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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 23, 2014
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Luc2k: I must have missed the fine print* when I voted to bring newer games to GOG a while back.
*You hereby agree to regional pricing.

I also believe this will hurt "the DRM-Free Revolution" since some people at least won't have a problem with downloading and plastering your installers all over the internet now that you've lost your credibility.

What is your take on this Mr. Marketing Hat?
You mean like they did before the announcement?
Post edited February 23, 2014 by DAlancole
Posted February 23, 2014
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Adzeth: I'm having a hard time coming up with any upcoming RPGs or strategy games that would be worth it.
Same here. I doubt that those three games are worth introducing regional pricing on GOG and i assume that i won't be excited by any of them.
Posted February 23, 2014
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Quasebarth: ...but I also do not need or want the crippled censored versions we often get to see here in Germany.
How are they going to do that without breaking German censorship laws?

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Luc2k: I must have missed the fine print* when I voted to bring newer games to GOG a while back.
*You hereby agree to regional pricing.

I also believe this will hurt "the DRM-Free Revolution" since some people at least won't have a problem with downloading and plastering your installers all over the internet now that you've lost your credibility.

What is your take on this Mr. Marketing Hat?
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DAlancole: You mean like they did before the announcement?
lol Yeah, that's true. GOG versions have been circulating since GOG has been around, unfortunately.
Post edited February 23, 2014 by JohnnyDollar
Posted February 23, 2014
Hey GOG, do you remember your own video from 2012? Where you say that regional pricing is wrong? I'm sadly not allowed to post links (how weird), but people can find the video on your very youtube channel.

Your principles are important. The difference between your service and Steam is now just the lack of DRM. Don't get me wrong; that's huge. However, Steam is the one DRM solution that I've had so little problems with over my entire time using the service, that I feel pretty comfortable using it. Please think about what you're doing here; GOG stands for "Good Old Games". I don't come here for the latest and fanciest piece of pie. I come here for the games that have actually proven to be great, over time. Abandoning your principles to get the latest and greatest, which was never the purpose of your service anyway? Disappointing.
Posted February 23, 2014
So yeah can I ask my U.S. buddy to gift me one of those games? Then I'll pay him the money back with a few bucks for his troubles and we will both have the same game, same price. Wow I've been reading for 1,5 hours here. I had work I needed to do. Woops.
Post edited February 23, 2014 by Senteria
Posted February 23, 2014
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Senteria: So yeah can I ask my U.S. buddy to gift me one of those games? Then I'll pay him the money back with a few bucks for his troubles and we will both have the same game, same price. Wow I've been reading for 1,5 hours here. I had work I needed to do. Woops.
Sounds like a plan to me. *shhhhh* keep it quiet. *whispers* Use the pm system for this kind of talk. :P
Post edited February 23, 2014 by JohnnyDollar
Posted February 23, 2014
So Risen 1 and 2 it is? I liked the first 1, haven't played Risen 2 yet, even though I have it on STEAM because it was in some Humble Bundle long time ago. If there is going to be some very interesting launch promo like with the STALKER series I may buy it here as well.
Posted February 23, 2014
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Senteria: So yeah can I ask my U.S. buddy to gift me one of those games? Then I'll pay him the money back with a few bucks for his troubles and we will both have the same game, same price. Wow I've been reading for 1,5 hours here. I had work I needed to do. Woops.
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JohnnyDollar: Sounds like a plan to me. *shhhhh* keep it quiet. *whispers* Use the pm system for this kind of talk. :P
"In GOG.com's second commercial leading up to our announcement on Tuesday, 27 March 2012, we see the embodiment of another one of our core values."

Look this video up on GOG's youtube page and prepare to cringe and laugh at the irony. (hey wanna make make 10 bucks on a $50 game I want to get? It will still be 10 dollars cheaper for me if I pay 50 dollar for the game and 10 for the effort to you) :')

"Sorry about the ripoff, that was legally required"

Oh by the way GOG. If you give up one of your core values. At least give us all a complimentary cake!
Post edited February 23, 2014 by Senteria
Posted February 23, 2014
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NetAndy: ...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 alloed to do thios, 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. ...
I don't know what your business is, but certainly you could for example open a shop in Japan and offer your products for ten times the price. Still it would be probably allowed for the Japanese to go to your country and your shop and buy the products as if he was a native. No doubt about that.

