GOG - Regional Pricing Plans Abandoned

Myrthos

Cave Canem
Administrator
Joined
August 30, 2006
Messages
11,223
A few weeks ago Good Old Games announced a change in the pricing of their games and they would go to regional pricing in order to be able to make DRM free games available to everybody sooner.

That created quite some comments on the GOG forums and last week Marcin Iwinski and Guillaume Rambourg let everybody know that they are returning to their roots to offer DRM free games with fair pricing.

We're not perfect, we're exploring new frontiers, and we make mistakes. We thought DRM-Free was so important that you'd prefer we bring you more DRM-Free games and Fair Price was less critical and that it could be sacrificed in some cases. The last two week's worth of comments in our forums (nearly 10k!), show that's not the case. We didn’t listen and we let you down. We shouldn't sacrifice one of our core values in an attempt to advance another. We feel bad about that, and we're sorry. Us being sorry is not of much use to you, so let’s talk about how we will fix it.

One: DRM-free forever. Abandoning fixed regional pricing means it will probably take longer to get some games, but you've made it clear that sacrificing fair pricing for more DRM-free games isn't acceptable.

Two: We will adamantly continue to fight for games with flat worldwide pricing. If that fails and we are required to have regional prices, we will make up the difference for you out of our own pockets. For now it will be with $5.99 and $9.99 game codes. In a couple of months, once we have such functionality implemented, we will give you store credit instead, which then you will be able to use towards any purchase and cover the price of it in full or partially. Effectively gamers from all around the world will be able to benefit from the US prices.

This will apply to every single game where we do not have flat pricing, such as Age of Wonders 3 (full details here), Divinity: Original Sin, and The Witcher 3. If you remember the Fair Price Package for The Witcher 2, this will be exactly the same.

Three: We still intend to introduce the pricing in local currencies. Let us explain why we want to do it and how we want to make it fair for everyone. From the very beginning our intention was to make things easier for users whose credit cards/payment systems are not natively in USD. The advantages are simple because the price is more understandable and easier to relate to. There would be no exchange rates involved, no transaction fees, and no other hidden charges. However after reading your comments, we realized we have taken an important element away: the choice. In order to fix this, we'll offer the option of paying in the local currency or the equivalent in USD. This way, how you pay is always your choice.

Four: You are what matters, and we will be sure to involve you all more in what we're doing and why we're doing it. Let's start by meeting you at GDC - we’d like to invite you to meet us face-to-face Monday the 17th at GDC. Obviously, not all of you can come to San Francisco, so we want to invite all of you to an online event with us early in April to ask us whatever you would like. More details soon.

The bottom line is simple: there may be companies that won't work with us (although we will work hard to convince the most stubborn ones ;). Yes, it means we might miss out on some games, but at the same time GOG.com will remain true to its values and will keep on offering you the best of DRM-free gaming with Fair Prices.

Once again thank you for caring so much about GOG.com. We will work hard not to disappoint you again.
More information.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,223
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,194
Location
Spudlandia
"Fair" is a pretty subjective word in the best of cases. If I understand the issue right, people in Uruguay will now pay US$10 for a game, the same as someone in California. How is that more "fair" than selling it for a comparably affordable price in Uruguay?
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
2,470
Location
USA
"Fair" is a pretty subjective word in the best of cases. If I understand the issue right, people in Uruguay will now pay US$10 for a game, the same as someone in California. How is that more "fair" than selling it for a comparably affordable price in Uruguay?

They're basing it on what most of their users obviously prefer.

They can't ignore that because of people in Uruguay.
 
the bad news is some Developers/Publishers will not release their games on GOG now.:brood:
Why is that bad news? They want to skip a chance make more sales? Their problem and their loss. Oh, yea, they can't now go DRMfree since they've invested too much on uPlay, Origin and similar crap so... Bah.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Why is that bad news? They want to skip a chance make more sales? Their problem and their loss.

and therefore a limited GoG catalogue, and therefore less sales and the cycle repeats.

Online stores' survival is based on updating and enlarging their catalogue of games.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2011
Messages
2,818
Location
United Kingdom
Oh, yea, they can't now go DRMfree … Bah.
That small part of your reply is the bad news Joxer.;)

I wanted their games to go DRM-Free. Anyway GOG needs allot more games to make sure they remain in business. People can only buy the same damn games so many times.
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,194
Location
Spudlandia
So GOG should accept anything big evil publishers want?
Like DLC:The Game crap where you need to install Origin and that's not nearly enough - you have to register also on Sims site and register each key separately because for some reason it's not enough to do that only on Origin and the cretinism doesn't stop there as upon installing certain DLCs they ask you to enter the key for the THIRD time like god knows where you've bought DLC, it's maybe some fraud.

Why would GOG would accept things like that? To enrich the catalogue by slapping the face of all it's faithful customers? Guys cmon.
No.
GOG needs to stay as it is.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
I love GoG and it is my number 1 online games site, no question about that as I love DRM free and their games collection.

