Okay, that's fair, but I still don't think it's fair to categorize legitimate complaints as "bitching and moaning."

If your choice of dealing with it is to just stop buying, fine. Others may decide it might be effective to lodge a complaint, and usually the more complaints that are lodged, the more likely the receiver is to listen to them. So maybe it will take 740 pages of complaints to make that happen, or maybe it will take 74,000 pages, or maybe it doesn't matter how many people complain they won't change their policy.

But as far as I can tell from past experience complaints sometimes work, so I just feel like labeling everyone that lodges a legitimate complaint as bitching and moaning and whiners (not you I now but others) is unfair. And doing something one way forever and then changing it results in legitimate complaints if the new way in any way harms someone, and I'd say paying more is a form of harm.

I'm sorry if I'm being an ass, but if just seems like so many of us (me very much included) could sure use a little more empathy. I feel for those outside the US regarding this change, and if I can do anything to help them I will. The least I can do is not minimize their legitimate complaints.

But isn't it also nice to vent a little bit and say so once before you are going to stop buying or when you are angry about them. This bitching and moaning has the nice effect that GOG very well knows what its customers feel. Invaluable feedback.

Yeah, well, I prefer English version of the game...mostly because localization into my language is 90% of time crap. I want to play the same price as others pay for English version. I would not mind to pay extra (e.g. $1-$5 for a logalization subtitles or audio). I mind paying more for the same content. There is no justification for that.

Well, thank you very much for your answers. I may not like everything I've read (as someone who is strongly against region locking, I find the fact that we are going to start seeing region restrictions and censored versions disheartening; yes, it happened with The Witcher 2, but at least in that case, the people who's region was stuck with a censored version had a way to obtain the uncensored one), but I do appreciate the fact that you replied.

After some deliberation, I've decided on the following course of action. For the time being, I'm going to remain a customer of GOG. For now, they are still maintaining their strict no-DRM policy (although, should that ever change, I'm out of here for certain; I didn't start using GOG in order to get a "Steam Lite" service), which is the most important part for me. They've also assured us that, in spite of this announcement, they will push for flat pricing whenever possible (and hopefully, they will do the same in regards to games being region free and no censorship); I believe them on the account of the fact that they are European gamers themselves and thus understand the problems regional pricing tends to cause. Lastly, even if I may not like it, I do recognise why regional pricing is necessary to bring more DRM-free games to the service.

However, as Newton's third law of motion states (and I don't think it's something that solely applies to physics), "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". GOG's action is to implement regional pricing and discard their former policy of flat pricing. My own reaction to this is that, from now on, I will apply further restrictions to what GOG titles I'm willing to purchase. Specifically, I will not purchase a game that is on GOG if:

a) it isn't available worldwide - it doesn't matter if the affected country is Poland, Cyprus, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Mauritania, Papua New Guinea, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Mexico, Palau....whatever. If there are gamers who are barred from purchasing a game on GOG on account of their location, I will refrain from purchasing it myself. While I'm perfectly aware that this is often a result of legal hurdles, placing artificial barriers goes against the spirit and principle of the worldwide web and (by extension) digital distribution and restricts free trade. On top of that, unlike console gaming, PC gaming has always been about freedom, which is why DRM-free games are so important; as such. Region locking has no place on the platform and regional pricing is no justification for it.

People can call me overly idealistic, naive or even extremist if they want, but I cannot in good conscious support titles with such limitations in place. If an Inuit, after a tiring day of hunting, goes to his igloo to sit down behind his computer, buy a game on GOG and play it, he should be able to!

b) if it has an (extremely) censored version and the people affected have no (legal) means to obtain an uncensored one - the reasoning behind this is much the same as the one I provided before. Consumers being artificially limited to a censored version of the game goes against the principles of both PC gaming and free trade. Again, I'm perfectly aware this is more often than not a result of legal policies from certain governments, but...again, I cannot in good conscience endorse titles which try to force certain consumers to play a censored version even when they don't wish to do so. In the past, such people had the option to import a game and play the game in its intended form; they should have such an option today as well.

Another reason why I made this restriction isn't just my own principles, but also the sympathy I have for German, Australian, Japanese and other consumers who have to deal with this kind of stuff. Every time I think of this subject, I remember how German consumers were artificially restricted to the German version of Call of Duty: Black Ops even if they imported their copy or how the German/French version of I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream was censored to the point that it prevented the players from reaching the Good Ending. Even as someone who is personally unaffected by this kind of stuff, I do not think it's right that certain consumers don't have alternatives.

Anyway, those are my new restrictions. I don't think anyone will care and it's entirely possible I might regret even settling on that, but currently, I feel that this is the wisest course of action. Now let's see how GOG handles this whole thing.

I still give them the credit that they try to bring together their ideals and a reality that is very much different from the ideals. It's hard and you have to make sacrifizes. However I feel there is a red line at some point where the price is just too high. At this point you aren't what you were anymore. I feel this line is close and they have to be careful. The insane promos are put me off - I felt that prices are actually arbitrary - they have no real meaning anymore. Makes me wanting to shoot the marketing guru who invented artificial shortage. But I don't see it as a decisive step yet.

