GoG Trusts Its Customers

Starting today GoG will not use Geo-IP to determine your location. Instead they will trust its users and only use what you put in under your region to determine the price of your game. If you say you're in the US then you're in the US.

So all you Aussies out there don't have to worry about the new price difference for The Witcher 2 anymore. Just change your location and you're good to go. God I love this company.

Oh and this will affect your pre-orders as well. If any of you poor Aussie souls pre-ordered after that idiotic price jump you won't still have to pay it if you change your location. It will use your new region as the price.

You can read about it here.

Humph.

Won't anyone notice?

I mean, if you say that you live in X but your shipping adress is in Y, someone will add it all up…
Someone will I am sure.
This is too stupid to be true.
And even if it is, won't the Aussi retaillers throw a FIT?
Or anyother for that fact?

This will cause a precedent.

Anyhow, I don't expect this not making a sound anywhere.
I might be overexagerating like I always do but I do not believe anyone will let that go by unnoticed nor without doing anything about it.

This about where you are and how much you have to pay.

Someone will bark.

It's digital. No shipping involved. Just downloading.

I hope the Aussies do throw a fit and see how ridiculous that price jump was just for their country. Their laws for games are so bassawkward that I gave up long ago trying to figure them out. All I know is that you have to pay through the nose and that they are more pious than the pope when it comes to content in the games.

I wouldn't call the Pope very pious, but thanks for the news; I like GoG too!!

I like this company more and more. I'm going to go buy something just because of this.

Corwin, haven't you seen the meme?? Evil lawyer is evil, graphic sweetness is sweet, Pope Pious is pious….

I agree with enodenroH, though, this is a bit precedent setting. GoG is special in that this is the only game that will come out at release time for them but, if other companies start doing it, what happens when a publisher wants to release a game in different parts of the world at different times? We could get around it before by using proxy servers but now it's starting to get downright trivial.

(Of course, there's only one thing for it. A single world government!)

IMHO, any company which releases games at different times in different countries deserves what will happen!! It's stupidity of the highest order.

Originally Posted by Corwin
IMHO, any company which releases games at different times in different countries deserves what will happen!! It's stupidity of the highest order.

I'll drink to that.

There is only one reason for a delay that can be justified, imo. That is when they need time to translate a game or a manual. It would be silly for them to hold back the major release while they're translating the manual to Chinese or whatever.

The price difference always gets my goat even though it really doesn't affect me. I've read a number of times about how much people in Europe have to pay vs people in the states for Steam games. I haven't seen too much complaining about that lately so maybe they stopped that particular practice.

IIRC they would keep the same amount in Euros as they did for the dollar. For example: a $39 game would still be 39 Euros if you ordered it in Europe. There was no adjusting for the price difference.

If GoG can start the ball rolling and do away with that nonsense then all the better.

@Corwin You may be right about the pope. Especially the latest one, but I'm very fond of my idioms

I'd love to know how someone justifies charging $80 AUS for a game which in the US costs $40 when our dollar is currently worth more than the $US!!

Wow, so GoG gave the finger to the publisher. This could be interesting…

I don't think this has anything to do with trust

Agreed. If it was, I think lying about your whereabouts wouldn't be the expected response.

Then how about "GoG Cares about Its Customers"

When I saw that price hike I just groaned and was glad I didn't live in Australia, but then they do something like this to get around that nonsense.

You would never see Steam doing this. They'll just offer the game at whatever price that Australia wants and leave it at that or give you one of those "N/A in your region" nonsense.

It's the internet guys. There are no regions here

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
Then how about "GoG Cares about Its Customers"

When I saw that price hike I just groaned and was glad I didn't live in Australia, but then they do something like this to get around that nonsense.

You would never see Steam doing this. They'll just offer the game at whatever price that Australia wants and leave it at that or give you one of those "N/A in your region" nonsense.

It's the internet guys. There are no regions here

How about "GoG cares about what customers think of it?"

Well, I don't know them or their motivations.

But, it's common "business-sense" to play on your strengths, and it seems GoG has carved out a segment of the market by being "customer-friendly" and sort of an "underdog" against the big boys. It stands to reason that they'll play this hand to its maximum potential.

Given the connection with The Witcher franchise - it makes even more sense. That's because I see the marketing behind the games being very similar, in that they "dare" to be hardcore and they don't care about the standards of censorship and whatever. They're playing the part of the gamer's long forgotten dream - which may or may not be true.

I'm sure they're doing what they can to ensure returns matching the budget - but I prefer PB's way of doing it low-key style, and being relatively modest. They're just really open about their games and their mistakes - and CDPR seems to be REALLY interested in repeating how little they care about mainstream and so forth.

Of course it's fully possible that they're really caring and they're doing this out of the kindness of their hearts - but somehow the world has made me jaded in terms of believing that

Sigh…..Yes, Dart I knew you would take the "jaded" path. I read that post of yours

In any event, I know it's a smart business move. They'll get more purchases this way. I'm not so naive to think that if that wasn't the case they would still do it. Buuuuuuttttt Australia isn't the world. They didn't "need" to do this, but they did it anyways. So they'll get a PR boost and recover some of the sales that would have been lost with that ridiculous price. Seems like a win/win either way and all they had to do was be a little careful in how they worded their change in policy.

In the end some people want to buy their product, but they don't need to get screwed to buy their product. The reasoning as to why they did it really doesn't matter to me. The fact that they did it is all I care about. Let's see Steam or that pathetic D2D pull something like this.

The day I never see one more of those "N/A in your region" is the day I do a happy dance in front of my students

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
Sigh…..Yes, Dart I knew you would take the "jaded" path. I read that post of yours

At least I'm consistent

In the end some people want to buy their product, but they don't need to get screwed to buy their product. The reasoning as to why they did it really doesn't matter to me. The fact that they did it is all I care about. Let's see Steam or that pathetic D2D pull something like this.

Now now, don't be so hard on my favorite D2D DD

I don't want to reign in on the parade or anything like that but GoG offers only TW2 as a AAA full price game or am I mistaken? Their selection of older games was always priced in dollars (and the same everywhere). Or am I mistaken?

No you're not mistaken and I don't expect they will start anytime soon (other than for their own titles), but any future games will still have this new policy so there is always that.

It's just the fact that they did this for the people in Australia that I really liked.

Plus there is absolutely no way that I will ever see a "N/A in your region" from them. Well technically I actually could still see one, but then change my region and there you go! It's now magically available!

Originally Posted by Scrav
Wow, so GoG gave the finger to the publisher. This could be interesting…

CDProj Red is the publisher, so essentially, both GoG and CDPR gave the Australian censors a lesson in global data infrastructure. This also pushes Aussie buyers who want the pure version to buy from GoG (assuming this all works out as the OP states).

I stand corrected. Thank you. They both said FFFFFUUUUUUUU to the censors. I wonder if someone in Australia is throwing a hissy fit right around now