Couldn't agree more. People seem to like making massive logical leaps with no evidence to the result.

I'll just plop this here.

Wrong. Americans are not a race of people, so it cannot be racist.

Perhaps you should post less here and go back to studying.

Well I hate to say it GOG but you've lost me.

I could manage to just be very disappointed to read that you didn't get the sound bug in full spectrum warrior fixed despite it being a documented and serious problem (making the game totally unplayable for many people as it occasionally broke progression) for at least 4 years that I'm aware of. At least with the guarantee it's borderline justified selling it in that state since it might work for people and they can get a refund if it doesn't but regional pricing, seriously? Way to steam it up.

I could forgive that for the witcher 2 since you had multiple international distribution contracts to honour and you couldn't undercut them by selling it cheaper yourselves. Yet even then you "accidently" broke the regional detection system for a month or more and made a news post about it apologising for the "error" and in no way encouraging those amongst us who were being discriminated against due to our location to just say we were in America or wherever and get the cheaper price, *wink wink*.

Remember those days GOG? You were cool back then. That was the kind of customer service that made people form an emotional attachment to a shop on the internet. Sure people can get excited over steam sales, sure people can really dig a greenmangaming 25% off coupon code but people loved GOG.

When I first signed up in '08, I remember there being a banner on the FAQ page touting what made GOG different, it had 3 points: DRM Free, Same Price Everywhere, Games Are Yours Forever. One of those is already compromised, how long will it be until the others follow suit? Will you one day get Trials Evolution Gold and in the announcement say "Yeah we'd have liked to sell this without uplay but ubisoft insisted and it turns out we liked the money more than we like you". The thing that annoys me the most is that from a business perspective this is an entirely justifiable position but its just not what I was hoping you'd grow into. It feels like an angry, rebellious, smash-the-system, socialist, street poet getting a job at a bank.

I've gotten some great games here, spent lots of money here, had a good time talking to the nutters who populate this place over the years but I'm afraid this is where I get off.

Sorry GOG, you've lost me.

It's still bigoted no matter how you look at it. If you use a certian word to put down someone else because of who they are or where thier from it's still being a bigot. Just becouse it's socially accepted doesn't make it right. But as a Redneck myself I could care less. I just dont like hypocrites that that cry about discrimination and then at a drop of a hat turn around and do it to someone else. Ether its all right or its all wrong. There is no in between.

Others can better explain, but essentially GOG/CDPR didn't want to sell The Witcher 2 with regional pricing, and they even took the matter to court. Since they had no choice due to whatever legal reasons or contracts, GOG offered the free games with TW2 orders as a way to make up for the difference from regional pricing.

At the time it was an anomaly GOG couldn't help prevent. In contrast, the current situation institutes an actual policy change because GOG has agreed to sell these 3 specific games with regional pricing (despite what I assume are their efforts to negotiate one price). And it's quite possible that as GOG adds other newer games from these currently unknown publishers, or other newly acquired ones, select titles could also have regional pricing.

I don't know if that's what you were wondering, so my apologies if this doesn't answer your question.

So far they said they were just some new launch day titles.... Not really why I go to GOG anyway... I maintain a "wait and see" attitude on this one.

Do you really think that a one-off set of three games was all it took for them to completely remove the "flat pricing" principle from the main page's advert for unregistered customers?

They're already using the economic "nuclear option" by being based in Cyprus, i.e. they don't pay taxes and other things that companies normally should. In 2012, GOG had a revenue of a little over €10 million and net profit of €2 million [source]. I don't think their continued existence depends on getting a couple of new games by giving the shaft to the European market, and if it did, it'd probably be healthier if the company died off instead of hung on by such marginal methods alone.

Yeah uh, not to interrupt your soliloquy or anything but what the fuck does that have to do with GoG adopting regional pricing?

Thanks for posting it, I read it thoroughly.

It confirms my concerns with gog.com staff: they prefer to add some more games than to stick to their core values. They prefer to let the rights-holders do whatever they want.

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The problem is, GoG.com used to side with the gamers - they started by working tirelessly with rights-holders of old games to get their old game distributed again, with one price for all, no DRM. I remember the beta in 2008, these were incredible moments to live.

Meetings after meetings, emails after emails, they built a catalog of games that were respecting these core values. We knew that the GoG.com staff was working hard for us.

Progressively, the temple was built, and if rights-holder wanted to reach us, retro-gamers (with a good purchasing power and dedication to the medium), they had to follow the GoG.com rules: one price, no DRM.