My summary: GOG I'm only half happy with you anymore. Try to recover your ideals again and think about that they mean in a modern world (like absolute compensation for regional pricing by fully flexible store credit and promos that last at least two days for each game and are not tied to a number of items sold)..
The logic is different. Only german speaking users interested in the german language version should be paying for the german localization, so regional pricing would actually make sense.

Hmmm, I hope I am not contradicting my firm stance against regional prices in this thread... .

Retail will be handled by Namco Bandai for both Europe and Australia. Does Namco Bandai love regional pricing? Did they handle retail of The Witcher 2 with regional pricing? Did they take CDPR and GOG to court over violation of their no_undermining_of_retail_regional_pricing agreement?

If you answered "yes" to the above questions, what makes you think that it's going to play out differently with The Witcher 3?


GOG had mentioned in one of their videos the percentage that certain countries/ regions (US, Europe and Australia) represent of their total customer base, but I can’t find it; I also can’t for the life of me remember the exact numbers, but I vaguely remember Europe + Australia not being that much behind the US (if someone knows what video I’m referring to, please post a link). So, I hope that you’re wrong about the first part of this, as that would mean that Europe and Australia have become (always were?) irrelevant to GOG’s business or/ and its amount of success.

The idea behind is certainly not this. It's regional pricing they want to do not regional versioning. These two things can probably be implemented completely independent from each other.

I'm American, so if anything this barely affects me. But it's still disgusting to watch someone give up on one of their own principles. Did they forget that they made an ad on youtube explicitly saying regional pricing was a ripoff? If they don't believe in it anymore they may as well take it down and stop lying.

Incidentally, I suspect that several of those titles are being held back by forbidding regional pricing. By allowing regional pricing, they would be more likely to be released here...

It should be up to the community to decide, moving forward, what path should be followed.

I live in a country that most certainly will be affected by this pricing change so, trust me when I say I can empathize with the people being angry and frustrated. I'm not particularly happy about this change, myself, but like I said before, if you're being rude and uncivil, you're going to get rude and uncivil responses to your attitudes. I more than welcome discussing and objecting principle changes, just as long as it's done in a civil manner, trying to promote discussion. The truth is that the vast majority of people -- validly, for sure -- complaining have been very immature, rude, self-centered, self-entitled, patronizing and downright stupid about this.

Am I happy about this change of policy? Certainly not. Do I think this announcement was the most honest way GOG could have come up with letting us know of the change, coating it under some "good news" dressing? Hell, no. But, I repeat, don't they deserve at least a bit of our trust, after all they've done? I think they do. Is it worrying? Yes. But nothing happened yet, so people should give a rest to that chest, which is to say... calm their tits, and let's wait and see. That's all I think we should do, give GOG the benefit of the doubt, stop thinking the worst possible outcome will definitely come to happen, and see for ourselves where this leads us. If things do go awry, then, let's vote with our wallets and show GOG and the publishers we are not happy with them.

If they come with regional pricing within the next months then it was like this. Later it just might be that publishers who just love regional pricing can establish regional pricing here and GOG lost all chances of over have worldwide prices for new games. The proverbial: give them an inch and they take a yard. Then you wouldn't know anymore if these games would have come to GOG without regional pricing.

Yesterday just might be the end of an era.

Actually this thread has been very civil and constructive despite the size its grown to, the tumult surrounding this situation, and the amount of people who have come here to express their thoughts on this matter. Many people have posted their thoughts constructively and all without being too harsh on the situation. The overarching feeling from this thread is one of disappointment and shock, but not anger or resent and the amount of attacks have been minimal. There's been hardly any bitching and moaning. The most derogatory comments have come from those taking issue with those who were made upset by this.

I can understand the frustration, but this is the important thing to read and remember here:

"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."

GOG is basically in the same position that a company like Netflix is in, they are a retailer and they have to get permission from the game studios to sell games. As such, they have to make some compromises to get certain games on here. Their opinion on regional pricing is noted, but they don't really have much say in the matter. If you have a problem with regional pricing, write to the publishers/developers and let them know what you think. Boycott them if you are so inclined. But it isn't GOG's fault.

Oh, I know and I agree. But EnigmaticT made it pretty clear that they're willing to do so if they deem it to be necessary, hence why I added that as a restriction. Obviously, I'm hoping this will (almost) never be the case.

Plus, I also think it probably won't be necessary (most of the time) in GOG's case. Since GOG has its HQ in Poland and its servers in Cyprus, it doesn't really count as a German/Australian/insert other censorship-loving country here retailer and thus shouldn't really be subject to the censorship laws of those countries. By comparison, Valve does have Steam servers in Germany.

There's a very simple fix to this and it's to not sell games by publishers who require regional pricing. I'm sure GOG gets by just fine on sales of their, well, good old games. Refusing to buy them, if nothing else then on GOG, is the closest thing to a real message that can be sent.