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Hey, GOGgers,

We're not perfect, we're exploring new frontiers, and we make mistakes. We thought DRM-Free was so important that you'd prefer we bring you more DRM-Free games and Fair Price was less critical and that it could be sacrificed in some cases. The last two week's worth of comments in our forums (nearly 10k!), show that's not the case. We didn’t listen and we let you down. We shouldn't sacrifice one of our core values in an attempt to advance another. We feel bad about that, and we're sorry. Us being sorry is not of much use to you, so let’s talk about how we will fix it.

One: DRM-free forever. Abandoning fixed regional pricing means it will probably take longer to get some games, but you've made it clear that sacrificing fair pricing for more DRM-free games isn't acceptable.

Two: We will adamantly continue to fight for games with flat worldwide pricing. If that fails and we are required to have regional prices, we will make up the difference for you out of our own pockets. For now it will be with $5.99 and $9.99 game codes. In a couple of months, once we have such functionality implemented, we will give you store credit instead, which then you will be able to use towards any purchase and cover the price of it in full or partially. Effectively gamers from all around the world will be able to benefit from the US prices.

This will apply to every single game where we do not have flat pricing, such as Age of Wonders 3 (full details here), Divinity: Original Sin, and The Witcher 3. If you remember the Fair Price Package for The Witcher 2, this will be exactly the same.

Three: We still intend to introduce the pricing in local currencies. Let us explain why we want to do it and how we want to make it fair for everyone. From the very beginning our intention was to make things easier for users whose credit cards/payment systems are not natively in USD. The advantages are simple because the price is more understandable and easier to relate to. There would be no exchange rates involved, no transaction fees, and no other hidden charges. However after reading your comments, we realized we have taken an important element away: the choice. In order to fix this, we'll offer the option of paying in the local currency or the equivalent in USD. This way, how you pay is always your choice.

Four: You are what matters, and we will be sure to involve you all more in what we're doing and why we're doing it. Let's start by meeting you at GDC - we’d like to invite you to meet us face-to-face Monday the 17th at GDC. Obviously, not all of you can come to San Francisco, so we want to invite all of you to an online event with us early in April to ask us whatever you would like. More details soon.

The bottom line is simple: there may be companies that won't work with us (although we will work hard to convince the most stubborn ones ;). Yes, it means we might miss out on some games, but at the same time GOG.com will remain true to its values and will keep on offering you the best of DRM-free gaming with Fair Prices.

Once again thank you for caring so much about GOG.com. We will work hard not to disappoint you again.

--Marcin "iWi" Iwinski & Guillaume "TheFrenchMonk" Rambourg
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AdrianWerner: ...you're not gaining anything aside fom being able to buy Age of Wonders III cheaper. That's all. It's not like GOG will now acquire all those big games and then make up the difference from their pockets every time. They're not chairity. If they can't get fair pricing they won't get the game at all.

So all we're really getting is less games on GoG and less DRM free games as a whole.
Being able to buy something cheaper is already an important point for many customers. The reason for people being here is not only DRM free but cheap and DRM free. I guess that if GOG can get a really good game but only for unfair conditions they'll still make it but not everytime.

So all we get is a lot of games cheaper while we occasionally might miss a few out, maybe not even that. It's a compromise of course so not everyone will agree with it. But I think that's mostly a much better balanced approach than before.
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vicklemos: Thanks for the tips! I mean it.
Damn I promised myself I wouldn't stir up any kinda "why linux isn't here hate" in the forums :(
I'll try PoL and Crossover asap, I promise! I'm pretty convinced I'll see good results.
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mudd1: I think you'll love it. When I first saw that you can actually change the Wine version per game with like two clicks, I was totally amazed. I also don't know how they manage the Wine version available through PoL but when I was desperately waiting for a fix in Wine to be rolled out in the next release, I was checking the Wine web site hourly. The moment I saw the new version was released, it was already in PoL. Again, amazing.
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Dredd: What online retailer do you know offers WINE support?
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mudd1: I don't know of any. But I would go so far as to say that the majority of indie titles released these days have native Linux support. Having to buy those on Steam to get the Linux port kinda hurts. (Yes, I know many of them are available on the Humble Store, too. For some reason, they often cost three times as much there than they do on Steam or GOG.)

For older games, it's a different story. I understand that packaging games in Wine and supporting that is a hassle and that securing old ports like the Loki games is probably not that easy. I'd still like to see GOG make an effort in that direction but for newer games there is really no good excuse not to support Linux.
Just tried crossover and POL and surely got some interesting results (from junk to gold) for several GOG games.
Thanks again, sir! :)
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vicklemos: Just tried crossover and POL and surely got some interesting results (from junk to gold) for several GOG games.
Thanks again, sir! :)
BTW, one thing you'll probably want to do is run cxdiag (located in /opt/cxoffice/bin if you used the .deb installer, open a terminal & run it) to identify any missing libraries that you may need to install in order for some things to work properly.
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Matruchus: You do know that there is still going to be regional pricing for some of the new games but with new store credit if the price is going to be highter in your region.
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AdrianWerner: I doubt this. At least widespread. From time to time this will happen, but it won't be norm. Most of games which developers/publishers won't agree to flat pricing just won't appear on GOG.
I doubt it will be much of an issue. At best calculations they're only losing slightly on region locked copies, if they are losing anything at all. Any copies sold in $ however will still give the full profit margin. It's quite likely a single $ sale can make up for a multitude of EU sales.