That love fuels my desire for them to continue, but it might be difficult for them since most games publisher (particularly the AAA stuff, old and new) don't want DRM free.

GoG has been and continue to be a good force for DRM free and hope that their success will push publisher into releasing their games as DRM free on this site.
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2011
Messages
2,818
Location
United Kingdom
I'm not even going to try and explain why Joxer. It would take to long to make you understand why they have to expand their library of games.:disappointed:
GoG has been and continue to be a good force for DRM free and hope that their success will push publisher into releasing their games as DRM free on this site.
I agree with you well said SpoonFULL.:handshake:
 
Last edited:
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,194
Location
Spudlandia
The primary thing, we the customer can do, is make sure to buy the few AAA titles GoG does get, directly from them. The problem with that, of course, is that they didn't have the infrastructure in place for the alpha/beta/early-access/greenlight, so a large portion of us have already bought the game on Steam. That's no accident. Divinity: Original Sin might as well be a Steam exclusive, since it has been on there for months.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
The primary thing, we the customer can do, is make sure to buy the few AAA titles GoG does get, directly from them. The problem with that, of course, is that they didn't have the infrastructure in place for the alpha/beta/early-access/greenlight, so a large portion of us have already bought the game on Steam. That's no accident. Divinity: Original Sin might as well be a Steam exclusive, since it has been on there for months.

I'm getting a little fed up with this early access nonsense. I'm old (30 is old right, sure it is), I don't have enough free time as it is. I want to buy complete experiences. It seems every game on the front page of steam is an early access title anymore. Multiplayer isn't finished. The Campaign isn't finished. Graphics aren't finished. Baaahhh. Living in the US I was neither here nor there on the pricing changes at GoG and while I'm anti-DRM philosophically, practically steam has never obscured my ability to play any of the games I have on the service. My primary interest in GoG since 2008 is giving me old games, on modern systems, at good prices. The more early access games I see on steam the less I go to the storefront anymore. I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I hope GoG stays out of the early access business and just keeps selling me complete experiences.
 
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Messages
8
Yeah, I don't want early access at GoG either, but they're losing sales to Steam on the few AAA titles they do get. There's not a win to be found here for them.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
8,821
The more early access games I see on steam the less I go to the storefront anymore. I'm sure I'm in the minority here but I hope GoG stays out of the early access business and just keeps selling me complete experiences.

You are not in the minority and that is also my reason why I don't visit Steam's storefront anymore. It is full of early access games, casual stuff and free to play games. I guess this is what most of Steam's millions of visitors want!
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2011
Messages
2,818
Location
United Kingdom
I do not believe that many people buy early access (or even pre-order for that matter), going by what I've seen on pre-order vs actually sales numbers for various game in the past.
 
Joined
Oct 13, 2007
Messages
7,313
It would be a great advanatage to know what titles will be published on GOG. I would have waited for Aaklash:Legacy had I known it would be on GOG. However, I didn't and bought it on Steam (I think about 4 months after release). If I do know something is coming soon to GOG, I prefer to purchase it there. Also GOG will always have some appeal because of their DRM free policy. That gives them a niche other online store don't have.
 
Joined
Jan 29, 2014
Messages
2,718
Location
Vienna, Austria
It would be a great advanatage to know what titles will be published on GOG. I would have waited for Aaklash:Legacy had I known it would be on GOG. However, I didn't and bought it on Steam (I think about 4 months after release). If I do know something is coming soon to GOG, I prefer to purchase it there. Also GOG will always have some appeal because of their DRM free policy. That gives them a niche other online store don't have.

They have started (and have been for a while I think) to advertise the availability of pre-orders for new titles - examples that I can remember include Dragon Commander, Shadowrun returns and DLC, Blackguards .. etc.

It might also be the case that the press is not keeping up in telling people about pre-orders in GoG compared to Steam (for obvious reasons).
 
Joined
Feb 2, 2011
Messages
2,818
Location
United Kingdom
I came kicking and screaming to steam.. I'm used to it now.. But I pre-ordered age of wonders 3 deluxe on GOG and am glad I did!.

I still hold out for DRM free when I can and will support that as much as possible.. I do of course also buy old classics and whatnot from GOG. They have a great site/service and would be a shame to see anything happen to them. Actually owning your game and knowing you can play it for years to come is very satisfying.
 
Joined
Nov 19, 2007
Messages
73
They have started (and have been for a while I think) to advertise the availability of pre-orders for new titles - examples that I can remember include Dragon Commander, Shadowrun returns and DLC, Blackguards .. etc.

It might also be the case that the press is not keeping up in telling people about pre-orders in GoG compared to Steam (for obvious reasons).

Occasionally I'll see a title listed as coming soon on GoG. It would be nice if there was a check box in the search to sort by this status.
 
Joined
Dec 12, 2010
Messages
8
Back
Top Bottom