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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
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BKGaming: Lol, I love this quote... because it's so true... every decision GOG makes now will be decided by complainers. xD
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kaileeena: Guys like you surprise me. So if a company listens to the majority of its customer base, then they are following complainers. What type of companies you like? Ones that ignore their customers and treat you like an idiot? Ones that assume they know best for you? Ones that never say they did anything wrong even if they keep screwing their customers?

You can argue that it was a vocal minority that was against regional pricing and maybe a poll would have confirmed or denied that. My guess is GOG must have some estimate and numbers to show how big was the backlash and whether it was a minority or not.

From my point of view, no regional pricing was one of their cores, dropping one of your core values is always a bad business decision specially if its why your customers trust you. My guess is they thought fair price was no big deal for most customers and they assumed no one will care if they dropped this core value, it turned out to be false hence the revert back in actions.

I work for a company where customers trust and support us because of our values, and I am sure once these values start slipping, we will lose much more than we can gain.
That's the thing really it wasn't a majority, not by a long shot... had they had a majority of opinion with constructive feedback I would agree it was a good plan to backtrack some... however, most of the people that posted didn't post constructive feedback... it was more like "screw gog, I'm leaving... flat regional prices or else". This does not just effect those who deal with regional prices... it now effects all of us because this could very well impact the games we get at GOG and what we get to play/buy.

Internet gamers are some of the biggest complainers ever... my experience in 20+ years of gaming.... they don't what constructive discussion they want what they want. Now they know if they complain GOG will give in.
Wait, do you mean I will be able to pay for the games in my own currency, no expensive international credit cards involved, no international payment fees?
That's the best news ever, Ive been waiting for this since the day I've created my GOG account, and I've suggested this on every single feedback survey.
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saberwolfxm: Ok, I'm confused. Have you gone back to worldwide pricing or not? At the beginning you said that you would work for a one world price and if that failed and you had to do regional pricing you would give the difference in credit. Then at the end you said we might miss out on some games and publishers. If you willing to cover the difference why would some publishers not work with you?
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Hawat: I m guessing that some company are asking for too much regional price difference for them to cover without going in the red.
True, if the price was so high there wouldn't be much room for profit, no sense selling a game when it's going to bankrupt you. Still, I'm a little disappointed in this. When this all happened I was sad about gog giving up one of their principles, but happy they were going to get more games. Now it's vice versa :'(
GoG, I'm having a hard time lately, but you just made me smile. I did take part in the whole regional prices debate and actually said to others that you surely won't revert on that decision. I was mistaken. For that I thank you :-)

Now, let's start working on making GoG even better guys!
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BKGaming: Lol, I love this quote... because it's so true... every decision GOG makes now will be decided by complainers. xD
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Senteria: You guys don't know when to quit. First it's boo regional prices and then it's boo no new games. You can't just have everything from both worlds. GOG listens and thinks what to do based on the feedback. It's not like we tell them what to do or not do. Heck, some people would sell their soul to DRM to get new games, but GOG does not cater to those people.
These are different people complaining now,i would preffer drm free games over region pricing (even if i was effected by it)
Wow, full respect gog.

Though I still think it's unfortunate that we will miss on those other DRM-free games. Yes, flat pricing is great but some differences are understandable (mainly taxes) so I don't have an inherent problem with it unless it's really unreasonable.

I would have preferred to have all the games and just add a badge of shame to those with regional pricing (as was suggested).

I very much appreciate if you keep all prices in USD. I'm used to thinking in that currency.

As a side note, I'm curious how various gaming web sites will report on this. Many have been badmouthing gog on many occasions.
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Novotnus: (...)
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paulrainer: you must be TeT's mum

only a mum could have such blind faith :P
You sound like yours never had.
Is the storm over? Can I come back to the forums now?

I've stayed away from this whole thing, but I just wanted to pop in to say that I'm really impressed, and even a little surprised by GOG. They really listened to their customers and gave them what they want. Very few companies do that. You just gained some extra points in my book.
The fact that you are covering the difference of regional pricing from your own pockets is huge. Another thing that few (if any) companies would do. Huge amount of extra points.
Looks like you have got everything covered. I think anyone who still has a problem with it is just a sad, cynical butthole.

Massive props to GOG.Thank you for easily being the greatest company I have ever dealt with, by far.
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kaileeena: Guys like you surprise me.
Well, I thought gog's first decision was reasonable, because it allowed more flexibility. The communitys objections (which is usually not the majority, merely the loudest) were based on stinginess and feeling offended by a "broken promise", which I find most unreasonable.
Somehow this is confusing to me, yet it brings back to one of my previous posts that if you ended up wanting to pay in USD then you could for a game, but local currency was also an option to avoid fees. This just clarifies that.
I bought many games on Steam instead of GoG because of its regional prices.
It's sad that GoG will not have them.
Seems like I'm slightly late for the party. Because there's a celebration party, isn't there? Ah, yes, there it is. Kinda far though.

Anyway, pat in the back for you guys. Criticism where it's due, and congratulations when they are deserved. And while I still have to think about this for a bit, it looks to be the second one.
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Licurg: I'm not entirely happy about this, because it would mean GOG is losing money, and if a lot of new games using this are added, and they sell well, it might be too much of a financial strain. How about making this optional ? So that way, people who have the "unfair" pricing, but don't really care about the money, can choose to not get "compensated" ?
I guess they could add a donation option for that. I for myself am happy about this and I'm sure we'll be able to support gog in this.
I find that the ones that badmouth GOG the most tend to be the ones that quietly come crawling on here for their own DRM fix.

But I'm glad that GOG is sticking to it's core princliples. Games companies do eventually cave-in on their demands when they see the bottom line on their accounts isn't as good as it should be. So GOG has no worries about not getting the games coming in.

This is how it should always be on GOG. There'll come a point as GOG grows that developers will be falling over each other to get their titles on here.

But please, please! Don't ever sell GOG to some arse of a company like Amazon, Twitter, or Google - that would be a disaster!
I had faith in GOG's decision to grow their brand, as they know their business better than anyone.

but, I guess I was wrong

apparently the collective (and unaccountable) moaners on the internet know how to do it even better.

well-played,

moan on.


on an unrelated note, anyone know of the best place to get a gunshot wound in the foot treated?