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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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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.
That article was in Polish and posted by a forum member from Poland, IIRC. I do remember it and the figures were indeed quite impressive, especially regarding GOG's growth over the past couple of years.
I doubt though that you have any luck this forum member will spot your request in this ever growing thread and provide you with the relevant link.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Lodium:
I have voted against DLC just as I would've voted agains Pre-Orders. But probably the majority prefer it so.
Posted February 25, 2014
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mobutu: I could never live in uk because of those damned awful cctvs ...
I KNOW.....what IS that all about?

My parents and I left the UK 30 years ago, so when we used to live there there was no such thing as CCTV. Now there's a bloody camera everywhere you go. I read somewhere a study showed the average Brit is photographed over 300 times a day. And the rules and regulations the Brits live under are amazing to behold. Talk about Stalinist Russia. It's worse!!

Personally, I prefer the Thai way of dealing with CCTVs. They shove CCTV cameras up all over Bangkok, but only about 3 of them actually work. The rest don't even have internal parts, they're just there as a 'deterrent'.

You've gotta love Thailand :)
Posted February 25, 2014
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HGiles: GOG needs to get a dictionary that includes a clear definition of 'professional'.
And of "tomorrow" and "24 hours day" - it's long been "tomorrow" and over 24 hours since TET announced the letter, hasn't it?
Posted February 25, 2014
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Chacranajxy: Yeah, obviously somebody doesn't acquire an ownership interest in Diablo III's assets or anything like that just by buying the game. That's all that paragraph on ownership is saying. It's just saying you don't own the IP and can't go off and use it for your own nefarious purposes. The second bit you posted does cover in-game items, though I question the legal validity of that clause. It's rare that US courts will find something unconscionable and we're not particularly pro-consumer over here, but so many of these digital goods rights are really skirting the line.
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gkoczyk: Is it ? Are there precedents to distinguish virtual item (supposedly not covered by the Ownership clause) from another in-game, in-memory object (covered by the EULA and IP rights, as I think Glider MMO case has proven) ? For me (admittedly an outside, casual observer) law has the propensity for stretching, if a critical mass of well-paid lawyers is applied to an issue.

Secondly, I would draw your eye to the wording "You have no interest, monetary or otherwise, in any feature or content contained in the Game or associated with the Account." Player characters and items are content associated with the Account (again AFAIK untested in courts).

In any event, I would very much welcome someone with deep, deep pockets dragging these issues through courts. It might even change something in the current landscape.
All I'm saying is that there's a distinction between saying "I own this asset, and can use this or sell this or incorporate it into my own game, or just do whatever I want" (which is what the ownership clause forbids) and saying "I have a license to use this thing." Law is coming closer and closer to finding that licenses to digital content are alienable, just as physical property would be. We're not there yet, though. The most relevant court case for this sort of stuff would be Capitol Records v. Redigi, where a website tried to let people resell digital music they'd bought. The company tried to defend it using the first sale doctrine (which basically says that if you buy a copy of a copyrighted work, like a movie or a CD, you have the right to resell that good.) The court didn't let that fly, though from the ruling it seems clear that they acknowledge there is a real problem here, and people are realizing that if this were a physical good, the shit companies get away with would never work.

Essentially, the courts don't know how they want to deal with this sort of issue yet, but they recognize that as digital distribution becomes more prominent, there's going to be a need for some clarification as to ownership rights.

I feel like I went off on a massive tangent.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by Chacranajxy
Posted February 25, 2014
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Ekaros: No I will call names towards both LucasArts and GoG... If I'm paying any more than USA based persons...
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nansounet: I can understand, but 1$=1€ is not restricted to video games, its for everything now... that sad, but its reality...
Well, if that includes the VAT, that wouldn't be as bad. Paying the VAT out of the price wasn't necessarily something that the publishers are likely to have been happy about.
Posted February 25, 2014
About that letter, sent a message to support when the announcement first appeared and just got a reply 40 minutes ago saying Guillaume is (still) working on it. But still to hopefully address most of our concerns and explain why they decided that it was necessary. So no hopes for turning around.

Pity really, really, Really, REALLY want to be able to get back to supporting GOG and just leave all of this behind as a terrible mess they just narrowly avoided, so kept hoping the delay may somehow indicate they may be trying to give up on the idea (at worst, with the exception of said three games that the contracts have already been signed for), but that's obviously not the case.

So just here to keep complaining and call for boycott, just to make it clear for everyone.
Posted February 25, 2014
Hmm no letter? =P
Well I'll see what happens.
Posted February 25, 2014
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AstralWanderer: I'd suggest that delay on the statement could be a good thing.

It suggests that their response is being carefully considered (hopefully more so that their initial announcement here) and that there may be a policy reversal.

In situations like this with contractual negotiations and NDAs ongoing, saying "no" to customer requests is quick and simple. Saying "yes" (as in "We'll drop regional pricing") is a lot harder, and the longer we have to wait for GOG's followup, the better the chances that it could be a yes in my view.

