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The DRM-Free Revolution Continues with Big Pre-Orders and Launch Day Releases!

Good news! GOG.com is going to bring you more fantastic launch day releases, preorders, and other exciting new content from some of our favorite developers. We've lined up 3 big titles that we will be bringing to GOG.com in the next couple of months for sale or preorder that we think will be hits with all of our gamers; and we have more equally exciting games coming up soon.

If you've been a member of the site for a long time, you may recall that when we launched sales of The Witcher 2 on GOG.com, we had to add in regional pricing. The game cost different amounts in in the US, the UK, the European Union, and Australia. We're doing something like that once again in order to bring you new titles from fantastic bigger studios. Since we don't accept currencies other than USD on GOG.com right now, we'll be charging the equivalent of the local price in USD for these titles. 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. We're doing this because we believe that there's no better way to accomplish our overall goals for DRM-Free gaming and GOG.com. We need more games, devs, and publishers on board to make DRM-Free gaming something that's standard for all of the gaming world!

That brings with it more good news, though! As mentioned, we have three games we're launching soon with regional pricing--two RPGs and a strategy game--and while we can't tell you what they are yet because breaking an NDA has more severe penalties than just getting a noogie, we're confident that you'll be as excited about these games as we are. For a limited time, we will be offering anyone who pre-orders or buys one of them a free game from a selection as a gift from GOG.com, just like we did for The Witcher 2.

If you have any questions, hit us up in the comments below and we'll be happy to answer (to the best of our ability).

EDIT: Since we've answered a lot of the common questions already here (and lest you think that we've ignored you), it may be handy for you to check out the forum thread about this and search for staff answers by clicking this link here. (hat tip to user Eli who reminded us that the feature even exists. :)
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hedwards: The whole business of doing something like this that they know damn well is going to piss off a huge portion of their customer base without bothering to do any poling or research is deeply disturbing
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mangamuscle: IMO "Huge" is only wishful thinking, it one scans this thread there are few people (two or three hundred) posting and if one checks the gog wishlist not many people have adhered to the "let's gog adhere to their core values". Truth is that at the end of the day they are trying to appease us loyal fans because they have integrity, if they were like your average corporation you will not see them at all posting on these messageboards.
There is some truth to that.
but you cant really blame people for being pissed off though.
with that said i havent seen any other online store catering to the customers in the degree that Gog have done regardless of any other mistakes they migth have done, they still have that.
even steam that is a powerhouse doesnt bother to reply in trheads that much.

Though im still pissed off.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by Lodium
L O L
high rated
Age of Wonders III...

As an excuse to introduce regional pricing...

YOU.
MUST.
BE.
FUCKING.
KIDDING.
ME.
Yeah, another 1 usd =1 eur BS :/
Are you fucking kidding me? OH MY.....
Down with this sort of thing!
Still awaiting the letter that may go some way to explain this whole debacle, but still the time was found to announce the first of these supposed 'AAA' titles?
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Mr_GeO: Age of Wonders III...

As an excuse to introduce regional pricing...

YOU.
MUST.
BE.
KIDDING.
ME.
QFT.

We could have waited a year to get this DRM-free.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by HGiles
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Mr_GeO: Age of Wonders III...

As an excuse to introduce regional pricing...

YOU.
MUST.
BE.
KIDDING.
ME.
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HGiles: QFT.

We could have waited a year to get this DRM-free.
Make that a decade... Or two... Or even better, not at all...
high rated
Did they seriously think Age of Wonders would get us so excited that we wouldn't mind regional pricing? If so, they must have some great drugs at Gog.
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Bloodygoodgames: Because I'm fully of the opinion that when a company that has spent years loudly declaring its beliefs and putting down others that don't share those beliefs then turns around and goes back on a huge part of what they supposedly 'believed in', and stomps on the customers that made them so successful in the first place while they do it, they deserve as much shit as I can muster.

Plus, it's kind of funny to read some of the responses from people who are obviously so naive that they still hold out some thread of hope that GOG isn't really now going down that dark and nasty, dodgy path few ever thought they would go down.

And it's even funnier, as someone with a background in PR, to see GOG yet again so enormously screw up and then not even have the common courtesy to have their CEO issue a statement - a statement that was promised today I might add - while their customer base sits waiting for it. A statement that anyone with one jot of PR sense would have issued first thing this morning.

