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General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
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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 25, 2014
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HGiles: It doesn't seem like greed to me. It seems like GOG compromising to address the #1 customer complaint and expand their business.
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Djungelurban: So they made sure their biggest customer complaint isn't their biggest customer complain anymore by creating an even bigger customer complaint? I'm not sure I'd call that a good solution really, or even a solution at all. It's more like taking care of a rat infestation by blowing up the building.
LOL

I don't agree with regional pricing. But I can see how the absence of market signals about region-free pricing and the constant complaints about missing games mislead GOG management. GOG management isn't very on the ball anyway. It's easy to misunderstand silence around a feature as 'not a valuable feature'. Often silence means 'works so well we have no comments'. It can be hard for management to remember that.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Bloodygoodgames: GOG is a multi multi million dollar company. There was a story published recently about their galloping profits in the last couple of years and it's much much more money than most people seemed to think. So, yes, it's all about profits. Either making more for themselves, or making the company financially appealing for a sale down the road.

And very very very few people have ever said they wanted 'new games' or 'AAA games', yet that seems to be what we're getting with this region free B.S. So, no, they're not placating their customers. They're making more money for themselves and couching it in the B.S. of "we're doing it for you".
Do you have a link for the article? I'd like to read that, as I was assuming that most people playing in the digital download field were scraping by, apart from the biggest players. Clearly I need to update my assumptions.

I don't have numbers on how many people are asking for new or AAA games, but I have been in a lot of discussions where a game is coming out and there is hue-and-cry about whether GOG is getting it, and if so are they getting it on launch day. The furor over the release of The Banner Saga is one of the more recent instances I recall.

Naturally I have to add a disclaimer that I have no access to the inner workings of GOG, so I don't know what their internal polling of customer wishes reveals, nor how they choose to respond to those. I can only report what I find anecdotally from being on the forum. In my experience, limited in scope as it is, it seems there is a multitude of voices here, each with different wishes for how GOG should best operate. For now I trust that GOG tries to weigh these voices carefully and pursue the course the think best. Until we see how it plays out in actuality, I cannot really evaluate this decision better.
Posted February 25, 2014
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blotunga: Pre-order and buying on release day is such a rip-off. In about 2 years you can buy an 60 euro game for 5-10USD in the right places. I would've liked that gog only keeps fully patched and updated GOTY(GOLD whatever) versions of games, which were tested and patched for years. But somehow I knew this was coming when new games begun to show up and then DLC...
well, i sometimes pay full price to suport the devs.
Though maybe the best thing had been gone directly to the devs site to do it.

And not to provoke you or anything
but the DLC and the new games and indies is not GOG,s doing
It is the gamers themself that voted it forward.

When are people gonna take responsibility for their own actions and quit blaming others that had very little to do with it in the first place.
Its like giving videogames the blame for violence.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by Lodium
Posted February 25, 2014
high rated
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Natamysza: May I ask you a question? Please don't think I'm attacking you, I understand your point of view and respect it but... why are you still here? I don't get it, you've already repeated "I'm done with GOG" several times, you constantly sling mud at GOG and yet you're constantly coming back. What for? Shit (literal and metaphorical) is something I prefer to avoid, you on the other hand keep playing with it. Or at least it seems so. Please don't get me wrong, I do understand your point of view and frankly, I'm partially sharing it (but without using word "shit" or synonyms in every second sentence) but if GOG is so bad why are you still here? You are most probably still downloading your games but why do you visit forum? Does it make you feel better when you are bashing GOG? Sorry, I don't get it...
You don't get it that we are still here and are going to remain here because we have already paid for our games and included in that cost is all future updates and support? That we have just as much right, more actually, to post on the forums as people who just signed up for the freebies and giveaways? You don't get that this is a decision that can be reversed in favor of the standards that loyal customers have come to expect from GOG and that we are making our grievances known on the forums in a desperate attempt to not lose GOG as we know it? Sorry, I don't at all get that you don't get it.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Bloodygoodgames: snip

Europe, Russia, the UK and Australia.

snip
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HypersomniacLive: Completely OT, but honest question - why do people constantly mention the UK separately from Europe? Did the UK leave Europe and I wasn't told? Ans now, you even mention Russia separately, did they also leave Europe?
Russia and the UK do although they are attached to the EU zone are very much of the "we answer only to ourselves" mentality.
We in the UK refuse to use the Euro, we refuse to abide by EU law without complaint and are always threatening (in the UK, not Europe) to break all ties with Europe. Even though this would all be a complete disaster.

