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Hey, GOGgers,

We're not perfect, we're exploring new frontiers, and we make mistakes. We thought DRM-Free was so important that you'd prefer we bring you more DRM-Free games and Fair Price was less critical and that it could be sacrificed in some cases. The last two week's worth of comments in our forums (nearly 10k!), show that's not the case. We didn’t listen and we let you down. We shouldn't sacrifice one of our core values in an attempt to advance another. We feel bad about that, and we're sorry. Us being sorry is not of much use to you, so let’s talk about how we will fix it.

One: DRM-free forever. Abandoning fixed regional pricing means it will probably take longer to get some games, but you've made it clear that sacrificing fair pricing for more DRM-free games isn't acceptable.

Two: We will adamantly continue to fight for games with flat worldwide pricing. If that fails and we are required to have regional prices, we will make up the difference for you out of our own pockets. For now it will be with $5.99 and $9.99 game codes. In a couple of months, once we have such functionality implemented, we will give you store credit instead, which then you will be able to use towards any purchase and cover the price of it in full or partially. Effectively gamers from all around the world will be able to benefit from the US prices.

This will apply to every single game where we do not have flat pricing, such as Age of Wonders 3 (full details here), Divinity: Original Sin, and The Witcher 3. If you remember the Fair Price Package for The Witcher 2, this will be exactly the same.

Three: We still intend to introduce the pricing in local currencies. Let us explain why we want to do it and how we want to make it fair for everyone. From the very beginning our intention was to make things easier for users whose credit cards/payment systems are not natively in USD. The advantages are simple because the price is more understandable and easier to relate to. There would be no exchange rates involved, no transaction fees, and no other hidden charges. However after reading your comments, we realized we have taken an important element away: the choice. In order to fix this, we'll offer the option of paying in the local currency or the equivalent in USD. This way, how you pay is always your choice.

Four: You are what matters, and we will be sure to involve you all more in what we're doing and why we're doing it. Let's start by meeting you at GDC - we’d like to invite you to meet us face-to-face Monday the 17th at GDC. Obviously, not all of you can come to San Francisco, so we want to invite all of you to an online event with us early in April to ask us whatever you would like. More details soon.

The bottom line is simple: there may be companies that won't work with us (although we will work hard to convince the most stubborn ones ;). Yes, it means we might miss out on some games, but at the same time GOG.com will remain true to its values and will keep on offering you the best of DRM-free gaming with Fair Prices.

Once again thank you for caring so much about GOG.com. We will work hard not to disappoint you again.

--Marcin "iWi" Iwinski & Guillaume "TheFrenchMonk" Rambourg
This all goes to show that GOG's frequently reckless marketing of a few bullet points is a double-edged sword. Yes, their aggressive stance on these things may have helped them grow and win fans, but they seem to have painted themselves into a corner by presenting selling points as dogma.

GOG is clearly not content to stay in their diminishing niche, but they now feel that they have no choice. It will be interesting to see what comes out of that.
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Messi_is_Messiah: I hope this new policy doesn't dip into gog's pockets too much.
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Trilarion: I'm pretty sure it won't. Thel increased sales will compensate the loses of the compensaiton gift codes partly or even generate profit. It may be.
Based on the calculation above they don't make any loss at all, just less profit (for the unfair priced regional versions), and at the same time they get to sell the game for normal profit in the countries that don't need compensation.

Given that GOG doesn't give up anything, it can only add to their profit.
Post edited March 11, 2014 by Pheace
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mqstout: I'd still rather you guys address the messed up preorder exclusive DLC BS than the regional pricing... Why should people who don't preorder (no matter the reason) get less of a product, and no way ever to get the whole product?
It may be that the publisher and GOG is lying now and you can get this DLC lateron. Or it wasn't important anyway.

It doesn't mean I support exclusive DLC. I hate it as anyone else.
Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! :-D :-D :-D

Thank you GOG so very much !!!!! Now I can continue buying DRM free games from you without worrying whether I´d get ripped off with the euro prices, by just choosing to pay in dollars !!!
It wasn´t good that you weren´t honest about the change, but now that you allow that effectively people can continue shopping as if nothing has changed, is much better! I´m so relieved !

