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General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
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Posted February 21, 2014
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. :)
Posted February 22, 2014
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hedwards: I don't know about that. They had region free pricing that they've chucked. I'm not sure how burning down the house to save the house makes much sense.
DRM-free and worldwide pricing are two separate issues and each of them a big deal for the major publishers, but only the DRM-free issue is something they can "easily" overcome (i.e. they're not forced by contracts & dependencies on other companies etc).

Worldwide pricing however is a much harder thing for GOG to get publishers to agree to as they will have contracts with retailers, local distributors etc. that specify minimum prices for different regions. Digital releases must adhere to the agreed pricing (typically the RRP for each region) or else they'll get into legal trouble for breach of contract and those retailers & distributors will not stock their games in future. They can't afford to just ignore the retail channels as they're still too important for the publishers to drop. The only way to offer a worldwide pricing scheme that would comply with this would be for GOG to offer the games at the most expensive price anywhere in the world - not a viable solution at all.
I'm not sure that having AAA games here is worthwhile if they have to piss off the loyal customers in order to have the same deal available elsewhere.
Well buying the games here isn't the same deal as anywhere else, even if it costs the same; the difference is here they'll be DRM-free (which is a big, *BIG* deal for me, personally. Fuck DRM). Possibly also some extra bonus stuff too that you won't get on Steam or elsewhere.

Take for example, South Park: The Stick of Truth, which I'm looking forward to enough to tolerate Steam. Here's its Steam pricing:

US: $59.99 (~£36, ~€44)
UK: £39.99 (~$66, ~€48)
EU: €39.99 (~$55, ~£33)

My current plan is to buy a retail copy, which is over £10 cheaper than on Steam (and registers on Steam anyway). However *if* it was to be released here then I'd gladly pay the £10+ extra to get it here simply because it would be DRM-free here.
Posted February 22, 2014
The real losers of regional pricing are the poor people living in the rich regions. Nobody really thinks about them. So GOG (is forced to) stabs polish paupers in the back. (maybe a bit exxagerated...)

I'm sure that's what will come out of it in the long run if you just look at the numbers. I predict that games with regional pricing will be relatively less often bought by polish people than games with worldwide flat prices.
Posted February 22, 2014
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N3xtGeN: (...)
If some publishers want to artifficialy raise the prices, the others will too, coz jews are gonna jew.
(...)
Thank you for your support, but please...try to keep this civilized and don't condemn an entire group whether it be on basis of religion, gender, colour of skin or any other feature that has absolutely nothing to do with a particular stance on this issue. And no, I'm not Jewish.
Posted February 22, 2014
I spent 625$ on free, open source projects this past year. Guess my budget for free, open source projects just got bigger. No DRM, no regional pricing. Jolly good.
Posted February 22, 2014
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Darvond: Beg pardon?
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vulchor: That was TET's excuse for using regional pricing now is because it's the current standard. The reason The Witcher 2 was regionally priced was because GOG Was going to be sued because of it.
Yes, and they decided to partner up with the same bastards for the distribution of The Witcher 3. Why GOG, Why?!!
Posted February 22, 2014
I think the important missing factor here are the games in question. I'll reserve any judgement on this whole situation until we see what's in the pipeline.
Posted February 22, 2014
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Future_Suture: I spent 625$ on free, open source projects this past year. Guess my budget for free, open source projects just got bigger. No DRM, no regional pricing. Jolly good.
As long as they are free, I would even agree with regional pricing. :)

I just decided. I will never gift a game that has regional pricing. And I gifted more than 40 games on GOG in the last 3 years.
Posted February 22, 2014
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vulchor: That was TET's excuse for using regional pricing now is because it's the current standard. The reason The Witcher 2 was regionally priced was because GOG Was going to be sued because of it.
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jorlin: Yes, and they decided to partner up with the same bastards for the distribution of The Witcher 3. Why GOG, Why?!!
CD Projekt RED teamed up with Namco Bandai...again?
Posted February 22, 2014
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vulchor: That was TET's excuse for using regional pricing now is because it's the current standard. The reason The Witcher 2 was regionally priced was because GOG Was going to be sued because of it.
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jorlin: Yes, and they decided to partner up with the same bastards for the distribution of The Witcher 3. Why GOG, Why?!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love%E2%80%93hate_relationship
Posted February 22, 2014
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pcpotato459: Doesn't matter how some company tries to charge someone is going to complain.