Still want to put some DRMs ? Nope, stay outside. Still want to make the australians pay twice the US price ? Not today, go think about how unfair it is, then we'll talk.

Many rights-holders still refuse the GoG.com platform (LucasArts...), but they know they're missing out on some good profit because of that.

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Now fast-forward to 2014, GoG.com gets rid of its "no regional pricing" core value to get more games.

LucasArts show up at the door, offering its ENTIRE catalog, but add a "small" clause, they get on gog.com only if there's a "small" DRM attached to it, a one-time phone-home on install (or launch).

What GoG.com will do ? Give up its last core value, and become just another digital distribution platform, just like all the others ? The temptation will be very high, much higher than getting a game like "Divinity: Original Sin" aboard.

LucasArts gets its "small" DRM.

Then what GoG.com will say to ALL the other rights-holder already on the platform ?

They'll protest that they had to give up regional pricing, DRMs in order to get on GoG.com, and now the new games are getting all these things with no limits ? They'll ask to change. And GoG.com will only be able to give up and change, or see these games leave the platform en masse.

"Good news ! If you bought these games before the DRM Apocalypse, they're still DRM-less ! So there's no need to worry !" will very probably the announcement we'll get. It's not rain, gog.com, it's not rain.

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I trusted GoG.com and supported it, because I knew that they would defend our rights in return, that they will accept to miss out on *some* games, in order to protect and defend these core values.

I paid for games I already had on CDs, for games I already had from abandonwares websites, for games I already had on Steam, because I thought "hey, GoG.com is enduring the consequences of these core values, they're making less money, their work is much harder, they deserve my support and public praise [ed: free marketing by me]".

It is no longer the case, GoG.com now no longer defend these core values. The reason ? Getting a few more games on the platform.

However, they should be aware that they might gain 10, 20, 50 more games... But they'll lose most of their core userbase. They'll lose the free marketing. They'll lose the free tech support on the forum. They'll lose their faithful audience. They'll lose their identity.

Why should we trust GoG.com to defend our rights, to defend any core value ?

Why should we make the effort of not relying on piracy to play our favorite games, especially the old ones ?

Why should we make the effort of buying these games on GoG.com and not on Steam during -90% sales every 4 months ?

Less and less reasons to buy on GoG.com and not elsewhere.

Yes, it's only these three titles at the moment. But as TET has said in this post, it's quite possible for other future new games to also have regional pricing. GOG has no intent on adding regional pricing to any titles, but the policy change essentially means that it's possible for other upcoming day one releases to have regional pricing.

I share most of the concerns people have discussed, but I also agree with the "wait and see" outlook.

Thanks. It does and it doesn't. It clarifies some important points around The Witcher 2. Only the blues really know where they want to take us. I gather that the approach being taken by GOG is, "Sorry we went back on our word about what kind of company we wanted to be, why not take a free game for your trouble?" For me, knowing what I can expect from GOG is far more valuable than just a compensation for being charged differently than another customer.


Excellent points!

Short term, they could stick with "one world, one price" and be fine. But, in the long term (another 5 or so years), with other digital distribution services trying to emulate GOG's classic game library, there has to be a plan and not a "knee-jerk reaction" plan. Yet, this all ultimately means nothing, because no one is ever forced to buy something from here. "Don't like it, don't buy it" is a decent motto to live by. This a store, meant to make money; not to be your friend, hold your hand or give you stuff (even though GOG does on occasion). I understand people feeling betrayed, but that's on them, isn't it? GOG is not a person, though they have very fine people working here. Expecting them to throw up their arms and say "Fuck it, let's go out of business because, if we want to remain competitive, we would piss off our fans" is just dumb. I own over 300 games here, but I am a customer but I am not a fan. I don't delude myself into thinking that GOG is always going to stay the same, but I'm fairly sure they don't want to give me a raw deal either. If I don't like the titles that this concession brings, I'm not going to buy them. The end.

P.S. No one has redeemed Dungeon Keeper Gold. It makes me sad.

Edited for extra word usage.

I'm not sure if you've had a chance, but the first half or so of the thread's current length includes a fair amount of Q&A with TET (it's a lot of reading but the blue text standing out makes it easier). I think most of the major points of concern are addressed here, but there are other informative or pertinent posts as well. I think it ultimately boils down to a "wait and see" approach. I'm not sure that GOG can guarantee what will or won't happen at this point, but as far as I can discern they felt the opportunity to sell the upcoming three titles outweighed the 'one price' policy.

Congrats on being American

Some good points...I have also bought games on GOG I have elsewhere to support them...
not in favor of piracy however...I'd rather not own a game before going that route..