It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)
Pages:
1
50
100
120
121
122
123
124
200
250
270
This is my favourite topic
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
avatar
Selderij: They're already using the economic "nuclear option" by being based in Cyprus, i.e. they don't pay taxes like 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.
avatar
Ophelium: 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.
No, I really don't believe that GOG.com is hanging by the skin of its teeth here. Like I said, GOG's already a tax haven resident, and the effect of that alone is bigger than any regional pricing and accompanying new games could ever hope to achieve. If your company can't stay afloat after going the Cyprus route, it just doesn't deserve to.

Also, a typical misconception for poorly received business decisions is that they must be good money-wise for the company to risk the PR hit. That's not always the case.
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
deonast: Nope very different. GOG had the game via their parent company CDProjek red for a all regions same price. Then after being put on the site fore sale the physical distributor took legal action against CDProjekt red to get regional pricing in. GOG had already commited to offering the game for sale. So they had to / after losing legal case do the region thing.

Post other deals are agreed before hand that it is a set price everywhere, the principle at the time were still one price everywhere. That princiale has now been removed and several games are being negotiated with region pricing. This is the precedent.
avatar
Kabuto: Your memory seems to be fuzzy. There was regional pricing and different versions of the game at the start. GOG then removed geoip which allowed anyone to lie about their location to buy the game version of their choice and at the price they wanted.
I in fact preordered on GOG it for the US price, before they went and changed it. My memory isn't funny my bank transactions back that up, I paid the same price US citizens paid, then just after that it went to a regional pricing. I did however get the Australian Censored version as I'd missed a posting they made to Advise that it was getting censored. I'd bought before I realised that (I'd read the original post that said same version everywhere), sadly as I bought as an Australian I got the censored version.

So on this issue my memory isn't fuzzy as bought the game at the pre-region pricing, just got hit by the Australian censored version.
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
gamefood: snip
avatar
Russonc: Darn it....my German is very rusty! :)
avatar
OldFatGuy: Would there be any chance you explain that to me briefly in English??

I am sorry, I lived in your wonderful country for over two years and loved it, but that was over 30 years ago and even then I didn't learn it very well.
Alright then... It says "Deep Silver announces, both RPGs Risen and Risen 2: Dark Waters will available soon without DRM at gog.com. A concrete Release date is not yet confirmed."
NO Info to regional pricing... But hey, who would do that??? I did only add 1 and 1 ...
Post edited February 22, 2014 by gamefood
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
Schnuff: Deep Silver announced that they will release both Risen and Risen 2 at GOG without DRM.
They don't have an exact date of the release.
Both games includes German language.

Well, not very interesting for me, cause Risen was a freebie on several mags during the years.
Thank you, and FWIW I meant what I said about Germany. I was in the US Army and stationed at Mannheim (spelling?) and lived in a little village outside called Viernheim IIRC (again spelling may be wrong) and just loved it over there. I realize it must have changed a lot since then (this was back in the East and West Germany days) but I sure loved it then. Beautiful country, great folks, and a great society where people were the most important thing unlike my country where the dollar is the most important thing.
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
Selderij: No, I really don't believe that GOG.com is hanging by the skin of its teeth here. Like I said, GOG's already a tax haven resident, and the effect of that alone is bigger than any regional pricing and accompanying new games could ever hope to achieve. If your company can't stay afloat after going the Cyprus route, it just doesn't deserve to.

Also, a typical misconception for poorly received business decisions is that they must be good money-wise for the company to risk the PR hit. That's not always the case.
The point isn't to wait until you're "hanging by the skin of your teeth" to introduce change. That scenario would be worse than what's going on here now. I do agree that not all decisions are good money-makers, but I'm just going to wait and see instead of partaking of this speculative and increasingly bigoted nonsense.
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
OldFatGuy: Yes it was, it was about the best they can do under the circumstances and I applaud them for it.

But I still understand others may be upset, and IMO they have a right to be and if they want to voice it I say go for it. I'm not happy about it myself even though it doesn't affect me because I always consider my fellow gamers and if the amount of unhappiness here is that many folks feel the best solution is to boycott GoG, then I will support them and join them.

