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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 25, 2014
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JohnnyDollar: Thanks for the response. I haven't bought music in ages. Besides occasionally on the radio or online, I never listen to it. There was a time when I could listen to the radio and tell you the band and the name of the song with about 4 out of every 5 that played in that era. I can listen to the current era for 20 songs in a row and most likely can't give you the name for a single one. :D
This is because the current era songs suck.
Posted February 25, 2014
Sad thing is that physical version of Witcher 3 probably cost less this time too...
Posted February 25, 2014
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Lodium: Since you bougth a product you are entitled to do whatever you want with it.
Be it selling it, gifting it or trading it, even destroying it so long you dont break any legal restrictions.
Its not like its impossible to implement some kind of used market place for digital goods.
You/me/anyone didn't buy it and does not own it (according to current law). Hence it is quite possible to have no market for used goods (since we don't have any, legally).

We merely got "non time-limited, non-exclusive licence to use it; conditional on selling your firstborn and signing on the dotted line". This non-ownership (as in this case there is no physical copy of the precious, mythical animal called the Intellectual Property) differs from store to store in its severity. So far GOG has/had one of the best versions, since DRM-free means you can enforce your rights to continued access should they go belly flop.
Posted February 25, 2014
http://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_uturns_on_drm_free_policy_stating_well_everyone_else_is_doing_it/post49

my 2 cents. Remember the publishers asking your company to change do not necessarily have your best interests in mind. You don't need to look far to see what happened to other software distributors starting down this path.
Posted February 25, 2014
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JohnnyDollar: Someone from the UK or W Europe answer something for me.

How is the regional pricing done on other online digital content like music and movies where you live?

Is it currency exchange + add applicable taxes and fees = price you're charged?
Example GamersGate:

On gamersgate.com I get prices in € which might be for the €-area or only my country, they don't say and typically the prices are 1$=1€. The prices are end prices including all taxes, but excluding transaction fees initiated by third parties for example when paying by credit card.

On gamersgate.co.uk I get prices in GBP which are typically a bit better than € prices but still worse than $ prices. I could also pay there (because I live in the EU) and then my credit card would make the conversion GBP to € automatically based on the official exchange rate.

Example Amazon:

Has a site for each country but I can use any sites to download music. So far again I used the german and the english website. You pay and the credit card makes the automatic conversion. Amazon itself says that VAT is included whereever applicable. I have given them my location truthfully.

Again the english website using GBP is a bit cheaper (10-20%). I guess because the british pound is undervalued currently, but that's fine.


We see a big different to regional pricing as applied by Steam or GOG in the future. In the examples above you can actually choose in which region you go shopping while with Steam or GOG you probably cannot. Makes a difference.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Lodium: Since you bougth a product you are entitled to do whatever you want with it.
Be it selling it, gifting it or trading it, even destroying it so long you dont break any legal restrictions.
Its not like its impossible to implement some kind of used market place for digital goods.
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gkoczyk: You/me/anyone didn't buy it and does not own it (according to current law). Hence it is quite possible to have no market for used goods (since we don't have any, legally).

We merely got "non time-limited, non-exclusive licence to use it; conditional on selling your firstborn and signing on the dotted line". This non-ownership (as in this case there is no physical copy of the precious, mythical animal called the Intellectual Property) differs from store to store in its severity. So far GOG has/had one of the best versions, since DRM-free means you can enforce your rights to continued access should they go belly flop.
what do you call trading in AH in WoW then or even better Diablo 3 Style AH were blizzard charged users a small fee if they
used real money on virtual items?

Virtual items is Digital goods is it not?
Those arent the only cases either.
With all the microtransactions taking place you can be sure there are some legal markets for used digital goods.
Especially since real money is involved.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by Lodium
Posted February 25, 2014
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Ekaros: Sad thing is that physical version of Witcher 3 probably cost less this time too...
That probably really is a rip off. However if you wait a year or two before buying than both might cost less.
Posted February 25, 2014
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CarrionCrow: Have to say, definitely interested in seeing what the gentleman has to say later on. Course, with the way the crowd's been, it'll probably be like throwing gasoline-soaked explosives in a fire unless they manage to say every single thing that every single person wants to hear, simultaneously.

