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The DRM-Free Revolution Continues with Big Pre-Orders and Launch Day Releases!

Good news! GOG.com is going to bring you more fantastic launch day releases, preorders, and other exciting new content from some of our favorite developers. We've lined up 3 big titles that we will be bringing to GOG.com in the next couple of months for sale or preorder that we think will be hits with all of our gamers; and we have more equally exciting games coming up soon.

If you've been a member of the site for a long time, you may recall that when we launched sales of The Witcher 2 on GOG.com, we had to add in regional pricing. The game cost different amounts in in the US, the UK, the European Union, and Australia. We're doing something like that once again in order to bring you new titles from fantastic bigger studios. Since we don't accept currencies other than USD on GOG.com right now, we'll be charging the equivalent of the local price in USD for these titles. We wish that we could offer these games at flat prices everywhere in the world, but the decision on pricing is always in our partners' hands, and regional pricing is becoming the standard around the globe. We're doing this because we believe that there's no better way to accomplish our overall goals for DRM-Free gaming and GOG.com. We need more games, devs, and publishers on board to make DRM-Free gaming something that's standard for all of the gaming world!

That brings with it more good news, though! As mentioned, we have three games we're launching soon with regional pricing--two RPGs and a strategy game--and while we can't tell you what they are yet because breaking an NDA has more severe penalties than just getting a noogie, we're confident that you'll be as excited about these games as we are. For a limited time, we will be offering anyone who pre-orders or buys one of them a free game from a selection as a gift from GOG.com, just like we did for The Witcher 2.

If you have any questions, hit us up in the comments below and we'll be happy to answer (to the best of our ability).

EDIT: Since we've answered a lot of the common questions already here (and lest you think that we've ignored you), it may be handy for you to check out the forum thread about this and search for staff answers by clicking this link here. (hat tip to user Eli who reminded us that the feature even exists. :)
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DF1871: Dear Gog-Team,

i just taked a look at my libary and noticed...that i didn't even downloaded 40% of the games because i bought games that i allready have or i will never play...
another 20% are games that can be aquired on Fan-sites for free as abandonware

i bought them to support Gog...as some kind of payback for the way you threat(ed) your customers...as a payback for your fair prices.
Exactly this.
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TheEnigmaticT: I guess you didn't see the 30-plus replies I left at the beginning of the thread? After Saturday, we were pretty much arguing in circles and there wasn't a lot of reason to keep answering the same questions. But I can promise you that most all of the department heads at GOG have read through this thread (or at least large parts of it) and we're taking your replies to heart.
T, while you are here and going through all those harsh comments, let me tell you what's my reason behind posting some nasty (hopefuly sarcastic - but it's easy to fail at sarcasm and just act like an arsehole) things.
No, GOG is not ruined for me, yes, I will be here as long as good, DRM free games are here and the staff remains as nice and friendly as now.
But with such chagne, well, you got me a little worried. And I want to keep you vigilant. To let GOG know that even small changes in the principles won't be accepted without question. And that's because I, and many other people posting here, care. This place is special and we want to keep it this way.
So, stay vigilant, GOG. If some publishers want to abuse your regional pricing system, tell them to fuck off and link them to this very topic. And good luck.
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nikmousa: A rather quick post from me (didn't have time to read 133pages!)

If I am getting this straight, there will be SOME games that cost euros instead of dollars (at least for me).

So instead of paypal making the conversion of, let's say 10$ = 7.22euros or smth like that, there will be a 7.22euro price tag at GOG.com to begin with? And the price will slightly fluctuate daily? That's more or less the same tbh

or

It's gonna be smth like 10dollars = 10euros flat? I really hope that's not the case. That's horrid!

PS
I just noticed that the humble store (not the Humble Bundle) changed to euros!
Although they state that:
-Humble Pricing is an automated price that is updated every night based on the US dollar price of the game.
-...we recognize that it doesn’t make sense for every developer or publisher. We also give them the option to provide an MSRP for each currency or region

Starbound moved from 15$ to 14euros. I guess that's the 2nd option.
Are we to expect smth similar? I'm a little confused :s
No one is quite sure yet. I got the impression from TET's earlier posts is that there would for these newer 3 games and perhaps / likely more games in the future will show the price you have to pay for your region in a US dollar value as they were not planning on handling other currencies. So I assume some regions will have a higher price as determined by the publisher, then your normal paypal / banking conversions come on top of that as per normal for non US folk.