:)
Posted February 25, 2014
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HGiles: QFT. GOG has never been a company out to screw the customer for cash. Regional pricing isn't good news. But I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt until we see how it's going to play out.
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Bloodygoodgames: So when WILL you think you're getting screwed? When DRM is finally introduced? Or will you also see that as something 'positive' for the customer?

In the last year and a half, GOG has gone from a company that concentrated on cool old games, to first adding indie games. Then it was DLC and keys for certain games if you wanted to play multi-player, with excuses as to why 'that was still okay and still fell in with our principles'.

Now it's region free pricing. Next, coming to a computer near you.....reasons why 'some games' will have DRM on GOG......if this slippery slope keeps being slalomed down.

In fact, in the last year and a half, they've gone from a really awesome company to one I barely recognize.

Seriously.............it's..........not...........rocket..........science
Keys for certain games has been the case for a very long time. And unlike this, was completely unavoidable. As long as the multiplayer servers require the keys to identify clients, there's not really any way around it. And the keys can't be revoked anyways.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Bloodygoodgames: snip

Europe, Russia, the UK and Australia.

snip
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HypersomniacLive: Completely OT, but honest question - why do people constantly mention the UK separately from Europe? Did the UK leave Europe and I wasn't told? Ans now, you even mention Russia separately, did they also leave Europe?
No, my mistake :)

I started off writing the EU, and the UK (as so many Brits want out of the EU nowadays, so it's often seen as a separate entity), which then meant Russia had to be separate as they're not in the EU. Then I changed what I'd written to 'Europe' from the EU, but didn't delete Russia and the UK :)

Plus......the British have always seen themselves as apart from Central Europe, so they might be in the 'EU' but they're not European they're 'British' :) And I can say this as I am British who, by the way, has never been able to understand why so many Brits think the UK should get out of the EU and continue to ally themselves more with the US. Worst thing the UK ever does if it alienates itself from the rest of Europe, IMO.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Bloodygoodgames: GOG is a multi multi million dollar company. There was a story published recently about their galloping profits in the last couple of years and it's much much more money than most people seemed to think. So, yes, it's all about profits. Either making more for themselves, or making the company financially appealing for a sale down the road.

And very very very few people have ever said they wanted 'new games' or 'AAA games', yet that seems to be what we're getting with this region free B.S. So, no, they're not placating their customers. They're making more money for themselves and couching it in the B.S. of "we're doing it for you".
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IAmSinistar: Do you have a link for the article? I'd like to read that, as I was assuming that most people playing in the digital download field were scraping by, apart from the biggest players. Clearly I need to update my assumptions.

I don't have numbers on how many people are asking for new or AAA games, but I have been in a lot of discussions where a game is coming out and there is hue-and-cry about whether GOG is getting it, and if so are they getting it on launch day. The furor over the release of The Banner Saga is one of the more recent instances I recall.

