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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 22, 2014
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jessdrone: Will we be told what games have regional pricing on and be able to see the price difference we pay for living in a certain country? Or will we have to ask Internet friends to verify how much it costs over on their side of the pond in order to compare the prices to other outlets and ultimately decide where to buy the games?
You can vote for this user suggestion. It doesn't change anything, but if we're unable to change something significant, I think it's a nice idea to give publishers an incentive to NOT go with regional pricing in exchange for the fairness badge that might be a good selling argument and improve the publisher's image.
Posted February 22, 2014
don't forget to vote ;)

http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/ban_all_regional_pricing_from_gog_stick_with_your_principles
Posted February 22, 2014
I wonder how this will affect indie developers.
I bought multiple indie games on their release day just because of the price difference. When I compare 10-15 USD to 10-15 EUR I get on Steam, all of the sudden 10-15 USD seems like a small amount where I don't even care if the game is really worth buying. Now, if all indie games will have the same price on all the stores I visit I will probably stop buying them and wait to get a bunch of them in Humble Bundle for 5USD.

You can't organize a game market the same way we had our markets in ex communist regime 20 years ago. Back then, I could buy just one type of pants and all the stores would have the same price for those pants. Games are not a necessity. If I am not able to shop around I can easily wait for 75% sales.

The more of us starts waiting for sales, the sooner the sales will have to come. I really doubt this is any good for game market.
Posted February 22, 2014
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Drerhu: Principles should be respected in every possible way in every possible market...but sadly, sometimes that won´t help to mantain a company.

I´m totally with you, but if respecting their principles Gog would dissapear someday, I would be fine if they renounce some principles to stay alive.
I don't think Gog would disappear because of sticking to their principles. By giving up on them, they become more and more like Steam, though. Only they are not as good at being Steam as Steam is. And most of us like(d) Gog because it is not Steam. They risk losing their old customers and I doubt that this will attract many new ones. Why should anyone choose a second rate Steam over the original?
Posted February 22, 2014
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jorlin: Your (GOG as as a company, not you personally) crowning achievement of the period you mentioned imho has been System Shock 2, a game that has been pulled from a legal quagmire.
Was it ever disclosed (not in specifics obviously) how involved was GOG in pulling it out of the quagmire though? Wasn't it Night Dive that came with the game on a silver platter; at least it didn't seem like GOG had much of an exclusivity window, like a couple of weeks later it was on Steam or something (similar with IHNMAIMS).

Maybe (hopefully) I'm completely wrong here, coming from a place of (not quite) blissful ignorance, it just seems that more often than not the leg-work concerning the classics is done by the Night Dives or the Tommos, while whenever GOGs involvement comes up it's about never-ending talks with LA/Disney and Microsoft, or sighing about Goldbox games being unattainable.

Obviously not privy to the details, but I'm just genuinely curious how much of GOGs resources and attention is truly going into tracking and pulling the oldies out of limbo these days, now that their focus has shifted quite significantly. Realize this is kinda off-topic, but I also think it's in-line with some of the questions about brand-loyalty, abandoning the "side policies" and all that.
Post edited February 22, 2014 by MoP
Posted February 22, 2014
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Kronner: ..and GoG.com is about to die.

It was a good run. But with this change, I see no reason to stay at GoG .. Steam now offers the same prices AND much better gaming platform.
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Drerhu: Sure, trading cards and badges.

seriously, this kind of things aren´t helpul =_=
You can sell them and get about £0.40 - £3 off your next purchase.
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jorlin: Your (GOG as as a company, not you personally) crowning achievement of the period you mentioned imho has been System Shock 2, a game that has been pulled from a legal quagmire.
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MoP: Was it ever disclosed (not in specifics obviously) how involved was GOG in pulling it out of the quagmire though? Wasn't it Night Dive that came with the game on a silver platter; at least it didn't seem like GOG had much of an exclusivity window, like a couple of weeks later it was on Steam or something (similar with IHNMAIMS).

Maybe (hopefully) I'm completely wrong here, coming from a place of (not quite) blissful ignorance, it just seems that more often than not the leg-work concerning the classics is done by the Night Dives and the Tommos, while whenever GOGs involvement comes up it's about never-ending talks with LA/Disney and Microsoft, or sighing about Goldbox games being unattainable.

Obviously not privy to the details, but I'm just genuinely curious how much of GOGs resources and attention is truly going into tracking and pulling the oldies out of limbo these days, now that their focus has shifted quite significantly. Realize this is kinda off-topic, but I also think it's in-line with some of the questions about brand-loyalty, abandoning the "side policies" and all that.
You're right about Night DIve.

Also, GOG didn't fix it. A mystery patch that is rumoured to come from an ex-developer appeared which fixed damn near everything showed up a few weeks prior to the announcement. They think they got the source code from one of the dreamcast dev kits that had been floating around.
Post edited February 22, 2014 by Matthew94
Posted February 22, 2014
Maybe I could bring so many "down thumbs" for what I´m going to say.

But I think most people complaining about the price region and "principles" are just greedy people than only want to spend the less money=more content.

It´s like say "I totally support Gog, but I don´t really expend much money and I wait for sales".