Edit- That´s just my happy mood. Just saying so those with a cynical mood don´t misunderstand.
Post edited March 11, 2014 by Treasure
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F4LL0UT: The same community that after all of this will return to bitching about the absence of certain games on GOG that might have come here if they hadn't bitched about regional pricing.
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JKHSawyer: Yep. Pretty much.
This!
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Messi_is_Messiah: I hope this new policy doesn't dip into gog's pockets too much.
Me too - I'm a new member, long time "browser" of their sales - it took me two + years to finally "give in" and I've thoroughly enjoyed my few weeks here. Plus it's amazingly refreshing to see a company take a loss in an attempt to make better by their customers.
I'll try to do my small part - as much as I loved gaming on my console / tv I've been moving away from it lately anyway so I've made up my mind to buy Witcher 3 here. If that was GoGs evil nefarious plan from the beginning, it worked ;) but I get a sense they really are trying to find a way to move forward while growing their company in the least painful way possible. I hope anyway, as I've bought in and I like to think of myself as a somewhat conscientious consumer.
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Treasure: Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! :-D :-D :-D

Thank you GOG so very much !!!!! Now I can continue buying DRM free games from you without worrying whether I´d get ripped off with the euro prices, by just choosing to pay in dollars !!!
It wasn´t good that you weren´t honest about the change, but now that you allow that effectively people can continue shopping as if nothing has changed, is much better! I´m so relieved !

Edit- That´s just my happy mood. Just saying so those with a cynical mood don´t misunderstand.
Are you thinking that you might be able to switch to another currency and then just pay the US price? Because I don't think that's what they implied with the statement. I think they're giving you a choice in what currency to pay in, not a choice in what price to pay.
Just droping by to say that you are seriously awesome... Thank you.
high rated
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KMetalMind: I wasn´t one of the angry guys but I was certainly afraid GOG could progressively abandon their principles.
I still don't get where people were getting this from. It was instantly clear that GOG decided to abandon one of their rules that they didn't think was *that* important to the community to fully support the most important one: as many DRM free releases as possible. And they clearly were thinking that they were doing a GOOD thing for their community. It should have been clear to everyone then, GOG is clearly stating that now, I hope NOW everyone friggin' gets it.

I can live with fewer titles on the catalogue if more people are happy now but it kinda pisses me off that the outrage that lead to this was largely about the "betrayal", not the regional pricing, while there clearly never was any betrayal of the customers. I'm okay with where we got but not with how we got here.
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Senteria: Thank you so much for this and listening to the community.
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F4LL0UT: The same community that after all of this will return to bitching about the absence of certain games on GOG that might have come here if they hadn't bitched about regional pricing.
totally agreed...thats a very sad days... what the next step? steam key because two people as already complaining about it?

edit: Ok its a good thing to have te choice , its a good nwes, the thing who's make me sad, is the fact of GoG doing a step back because of people whos have bring a "poopocalypse" on the forum...
Post edited March 11, 2014 by nansounet
I... wow. I mean, wow. This is phenomenal, and amazing, and yes, yes, YES! WOOO! You guys listened, and really truly listened, and actually heard! Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. I hoped for it, and absolutely did not expect that to ever become a reality again. I have so much love and respect for GOG right now, I am totally fan-girling out and making happy dolphin noises and I do not care. I'm normally more coherent and intelligible, but honestly I've just pulled two all-nighters in a row, and this came right before I was headed to bed. So if I'm missing any of the fine text, oh well. At the moment my faith in GOG.com is restored and it is fantastic. Everything looks sensible and on the level and at first glance it looks like it address all the concerns and pretty much fixes all the mistakes. I salute you GOG. \o> Hurrah!
Hi, I love GOG and I'm really fond of the service GOG provides.
However there is one little issue I can't wrap my head around.
Why don't you offer Linux versions of the games that have a natively running Linux version?
This is actually the one point were the humble store wins out in some cases, it's just nicer to have the flexibility to run the game on my Linux laptop as well, especially when I'm not at home with my windows computer.
There have already been some cases where I would have bought a game on GOG if the Linux version would have been available (e.g. Democracy 3, FTL).

Anyways, I'm happy about this announcement. Keep up the great work!
Wow great news! Indeed GOG is one of the best places to purchace games from!
Still havn't found a place where they care for their customers as much as GOG does, thanks!
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Senteria: Thank you so much for this and listening to the community.
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F4LL0UT: The same community that after all of this will return to bitching about the absence of certain games on GOG that might have come here if they hadn't bitched about regional pricing.
I'm having trouble understanding why they'd lose any more publisher's over what they said in this letter to be honest. Basically they're still going to allow regional pricing like before, they'll simply give up a part of their profit margin to cover it.

This shouldn't affect the publisher in any way as they still get their cut just the same.

There's nothing in the announcement above that should make it less likely for companies to work with GOG than it was before, it's basically a fluff line :)
Post edited March 11, 2014 by Pheace
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carlosjuero: I am sick when any country is painted with a single brush (or any demographic group - like calling all Muslims terrorists, or all French people rude).
No one's painting a country with a single brush. One - one! - US poster is bitching about how everyone who protested regional pricing was a crybaby, despite himself being (1) unaffected by it and (2) more likely to be filthy rich compared to those affected. Other US posters responded neutrally to , for which there's enough evidence in [url=http://www.gog.com/forum/general/announcement_big_preorders_launch_day_releases_coming/page1]both threads.