Hopefully tomorrow they release a bit more information and maybe a point by point FAQ to have clear responses in one place to reference.
--
I forgot to add that they would show you also on the page what say the US would have to pay to allow you to compare, but I might be imagining that.
Post edited February 24, 2014 by deonast
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Ganni1987: Many people here disagree with this change and partially so do I, but I really have to ask, do any of you buy games on Steam or GamersGate?
Nope.
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Piranjade: For me it's more an addition to GOG than anything else.

I can still get all the GOG goodness I have now, but the people who are interested in buying AAA games (and have the computers to run them) can now get them here as well albeit for the same regional price as anywhere else.

I think many people who were so far "forced" to buy the AAA titles an Steam will be happy to be able to get them DRM-free on GOG and have all their games in one place here, although they don't get a better deal money-wise.
Actually, it's not.

It's the beginning of GOG going down the same dodgy path every other digital distributor has gone to -- a path that is controlled by mega-corporations that decide how their customers get their products and stop others from offering other terms.

Today it's 'regional pricing'. Tomorrow it will be boatloads of crap games they barely bother testing (just like GamersGate now sells) and finally it will be "Wonderful news! We managed to get 'X Publisher' on board but it will necessitate offering their games with DRM" and that will be the end of GOG.

I'm 50 years old. I've seen this kind of crap for decades by companies who say they "aren't selling out on their principles" just making things better for their customers (hell, I've even worked for a couple of companies like this). And then, of course, their customers get left in the dirt while all the company cares about is making more and more money which, of course, necessitates getting rid of the principles people liked and caused them to buy from the company in the first place.

Result? Eventual dissolution of company as, once they became 'just like everyone else', their customers might as well buy 'from everyone else'.

There are still some independent companies that stick to their guns no matter what. Silly me. I thought GOG was one of them.

Oh well......it shouldn't be any surprise, as it takes HUGELY ethical and moral people to stick to their principles and, sadly nowadays, that is a minute percentage of the population worldwide, as GOG has also now proven.
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OldFatGuy: Thus, I thought you guys were done. I can't imagine, however, that this thread comes as a shock.
Well, yes and no. We knew that, especially given how little I was able to get clearance to tell you guys, that this would not go over smoothly. The strength of the reaction has made TheFrenchMonk and w0rma rethink our messaging priorities and we're telling you guys things that we had not initially planned to go into the details of yet.
Regional pricing is an atrocious abuse for a digital product, but what can you do? Stop buying product from those devs. Simple.
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HypersomniacLive: No idea, you'd be better off asking a Steam user about it ;-P
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silentbob1138: I was hoping one of the Steam users here could answer. :)
Pricing on Steam is completely up to the publisher/developer. Valve will suggests price points, but the final say is always the publisher/developers. This includes regional pricing scales, but Steam will charge in the currency of the country you are buying from, so a world flat fee, as such, is impossible and each regions pricing must be added.
Infuriating to me is that the announcement begins with "Good news!"

Anything but and i don't like how Gog is selling this.Something more apologetic along the lines of this would have been better: We're sorry but there is no possibility for Gog to remain as is without introducing regional pricing, without beytraying our principles a little and disappointing our customers.If we could do it differentyl we would but we can't.Regional pricing, following the publishers demands is the only way for us to survive.

The outcome for us is still the same but it wouldn't feel as irritating as it does right now.
Post edited February 24, 2014 by ALH
I guess it's time for my first ever post on the gog-forums. And that's because I really feel that the furor about the regional pricing announcement is way overblown.

For me the main reason for coming to gog.com was the DRM-free games. The second reason were the fair prices, but to be honest: I would've paid more for many of the games that I bought here (but of course there are also many games I wouldn't have bought at all if they hadn't been extremely cheap in a sale). I love it that gog.com has so many "good old games", but I also love playing good new games. But in recent years I couldn't buy most of those that interested me because I don't buy games that have to be activated via Steam (or UPlay or whatever) as a rule. So if gog.com gives me the opportunity to buy more newer games DRM-free I am willing to accept the regional pricing - for those few games! Regional pricing in the whole shop would be very bad, but if it only concerns a few new games I really can live with it. Of course it would be better with one price for all customers, but in my opinion it is the right decision from gog.com to make this compromise - even more if the affected customers are being compensated in one way or another as it seems to be planned.

