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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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Darvond: Why does something like this even need a NDA? Do we even need pre-orders or day one launches?
Blame the people who wanted new AAA games on GOG :/
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: So "at this moment" means that we don't have any plans for this at all. But we only have plans for the immediate future, as far as Japan is involved, so I can't say that it will never change.
Sure. Though I would have derived a little bit of comfort if GOG at least planned on not allowing region locking. Anywhere and not just Japan (which I specifically asked about earlier).
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheGreenFairy: but please don't allow that abysmal retroactive region locking that Steam did recently. That thing is essentially a scam;
As far as I know this was undone for most of the affected games shortly after it was set, it might have been a mistake.
Posted February 21, 2014
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Chacranajxy: Yes, never mind all the good things GOG has introduced within the last year. Who cares that the games are DRM free, that they've brought us a lot of good old, modern, and indie games, the fantastic sales, the 30-day money back policy?
Within the last year? You haven't been around much since you signed up, have you?
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Chacranajxy: No, fuck them. Clearly, this compromise they've made to bring us more games they couldn't bring us before due to legal agreements (which, believe it or not, kids, they have to comply with) was just them gearing up to completely screw us over. Exactly.
Take a wild guess at what will happen now. How many games without regional pricing do you think will be released from now on? How long before the rest of the existing catalog has regional pricing introduced?
Posted February 21, 2014
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Kennethor: This is all it boils down to. I wouldn't have bought many games if they weren't cheap. Everybody that has an internet connection can get any game 100% free and drm-free. Not legal of course but they can. Why increase the prices knowing this? It's just stupid.
For steam at least I have bundles. For GOG in my eyes the future is grimm. Most new games will land in a bundle anyway at some point. And GOG prices were never the lowest, but at least they were the same for everyone.
Posted February 21, 2014
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Darvond: Why does something like this even need a NDA? Do we even need pre-orders or day one launches?
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Niggles: Blame the people who wanted new AAA games on GOG :/
IE: A very small minority that wasn't even that vocal? A minor minority that is massively outweighed?
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blotunga: ^This...
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scampywiak: Yeah, I'm sure DRM is just around the corner....

Jesus christ you guys. They've offered so much over the years and the second something goes awry you're at their heels like rabid dogs.
Slippery slope principle.
Post edited February 21, 2014 by Darvond
Posted February 21, 2014
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crazy_dave: To be fair, one-world pricing was fair for some countries and unfair for others (exchange rate and domestic purchasing power are not always correlated). And regional pricing done right can be actually better for some places (though it never is so I'm not sure why I even brought it up especially since the publishers will be in control of the regional pricing).

I'm glad that GOG is trying to get release day games to show that DRM isn't necessary, HOWEVER, I have to join the chorus and ask how GOG is planning on implementing regional pricing? Even with Geo-IP, there is no DRM on these games and users can simply VPN to different countries that offer the best pricing deals. Basically I see a lot of GOG user base suddenly becoming Russians.

Soooo ... how exactly is this going to work?
The solution is simple: don't offer cheaper prices, just hike up the price for EU/Aus/wherever. I bet that's what is going to happen.
Posted February 21, 2014
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Really disappointing move. One of the best things on GOG was one world one price. Sad to see that is gone now and trying to sell that as a good news is just sh...
Maybe it´s time to look for some alternatives to GOG and backup my collection, who knows how long you will keep the other aspects up that made your store unique.
Posted February 21, 2014
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crazy_dave: To be fair, one-world pricing was fair for some countries and unfair for others (exchange rate and domestic purchasing power are not always correlated). And regional pricing done right can be actually better for some places (though it never is so I'm not sure why I even brought it up especially since the publishers will be in control of the regional pricing).

I'm glad that GOG is trying to get release day games to show that DRM isn't necessary, HOWEVER, I have to join the chorus and ask how GOG is planning on implementing regional pricing? Even with Geo-IP, there is no DRM on these games and users can simply VPN to different countries that offer the best pricing deals. Basically I see a lot of GOG user base suddenly becoming Russians.

Soooo ... how exactly is this going to work?
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blotunga: To be unfair, my purchasing power is 1/10th of an average US citizen still I have to pay 40% more on Steam for games. I'll just go back to pirating at this rate.
I understand, but say ... the French and Brits also get the reduced Euro rate as you do with the same purchasing power as the US. Regional pricing done right have a different price for every countries economy - just as a local shop would have. In fact, it would be a better deal for you than the one world price because it would reflect your actually purchasing power, not your Euro status.

So I agree I'm just pointing out ... regional pricing could be done to reflect local purchasing power and be the most fair for everyone. But note that I also said no one does that.
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crazy_dave: To be fair, one-world pricing was fair for some countries and unfair for others (exchange rate and domestic purchasing power are not always correlated). And regional pricing done right can be actually better for some places (though it never is so I'm not sure why I even brought it up especially since the publishers will be in control of the regional pricing).

