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General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
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Posted February 21, 2014
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. :)
Posted February 21, 2014
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Well, "regional pricing is the standart" is no argument. DRM is the standart as well. While I agree that DRM free is more important than fair pricing, I think GOGs responsibility to it's customers is more important than making an extra buck.

GOG has been kind of a "rebel" platform and that attitude got it pretty far, you should embrace it instead of making it compromisable.

So, thumbs down for the news. Anyway, just never ever again claim to have fair pricing - thats a lie from now on.
Posted February 21, 2014
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xerox2k4: sweet! prices in Canadian dollars no more getting raped by inflated exchange rates
'Eventually.' Until then, GOG will take the Canadian price of a regionally priced game and convert it to USD so that you can pay a transaction fee to convert your Canadian dollars to USD in order to buy the game at its Canadian price.
Posted February 21, 2014
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Ralackk: http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2011/11/21/gog-director-explains-the-distributors-new-direction-how-good-old-principles-still-apply/
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RS1978: "Why should I care about the rubbish I talked yesterday?" :p
2011 is hardly yesterday, but you are correct; this is pretty much in direct contravention for what he said back then. Look for my longer answer up above for why we decided to change.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: -snip-
No offence, but there's a reason why I frown upon marketing people.

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HypersomniacLive: HypersomniacLive: And I will repeat that I don’t appreciate – like at all – the way they introduced regional pricing under the misleading announcement title and the guise of great news – that’s also a practice I was not accustomed to nor expected from GOG.
That more ore less is why.
Posted February 21, 2014
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triock: Regional pricing is not about VAT. ;)
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GabiMoro: When comes to Western and central Europe it mostly is about VAT.
Nope, that's just how you see it. If it was true, then there would be different prices for each EU country.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: The fact that we can routinely pull in a decent percentage of Steam's revenue for new titles
You do realise that by including regional pricing you're actually killing one of your advantages again Steams, so you basicaly shoot yourself into legs instead of pulling that percentages?
Posted February 21, 2014
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Wurzelkraft: This would be true if I had ever seen regional pricing "done right" in the sense of "just adding to it when necessary" but I have yet to see it. Most games with regional pricing are without a doubt overpriced for me since publishers like to assume that 1$=1€. :(
Russian prices being much cheaper is an example of doing it right. When I lived in Georgia everything was half price or less, which was an example of doing it right.

I'm sure it's done wrong in certain cases, I have read about it, but regional pricing itself is not the problem then. BAD regional pricing is the problem. The idea itself is not just logical but beneficial when used correctly.
Posted February 21, 2014
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GOG.com: to bring you new titles from fantastic bigger studios
Does that mean I'll be able to get the likes of Bioshock, Mirror's Edge or New Vegas DRM-free from this site by the end of the year? I hope this isn't just introduced because of some diva devs/publishers, who don't want to be arsed into creating a non-Steamworks version of their latest shovelware effort.
Post edited February 21, 2014 by fronzelneekburm
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: ....
TBH, you guys have lost a ton of credibility over the years with these changes. Growth is great, but I can't promote you guys the way that I used to because you've tossed just about everything that made you different.

And quite frankly, with some of these stupid 24 hour micro promos and abrupt strategy change, I don't even think you guys respect us any more.
Posted February 21, 2014
I have several questions. What will be an acceptable difference in regional pricing between regions for GOG? certain AAA publishers screw over Australians hard...2k, Ea , Activision.... actually many of them but ones mentioned are worse.
Is there a solid guarantee it will only affect AAA at launch? what about when those said games are in Gog sales?
what about gifting?. Consumer should have right to work around some of the ripoff prices charged
I'm trying not to knee jerk but the price differences charged for US v EU v Aussies can be quite huge and unfair.
Having said that I come here for old classics and rarely buy AAA games....I hope as a trade off with said publishers u guys able to get their back catalog DRM free for sales.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: -snip-
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Darvond: No offence, but there's a reason why I frown upon marketing people.