Until now, Gog.com has never disappointed me, and I am absolutely willing to trust in them and to believe that they know what they are doing ...
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blotunga: Usually it's not 10%. On steam it can range from 37% up to 60%.
Is that true for every country? I was comparing my region to the US, not to the cheapest region, btw. And in Canada, 10% is a pretty reasonable ballpark markup for most things (in USD, leaving conversion totally out of it). It seems like an increase of 60% on the US price would be ridiculous, putting the most expensive new games @ around 100USD, which none of them are.

The most expensive games I've ever seen on Steam have been around 60 dollars. Actually, having just checked, there is only 1 game on Steam that is more than 59.99 (Delta Force Xtreme 2 @ 69.99 wtf?), and only 11 over 49.99. I find it hard to believe all these games are marked up by at least 37% over the US price. If it was so, then people in the US would have fewer than 10 games on Steam that cost over $38. Maybe someone from the US could confirm how many Steam games are over 50/60 dollars for them?
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Two things:

1- Don't make "Great news!" announcements about this kind of stuff again. Dropping the same-price-worldwide thing is bad enough; trying to make it sound like it's a positive thing, only made it worse.

2-I've said this before, I'll say it again: if a game that is being released on Steam is also coming to GOG, PUT IT ON THE COMING SOON SECTION. Even if the release date is not final yet. If you have the agreement with the publisher to release it, put it there. Day one release should be there. Seriously, use that section.
Post edited February 24, 2014 by rodrolliv
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Bloodygoodgames: I can buy absolutely every game GOG sells on a bootleg DVD here in Bangkok. I haven't done as I've loved supporting a site that sticks to its principles no matter what.

Now that it's obvious GOG doesn't have principles, and are trying to whitewash the truth by telling us all how "wonderful" it is that we'll be getting these three big games (whatever!) with regional pricing, there's not really much incentive to buy here anymore now is there.

I'll be downloading all my games over the next few weeks and then ......pretty much done here. Just like I became 'done' with GamersGate last year. Haven't bought a game there since.
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Novotnus: : You will get pretty decent deals logging from Thailand, won't you?
Actually, I get the American price as I'm a US citizen and all my bank accounts etc are in the US, so this regional pricing doesn't affect me anyway.

But....it absolutely PISSES ME OFF that publishers are price gouging people in other countries, and get away with it on every digital download service they buy from. See......I'm one of those people who doesn't 'fight' for myself. I fight for 'the other guy' who is getting his rights stomped on. It's how my parents brought me up :)

And actually, if I was to consider 'Thai price', it would be $2.50 a game for any game I wanted to buy, as 90 percent of games sold in Thailand are bootleg. Up until now, I really haven't bought more than a handful as I've always preferred to support the publisher or the digital distributor.

Unfortunately.......the publisher and the digital distributor isn't supporting the gamer 90 percent of the time, as gamers just get gouged more and more.

Makes me sick!!
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TheEnigmaticT: Well, yes and no. We knew that, especially given how little I was able to get clearance to tell you guys, that this would not go over smoothly. The strength of the reaction has made TheFrenchMonk and w0rma rethink our messaging priorities and we're telling you guys things that we had not initially planned to go into the details of yet.
I personally appreciate the ahead notice instead of a bam! regional pricing on the release day of these super-mega-ultra awesome yet secret games that are coming. That way, we can handle the bad stuff first, and be happy during release.

That said, the news here are not "new releases coming". There are always new releases coming, we count on you guys for that and as such it's not news unless there are names in there. The news on this post is about regional pricing no longer being a core value on GOG, and that's not exactly great news. I don't agree with the focus of it at all.
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Piranjade: For me it's more an addition to GOG than anything else.

I can still get all the GOG goodness I have now, but the people who are interested in buying AAA games (and have the computers to run them) can now get them here as well albeit for the same regional price as anywhere else.

I think many people who were so far "forced" to buy the AAA titles an Steam will be happy to be able to get them DRM-free on GOG and have all their games in one place here, although they don't get a better deal money-wise.
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Bloodygoodgames: Actually, it's not.

It's the beginning of GOG going down the same dodgy path every other digital distributor has gone to -- a path that is controlled by mega-corporations that decide how their customers get their products and stop others from offering other terms.

(snip)
This is all something that might or might not lie in the future. I'll stick around to see. I cannot predict the future.
Like I said, for me the regionally-priced AAA games are an addition to all the other GOG goodness.
Will there be evil to follow? *shrugs* I don't think so, but I cannot know for sure, so I'll see.
So far nothing bad has happened from my perspective.