called it “a proper papercraft project for anyone who misses shelves full of PC game boxes.”

That project is run by Benjamin Wimmer, and GamesRadar+ reports GOG worked directly with him rather than simply borrowing his idea. Wimmer told GOG, “What we definitely need are heroes to step forward and take good care of our games.” It’s a fair summary of why a fan scanning hobby ended up folded into an official storefront’s preservation arm.

Why This Is Landing Now, Right As Sony Drops Discs

The timing isn’t a coincidence. GamesRadar+ frames the release explicitly against publishers like Sony scaling back physical games, noting the wider industry pushback that followed Sony’s decision to end disc production, with developers behind titles including Baldur’s Gate 3 and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 publicly criticising the move. GOG, which sells DRM-free installers with no always-online requirement, is positioning the printable boxes as a small act of defiance for anyone who still wants something to put on a shelf.

We think that’s smart marketing dressed up as nostalgia, and there’s nothing wrong with that. GOG doesn’t sell discs either, so nobody should mistake a paper box for an actual return of physical PC releases. What it does do is give people who already own these five games on GOG something genuinely fun to build with them.

Is This Actually Worth Doing With The Kids?

If you’ve got a printer, some card stock, scissors and glue, this is a genuinely low-cost weekend project. You don’t need any of the five games installed to enjoy building the box, and older kids who like crafts will probably get a kick out of assembling something that looks like it came from a shop in 1994, even if they’ve never touched a floppy disk.

The catch is availability. Right now it’s only these five titles, and GOG hasn’t said how many more will get the treatment or on what schedule. The wider Preservation Program’s library has grown to 304 total games as GOG puts development resources behind support for modern CPUs and GPUs, higher frame rates, and modern display aspect ratios. Whether printable boxes become standard for future additions, or stay a one-off nostalgia hit for these five, isn’t confirmed either way yet.

For now, the templates sit alongside the games on GOG’s storefront pages for Myst, Descent, Hitman: Codename 47, Star Trek: 25th Anniversary and Armikrog, ready to download the moment you own the game.