Regulations are more likely to protect the interests of big businesses than to care for the sheeple

Now they are going to stick with their core values a little differently, by adding.

This is what I'm hoping too. Regional pricing is going to be very, very difficult to fight as long physical retail is still a big thing in many parts of the world. Changing it isn't as simple a matter as some here would like to believe.

Better to win on the DRM-free issue now and fight for fairer pricing later - when the situation with the market is more favourable for that - than to have halted progress on both fronts. I just hope that everyone who's complaining now also refuses to buy anything on Steam, at retail or at any other store that uses regional pricing. And makes sure to complain to the relevant publishers each time they refuse to buy a game they'd otherwise be interested in if not for regional pricing.


Well like it or not retail is still a big thing and represents a large proportion of global sales and is a big sticking point for regional pricing.

Look at it from the retailer's perspective. Would you stock a game knowing that people can just buy the same game online through digital stores for considerably less? Would you stock a game if it cost as much as the average person in your country earns in e.g. a week (or more)?

Look at it from the publisher's perspective. Would you be willing to sacrifice a lot of your global sales just so you can adopt worldwide pricing digitally in order to get your game onto one digital store for a much smaller gain? As well as having to commit to a DRM-free release, which is an issue you (and especially your investors) are still very wary about due to piracy concerns?


Let's say a game was released with this pricing at physical retailers (RRP, so retailers are not bound to sell at these prices and can sell for less):

US: $60
UK: $70
EU: $75
AU: $150

If the publisher decided to use worldwide pricing instead of regional pricing for digital sales and without dropping retail completely or pissing off any of the retailers, then everyone wanting to buy the game digitally would have to pay the Australian price of $150 regardless of their region. It would kill most of the digital sales for that game... and imagine the anger and "rage piracy" that would result. Retail is still a big thing in some parts of the world and accounts for a fairly large proportion of global sales... they're not going to throw those away chasing after much smaller, riskier gains in the digital marketplace.

Another thing to consider is that if they anger the retailers, those retailers might also refuse to stock their console games, which would be a much bigger problem for the publishers given the much larger size of the console market and even greater dependency on retail sales than on PC. From what GOG have been telling us it seems these upcoming games wouldn't have been released DRM-free otherwise and would still have had regional pricing anyway... so I say treat them little differently to how you would on other stores, but taking into account the better value they will have here due to being DRM-free.

Just the opposite, they are taking away. It's all about the money. They'll use any reason they can find to charge some people more than others, like for example what country you live in.

I understand you. You value DRM free much, much higher than worldwide flat prices. Probably GOG does so too and that's why the presentations in the past where gave put both on kind of the same importance were misleading. DRM free clearly trumps worldwide equal prices. I think so myself but not that strong and not that exclusively.

I value both because of their own. I think that apart from paying a bit more less, you shouldn't discriminate people by its origin.

I agree that money isn't the most important, but it isn't the least important thing too. It plays a big role in our everyday lifes. We can see the role more clearly if the money is not there though.

I agree with you on everything.

And yet Indie Royale does it.

Steam == Never, I only get their keys in bundles or from boxed copies. I see them as a rental service so I want the very best price and Steam just does not deliver.

GamersGate == Yes, and quite regularly. They have lots of DRM-free games that I buy as they are not available here. I always use to rebuy the games when they came here for the better customer care and installer plus the goodies.
Now that GOG will be charging me the same price as GG I will have to consider who has the better deal at the time of purchase.

Shiny Loot == Yes, DRM-free games and at not too bad a price. Customer support is even reasonable. I complained that they did not differentiate(?) between online one time keys and a simple CD key check. They apologised after I explained my issue with it and about a week later the games began listing One time online check or one time CD key.

HB == Only bundles and only if they have good, interesting DRM-free games.

IGS == Only their DRM-free games. They are not too quick with responses either, but they seem to try.

Square Enix == Yes. I even bought their Steam box just because it was rental price. I have also bought two DRM-free games from them.


+1
I did not know we could do that!!!!

It doesn't matter really, forget about all I said. You have your opinions, I have mine. They will always find a reason, so will you and I.

Can't a man dream? :(

It's simple. I feel like they are adding, you feel like they are removing. Fair enough.

As i said. If publishers wanna use a brand they should stay with what the brand makes strong. Why should GOG take the hit on their brand?
Basically it's about trust in a brand. What i said also ... what will they drop next ? (Oh wasn't GOG the side which always include goodies ??? But that means we can't sell our hyper mega cool digital deluxe version anymore ... so oh yeah lets ask GOG do drop that too ... cause yeah we still publish it for free ...)

Do you realy think thats good for the brand GOG? Is it what you love about GOG giving up on their principles?

As hard as it sometimes is.. i don't buy new EA Products cause EA have forgotten their customers. I don't buy new UBISoft Products cause the same. I buy on steam cause ... sadly GOG never heard my linux crying.

So i stand by my words .. Never drop principles which made your brand strong , stay true to yourself. Better loose some sales before you loose customers cause they don't trust you anymore.

Well the only thing i know of that migth regulate market in the future is some kind of fair trade act.
If i remember correctly there has been some talk about implementing that as a law when trading with porer contrys like in africa for example.
Its uncertian if it ever gets implemented internationally though since you had contrys that will vote it down.

But i dont think that will aply for digital stuff, maybe just coffe and such.

Right, I should have more specifically asked about things like exchange rate penalties and VAT collection. But I think those have been covered in the interim of my first asking the question as well. It sounds like flat-pricing works below a certain threshold of sales, but becomes more and more complex as you scale up, at least given the examples we are working with at the moment.

So far the large global businesses I've found either offer prices in local currencies or have dedicated regional business units. I imagine all of the ones that deal in a physical product hew to this model, and that more and digital products will be forced down this path as well.

Only if you are caught up on your Dream Tax payments. ;)