It'll have to be one looooooooooooong letter.
It better be, it's taking him more than a day to write it; if it's not, then he must be a damn sloooow writer :-P


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IAmSinistar: It's a known tactic called the Friday News Dump. Quite popular with politicians here in the States.
Releasing bad news or documents on a Friday afternoon in an attempt to avoid media scrutiny.
In this case, the misleading title worked like magic anyway. And regarding the actual content, no media would consider it worth scrutinising or criticising - it is industry standard after all; there was a short mention on Polygon only (somebody posted a link some hundred posts back). What might be news worthy is the effect it had on the community, but judging by the posts in here I'm not sure even that is.


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silentbob1138: It probably was carefully planned. Still stupid, though.
You are of course right that a similar discussion would have happened in the release thread. But now they expect us to be excited about games we know nothing about to accept regional pricing. If the games truly have the potential to make some of us accept regional pricing announcing it at launch would have at least stopped some complaints. And, unless tomorrow brings some amazing news, I expect quite a lot of complaints in the launch thread, too.
The letter thread will confine most of the second wave of complain/ criticism/ whatever posts.
I expect the launch thread to have some posts stating boycott on the base of regional pricing exclusively and the majority or posts revolving around criticism the introduction or regional pricing in relation to the game released, i.e. if the specific title is deemed worthy enough for such a move.

EDIT: Spelling
Post edited February 25, 2014 by HypersomniacLive
Posted February 25, 2014
So less than 2 hours of working hours left for the company and still no letter :(
Posted February 25, 2014
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HypersomniacLive: And regarding the actual content, no media would consider it worth scrutinising or criticising - it is industry standard after all; there was a short mention on Polygon only (somebody posted a link some hundred posts back). What might be news worthy is the effect it had on the community, but judging by the posts in here I'm not sure even that is.
The news bit itself has been mentioned in dozens of places, but just the "dry" announcement, hardly any comments. Saw threads on several forums though, including polls on two of them. One can only be seen after voting and can only be voted after registering though, the other is at 5% accepting this.
Posted February 25, 2014
probably 45 mins until the "letter"
Posted February 25, 2014
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Leroux: But what does this say about users from one region gifting games to users from another region (possibly in exchange for money)? That would neither be IP proxying nor disguising the users' place of residence. It might be done for the same purposes they list, but the quote explicitly forbids only two means to reach those purposes and not the purposes themselves, so it's still a little vague.
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gkoczyk: Lockdown on cross-region gifts. "This game cannot be gifted within/outside of your region."
Valve also trade ban those who (in their view) gift too often (and after disabling their account in this case).

Valve could also revoke gifts from recipients or disable their accounts too, but I've not seen any examples reported of this so far. Basically, they're able and willing to use their DRM to enforce regional pricing - and if GOG want to make a regional pricing policy stick, they'll at some point have to consider similar measures. So worst case is that this could be the precursor to DRM on GOG.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Cavalary: The news bit itself has been mentioned in dozens of places, but just the "dry" announcement, hardly any comments. Saw threads on several forums though, including polls on two of them. One can only be seen after voting and can only be voted after registering though, the other is at 5% accepting this.
It's industry standard stuff, hardly news worthy. Frankly, I don't recall any news media ever even discussing the subject.

As for the Escapist link, I can see the poll just fine in Pale Moon with NoScript. The comments in that (short) thread don't seem to reflect the poll results though.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Cavalary: The news bit itself has been mentioned in dozens of places, but just the "dry" announcement, hardly any comments. Saw threads on several forums though, including polls on two of them. One can only be seen after voting and can only be voted after registering though, the other is at 5% accepting this.
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HypersomniacLive: It's industry standard stuff, hardly news worthy. Frankly, I don't recall any news media ever even discussing the subject.

As for the Escapist link, I can see the poll just fine in Pale Moon with NoScript. The comments in that (short) thread don't seem to reflect the poll results though.
The one I was referring to about not being able to see the results was this one on Neowin.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Cavalary: The one I was referring to about not being able to see the results was this one on Neowin.
Typical Neowin.
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Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)