Given that by Steam's latest graphics, EU and US are pretty much split even in sales, it's not out of the realm of reason to assume GOG's playerbase will have a roughly equal split, or at least a split good enough to at the very least cover any expenses they might have from the regionally sold copies.

Given that, it can only benefit GOG to still offer the game as they A) increase their selection of games B) Pull in fans of those games increasing their customer base C) Gain good-will for offering 'compensation' for the lack of fair pricing D) quite possibly still make a profit from that particular game's sales overall.
Post edited March 17, 2014 by Pheace
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vicklemos: Just tried crossover and POL and surely got some interesting results (from junk to gold) for several GOG games.
Thanks again, sir! :)
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adamhm: BTW, one thing you'll probably want to do is run cxdiag (located in /opt/cxoffice/bin if you used the .deb installer, open a terminal & run it) to identify any missing libraries that you may need to install in order for some things to work properly.
I forgot to thank you too, adamhm. Thank you!
I'll check the cxdiag for any missing library, since I had this issue with some of my games :)
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kaileeena: I am sorry , I have no idea how are you quantifying your claims, as you neither have access to GOG stats nor have done any kind of sampling analysis to come to these conclusions. So for any basis of discussion, your claims are as good as mine or any of the others on this forums. The fact that you are giving your claim more merit is puzzling me.

Now assuming your claims are correct that means 2 things:
1) GOG as a company just wanted to be fair to a vocal minority (according to you).
2) GOG is just run by a punch of idiots who have no idea what they are doing and keep switching between position depending on how good was the coffee this morning.

For me I believe that reason #3 makes more sense:
3) GOG has some basis for their decision and your claim has no merit and actually a good percentage of their users care about fair price value (for one reason or another).

You can argue that one world one price is not fair but certainly regional pricing (way its implemented now) is much worse. So until you or someone introduces a fairer method, I believe one world one price is best we have available now.
I'm basing my claims on certain reasoning that I have seen first hand, One being every news site I have ever seen post about GOG refers to them as the "DRM free site with old games" not "the site with flat regional pricing", Two GOG was surprised so many cared of regional pricing over DRM free (+more games) and out of those that did respond and care, it was a small vocal group when compared to the overall user-base of GOG.com. Third, I am part of many gaming groups/forums and I have never once seen someone bring up GOG's flat pricing as a motivation for buying from GOG, it was always because they were either DRM free or because there games play on modern computers.

I never tried to argue which is worse, I simply said there is no fair world pricing... so no system is perfect. As I said though, I'm pretty much done talking on this subject as it getting to point of repeating the same stuff.

What's done is done best to hope for the best outcome for consumers and GOG in the future.
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BKGaming: I'm basing my claims on certain reasoning that I have seen first hand, One being every news site I have ever seen post about GOG refers to them as the "DRM free site with old games" not "the site with flat regional pricing", Two GOG was surprised so many cared of regional pricing over DRM free (+more games) and out of those that did respond and care, it was a small vocal group when compared to the overall user-base of GOG.com. Third, I am part of many gaming groups/forums and I have never once seen someone bring up GOG's flat pricing as a motivation for buying from GOG, it was always because they were either DRM free or because there games play on modern computers.

I never tried to argue which is worse, I simply said there is no fair world pricing... so no system is perfect. As I said though, I'm pretty much done talking on this subject as it getting to point of repeating the same stuff.

What's done is done best to hope for the best outcome for consumers and GOG in the future.
Many are basing by what we have seen as well

The Regional Ripoff: Why Can't Gaming Be Fair? (Youtube)
Post edited March 17, 2014 by Rusty_Gunn
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OldFatGuy: I just want to second ( and will third and fourth it if the comments warrant it) my plea to GoG to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Reinstitute regional pricing on all games, and triple all prices for the US.

I would pay good money for the entertainment of watching the 180 degree turns and reading the pretzel logic of why.
As a USian, I'd be happy to have the universal price keyed to the EU's if it meant a wider selection of new games without DRM. After all, I've saved up so much from my games budget by not buying from Steam that I could afford at least a little bump.
Oops, I originally hit the reply to wrong person (stg83), sorry.

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nadenitza: I might be late to the party but just decided to check GMG to see if there are any good deelz around and was just slapped with this:

https://forums.playfire.com/gmg/thread/120105

I like it when my choice of online gaming distribution providers runs thin :)

Srs GMG... is you serious? How did they expect my country witch is one of the poorest in the EU to pay in GBP's?! Even GoG's decision to charge me euro's only seemed like godsend compared to this... guess am forgetting about GMG existing from now on, lol
Heh, I had never shopped there until after this announcement occurred, and only went there during...ahem.. my "vacation" from purchasing at gog, and boy did I get royally screwed, and pissed. They'll never get another dime off me. I mean it was my fault I got screwed, that's on me for not reading and understanding exactly what capsule was before purchasing two games that required it. I accept being screwed. I was pissed because their capsule is worse than Steam as far as DRM goes. You have to have internet connection every time you want to play it.