That´s totally a respectable thing, but sometimes things don´t stay "in business" just with intentions or principles, and even if Gog can´t do anything about this region price, I think they deserve some trust and support to see what could happen in the future (and no so much "steam it´s better, so I will buy there" crap)

Yeah, I haven´t so many games purchased here like my steam account (mostly humblebundles etc) but If I need to choose what plataform I would love to see in the future, Gog would be.

And not becuase I´m a fanboy, just as customer I feel more respected by Gog than Steam so far.

But I totally understand people with OVERprices (like Australian fellows) so I would hope we could have a region price, yes, but totally fair with the currency of the money and salaries of the country.
Posted February 22, 2014
I have to admit that I am kind of torn of the whole "affair".

On one side having more recent games DRM-free is a good thing, but on the other side I am not too please with regional pricing becoming "standard" and not just a single game exception. Especially as regional pricing often comes with its evil little brother called region restriction.

I am willing to give GoG the benefit of the doubt but still... I think it would have been better if some times ago they split into two shops:

GoG specialized exclusively in older games, with single worldwide cheap pricing and another shop releasing recent games/indies DRM-free with more varied pricing options.


I hope that at least those three games are AAA big names games and that it won't ends up being three indies or three Kickstarter games that would have been released DRM-free anyway.
Posted February 22, 2014
Instead of pairing DRM-free Day One experiments with restrictive regional pricing, I would have liked to see them paired with the introduction of a Pay-What-You-Want button, with the regular (worldwide) price as a minimum. That would have sent a much clearer signal of how much DRM-free releases are appreciated than this "spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down" approach, which will make customers conflicted on whether they want to support it or not. Even if you might end up paying the same price in both cases, there are worlds between showing support for good principles and feeling disrespected and ripped off by the lack of principles.

And to me, until now and contrary to the "standard" industry practices, GOG has always been about giving gamers incentives to buy by offering them freedom, not restrictions. This compromise is now opening the door for the "standard" restriction practices that GOG used to fight (DRM being the most important but only one of them), so it's clearly a defeat that's harmful to their integrity and credibility. And though a slippery slope, it wouldn't be half as bad if GOG had managed to control the damage by promising that this was only regarding the price and that it's definitely not connected to any other regional changes, but since they won't even promise us that, I seem to have misjudged what they stand for.
Post edited February 22, 2014 by Leroux
Posted February 22, 2014
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Kronner: ..and GoG.com is about to die.

It was a good run. But with this change, I see no reason to stay at GoG .. Steam now offers the same prices AND much better gaming platform.
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Drerhu: Sure, trading cards and badges.
And quick updates. I'm definitely jealous that my friends who chose the Steam version get Broken Sword 5 updates immediately. Gog needed 2-6 days to update the game every time so far.
Posted February 22, 2014
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jorlin: Your (GOG as as a company, not you personally) crowning achievement of the period you mentioned imho has been System Shock 2, a game that has been pulled from a legal quagmire.
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MoP: Was it ever disclosed (not in specifics obviously) how involved was GOG in pulling it out of the quagmire though? Wasn't it Night Dive that came with the game on a silver platter; at least it didn't seem like GOG had much of an exclusivity window, like a couple of weeks later it was on Steam or something (similar with IHNMAIMS).

Maybe (hopefully) I'm completely wrong here, coming from a place of (not quite) blissful ignorance, it just seems that more often than not the leg-work concerning the classics is done by the Night Dives or the Tommos, while whenever GOGs involvement comes up it's about never-ending talks with LA/Disney and Microsoft, or sighing about Goldbox games being unattainable.

Obviously not privy to the details, but I'm just genuinely curious how much of GOGs resources and attention is truly going into tracking and pulling the oldies out of limbo these days, now that their focus has shifted quite significantly. Realize this is kinda off-topic, but I also think it's in-line with some of the questions about brand-loyalty, abandoning the "side policies" and all that.
I'm not sure about how much GOG has contributed to this to be honest. I do know that I was over the moon when I saw it and it arrived on GOG first and after that it arrived on Steam and HB (The key for the Steam version).
I suspect that Night Dive have a deal with GOG that only GOG can carry the DRM free Windows version, but I might be wrong about that, Probably part of a NDA.
Posted February 22, 2014
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Silverhawk170485: What would speak against a kind of refund for people who pay more than the average because of regional pricing. GOG could make an account in credit on their site and re credit the money which was payed too much. This can be spent in any other games in the game catalogue. So that the situation is as if the users who payed more than the average would have bought the game plus other lowpriced games out from an other country.
Not sure that would work, the standard cut for distributors like GOG is 30% of the total, that is still 70% of the amount that might be an over charging through region pricing going out of GOGs hands to the publisher / developer they can't hold onto that and put it in a fund to compensate.
Posted February 22, 2014
well appreciate your honesty GOG so thanks for letting us know, at the end of the day things have to be done to continue to function so if you can continue to be as honest in identifying which are regionally priced i expect the transition will go smooth.
Posted February 22, 2014
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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!
Yes, you do. Bring the newly released titles DRM-Free to GOG. ;)
Posted February 22, 2014
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jorlin: I'm not sure about how much GOG has contributed to this to be honest. I do know that I was over the moon when I saw it and it arrived on GOG first and after that it arrived on Steam and HB (The key for the Steam version).
I suspect that Night Dive have a deal with GOG that only GOG can carry the DRM free Windows version, but I might be wrong about that, Probably part of a NDA.
Not really. GamersGate also has a DRM-Free version.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)