If they were set by the market, many very old digital games would only be £1-£3 undiscounted (everyday non-sale base price) due to 1. Only a relatively small percentage of old games are what many would deem "classics" or rare / hard to find collectibles, the vast majority aren't but ever since the resurgence in interest in older games many are often trying too hard to pretend every old game is a "rare diamond" just because it's old, and 2. The ability to resell discs means you'll get back at least some of what you pay. The big "reality split" between physical and digital is the former is set by the market (Ebay, etc, where the only games that will consistently get a high price will be "out of print" stuff like The Neverhood), whilst the latter is artificial scarcity dictated by the publisher that can be slapped on any very average 30 year old games.

Well, no... in theory everyone could offer even the most crappy old game for 20 coins and never go below this line. If anyone is interested into buying, then they either pay that price or they can go "cry my a river" on the GOG platform where this game is perhaps 30 coins and can not even become sold after (account bound with a backup for personal and family use).

However... unless this game is so rare or so "well preserved" that there is almost no competition... it just does not work because there is always someone trying to undercut your price and in the end those games will become "trashed".

Kinda same with work; If every single toilet cleaner would be telling "i am only cleaning toilets for at least 50 coins a hour"... then they would finally get a very good salary for this "dirty kind of work"... but because there is always someone working for lesser... it just will never happen. I think in order to raise the conditions of many poor workers and way to cheap pricing... the ones being responsible for price dumping simply have to stop doing so. A salary or a fair price is simply not negotiable. Do you know any CEO who is negotiating their salary? I know no one... because they simply "take what they want... or what they feel they do deserve...and thats it"... they are setting their boundaries very clearly. I just dunno why a toilet or canal cleaner is not doing the same and putting a clear line of demand... which is not up for negotiation, for no one and with no one. The powerful ones know this rule... and they do help each others in maintaining "their price tag for what they feel is fair to them", so there is never any CEO not having a fine salary; just the toilet cleaners, "old game disc sellers" or whatelse usually have a dirty payment. Because they do not help each others... they are competing with each others up to the point they can barely buy some breadcrumbs with the money earned.

So, thats why a "boss" of a publisher company... can kinda dictate their demand because there are no toilet cleaners competing... just some "old disc sellers" up to a certain extend... yet this is still not always the real deal as those old games without fixes might be broken and as well they are becoming rare on many titles. Because discs are not produced anymore... while the platform-offers in theory can be multiplied with unlimited amount. Even in a very convenient way without many hassles some old incompatible disc-games may have.

40 is a lot. I think between 10 and 20 dependable on region can be considered "fair".

Well, I'm not one to gamble, I don't even buy simple lottery tickets lol. Yeah, I never realized until I played Diablo Immortal. how huge the mobile gamer base was. I just can't play on such tiny screens myself.

With over 1k games in backlog, I'm not hard pressed to buy any games right now. Even with new releases like REANIMAL and the Indy game (both of which look really nice), I can't spend what I don't have anyway lol.

Now if Mass Effect LE got released here (and maybe a couple of others I can't recall right now), I may beggar myself to get it, even if it comes here overpriced. =P

But the rest can stay on the wishlist forever if that's what it takes. :)
.

Wow, this is nuts. I bought a ton of their games back in the early days, and so I own most of their catalog. It does appear that many of their games had their price raised to twice what it was beforehand (GOG DB doesn't track local prices AFAIK.)

I'm only missing three games from the catalog and they still have regional pricing - Titus the Fox, Pray for Death, Of Light and Darkness - but they've never gotten more than 20% off and at this point I don't think they'll ever get cheaper.

That does it! I am NEVER going to buy another copy of Sacrifice ever again! A physical CD version and the GOG version bought years ago should be enough already!

The most plausible explanation for the price hike is that they are preparing to release remasters of their old goldies. So they are preparing people to the idea of paying 25€ for the remaster. Sounds fair.

I did some digging and these price hikes on interplay related games often align with the correct owners or Interplay/Obsidian or that owners well owner seeing poor sales revue/growth if any and seeing as a result both are owned by Microsoft . This hugest hike yet aligns with reportedly bad sales of Outer Worlds 2 and Microsoft/Xbox having a Statement regarding studios and publishers that basically amount to ''if we don't get 30 percent profit from you , then you are axed'' thus this seems like a move to not go under again from Interplay

How do you talk with all that boot leather in your mouth? The amount of defending you do of a company is ridiculous. Are you on their payroll? I don't often see people defend a company for being anti-consumer to this level, and justify it with essentially a supervillain monologue about market condfitions and the company's right to be as anti-consumer as they like, as well as how being anti-consumer actually benefits the consumer and GOG.

