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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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toxicTom: I don't think GOG will drop DRM-free anytime soon. This is their USP. If they drop that, there would be no incentive to prefer them over Steam. ...
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Trilarion: But it would probably mean so many more games we could have on GOG. Maybe people would prefer to have the choice over not having any choice. They could do it like Humble Bundle is doing it: if it moves, sell it, everything goes.
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Kabuto: ...Owners/Purchasing: Why do we even bother? Maybe we shouldn't. The more we try to expand into other gaming markets the more they bitch about it.
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Trilarion: Maybe if they would have just used new subdomaina for it.

limited.gog.com or
regionlocked.gog.com or

northamerica.gog.com
euminusromania.gog.com

or

withdrm.gog.com

Then it would be easier to keep track of what's going on. :)
German humor, after Russian, the most enigmatic in the UNIVERSE! :p
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Kabuto: GOG staff must be banging their heads against the wall.

Purchasing: Good news, we can offer new AAA games but unfortunately they require regional pricing

Owners: Great. I know the regional pricing sucks but surely having more drm-free games will make our customers happy in the end.

CS: Bad news. The community is going insane over it. Threatening to leave and buy the same games elsewhere with the exact same regional pricing issues.

Owners/Purchasing: Why do we even bother? Maybe we shouldn't. The more we try to expand into other gaming markets the more they bitch about it.
I doubt its as simple as this. GOG surely knew offering AAA for drm- free at cost of regional pricing would kinda blow up into a storm. Flat pricing worldwide vs drm free AAA games (which i imagine are only a handful a year) --- is it worth it?.
The change in policy is a tragicomedic farce. GOG has foretold its own end and yet it decided to move forward with the "Good News".
I'm really sorry to see GOG dropping their principles so easily. Their former stance against regional pricing is just as important as their stance against drm, and now that they are allowing it, I see no other way of reacting than stop buying from them. I'll keep my account, and check in once in a while to see if they have come to their senses again, but I won't be buying anything from GOG until their former principles are back in place.

It's been fun, but like always, all good things come to an end, unfortunately!
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TheEnigmaticT: These games are going to be the same price everywhere in the world, except GOG.com will be giving something for you guys out of our pockets to help make up the difference between regional prices.
That should put a lot of folks at ease. That sounds like what GOG did with TW2. Above and beyond what other digital distributors do.
I'll confess, I'm disappointed in the community here. When it's announced that Three games will have regional pricing plus compensation for those negatively affected Every one Reacts like this wasn't a one-off but the soon-to-be norm. You're acting like American rednecks who see real heath-care as the start of a soviet style dictatorship.

The assumption (the devil's plaything) and paranoia are bad enough. but what gets me is the almost joyful way people are predicating the end of GOG. All the highest rated comments are the ones yelling BETRAYAL and giving the least constructive feedback. People are even claiming they are jumping ship now. Before anything has happened. Anyone who talks in anything other than negative tones get their comments downvoted.


Do any of you remember the outcry over DLC being sold here? Did GOG say "We don't care about you, we do what we have to to make money"? No they didn't. They let us vote on it and we voted yes to DLC. Did anything bad happen to GOG? Sword of the Stars got two expansions and that was mostly it.


I don't like the idea of regional pricing either but for just three games I see no harm. And If this meant getting a new publisher like 2k, Bethesda or Lucasarts I'd say go for it.


So yeah If you feel this is a misstep please have some faith and make some actual demands instead of forecasting doom with glee.


And I repeat. When They say 3 games I believe just three games till I see reason to think otherwise. Assumptions never lead to good things and paranoia is for people who wear tinfoil hats.
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TheEnigmaticT: These games are going to be the same price everywhere in the world, except GOG.com will be giving something for you guys out of our pockets to help make up the difference between regional prices.
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JohnnyDollar: That should put a lot of folks at ease. That sounds like what GOG did with TW2. Above and beyond what other digital distributors do.
Didn't catch that, thanks. But how viable actually is that?
Regional pricing? I wouldn't mind getting DRM in my game if we could avoid buying 1 € for every 1 $ that our dear friends pay accros the pond. 1 euro is currently about 1.37 dolalrs. Not even nordic welfare countries have that big taxes on them!
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Niggles: I doubt its as simple as this. GOG surely knew offering AAA for drm- free at cost of regional pricing would kinda blow up into a storm. Flat pricing worldwide vs drm free AAA games (which i imagine are only a handful a year) --- is it worth it?.
Sure it's worth it. If you don't want to pay the regional prices for the AAA games, then don't buy the AAA games. Buy the ones with a flat price. That shouldn't change how you currently do things, since you have to go by regional pricing when you buy those AAA games elsewhere right now. The difference will be that they are available DRM-free instead of elsewhere.
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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?!!
Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
https://www.cdprojekt.com/en/Press_Room/Aktualnosci,news_id,2134

I had to double check that as I thought how could they go back to them. Yes Namco Bandi gets the distribution rights in Europe and Australia again. I hope they don't go ahead and want a censored version for Aus/NZ people again. We might have an R18 rating now but our censorship boards are still a bit prudish at times so Namco could well think it expedient to want a censored version to go through with.