The cynics among us (who, me?) might even speculate that this furore is deliberate, with GOG aiming to show prospective publishers the depth of feeling on this issue. It would be a crass way of doing so, but no more crass than their fake shutdown a few years back
Sorry, no:
7. What are your prices in different countries?
Generally, GOG.com charges the same price for a game everywhere in the world. Some new games on GOG.com may, in the future, have different prices based on where you are physically located in the world. For these games, depending on where you live you may find that you're asked to pay a different amount than people in other regions do. Regional pricing will always something that is undertaken at the request of the company for whom we are selling the game. Our company is based in Europe and the VAT/Taxes are all included in the game's prices. This means that GOG.com will always charge you the exact order total visible at checkout.However please be advised that we are based in Europe and have no control over your bank's additional international/card transaction fees (where applicable). Some banks don't charge their customers extra and some do, but if you use funds already present on your PayPal account to buy games on GOG.com, you will be able to avoid any such additional costs.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by HypersomniacLive
Posted February 25, 2014
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HGiles: GOG needs to get a dictionary that includes a clear definition of 'professional'.
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HypersomniacLive: And of "tomorrow" and "24 hours day" - it's long been "tomorrow" and over 24 hours since TET announced the letter, hasn't it?
Yeah, but I can totally empathize with the poor bastards writing the letter. I fret enough when trying to explain something carefully in a forum post. Crafting some statement that tens of thousands of people are eagerly waiting to shred must weigh heavily on a person.
Posted February 25, 2014
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Cavalary: (Not that I care for LucasArts games myself.)
Blasphemy! ;)
I'd love to get LucasArts games here, but not if they have regional pricing.
Posted February 25, 2014
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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.
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HypersomniacLive: That article was in Polish and posted by a forum member from Poland, IIRC. I do remember it and the figures were indeed quite impressive, especially regarding GOG's growth over the past couple of years.
I doubt though that you have any luck this forum member will spot your request in this ever growing thread and provide you with the relevant link.
https://www.cdprojekt.com/Press_Room/Informacje_prasowe,news_id,1905

I'm not the original poster, but as you've mentioned it was in Polish, finding it became quite easy :-)

In a nutshell - GoG finances for the 1st quarter of 2013
- 13 260 000 PLN revenue (compared to 6 250 000 PLN in 1st quarter of 2012)
- 2 720 000 PLN net profit (compared to 890 000 PLN in 1st quarter of 2012)

You can to the conversion to your local currency yourselves :-)

EDIT: Spelling.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by Lilim
Posted February 25, 2014
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Natamysza: 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"
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Bloodygoodgames: Natamysza, what you're missing though is I don't have to be 'professional'. I'm a customer, it's not my business. :)

The company, however, has to be professional -- if they want to keep most of their customer base, that is. And so far, GOG has done an incredibly piss poor job of it and it's getting worse by the day.

1) They've angered a huge percentage of their customer base

2) They've promised a letter today that, so far, hasn't arrived and it's now the close of business

3) They've announced a decision that will cause them to go back on one of their core values - a reason why a huge percentage of their customers buy here

4) They've made a decision that has created a ton of negative press for them on gaming sites all over the internet - negative press that is likely to increase as time goes on and as it becomes obvious their customers are not happy.

Honestly, it doesn't get much worse than this :)
That depends. If you want to fling shit at them just for fun (and apparently you do) then obviously you are right - you don't have to be professional at all. If you, however, want to influence them to change their mind then I'm afraid you should be at least slightly professional ;) But as far as I understand it you think that the case is already lost so you are just taking your chances to have some fun with it. Well, for me bashing somebody (even if he rightfully deserves it) is not funny at all but hey, that's just me ;) Thanks for your answer and I hope I didn't bother you too much. I'm outta here

PS I know I'm repeating myself but I agree with you've written there (this list I mean). Very nicely worded
Posted February 25, 2014
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Bloodygoodgames: I KNOW.....what IS that all about?

My parents and I left the UK 30 years ago, so when we used to live there there was no such thing as CCTV. Now there's a bloody camera everywhere you go. I read somewhere a study showed the average Brit is photographed over 300 times a day. And the rules and regulations the Brits live under are amazing to behold. Talk about Stalinist Russia. It's worse!!
Did it all, by some chance, begin in 1984? I'd love the irony.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by Sanjuro
Posted February 25, 2014
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AstralWanderer: I'd suggest that delay on the statement could be a good thing.

It suggests that their response is being carefully considered (hopefully more so that their initial announcement here) and that there may be a policy reversal.

In situations like this with contractual negotiations and NDAs ongoing, saying "no" to customer requests is quick and simple. Saying "yes" (as in "We'll drop regional pricing") is a lot harder, and the longer we have to wait for GOG's followup, the better the chances that it could be a yes in my view.

The cynics among us (who, me?) might even speculate that this furore is deliberate, with GOG aiming to show prospective publishers the depth of feeling on this issue. It would be a crass way of doing so, but no more crass than their fake shutdown a few years back
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HypersomniacLive: Sorry, no:
7. What are your prices in different countries?
Generally, GOG.com charges the same price for a game everywhere in the world. Some new games on GOG.com may, in the future, have different prices based on where you are physically located in the world. For these games, depending on where you live you may find that you're asked to pay a different amount than people in other regions do. Regional pricing will always something that is undertaken at the request of the company for whom we are selling the game. Our company is based in Europe and the VAT/Taxes are all included in the game's prices. This means that GOG.com will always charge you the exact order total visible at checkout.However please be advised that we are based in Europe and have no control over your bank's additional international/card transaction fees (where applicable). Some banks don't charge their customers extra and some do, but if you use funds already present on your PayPal account to buy games on GOG.com, you will be able to avoid any such additional costs.
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HypersomniacLive:
Well now that this is pretty official i guess i'll only await the letter to see how they sugar coat it.

I'm really interested how the concerns will be addressed i'm not even sure how they can be addressed
if the policy is set in stone.

The more i think about it, there more i'm sure free stuff with the regional priced games won't cut it for me.
While i appreciate the effort but GOG fielding some of the extra cost just sends the wrong signal to the publishers.
Post edited February 25, 2014 by Reaper9988
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)