From MaGog's logs for 24 June:

* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regAU: $19.89 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regBR: $15.99 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regCH: $23.99 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regCZ: $17.39 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regDE: $23.99 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regGB: $24.39 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regNO: $23.99 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regNZ: $19.89 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regPL: $17.39 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regRU: $9.19 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regSE: $23.99 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regUA: $9.19 instead of $21.99
* Regional price for Trine 3: The Artifacts of Power pre-order in regUZ: $9.19 instead of $21.99

* Regional price for Venom. Codename: Outbreak in regRU: $4.79 instead of $5.99
* Regional price for Venom. Codename: Outbreak in regUA: $4.79 instead of $5.99
* Regional price for Venom. Codename: Outbreak in regUZ: $4.79 instead of $5.99

You should probably direct this question to IAmListMastar.

If that's "early access", then GOG is selling "early access" games for more than three years now.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general_archive/playable_preview_resonance/page1

haven't know that, thanks. so its not early access, whats the difference then?

From MaGog's logs for 25 June:

* Regional price for Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri in regRU: $2.79 instead of $5.99
* Regional price for Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri in regUA: $2.79 instead of $5.99
* Regional price for Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri in regUZ: $2.79 instead of $5.99

I'm not an expert on that matter, but I would define "early access" as system where the developer starts to sell the game during early development (alpha or sometimes even pre-alpha) and gives you access to the work-in-progress. He uses the money to develop the game. Quite often you have no idea what kind of game you will get and you have no guarantee that there will be a finished product in the end.

Here we have a nearly finished game (it will come out in three or four months) that is probably completely financed. You can pre-order it and when you do so, you'll get the ability to play one early build (like the demo versions back then). If you don't like it, you can cancel your pre-order and get your money back.

Early Access = Pay money and hope that there will be a game that you like some day in the future.
Trine 3 Pre-Order = Pre-order a nearly finished game, test it and if you don't like it, get your money back.

Well put. Not that it matters, with the pricing as it is, but still.

this works, but only theoretical

edit: it does work practically, since i can cancel the preorder!

The real difference, to me, is in money back guarantee, as that should prevent most Early Access bad/scam practices. Of course there's still the case of exclusive bonuses and such, but that's the 'feature' of preorders not Early Access or playable demos or whatever you want to call this thing.

I don't even think that Early Access has to be a terrible thing, I think the pure greed and misconduct had tarnished an idea into the pit it is on Steam right now. It's possible that GOG could do something similar just keeping the thing in check with more restrictive rules. My main fear is the possibility of good news - mandatory galaxy as drm for early access implementation, not the concept of EA one way or the other.

On the other hand, perhaps what they truly want is to reinstate the concept of demos as an answer to Steam's refund policy and EA at the same time (at least for unfinished games) and have no intent to take it further.

you have a good point in there

From MaGog's logs for 26 June:

Can't say whether it is a temporary bug or a revelation, but at the moment "Her Story" is not regionally priced.

From MaGog's logs for 30 June:

* Regional price for Windward in regRU: $10.79 instead of $14.99
* Regional price for Windward in regUA: $10.79 instead of $14.99
* Regional price for Windward in regUZ: $10.79 instead of $14.99

I understand why early access appeals to some people, but it just doesn't appeal to me at all. I see it as not only being an unpaid beta or even alpha tester for a buggy game (which is ok), but PAYING full price for it like it is a privilege. In order for me to even remotely consider trying an Early Access game it would absolutely have to be free at a bare minimum and possibly I'd want compensation for being a QA tester. I wouldn't necessarily expect a free copy of the final game when it comes out however. An example was the way CDPR/GOG did their Witcher Adventure Game beta test. It was free, and you could play it freely up until the game was released at which point the game beta went bye bye and you had to pay to get the final game if you wished. I thought that was a fair deal overall.

But there's absolutely no way that I would personally pay money to be a beta tester for a game that may or may not actually get released and may or may not be stable and complete if it does release, and may or may not ever get patched up if it isn't.

There's no right or wrong choice in doing so either way, it's just my personal choice and what's right for me.

Aside from that, I hate Early Access titles clogging up the promotional spots on Steam as I often didn't notice they were Early Access while looking at them, and some of them stay that way for 1-2 years or more it seems. That's just line noise to my eyes. I think to myself "wake me up when you actually finish the game". Fortunately you can configure them away from eyesight on Steam now and I've done just that so I no longer see Early Access nor Pre-order games anymore on Steam.

If GOG institutes similar functionality here I hope they allow easy configuration so people who don't want to see it don't have to see it. If they do, I've no reservations against them doing it here although I don't think they'd go for an identical Early Access model here that just mirrors the way it is on Steam. I think GOG would more likely raise the bar. Either way though I don't want to see Early Access games myself and as long as I can opt out, I'm not opposed to others having the choice to see them/buy them/whatever.

If they have money back guarantees attached, that is much stronger. If a game sucks or doesn't get completed then everyone simply gets a refund and the publisher hoses themselves instead of hosing all their customers. Win win situation IMHO, and forces publishers to really think about whether they want to risk it, requiring them to have a much more solid plan and confidence to back it up.

Oh I wouldn't buy Early Access myself, I value my time and nerves too much for that, not to mention hundreds of games on my backlog.

My point was that, if it's used as a way to communicate with your fans before release, figure some critical bugs and let fanbase influence the development to an extent, it doesn't necessarily have to hurt the game industry nor gamers (if they enjoy it). Wether it's given as free demo (preferable but potentially giving premature bad publicity from people unaware what alpha/beta means), or as preorder bonus, the important thing to me is to always allow a refund at any point of development, as you're not playing the product you paid for (and said product may not ever exist). As well as having some resemblance of release date, instead of "pay us now and if/when we decide we have milked enough money out of people we'll get around to finish it.

The second part that annoys me is EA that is 5x the cost of the final game. I can't figure for the life of me why people buy such things, nor why they're allowed to. Pay $200 to alpha test a black box...

Either way by keeping money back till release, I think potential good sides of EA could be kept, while preventing scamming potential, as the user could refund for any reason, devs would need to actually care about user satisfaction if they want to use it. And if the project fails entirely, one could just pull out. IMO EA should not be used for funding projects with no guarantee of completion, that's what kickstarters are for, and that's the main problem with current state.

Exactly