Because for some liberal sectors (liberal as a classic economical phylsophy, as intended in Europe, not the definition in USA liberal=progresism) the concept anticonsumer does not exist, any protection or regulation to consumers, fair prices or at least balance between actors is something anathema, closer to be a "communist"

Interplay already upped prices years ago, and it is known to have the titles with less discounts or sales.
My solution is purchasing what convinces me and the price is one more reason to keep in mind.
At least it is a videogame but the people defending this concept use to not differenciate between main basic essential products and hobbies or culture, the principle is always the same: The company should be protected at all costs even with "anticonsumer" movements or bordering abuses. Because it is the market and it is sacred and self regulated, untouchable.

No, i am paying their rolls... opposite order. I got the biggest regional pricing world wide, so i know what it feels like "being robbed"... as this is how it feels in many (not any) cases.

My current matter is pointed to cheap classics only, which might simply be to cheap to make them worth it. In worst case we may even lose them as soon as a Remake or Remaster is being released, because, indeed... those "new versions" are primarily being made so they can get a better price.

They are not Santa Claus, they are a company trying to make profits... this is what i usually say in order to understand the situation.

I just think the gamers wishes are in many terms simply unrealistic. DRM free is a realistic dream but not "buyers to few and prices to low"... this could at some point cause issues. Actually already happening... because they mainly support Steam only... the "natural flow of the money".

With the passage of time, Interplay, as well as other similar companies which seem to heavily rely upon exploiting their largely ancient intellectual property, will eventually find it rather difficult to generate any noteworthy income from the sale of older games. Raising the base price of products above levels perceived to be acceptable by their target demographic (while continuing to offer paltry discounts) is simply self-defeating.

Perhaps, they have deluded themselves into believing that some of the remaining potential customers will view the inflated prices as no obstacle, and these few comparatively high-value transactions will somehow be the equivalent of hundreds of clients buying at a lower price. If so, their decision-makers might soon be experiencing a jarring awakening.

Additionally, in my experience, younger video game enthusiasts, having been raised on Android/iOS/ChromeOS (and consoles, such as the Wii), are concerningly less computer literate than their parents (and, increasingly, their grandparents). Furthermore, I doubt that a significant percentage would even be willing to play such PC-based games, let alone pay for them.

Okay, in such a case there are not much issues "left" because the parents and grandparents already got most of the classics and the younger ones are mainly buying "fresh stuff", so at some point the classics simply may become replaced by remakes and whats left from them is... simply priced how a "rarity" is actually priced.

There are in fact physical discs around at a price tag of over 100 coins and they even find buyers for. It is not like "any of those old discs goes for a few coins"; this is simply not true and in the future their price can only increase... because if the price of a 1 coin game is dropped even more... those sellers can not even pay the taxes anymore from the breadcrumbs they are eating. I always had in mind that parents and grandparents should have more money to spare than young kiddies... well... it seems i am wrong.

I am not the protector of the industry, not at all... i just want to be fair to everyone (not only to myself) and make some required opposition, so we are able to get a lot of perspectives.

And those prices have been proven to be a whole artificial thing when talking games and consoles, as well as do to speculators and people pretty much only in it for the perceived money they'll get back down the line rather then actually wanting to enjoy the game. So that argument of '' There are in fact physical discs around at a price tag of over 100 coins and they even find buyers for. It is not like''any of those old discs goes for a few coins"; this is simply not true and in the future their price can only increase... '' falls flat

. Granted if the price of old games increased to be a fair price or as fair as it can for all parties involvedin digital and physical sales . do to things getting more expensive that'd be mostly fine

No, it is not a artificial thing, it is the price of rarity, something scarce. Yes it is easy getting a almost broken down game disc with so many scratches... even a math expert would not dare counting down all those scratches. Such a disc... in many cases barely readable... may indeed never get any serious price. A well preserved disc, with close to no scratches or even none at all... those are very rare for almost any game. Some collectors are looking out for... exactly for those sort of rare "well preserved" stuff.

To some extend we could as well say... GOG is well preserving games, in a purely digital format instead. It may as well become a rarity in some way because compared to the huge amount of bloat flooding the market like an ocean... the "preserved classics" may soon look like something truly rare... maybe even standing out of the crowd in some way, in a ocean full of modern games. So even those GOG games are rare and "well preserved" in some way.

I know it exactly because i WAS one of those collectors and up to this day i still value "pristine discs"... not the one beaten down and being mishandled like a ghetto dog with not much more left than a skeleton and some skin.

Your similes are extraordinary :)