Someone will get the short stick. If Dollar = Pound = Euro is used like Steam does; the Pound , Euro , Australian dollar users complain their money is worth more than the dollar and they are playing more than those using Dollars. The Australians always complain despite the fact they make twice as much as the average US citizen.

When you go with everyone pays in dollars, then you have the people whose currency is worth more than the dollar getting a price break while those whose currency is worth much less and live in a society with a lower standard of living pay a lot more percentage wise .

That's the problem with living in a world with multiple currencies and different standards of living.
For someone who lives in a country with lower minimum/average wage than a storefront's currency standard's origin country (Polish company using USA/$), who locally uses a currency with a higher global value than the currency standard of a storefront, the value of the sale is more important than a simple 1:1 conversion. They contribute towards balancing the economic standard of other people living in that country, by participating in a system which is considerate of their situation. This decision by GOG would essentially be denying those people such a freedom of choice in their purchasing decisions.

You might not understand how it feels to be in that situation because you are an American, and so you have likely always been shielded from such a situation applying to you; therefore, it doesn't affect you. You have to put yourself in someone else's shoes to be able to understand this situation.
Post edited February 22, 2014 by StickOfPlywood
Posted February 22, 2014
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Dr_Worm: I think the important missing factor here are the games in question. I'll reserve any judgement on this whole situation until we see what's in the pipeline.
Maybe they got Fallout back but only with regional pricing? In this case I wouldn't mind at all because I already have them.

One of them is surely Witcher 3. Obviously they couldn't find any nice partner and were not able to do it right themselves. The other one might be Risen 2 (my guess).

Yes, one could say that half of what you like is more than nothing, but one could also say that it is also half of what is not so nice. Kind of swallowing the bitter pill or not?
Posted February 22, 2014
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hedwards: That's definitely a point, I'm not sure who exactly is at fault here, but somewhere in marketing they've screwed up rather royally here. I'm guessing that we aren't getting LA or MS as a result of this and that whomever they've managed to sign isn't likely worth it.

If it were LA or MS, I don't think they'd be bothering to preannounce the bad news, I think they'd have waited until the games were ready to preorder.
I don't think oldies will be on pre-order. I hope to see a countdown soon...
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hedwards: I also think that over the years they've compromised themselves so badly that much of the goodwill is already gone and a lot of us have lost faith in them to do the right thing. I'm curious as to how much they can piss us off before it's a serious problem. That insomnia sale and the time machine promo pretty much turned me off of buying games here for the foreseeable future. sure the promos were successful, but I'm not sure that pissing people off like that is a viable long term strategy.

I know I'm far less likely to recommend GOG when I have other options just because I don't respect the sleazier tactics that have been used in recent times.
Those sales are a matter of personal preference, I found them pretty amusing.
But regional prices will piss off lion's part of the community.
Posted February 22, 2014
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jforte: It is apparent that these three games would not be coming to GOG if it weren't for the region pricing. No region pricing = these games wouldn't happen; ergo, if you don't like region pricing, refrain from buying these three titles. Unless I missed something, GOG never said they're bringing region pricing to their entire catalogue.
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Piranjade: I see it similarly. GOG's strength for me lies in old games and indie games. Regional pricing for a few big AAA titles doesn't faze me much.
Before, these AAA games wouldn't come to GOG. Now they come here, DRM-free, but with regional pricing. It's a compromise I can live with as long as it doesn't spread to old games and indie games.
My thoughts exactly. It's sad to see a good and far principle like "one global price" being weakened, but I'm giving GOG the benefit of the doubt that the older titles will not be affected.

In the end, I'll always vote with my wallet. If the best deal that GOG can offer on a new game, is 30% more expensive (due to the regional pricing) than getting it from another source, then I'm unlikely to buy it from GOG.
Posted February 22, 2014
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pcpotato459: ...When you go with everyone pays in dollars, then you have the people whose currency is worth more than the dollar getting a price break while those whose currency is worth much less and live in a society with a lower standard of living pay a lot more percentage wise .

That's the problem with living in a world with multiple currencies and different standards of living.
But the currency conversion rate (at least on average over several years) is something that is really meaningful. It's the outcome of a market action (unless the currency is manipulated). Regional pricing is just plainl artificial. It may be right, but only by chance.

What we should talk about is purchase power parity or the big mac index.
Posted February 22, 2014
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jorlin: Yes, and they decided to partner up with the same bastards for the distribution of The Witcher 3. Why GOG, Why?!!
It will be most ironic if The Witcher 3 ends up with region pricing. History repeats itself...
Post edited February 22, 2014 by Grargar
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Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)