Naturally I have to add a disclaimer that I have no access to the inner workings of GOG, so I don't know what their internal polling of customer wishes reveals, nor how they choose to respond to those. I can only report what I find anecdotally from being on the forum. In my experience, limited in scope as it is, it seems there is a multitude of voices here, each with different wishes for how GOG should best operate. For now I trust that GOG tries to weigh these voices carefully and pursue the course the think best. Until we see how it plays out in actuality, I cannot really evaluate this decision better.
Keep in mind that whatever you see here represents only a small fraction of the people that but games here. But, that silliness only started after GOG gave up on focusing on older games. Now they have not just new indie games, but new games in general, which makes it harder to refuse to bring more AAA games here even if it means dolling the French Monk up like a hooker and selling out all the original values..
Posted February 25, 2014
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Bloodygoodgames: And it's even funnier, as someone with a background in PR, to see GOG yet again so enormously screw up and then not even have the common courtesy to have their CEO issue a statement - a statement that was promised today I might add - while their customer base sits waiting for it. A statement that anyone with one jot of PR sense would have issued first thing this morning.
I have no background in PR, but I've been a customer long enough to have encountered my fair share of unfortunate PR scenarios. And yet I am completely taken by surprise everytime something like this happens. Putting the pretty dramatic info about the changing regional pricing situation in a pretty ordinary announcement instead of having a fleshed out article on it's own... how about "no"? Starting the announcement with "Good news!"... seriously?

Had they started this with a somehwat detailed official statement -like the one we still haven't got- I wouldn't have liked them dropping one of their initial basic principles any better, but it would have made it easier to have a discussion about the pros and cons of such a decision.

Learning about this two days later from another website just pissed me off. "Good news!"...
Post edited February 25, 2014 by TheRealJayDee
Posted February 25, 2014
Does the thought of GOG stagnating to the point of complete irrelevancy not freak anoyone out, or is it just me? I'm not trying to get into the nuts and bolts of this convoluted debate but it seems as though a lot of people would prefer this outcome to one that get can new games on launch, still embraces a DRM-free policy, and yet eschews flat pricing.

Is acquiring a ton of cheap shit from a irrelevant store front really preferred to embracing a competitive and thriving GOG which can offer old titles and new titles (at launch no less) DRM-free?
Posted February 25, 2014
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HypersomniacLive: Completely OT, but honest question - why do people constantly mention the UK separately from Europe? Did the UK leave Europe and I wasn't told? Ans now, you even mention Russia separately, did they also leave Europe?
While the UK is a member of the European Union [EU], it always had and still has a... special status. They don´t use the Euro, for instance, and overall they are one of the least integration-friendly countries in the EU. They always went their own ways and they keep doing so today. They have their very own ideas how society and economy should work and they act accordingly. In a strange way the UK is partly a part of the EU and partly not.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Natamysza: May I ask you a question? Please don't think I'm attacking you, I understand your point of view and respect it but... why are you still here? I don't get it, you've already repeated "I'm done with GOG" several times, you constantly sling mud at GOG and yet you're constantly coming back. What for? Shit (literal and metaphorical) is something I prefer to avoid, you on the other hand keep playing with it. Or at least it seems so. Please don't get me wrong, I do understand your point of view and frankly, I'm partially sharing it (but without using word "shit" or synonyms in every second sentence) but if GOG is so bad why are you still here? You are most probably still downloading your games but why do you visit forum? Does it make you feel better when you are bashing GOG? Sorry, I don't get it...
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Bloodygoodgames: Because I'm fully of the opinion that when a company that has spent years loudly declaring its beliefs and putting down others that don't share those beliefs then turns around and goes back on a huge part of what they supposedly 'believed in', and stomps on the customers that made them so successful in the first place while they do it, they deserve as much shit as I can muster.

Plus, it's kind of funny to read some of the responses from people who are obviously so naive that they still hold out some thread of hope that GOG isn't really now going down that dark and nasty, dodgy path few ever thought they would go down.

And it's even funnier, as someone with a background in PR, to see GOG yet again so enormously screw up and then not even have the common courtesy to have their CEO issue a statement - a statement that was promised today I might add - while their customer base sits waiting for it. A statement that anyone with one jot of PR sense would have issued first thing this morning.

It's a classic case that should be studied in marketing and PR classes of exactly what NOT to do if you want to keep a successful business, and your customer base, and my evil little business mind finds it highly informative. :)

Plus, if we bitch loud and long enough, maybe they'll change their minds. If we don't bitch, they definitely won't.