I'm glad that GOG is trying to get release day games to show that DRM isn't necessary, HOWEVER, I have to join the chorus and ask how GOG is planning on implementing regional pricing? Even with Geo-IP, there is no DRM on these games and users can simply VPN to different countries that offer the best pricing deals. Basically I see a lot of GOG user base suddenly becoming Russians.

Soooo ... how exactly is this going to work?
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Dreadz: The solution is simple: don't offer cheaper prices, just hike up the price for EU/Aus/wherever. I bet that's what is going to happen.
Except some country has to have the cheaper regional pricing relative to someone else at which point everyone VPN's to that country. There is no way around this (except as has been pointed with DRM).
Post edited February 21, 2014 by crazy_dave
Posted February 21, 2014
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crazy_dave:
In theory you're right, it would be an advantage. In practice as it is today it's a huge disadvantage.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: That's out of our hands, as I already indicated; regional pricing for publishers or devs is in their hands.
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Wishbone: Are there any of your so-called "principles" you didn't throw out the window today?
I understand that this change is one that people will be concerned about, particularly because the nature of this announcement is that we can't give complete answers to every question simply because we don't have answers to all of your questions ourselves.

But I guess it's worth asking: when we rolled out new games in 2012, a lot of people were really concerned. I saw a lot of comments like the ones here in this thread. Since then we've released games like System Shock 2, the WIzardry series, the Leisure Suit Larry series, Neverwinter Nights 2, I Have No Mouth and I must Scream, the complete Wing Commander series, and many more classics. I think we did an excellent job of adopting a new type of release on GOG.com while still sticking to the classics that we have been known for since we started. I think users who trusted us to keep our word that we would continue to release great classics even though we were releasing newer games as well found that we have rewarded that trust in spades.

Here we have said, "This is a big change, and it's one that we know will worry you. We're excited about the games that will be coming to GOG.com, and we're promising that we will do everything that we can to keep our regional pricing fair for everyone." At some point, doesn't the fact that we've been fighting the good fight for 5 years give us any earned trust on the part of our community? We will do what we can to make regional pricing as fair as possible. Trust us, for the moment, and see what happens.

Over the last 5 years, I believe that we have shown ourselves to be a company that is relentlessly focussed on treating our customers better than anyone else in the industry does. We think this change can be something that's good for you, because you'll find great games DRM-free on GOG.com that wouldn't be DRM-free without this. These games are going to be the same price everywhere in the world, except GOG.com will be giving something for you guys out of our pockets to help make up the difference between regional prices.

I understand that the lack of clarity for our policy is bringing confusion, and confusion brings a certain amount of fear with it. I ask that you--and the rest of the guys in the thread--think about our track record of how we treat our gamers with respect. What you're feeling is understandable, and I've found myself in the same situation before. I've found that the track record of the organization that's making promises is worth keeping in mind in circumstances like this, and I think our established history speaks for itself in that regard.
Posted February 21, 2014
So regional pricing is becoming a thing now, you say? Well, I can see trading for games rather than buying directly becoming much more of a thing for me in the very near future. It's bad enough that I have to put up with vastly inflated prices for physical copies (a new release that would be $60 in America can be as much as $120 over here), there's no way I'm just going to put up with that nonsense online, where it's fairly trivial to circumvent such arbitrary price-gouging.
Posted February 21, 2014
It's regional Pricing here in Australia that and certain games that were banned here for no good reason that I get on E-bay and get them shipped from places like great Britain the EU singapore and the USA it's MUCH MUCH Cheaper then buying here and I can get games NOW that I can't get over here because of ANAL Censorship Laws in the Northern Territory and ACT they have R18+ and X18+ I'd love to have X18+ rated games that means witcher 2 WOULD NOT HAVE been Censored like it was! LAWL!
Posted February 21, 2014
You guys HAVE done a great job over the years, but this strikes me as a sad turn of events (even though it's not likely to affect me,) and I really hope that you do the best you can with it.
Post edited February 21, 2014 by mkell_226
Posted February 21, 2014
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blotunga: Can GOG afford its European userbase? Most of us were fans of the "One world, one price" thing. Now GOG will become just another online store.
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Pheace: I think the most important point in possibly losing EU customers, is considering whether they would be willing to pay regional prices or not. And seeing the sales chart for Steam this month I'd say we're absolutely fine with doing so.

Steam's sales are 41% US, 40% EU, and the rest spread among the others (with Brazil and RU as growing markets, for various reasons, one being local currency implementation, the more obvious one being the resale of games from those markets to people from EU/US/AU etc with the ingame trading system)

Yet, despite the above mentioned possibility to get games for less through Steam trading, EU is still a massive part of the sales percentage. Clearly we're buying the regionally priced games anyway.
That ignores the central question: why buy from GOG once it stops offering a fair price? Fair pricing was a major reason why I started using GOG. And today even Steam is offering some DRM-free games.

Basically GOG managed to kill its single unique feature that set it apart from other digital stores. I can get extra goodies on Steam. And achievements. And cloud saves. And so much more... The only thing GOG had going for it was the fair price.
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Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)