I would love if something like that happened and maybe I would take it one step further. If you would attempt to buy such a game, there would be a pop-up window informing you about the ripoff and discrimination based on region where you happen to live with (email) address to publisher (or phone number) who decided to push regional pricing policy.

I think that the issue is that publishers are shielded from customes from both sides by developers and distributors and live in their own worlds...

*shudders* Let's just not talk about that...

:P

Actually I respectfully disagree on that. If GOG starts "conforming" it looses what makes it "unqiue" from the other platforms out there. The No DRM is a significant differentiation between GOG and Steam. It's that difference that usually draws in customers that would normally would have just gone to Steam, Desura or even GamersGate. If someone is already on Steam or another platform and GOG performs the same as that platform then there is very little incentive to start using *this* service if you can already achieve virtually the same service on a platform you are already using.

Yes as a business you can't forever work a a "vaccuum" as you have said but at the same time you cannot completely conform either as that is a sure fire way to loose in the market. Obscurity means less users and less sales. As a business you still need to find a way to "stand out" from the rest of the comptition. Providing "sales" doesn't quite cut it since Steam and the like also regularly do sales anyway.

Let me be perfectly clear: I want AAA day 0 games here on gog. But with respect and in accordance with the gog-core-philosophy:
1. drm-free
2. fair-pricing aka one-price-for-all
3. high-quality-support

I dont care that much about goodies, thou they are good to have, but the most important things are the 3-points mentioned above. Core.

If you would need to break any of those 3-points-core-philosophy so we can have AAA day 0 game here on gog then I say no game nor publisher would worth it. Period.

And that doesnt mean that gog will die a slow death because they wont expand their games catalogue.
Dont forget that todays release will become tommorow's "old" game and thus it'll find its way here on gog. It is true that we wont see all games here on gog but the catalogue will expand and gog will slowly but healthy grow into a real-steam-challanger. What gog tries to do today (by allowing regional prices) is competing too soon with the big gorilla and what's worse, by their rules and on their turf. This way they'll loose the war, patience and small-firm-steps is key.

On the contrary, because they stuck (so far) to their core-philosophy they did grow into what they are today: the number 2 player, after steam, thou not close to them.
They need to keep pushing those 3-points core-philosophy and slowly chip away at the giant. And the moment will come, when game releases here are closer and closer to day-zero releases and they'll even be in the position to really change todays-bad-market-practices.

Imo this is the real mission of gog, to show that customer love (drmFree + fairPricing + support) is the only way of doing normal/healthy business and stop/minimize all the extremely bad practices of todays industry: drm, regional pricing (which leads to discrimination, censorship, regional locks/blocks/availability/dumbed-down-crippled-games/etc/etc), etc

In theory regional.*whatever sounds good but in practice absolutely nobody got it right (implemented) and CANNOT get it right (gog included) because someCustomer/somewhere will always be discriminated and censored. So screw regionall.*whatever

I'm here on gog (and I suppose is the same for others) because they are (were?) the only DD games supplier doing it right. This is the normal way of doing business, close to the customer and in respect of the customer. After all the customer with his money make the business possible.

For a long time we, the customers, have been disrespected and treated very badly by all the other devs/publishers/dd services/etc industry as a whole. Gog is the only beacon that wants to do right by us, the customers. With ditching fair-pricing they arent anymore close to us and they caved in to the number 2 of todays extremely bad practices, right after numer one culprit: drm being first and region.*whatever being (a close) second. With this move they put distance from us customers and gotten closer to sharks.

I never bought and will never buy any digital goods thing with drm or unfair price. if gog caves in then i wont be a consumer in this market anymore.

Not much that can be done except make it a rule of their service that you're not allowed to tunnel/proxy your IP to gain regional benefits. Steam has a rule to that extent in there somewhere.

Doesn't mean people can't still do it, but if they wanted to they could deny service if you do it anyway. Which of course still means you have your game (in GOG/DRM-free case), just not the downloads that come with it anymore. Personally I highly value the digital backup of my stuff. To the extent that even if I lost access to DRM-free downloads I previously purchased and downloaded, there's a good chance I'd repurchase them somewhere else again anyway.

Piracy is never an option and still the overwhelming number of games on GOG are worldwide the same prices although GOG doesn't advertise with this anymore (sadly). So I guess GOG still has an edge over Steam.

On the other hand maybe we shouldn't only blame GOG but also these evil publishers. Put some pressure on them and let them hear what we think about regional pricing.

This might be more like a long term goal though and at some point one should give up and just go over to Steam and get done with it.

This is interesting, I really do not understand how is this allowed. In my business I can not ask anyone to pay more, even if they are from different country. It happens sometimes, but it is illegal. However publishers are allowed to do this, they can change price just because customer happens to be from different country... and where is room for free marker in the syslem like this, it is like cartel...

I know that gog's fault is that they merely accepted and became part of broken system, but why is there broken system in the first place? Regional pricing is not at all about different taxes...and in some cases it goes with no availability in certain regions. Anyone wonders why people pirate games (especially those who are not avaialable on service like gog for fair price without DRM with all DLCs and full soundtrack)?

If you highly value your backups, then why would there be a good chance that you would repurchase them? Or did you just state that incorrectly?

Edit: By digital backup you mean the game files are in your account on a server somewhere?

I had to look up the bears... Hah hah. Well, crap. Better carry some pointy stick with you, wherever you go. You never know! I heard some small crocodiles also like to hide in toilet bowls. Just saying.

There still are literally gorillions of classic games to be released. But yet, you keep forgoing your principles to release some shitty new and indie games that hardly anyone is buying (judging from the bestsellers list).

What the fuck are you doing, gog?

From Gizmodo Australia

I'm having a hard time coming up with any upcoming RPGs or strategy games that would be worth it.

We would, if they were not spineless cowards of the lowest caliber hiding behind nondisclosure agreements.

Yes, I see it in a similar manner, although approaching from a different angle. GOG is business. If it doesn't suit me anymore I will favor another one. If they take a wrong turn and maybe go down economically, it means nothing to me.

I'm mostly interested in finding out if GOG still makes the products I like to buy. Not sure at the moment.

Otherwise I'm just comment their tactics for economic success. If this step really makes them more competitive is doubtful because regional pricing isn't terribly popular, especially not in the high priced regions. Cross-regional gifting is also problematic and potentially forbidding it is a blow. And then there is overhead attached in including the whole concept. Some customers might feel it's a rip-off and buy less. So economic forecast is difficult. But let's see.

That might be part of it -- but then, that's always the main issue, it seems. The majority of customers don't seem to care about DRM, forced online clients, overpriced items and so on. As long as their customer base accepts it and keeps handing over their cash, the industry will keep pulling these shenanigans. Why not, if they clearly get away with it? If no one was buying their products, obviously they'd have to adapt.