Because even though this was an excellent post, and about the best they could do, it doesn't change the fact that a core value policy was changed. And the reason for the change is the same reason every company has for making decisions, and that's making more money. And that right there is the foot in the door that opens up the possibility of changing other core values, if they feel like it will make them more money.
I agree if someone is unhappy with what they think might be happening in the future, then it is fair to boycott/stop making purchases from GOG (or any other company for that matter). If enough people are unhappy and stop shopping here, then something will have to change or the business will fail. By the same token, I feel people have an equal right to "not be upset" and continue to do business with GOG or any other company as well. For me, it's all entertaining...If GOG decided to double the prices of all their games for just me, I'd be upset and stop buying games from them.... I don't think of this as a moral issue that some seem to make it out as....It's a business decision that they feel will benefit people (and in turn make them more money...)

Oh my, I am tired....really rambling now... :)
Post edited February 22, 2014 by Russonc
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
gamefood: Alright then... It says "Deep Silver announces, both RPGs Risen and Risen 2: Dark Waters will available soon without DRM at gog.com. A concrete Release date is not yet confirmed."
NO Info to regional pricing... But hey, who would do that??? I did only add 1 and 1 ...
Thank you very much.
Posted February 22, 2014
So I assume this means if I buy a region-price-varied game to give away, I will only be able to give it away to people in my region?

I don't know how steam deals with that.
Posted February 22, 2014
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/announcement_big_preorders_launch_day_releases_coming/post731

For people that missed it is a good solid post.
Post edited February 22, 2014 by GaminggUy45
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
Russonc: Oh my, I am tired....really rambling now... :)
Get out while you can! They're getting the pitchforks!
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
Russonc: Oh my, I am tired....really rambling now... :)
avatar
Ophelium: Get out while you can! They're getting the pitchforks!
man my rep has really taken a dive today, and I am just trying to enjoy the day...!
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
gamefood: Alright then... It says "Deep Silver announces, both RPGs Risen and Risen 2: Dark Waters will available soon without DRM at gog.com. A concrete Release date is not yet confirmed."
NO Info to regional pricing... But hey, who would do that??? I did only add 1 and 1 ...
avatar
OldFatGuy: Thank you very much.
You're welcome :) And your spelling is right: Mannheim and Viernheim :)
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
Russonc: By the same token, I feel people have an equal right to "not be upset" and continue to do business with GOG or any other company as well.
I'm not going to tell you that you that they don't have that right, because obviously they do. But IMO no man is an island, and we all have theoretical responsibilities to others. And in cases like these, where a policy change results in real hardship for some people, that others involved have some theoretical responsibility to help them and support them, as well as they having the same theoretical responsibility back if I were the one affected.

This everyone can do their own thing is exactly what corporations (and governments) want, because a divided consumer base/population, is much easier to take advantage of than a united one.

But I have no illusion of reality ever catching up with that theory, most especially with Americans, because most really don't care about anyone other than themselves. If that one dynamic were to change, this world would be so much better it would be unrecognizable.
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
Future_Suture: The moment we'll betray our values, the whole GOG will explode and that's the end of it.
I guess they were right. A very large portion of GOG has gotten vocal about this and blown it up. GOG just need to hope their talk about having to do extra and rebuild trust is being taken to heart.
I may have no immediate plans to balk just because of the new pricing plan, but still my trust has been badly shaken and I have no plans to had it back so easy. I have my own demands waiting and I do not compromise easily, I can compromise, but I better be getting a 80/20 split in return.
Posted February 22, 2014
avatar
htown1980: So I assume this means if I buy a region-price-varied game to give away, I will only be able to give it away to people in my region?

I don't know how steam deals with that.
Steam allows publishers to restrict cross-region gifting if they choose to do so. GOG hasn't done this because The Witcher 2 is the only game with regional pricing.

If GOG starts getting a lot of releases with regional pricing the publishers might insist on technical measures like what Steam has.
Pages:
1
50
100
120
121
122
123
124
200
250
270
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)