That, and I have several friends on here that I'm talking to :)
Yup, that's why I have written that I agree with you partially ;) Whatever you say about PR, huge mistakes and being unprofessional - I agree with you completely. But then... don't you thing that flinging shit at them is also unprofessional? And most important - ineffective? I'm not trying to defend GOG but you are giving them a perfect excuse to ignore "your bitching". They can just say "well, some of our customers went completely nuts, what can we do?" The best way to avoid a metaphorical shit flung at you is to ignore it. I'm not that stupid to believe that expressing your worries gently is going to change anything. The only good way I see is to stop buying from them, just as you plan to do (and I'm agreeing with you about that too!). That can actually give them something to think about but only if we don't deliver the aforementioned easy excuse. "Some of our customers left us? Well, they were all crazy, it's even better that they are gone"
Posted February 25, 2014
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Bloodygoodgames: GOG is a multi multi million dollar company. There was a story published recently about their galloping profits in the last couple of years and it's much much more money than most people seemed to think. So, yes, it's all about profits. Either making more for themselves, or making the company financially appealing for a sale down the road.

And very very very few people have ever said they wanted 'new games' or 'AAA games', yet that seems to be what we're getting with this region free B.S. So, no, they're not placating their customers. They're making more money for themselves and couching it in the B.S. of "we're doing it for you".
avatar
IAmSinistar: Do you have a link for the article? I'd like to read that, as I was assuming that most people playing in the digital download field were scraping by, apart from the biggest players. Clearly I need to update my assumptions.

I don't have numbers on how many people are asking for new or AAA games, but I have been in a lot of discussions where a game is coming out and there is hue-and-cry about whether GOG is getting it, and if so are they getting it on launch day. The furor over the release of The Banner Saga is one of the more recent instances I recall.

Naturally I have to add a disclaimer that I have no access to the inner workings of GOG, so I don't know what their internal polling of customer wishes reveals, nor how they choose to respond to those. I can only report what I find anecdotally from being on the forum. In my experience, limited in scope as it is, it seems there is a multitude of voices here, each with different wishes for how GOG should best operate. For now I trust that GOG tries to weigh these voices carefully and pursue the course the think best. Until we see how it plays out in actuality, I cannot really evaluate this decision better.
No, I just did a quick search for it and can't find it.

Someone else in the forums linked to it a few months ago, which is how I first became aware of it and, believe me, it was an eye opener.

Anyone else know where the article is about GOG's financial successes????????
Posted February 25, 2014
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HypersomniacLive: Completely OT, but honest question - why do people constantly mention the UK separately from Europe? Did the UK leave Europe and I wasn't told? Ans now, you even mention Russia separately, did they also leave Europe?
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011284mm: Russia and the UK do although they are attached to the EU zone are very much of the "we answer only to ourselves" mentality.
We in the UK refuse to use the Euro, we refuse to abide by EU law without complaint and are always threatening (in the UK, not Europe) to break all ties with Europe. Even though this would all be a complete disaster.

:)
What you guys still belong to the EU ? I could have sworn you joined the US some time ago! :P I kid i kid.

Russia is not attached to the EU though and since non EU people tend to EU = Europe such sentences come around lol.
Posted February 25, 2014
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011284mm: Russia and the UK do although they are attached to the EU zone are very much of the "we answer only to ourselves" mentality.
We in the UK refuse to use the Euro, we refuse to abide by EU law without complaint and are always threatening (in the UK, not Europe) to break all ties with Europe. Even though this would all be a complete disaster.

:)
Correct if I'm wrong, but Europe was mentioned, not the EU. It makes perfect sense to mention the UK and Russia separately from the Eurozone for the former and both the EU and the Eurozone for the the latter, but not from Europe. Or not?


EDIT: Corrections due to getting carried away with the use of the Euro.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by HypersomniacLive
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)