It's a classic case that should be studied in marketing and PR classes of exactly what NOT to do if you want to keep a successful business, and your customer base, and my evil little business mind finds it highly informative. :)

Plus, if we bitch loud and long enough, maybe they'll change their minds. If we don't bitch, they definitely won't.

That, and I have several friends on here that I'm talking to :)
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HGiles: Giving a retailer who's provided good service the benefit of the doubt isn't being naive. Nothing substantial has changed since yesterday. There are no regionally priced games on the catalog. All the games are DRM-free.

I think you're right that this is the beginning of GOG changing from the retailer we all know and love into a larger Steam competitor. I agree that we probably won't like all of the changes that will entail. I fully expect at some point to stop buying from GOG unless that is handled exceptionally well. But the level of acrimony you bring to this conversation is frankly unnecessary. Your hypocrisy and arrogance are off-putting. The way you use juvenile tactics to get attention makes you seem childish. You are *way* over-reacting, and insulting everyone who disagrees with you.

People *have* been bugging GOG for games under regional distribution agreements. Many of the older games on the wishlist were distributed under regional pricing, or are currently under regional pricing. There's no way for GOG to release those games without doing regional pricing. People just didn't think through what they were asking for.

The missing letter is pretty damming. I've said it before and I'll say it again, GOG does not understand how to keep operations running smoothly. Technical problems linger, and management makes major communications blunders. That's fine for a small company selling outdated games. It's not fine for someone who wants to play with the big boys.
In regards to your "companies change" argument I would respectfully disagree. Trying to battle the likes of Steam and Origin at their own game is a losing company strategy. I mean look at the update situation going on with GOG. People barely know whats updated on the site. Steam and Origin do the updating for you. Steam and Origin have carved their markets since they were the only kids on the block doing digital distribution/updating for a long time. That same recipe won't work since for the new company that tries this, those benefits I just mentioned (like being the only ones doing it) won't be there this time around. Origin only exists because it has the backing of a huge company like EA who has to resort to getting game exclusives like Mass Effect 3 to get sales.

GOG's market is one that wasn't interested in a Steam or Origin set up nor a site merely devoted to selling keys as we've seen happen to some distributors unfortunately. If it was, the customers would be dealing with those people, not GOG. If your a big company and the only kid on the block doing something (like Steam or Origin) then you can force customers to sort of accept the changes (like regional pricing). It's not ethical in my book, but it's how that goes down. GOG was built differently in customer base and policy. Consequently angering the userbase with a change without talking to them about it was probably a bad idea and one they should seriously consider rescinding if at all possible (remember the bulk of GOG's customers are not people that would just buy Steam or Origin games and then call it a day).

What brought me to this site (and I'm sure a large portion of others) was the fact they got old games working on modern OS's that are DRM free and one price anywhere in the world with a large group of indies in the mix. If I wanted AAA multiplayer games, I would buy it on Steam or Origin since they can update the game way easier than I could do with an installer. I've went ahead and rebought games I had on Steam on GOG simply to have the DRM free, universally priced, and often times much better version game.
At least we know it's not an American company involved in this first game, so those of you who hate the US on principle can give it a rest. For once, we seem not to be the cause of your anguish.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by RawSteelUT
Age of Wonders III look like an awesome game. But even without regional pricing it still quite expensive. Doesn't matter anyway, not that any other titles would've sweeten the situation.
But at least the dollar region will get a competitively priced nice AA game, sucessor of true classics, right from release day and DRM free. That is already something.

We have to see at the positive sides.
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HGiles: QFT.

We could have waited a year to get this DRM-free.
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Djungelurban: Make that a decade... Or two... Or even better, not at all...
The other AoW games are already on GOG. It would have shown up here eventually. The AoW games are good games and should be here.

In the meantime, we play the other 3 AoW games in the catalog. This one didn't change anything major. It's just a graphics update with some gameplay tweaks AFAIK.

Definitely wasn't worth sacrificing the region-free pricing for this. GOG just opened up a huge can of worms and sacrificed one of their major advantages over Steam or GamersGate for a minor strategy game and 2 probably equally disappointing RPGs.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by HGiles