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On March 31st we are going to discontinue the Fair Price Package program. Let us explain the reasoning behind this decision.

We came up with Fair Price Package (FPP) as a way to make up the price difference between various countries. Some games on GOG.COM have regional pricing, meaning the price of the same game in one place can be higher compared to its price in North America. In countries where the game is more expensive, we give users the equivalent of the price difference in GOG Wallet funds. In actual numbers, on average, we give users back 12% of the game price from our own pocket. In some cases, this number can reach as high as 37%.

In the past, we were able to cover these extra costs from our cut and still turn a small profit. Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore. With an increasing share paid to developers, our cut gets smaller. However, we look at it, at the end of the day we are a store and need to make sure we sell games without a loss.

Removing FPP is not a decision we make lightly, but by making this change, we will be able to offer better conditions to game creators, which — in turn — will allow us to offer you more curated classic games and new releases. All DRM-free.

We wanted to make sure you have some lead time to still benefit from the Fair Price Package. The program will last until the 31st of March, 2019, so if you would like to take advantage of it, now is the time. The funds you gather from the program will keep the 12 months expiration date from the moment you’ve been granted your last funds.
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First of all, thank you for your support. This was not an easy decision to discontinue the FPP program and we're grateful to you for understanding the reasons behind it. We see that quite a few of you raised concerns about GOG's future. As a part of publicly traded company, we can't comment on any financial results until they are officially reported, but we want to ensure you everything is good with GOG. Being part of a big gaming company, some reports - especially some given by significant media outlets - can often sound much scarier than reality.

You've been also concerned about your access to the games you’ve purchased on GOG. We've covered this topic years ago and it's been in our User Agreement for a long time (please check the section 17.3). This is not only a legal obligation to you but a core part of our ethics as a company.

But don’t worry, all is good, and we have a great plan for the future of GOG. We can’t wait for you to see some of the exciting things we have coming very soon.

EDIT: pinned
Post edited February 26, 2019 by elcook
I just now see this post. I'm of course fine with it and I hope GOG will get financially stronger afterwards! If not: start a crowdfunding and I'll throw in a few extra coins. ;-)
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Lucumo: Yeah, it's pretty lame of European companies to screw over European customers. Paradox is guilty of it as well (nowadays, something like Europa Universalis III is fair). Want the Deluxe Edition of Imperator: Rome? Pay 6.50€/$7.30 extra. Something like the Imperial Edition of Pathfinder: Kingmaker is 10€/$11.24 extra. Honestly, no, thanks. It just means that I won't buy games I'm on the fence about and will take a trip to the US for the ones I really, really want (which is pretty much never the case).
Probably VAT has something to do with it. Ok, sometimes the higher price is a bit more than VAT, but prices are set by the publishers.
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Lucumo: ideally you have server lists etc directly implemented into the game but how many (indie) devs can actually do that?
Any who has his own website could do that. Hell any public writeable space could act as a master server; it would be vulnerable to malicious intent but I'm just trying to prove a point here, that is that setting up for multiplayer without steamworks/galaxy is far from being as costly as one may think.
Not to mention that if you have any form of multiplayer where one of the player hosts the game, it doesn't make sense to not have direct connection available, since master servers just act as a phonebook. Same with server lists/browsers, they are also withheld as a developer's choice, not out of necessity.

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richlind33: "Capitalism" is the reason the US is punishing Venezuela for pricing it's oil in yuan? o.O
That's imperialism.

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Experiment513: I just now see this post. I'm of course fine with it and I hope GOG will get financially stronger afterwards! If not: start a crowdfunding and I'll throw in a few extra coins. ;-)
Why would you crowdfund a store? If you want to help them, just buy.
Post edited March 12, 2019 by SPTX
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blotunga: Probably VAT has something to do with it. Ok, sometimes the higher price is a bit more than VAT, but prices are set by the publishers.
And again, it doesn't, that's just one of their excuses, that unfortunately seems to catch on. If anything, the VAT would be the price of doing business in a certain country. But the pricing is just what they think they can (and unfortunately do) get away with.
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blotunga: Probably VAT has something to do with it. Ok, sometimes the higher price is a bit more than VAT, but prices are set by the publishers.
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Cavalary: And again, it doesn't, that's just one of their excuses, that unfortunately seems to catch on. If anything, the VAT would be the price of doing business in a certain country. But the pricing is just what they think they can (and unfortunately do) get away with.
Of course VAT has something to do with it! My understanding is that the EU requires VAT to be included in the advertised price. Thus, the price should be the USD equivalent + VAT to be equal.