So, GMG, (I assume this is GreenManGaming??? If not than disregard LOL), you got a few bucks off me, but you'll never get another.

And though I accept responsibility for being screwed, the FACT is they should make that little information VERY WELL KNOWN on games that require capsule, as in "This game always requires internet access to start" in bold letters under system requirements.
Post edited March 17, 2014 by OldFatGuy
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stg83: Looks like GOG is making news with their trend bucking stance against regional pricing:

www.ign.com/articles/2014/03/17/gog-abandons-regional-pricing-plans

As I am unable to post links it has to be copy pasted in the browser, sorry for the inconvenience.
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OldFatGuy: Heh, I had never shopped there until after this announcement occurred, and only went there during...ahem.. my "vacation" from purchasing at gog, and boy did I get royally screwed, and pissed. They'll never get another dime off me. I mean it was my fault I got screwed, that's on me for not reading and understanding exactly what capsule was before purchasing two games that required it. I accept being screwed. I was pissed because their capsule is worse than Steam as far as DRM goes. You have to have internet connection every time you want to play it.

So, GMG, (I assume this is GreenManGaming??? If not than disregard LOL), you got a few bucks off me, but you'll never get another.

And though I accept responsibility for being screwed, the FACT is they should make that little information VERY WELL KNOWN on games that require capsule, as in "This game always requires internet access to start" in bold letters under system requirements.
The link I gave was from IGN which is news website that is just usually flaming console wars but this piece was about GOG's recent reversal on regional pricing and listening to their customers, I was trying to point out that even a website like IGN took notice of this which is awesome. I am not sure if you meant to reply to my post but GMG can be good sometimes when you have voucher codes that give you additional discounts on some deals. But they have also started shafting countries in certain specific regions with regional pricing which is deplorable.
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stg83: snip
Yeah, I know, I edited my post above, I had clicked reply on the wrong comment. Sorry about that. Don't know what happened there, but I clicked the wrong one.
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OldFatGuy: Oops, I originally hit the reply to wrong person (stg83), sorry.

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nadenitza: I might be late to the party but just decided to check GMG to see if there are any good deelz around and was just slapped with this:

https://forums.playfire.com/gmg/thread/120105

I like it when my choice of online gaming distribution providers runs thin :)

Srs GMG... is you serious? How did they expect my country witch is one of the poorest in the EU to pay in GBP's?! Even GoG's decision to charge me euro's only seemed like godsend compared to this... guess am forgetting about GMG existing from now on, lol
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OldFatGuy: Heh, I had never shopped there until after this announcement occurred, and only went there during...ahem.. my "vacation" from purchasing at gog, and boy did I get royally screwed, and pissed. They'll never get another dime off me. I mean it was my fault I got screwed, that's on me for not reading and understanding exactly what capsule was before purchasing two games that required it. I accept being screwed. I was pissed because their capsule is worse than Steam as far as DRM goes. You have to have internet connection every time you want to play it.

So, GMG, (I assume this is GreenManGaming??? If not than disregard LOL), you got a few bucks off me, but you'll never get another.

And though I accept responsibility for being screwed, the FACT is they should make that little information VERY WELL KNOWN on games that require capsule, as in "This game always requires internet access to start" in bold letters under system requirements.
I feel you, couse i ALMOST fell for it too!

Luckily i was hunting cheap steam games from bundle database sites and managed to stumble across them (GreenManGaming) and somehow read about this capsule and figured 2 and 2 that it might probably be another drm client so i looked for games that "specifically" state and provide steam keys, otherwise i regarded them as capsule or whatever... Am not shopping there any more either, not if i wanna pay almost 3 times as much as from GOG or Steam... They done serious goof and it's quite a shame couse there were some good deals to be had, well not any more i guess :)
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stg83: snip
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OldFatGuy: Yeah, I know, I edited my post above, I had clicked reply on the wrong comment. Sorry about that. Don't know what happened there, but I clicked the wrong one.
No worries, I was actually aware of what you were referring to so I put my two cents in as well. :)
i don''t like that you surrender to the publisher demands as with local pricing. you grow and mostly because of your reputation. don't spoil that and you will get enough power so the publishers have to beg you to sell their games. start now to look like you start to break down, it's over and you are just another one of many only sellers.
Thanks. Also, often i check here before i buy on steam, although you do have 'less' of a range of products, you do have more unique products, then steam/origin/ whoever. One of the reasons i keep comming back every week is to see the unique games that i cant find anywhere else. Games like Baulders gate. Or Phantasmagoria 2, or whatever. If i wanted to buy any old pc game i could do that anywhere, i want to buy good pc games. I come here.