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HypersomniacLive: HypersomniacLive: And I will repeat that I don’t appreciate – like at all – the way they introduced regional pricing under the misleading announcement title and the guise of great news – that’s also a practice I was not accustomed to nor expected from GOG.
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Darvond: That more ore less is why.
As a marketing person, I'll try not to take offense. :P
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TheEnigmaticT: The fact that we can routinely pull in a decent percentage of Steam's revenue for new titles
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navara: You do realise that by including regional pricing you're actually killing one of your advantages again Steams, so you basicaly shoot yourself into legs instead of pulling that percentages?
Well, no. Most of these new indie titles aren't regionally priced. So that's a pretty clear indication that's *not* the reason why we're doing so well in comparison to Steam.
Post edited February 21, 2014 by TheEnigmaticT
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: It can be problematic to make bold statements. "Flat pricing worldwide" was definitely a bold one, and you can see it's gotten us into some trouble today. :)

The problem for us is looking at the future of GOG.com and DRM-free gaming. We could, I suppose, settle into our niche as "that place that sells old games", and let it be.

We have bigger dreams than that. We started by selling new games DRM-free with The Witcher 2, and when that experiment worked out well for us--well in this case meaning "we earned money" we realized that we were on to something. The fact that we can routinely pull in a decent percentage of Steam's revenue for new titles--despite the face that we're a small fraction of their size means that we're doing something special. Now, GOG.com is a special place, so that's not incredibly shocking to me. Since almost all of these games that we are selling so well are sold at the same price everywhere in the world, it's not our pricing that's making a difference.

This makes sense to us, because we believe that DRM-free is different and important. So then the question becomes, if we're looking to grow, to be more than we are, and to make things different not just for us but also for other games around the world, how can we advance the DRM-Free Revolution? The best way we could think of to do that is to bring AAA games that are being released on their launch day to GOG.com, and to show that these games will sell well without DRM. That they won't be pirated any more than a game will because it's the Internet.

This is a risky call. I think big decisions are always risky. It may even be it's the wrong call. We'll find that out as we move forward. But this is us saying that we believe in the DRM-Free Revolution enough that we think it's the plan for us going forward. We think that making GOG.com the premier place to get games without DRM is what's most important for us.

It was a hard call, because it is a big change and it does involve us changing something that's been a part of us since we launched. Without making this call, the kind of transformative change that we think is important to keep GOG.com growing and to bring DRM-Free gaming to more people simply won't happen. So many new games are tied up in legal requirements thanks to retail partnerships that mandate regional pricing that anything almost every quality new release would be inaccessible to us.

We hope that this is the right move for us. We hope that you guys, the people who've brought us to where we are, will agree with this choice once you get the chance to see it in action. Time will tell, and we'll be listening to as we go. This is new territory for both you and us, and we're looking forward to exploring it together.
Agreed... 100% way to go GOG. :)
Posted February 21, 2014
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Wurzelkraft: This would be true if I had ever seen regional pricing "done right" in the sense of "just adding to it when necessary" but I have yet to see it. Most games with regional pricing are without a doubt overpriced for me since publishers like to assume that 1$=1€. :(
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StingingVelvet: Russian prices being much cheaper is an example of doing it right. When I lived in Georgia everything was half price or less, which was an example of doing it right.

I'm sure it's done wrong in certain cases, I have read about it, but regional pricing itself is not the problem then. BAD regional pricing is the problem. The idea itself is not just logical but beneficial when used correctly.
There's definitely good regional pricing, but I'm willing to wager that we're not going to get that. Mostly because this is a case of giving the publishers something. I liked the previous price structure where I had a good idea of what would work on my machine and a good idea of what the game would cost, either $5.99, $9.99 or some sale price.
Posted February 21, 2014
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Important question to TheEnigmaticT:
Will you change your Privacy Policy now?
Post edited February 21, 2014 by makr3la
Posted February 21, 2014
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Wurzelkraft: This would be true if I had ever seen regional pricing "done right" in the sense of "just adding to it when necessary" but I have yet to see it. Most games with regional pricing are without a doubt overpriced for me since publishers like to assume that 1$=1€. :(
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Aver: It's because in Europe they have to pay Vat (19% on GOG, 15% on Steam). That's why it's 1$ = 1€.

In US you don't have VAT, some of states have similar taxes and customers in those states have to pay more.
It is not. A 40$ game should never be a 40€ game. You may ask why and I'll show you. 40$ are 29.15€ after currency conversion. Now after adding the 19% tax it'll be 34.69€. Is that 40€? No! Is it 40$? Not quite, but it'd be a fair price if you consider the tax situation.
But what do some publishers do? They think 1$ is 1€ and that is, and excuse my language right here, bullshit.
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Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)