I've been a big fan of the Witcher series and have bought all of them in physical release and also a big fan of CDPR's DRM-free policy. So when I first came across GOG, I was indeed excited because it seems a better place to support game developers than Steam in every way, because of the inconvenience brought about by Steam's DRM system.

But unfortunately, everything in my GOG library this far has been either redeemed via keys in physical copies (e.g. TW1 ~ 3), or gifted through GOG Connect, or offered for free by GOG itself. I'd really like to support GOG, but Steam offers a much much lower price in China. For instance, Pillars of Eternity is discounted these days on GOG with a price of $17.99, equivalent to 123 CNY, while on Steam, it's now 122 CNY without discount. During the winter sale on Steam, it was sold only at 48 CNY for the Chinese market, and Hyper Light Drifter, which I bought during the sale, was sold at 40 CNY only.

I know regional pricing has been controversial and any suggestion bespeaking support to it may very likely spark a forum war. But since GOG offers great discount for Russian gamers, I wonder whether or not this can happen for China. If it does, I believe lots of Chinese gamers will embrace GOG rather than Steam because of the better service and experience that GOG has to offer, such as more additional goodies, soundtracks in higher fidelity (FLAC instead of mp3) and the riddance of annoying DRM.

I'm trying to bite my tongue....

If GOG is too expensive, buy on Steam... or go pick up copies from those bootleggers that are oh so common in China.

You can no longer get bootlegs in developed cities in China. Maybe in 2nd-or-3rd-tier cities, you still have them but I'm unsure. And seriously, every pirate downloads from illegal sites, among which a lot of them are not hosted in China.

Oh and why would I post this thread if I ever want to buy bootlegs???

You can't get bootlegs in big cities in China? How exactly do they control that?

I don't think anyone controls it. Bootleg business just died out naturally, as more and more legit gamers started supporting Steam and boxed versions. I myself have bought some DRM-free physical releases from Amazon UK, as the delivery is way cheaper than from Amazon US.

Those who support piracy download cracked games via torrent, because it's free, so buying a bootleg is costly and hence meaningless in comparison, especially with the fast Internet speed in Shanghai that allows for finishing download of a triple-A game in several minutes (whether it's the genuine copy from legal vendors or the pirated one).

Far out.
Thanks for the answer, that's really interesting. I wonder if that has affected bootlegs over here.

I see. I agree with you although the USD - Yuan conversion rate is not very volatile (thanks for currency manipulations maybe), the largest variation over five years is just 15% (http://www.xe.com/de/currencycharts/?from=USD&to=CNY&view=5Y). If GOG would adjust the USD prices for their games in China only every month, they would probably track the Steam price already very well, sometimes even be below it. It may be inconvenient for GOG but does not sound totally impractical.

Having to adjust the price on 2000s of items/month on a specific region does sound highly impractical to me (and carries the risk of errors/bugs when you are dealing with such a large volume of items) and would consume resources/workforce needed elsewhere like the website (I know, I know). At any rate, given GOG's behaviour over regions with regionally-priced items but without a localized currency, they would just set a specific price for a game once and wouldn't bother with this whole adjustment thing. Hence why there were complaints that GOG's Brazilian prices were pretty bad, till support for the Brazilian Real was introduced.

Greetings!!
1. It's up to GOG whether and when they will do it.
2. You have pointed out the benefits of using GOG over Steam yourself. Here you actually get the game you are paying for.
3. In my region too there is a big difference in price between the two services, steam being way cheaper. Still, even steam introduced regional pricing very recently.
4. For now waiting for sales might be a good idea. With all these weekly sales, special sales and those mega sales all year round, there is always something quite affordable. :)

i.m.h.o regional pricing on gog. I dont think thats going to ever happen.

Steam is partnering with lots of local retail merchants everywhere around the world, means for example i can buy steam vouchers at convenience store like 7-11 or i can buy online through online shop with bank transfer without having ever pay it with credit cards/ paypal.
you can't do this with GOG. you can only pay your game on GoG with paypal / credit cards. Steam can do these regional pricing and making the games on their platform is cheap is not that because they are biggest platform (ok they are!), but the distribution channel on purchasing steam voucher is soo easy and less hassle.

But GoG would make exception though, if their total revenue, like 65% or 70% of games revenue coming from China.

Me. I just use both platform. there are game which are available only on steam and few games exclusive only on Gog. but i still prefer steam though, 'cos i trade cards there like a whore! (hahaha *evil laugh)