In digital regional pricing it is different. There it's your nationality or some other not-so-easy-to-change criterion that decides for all shops and in principle also for all times.

One could see it as kind of discrimination (sex, race, geographical origin) but also clearly some cases of discrimination must still be allowed. I would say it is a highly controversial topic of modern legislature and of course the big companies (GOG not being part of the system) also exploit that the lawmakers are typically 10-20 years behind.

I would also see it as a side effect of excessive DRM because usually you need DRM to enforce region restrictions, but once you can do it, you do it. Now I wonder how GOG will enforce it for Multiplayer games the regional things... will be fun to watch.
Posted February 23, 2014
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Galenmereth: Hey GOG, do you remember your own video from 2012? Where you say that regional pricing is wrong?
They remember the video, of course. They even switched it to private once the shitstorm started in this thread :-P
Posted February 23, 2014
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Quasebarth: ...but I also do not need or want the crippled censored versions we often get to see here in Germany.
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JohnnyDollar: How are they going to do that without breaking German censorship laws? ...
No way. These laws are usually quite simple. If something is forbidden it is regardless of the way you try to circumvent it. I guess he doesn't really care about german censorship laws.
Posted February 23, 2014
I can view the said video just fine. Maybe it was switched to private for a while. But come on, even though this announcement left a bitter taste you don't need to go that way. It's already made public, the jokes on GOG.com.
Post edited February 23, 2014 by wormholewizards
Posted February 23, 2014
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Selderij: If anything, this little precedent may incentivize current GOG publishers to rethink their flat pricing policy and threaten to pull out their catalog if their new terms are not met.
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jackster79: I will not deny that is a risk; will even say it is very likely.

What I am hoping will come out of all of this is that GOG will have a way to achieve a critical mass that it could not have otherwise done so, and by doing so will tip the bargaining power back in their favor. I would like to believe (again, likely naively) that once a publisher goes to region-specific pricing, there is no reason to think they would never go back to flat rate pricing. Situation and circumstances change, and my hope is that GOG growing its catalog is one of those changes that will cause the publishers to rethink such a stance.

Edited for spelling
I'm sorry, but I think you are being a bit naive. A game publisher is a business, and they are in business to make money and maximize profits for their shareholders. If they know that they can make more money by taking advantage of a regional pricing model, what would be their incentive to go back to a flat pricing model in the future? There is no financial advantage in doing so, unless that regional pricing model suddenly becomes less profitable.

Additionally, by allowing one (or two) publishers access to a regional pricing model, GOG leave themselves open to compromising with all of the publishers currently offering their games on the site. They will have weakened their bargaining power by setting a precedent, and publishers who signed up to a flat pricing model in the past will very likely want to renegotiate their terms when those contracts end, to switch to the regional pricing model offered to their competitors. Who could blame them? From a business point of view, they need to gain whatever advantage they can to sell their product, and continuing to use a flat pricing model when their competitors have adopted regional pricing via the same distributor would put them at a disadvantage.

I believe the team at GOG already knew this when they were bargaining for these three titles, which is why they started to remove their media promoting a flat pricing model. They know that once they open the floodgates, all publishers offering games on their store will want to adopt regional pricing in the future, so they are on an even footing with their competitors.
Posted February 23, 2014
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Well this is surprise, I was sure that when I was logged out from GOG, there was that card (along side DRM Free) about one world fair price beeing a part of what they are, so this is definitly a sad day as it was when HB introduced it.

The only, only way I could support this, is if it was matter of GOG's existence. Since it's probably not, this is a big loss, and what suprises me the most, is GOG's attempt to make it something good, instead of bering strait with us.

So yes, huge -1 for GOG.
Post edited February 23, 2014 by Miljac
Posted February 23, 2014
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Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Never had to use a VPN on GOG before... maybe I'll just boycott you and buy cheaper steam keys of these elsewhere though... -_-

EDIT: Also holy shit, you guys had the audacity to start this post off with "Good News!"
Really..?
Post edited February 23, 2014 by Stoibs
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)