Your logic is flawed and it clearly is not just an excuse.
Ok guys, I admit it, it was me.

I made them drop the FPP to further my agenda.
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Cavalary: And again, it doesn't, that's just one of their excuses, that unfortunately seems to catch on. If anything, the VAT would be the price of doing business in a certain country. But the pricing is just what they think they can (and unfortunately do) get away with.
Have you noticed the price of electronics in Europe vs US? Same $1000 laptop costs in Europe $1100 euros.
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Mark-Mark: considering the features lacking between steam & GOG for many games more frequent updates & extra content vs DRM free for the same price... a fool would buy from GOG instead of steam!
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SPTX: You dropped the ball there. I fully understand not wanting to buy on GOG anymore, but if you're going to put back on Valve's shackles, I don't see the point. You'll still be wasting money.
The thing is if you are getting the shackle from GOG & Steam but steam is getting all the updates & lets be brutally honest here usually better discounts by legitimate 3rd party sellers.... if you really 'must' have it then in those cases steam is least chaffing shackle.

Steam Pros
- Frequent updates
- More people to play MP with
- Better discounts
Steam cons
- DRM via the steam client

GOG Pros
- DRM free but only for single play portion of the game
GOG cons
- Games often abandoned by devs for literally years at a time
- A small pool of people to play MP with
- DRM via online check & dedicated servers for MP
- More expensive than steam due to legit 3rd party sellers offering better prices
- Even worse prices now the fair price promise is going.
- Less flexible refund policy

Yes you could make a case for GOG if it is a single player game & old enough it won't get any updates in the future or it is a single player game with an exceptionally well behaved developer like the guys behind Terraria or Stardew Valley who push the GOG updates in close succession to steam... but really those are on a case by case basis.

The more GOG slip away from their founding principles the harder it is to make the case for them, they certainly care more about their publishers than their customers as the stick of Epic offering a bigger cut was enough to get them to increase their cut but literally had no problems with countless sales for broken games abandonded by their devs.

I might not be so harsh on them if they had actually pulled from sale games they knew were broken & not soon receiving updates at leas that would convince me 'they were trying' to be good to their customers.
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Cavalary: And again, it doesn't, that's just one of their excuses, that unfortunately seems to catch on. If anything, the VAT would be the price of doing business in a certain country. But the pricing is just what they think they can (and unfortunately do) get away with.
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RWarehall: Of course VAT has something to do with it! My understanding is that the EU requires VAT to be included in the advertised price. Thus, the price should be the USD equivalent + VAT to be equal.

Your logic is flawed and it clearly is not just an excuse.
No, GOG's Amerian prices include VAT as well.
6.4. All prices are visible in the product catalogue page. They’re inclusive of legally applicable sales taxes/VAT.
It's written in the user agreement.
When will we see gog official gog keys available on Humble & when that happen will we see games published by other companies besides CD Projekt Red?
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BeatriceElysia: When will we see gog official gog keys available
You won't. It'll probably be a redirect to a direct activation on your account. Though you may just be asking when the games go on sale on other stores.
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BeatriceElysia: When will we see gog official gog keys available
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Pheace: You won't. It'll probably be a redirect to a direct activation on your account. Though you may just be asking when the games go on sale on other stores.
I'm asking for details on gog games availibility on other stores & will we see selection of different games in that program or just selected few.
*shakes head at customers actively fighting against the interests of customers, and based on flawed reasoning too*
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RWarehall: Of course VAT has something to do with it! My understanding is that the EU requires VAT to be included in the advertised price. Thus, the price should be the USD equivalent + VAT to be equal.

Your logic is flawed and it clearly is not just an excuse.
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Lucumo: No, GOG's Amerian prices include VAT as well.

6.4. All prices are visible in the product catalogue page. They’re inclusive of legally applicable sales taxes/VAT.
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Lucumo: It's written in the user agreement.
You mean the American VAT of 0%...see my point?

At least some portion of regional pricing makes sense.
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Cavalary: *shakes head at customers actively fighting against the interests of customers, and based on flawed reasoning too*
*shakes head at people calling reasoning flawed which isn't*
Post edited March 12, 2019 by RWarehall
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Lucumo: No, GOG's Amerian prices include VAT as well.

It's written in the user agreement.
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RWarehall: You mean the American VAT of 0%...see my point?

At least some portion of regional pricing makes sense.
You just wrote something completely different. Also, AFAIK, VAT differs between the different states.