So there you have it the Witcher 3 will be one of those titles with Regional pricing, Namco Bandi would have it no other way, as part of the distribution deal for them shipping the physical versions in store. That was the legal issue last time with the Witcher 2. GOG would be able to offer initially game vouchers to offset some of that due to the fact their parent company CDProjekt would be the distributor getting the revenue from the online sales via GOG.

I saw a physical version of the witcher 2, with extras on special a while back, thought about getting a copy to decorate my real world game shelf, but as Namco Bandi were involved in all that unpalatable legal issues and censor ship in Australia I left it where it was in disgust.

I'll have to rethink my original intention of pre/ordering buying the witcher 3 to support GOG and 3DProjekt red now.
At least Namco Bandi wouldn't be getting that online revenue. Censor it in any way and you've lost me.
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JohnnyDollar: That should put a lot of folks at ease. That sounds like what GOG did with TW2. Above and beyond what other digital distributors do.
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notpayingforgame: Didn't catch that, thanks. But how viable actually is that?
I don't know. It worked with TW2, but how viable it is in the long term, I don't know.
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saberwolfxm: I made a comment on this a few pages back. My money is on Bethesda and zenimax (samething) after the fallouts where removed from gog they made the comment that the were going to get the games back on steam first because they were currently not a partner with gog that they would look into it later. Couple that and how the treat some of the people they outsource their games to make and you can see them doing something like this.
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Niggles: Im actually curious whether it is them. Reason i ask is, Fallout games were being sold here for the same price as on GOG 9.99 each. Were the prices for fallouts regionally priced before? (i never checked).
GOG was selling the Fallout games for one fair worldwide price. Steam was and still selling the Fallout collection for 20USD and 20EUR, a (37% price increase for EU, while the applicable VAT is only 15%...) for US and EU respectively.

I guess that's why whoever got the right decided to pull them from GOG - they just couldn't stomach offering people a fair deal. Now that GOG has betrayed its core principle I expect Fallout 1/2 to make a return to the catalog - this time with regional pricing, setting up a wonderful precedent for the old games catalog...
Post edited February 22, 2014 by Dreadz
high rated
Sorry, I'm gonna be a dick about this: GOG doesn't pull games out of a magic hat and just put them up here, contrary to (apparently) what some people believe. I've seen people bitch about how GOG is not Steam. Will you be happy now? I've seen people bitch about the plethora of indies we've seen, but no newer games and the wishlist is full of requests for them. Will you be happy now? Regional pricing sucks, but sticking to your guns and getting killed by the competition isn't noble, it's stupid. And I'm not going to say anything about the logical fallacy of regional pricing = eventual DRM. Some arguments make sound points, other sound like they're shoving sticks up their pee hole to simulate some sort of misery. But I have yet to see a compelling argument made.

tl;dr version: GOG has to keep changing to survive, but abandoning their stance on DRM (which is the only one I have ever considered their core value) would kill them.

Here have some Dungeon Keeper Gold: GPVB-EWGN-D3X2-9HXM
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Niggles: Im actually curious whether it is them. Reason i ask is, Fallout games were being sold here for the same price as on GOG 9.99 each. Were the prices for fallouts regionally priced before? (i never checked).
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Dreadz: GOG was selling the Fallout games for one fair worldwide price. Steam was and still selling the Fallout collection for 20USD and 20EUR, a (37% price increase for EU, while the applicable VAT is only 15%...) for US and EU respectively.

I guess that's why whoever got the right decided to pull them from GOG - they just couldn't stomach offering people a fair deal. Now that GOG has betrayed it's core principle I expect Fallout 1/2 to make a return to the catalog - this time with regional pricing, setting up a wonderful precedent for the old games catalog...
If that were really the case, regional pricing outbreaks should have occurred when Witcher 2 was released. Ye of little faith.
Post edited February 22, 2014 by Kabuto
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TheEnigmaticT: These games are going to be the same price everywhere in the world, except GOG.com will be giving something for you guys out of our pockets to help make up the difference between regional prices.
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JohnnyDollar: That should put a lot of folks at ease. That sounds like what GOG did with TW2. Above and beyond what other digital distributors do.
If this is the case, why is "one world, fair price" gone? Is this not how the policy worked all along with GOG adjusting for regional disparities?