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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. :)
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Wishbone: Wow.

Really, GOG?

Just, wow.

I have no words.

No wait, I do have some words, actually. The reason I have spent so much time here since you started this fantastic business is that you were NOT like all the other DD sites out there. You had principles and you stuck by them. You truly cared about your customers in a way that no other digital retailer did. Every other service appeared to be run by corporate suits, but not yours. Well, those days are obviously over. You may as well just drop the pretense and start selling only Steam keys.

I sure hope those suits feel good.
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Chacranajxy: Yes, never mind all the good things GOG has introduced within the last year. Who cares that the games are DRM free, that they've brought us a lot of good old, modern, and indie games, the fantastic sales, the 30-day money back policy? No, fuck them. Clearly, this compromise they've made to bring us more games they couldn't bring us before due to legal agreements (which, believe it or not, kids, they have to comply with) was just them gearing up to completely screw us over. Exactly.

Gamers have got to be the most fickle customers on the planet.
Actually no. Give him a week for the colour to drain away from his face and he'll be back. I bet a lot of Anti-Steam people gave up and bought Civ 5 despite massive protest. I didn't :) not even on humble bundle pay what you want (fuck steam).
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crazy_dave:
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blotunga: In theory you're right, it would be an advantage. In practice as it is today it's a huge disadvantage.
I agree.
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Matthew94: If any of y'all are on reddit, we'd love to hear from you.

http://www.reddit.com/r/gog/
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Niggles: Arent reddit generally Pro Steam?
There is more than one person on reddit. With a userbase of millions there are indeed GOG users on it.
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Pheace: Still reading the thread but this was a temporary flag change in the database that affected 10 or so games and was reverted a few hours later. Probably a mistake
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Niggles: Whats the deal with Rust?. I thought they were Indie?
What about Rust?
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Wishbone: Wow.

Really, GOG?

Just, wow.

I have no words.

No wait, I do have some words, actually. The reason I have spent so much time here since you started this fantastic business is that you were NOT like all the other DD sites out there. You had principles and you stuck by them. You truly cared about your customers in a way that no other digital retailer did. Every other service appeared to be run by corporate suits, but not yours. Well, those days are obviously over. You may as well just drop the pretense and start selling only Steam keys.

I sure hope those suits feel good.
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Chacranajxy: Yes, never mind all the good things GOG has introduced within the last year. Who cares that the games are DRM free, that they've brought us a lot of good old, modern, and indie games, the fantastic sales, the 30-day money back policy? No, fuck them. Clearly, this compromise they've made to bring us more games they couldn't bring us before due to legal agreements (which, believe it or not, kids, they have to comply with) was just them gearing up to completely screw us over. Exactly.

Gamers have got to be the most fickle customers on the planet.
So true...
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Wishbone: Are there any of your so-called "principles" you didn't throw out the window today?
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TheEnigmaticT: -snip-
You might want to nuke this announcement and start over. Clearly something's gone wrong, and we aren't going to be reasonable in the current status of panic. Also, you might want to tell the publishers to lower their shields and open communications instead of being horribly silent on the matter. If they can't trust us, why the heck should we bloody trust them?
low rated
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Pheace: I think the most important point in possibly losing EU customers, is considering whether they would be willing to pay regional prices or not. And seeing the sales chart for Steam this month I'd say we're absolutely fine with doing so.

Steam's sales are 41% US, 40% EU, and the rest spread among the others (with Brazil and RU as growing markets, for various reasons, one being local currency implementation, the more obvious one being the resale of games from those markets to people from EU/US/AU etc with the ingame trading system)

Yet, despite the above mentioned possibility to get games for less through Steam trading, EU is still a massive part of the sales percentage. Clearly we're buying the regionally priced games anyway.
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Dreadz: That ignores the central question: why buy from GOG once it stops offering a fair price? Fair pricing was a major reason why I started using GOG. And today even Steam is offering some DRM-free games.

Basically GOG managed to kill its single unique feature that set it apart from other digital stores. I can get extra goodies on Steam. And achievements. And cloud saves. And so much more... The only thing GOG had going for it was the fair price.
AGREED! and the Least amount of censorship!
high rated
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TheEnigmaticT: That's out of our hands, as I already indicated; regional pricing for publishers or devs is in their hands.
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Marcomies: It's out of your hands in your own store? Didn't know they made you take their stuff at gunpoint...
We don't set pricing for any game we sell. If we find the terms too onerous, we can elect to not sell it, but that's fundamentally our only rights when it comes to the titles on GOG.com. The fact that we have an audience for the games we sell means that we get a certain amount of negotiation power, but this is a case where, for the companies where they have set up regional pricing have contracts with retail chains and other digital distributors and they're not gonna break their covenants just to make us happy. Either we provide them with regional pricing or we don't sell their game. Simple as that.
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Pheace: I think the most important point in possibly losing EU customers, is considering whether they would be willing to pay regional prices or not. And seeing the sales chart for Steam this month I'd say we're absolutely fine with doing so.

Steam's sales are 41% US, 40% EU, and the rest spread among the others (with Brazil and RU as growing markets, for various reasons, one being local currency implementation, the more obvious one being the resale of games from those markets to people from EU/US/AU etc with the ingame trading system)

Yet, despite the above mentioned possibility to get games for less through Steam trading, EU is still a massive part of the sales percentage. Clearly we're buying the regionally priced games anyway.
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Dreadz: That ignores the central question: why buy from GOG once it stops offering a fair price? Fair pricing was a major reason why I started using GOG. And today even Steam is offering some DRM-free games.

Basically GOG managed to kill its single unique feature that set it apart from other digital stores. I can get extra goodies on Steam. And achievements. And cloud saves. And so much more... The only thing GOG had going for it was the fair price.
ALL of GOG's titles are drm free. I dare say thats why most of us are here (and for old games)
Logging in here to also express my disappointment at introducing regional pricing. You've lost a little bit more of what made this place unique to other stores.
high rated
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TheEnigmaticT: You're conflating two different things. DRM and regional pricing aren't exactly related.
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blotunga: So what will stop people to use a proxy or VPN to buy the games from another region (where it's the cheapest)?
What stops people from going to pirate bay and getting everything for free forever?
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Niggles: Blame the people who wanted new AAA games on GOG :/
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Darvond: IE: A very small minority that wasn't even that vocal? A minor minority that is massively outweighed?
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scampywiak: Yeah, I'm sure DRM is just around the corner....

Jesus christ you guys. They've offered so much over the years and the second something goes awry you're at their heels like rabid dogs.
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Darvond: Slippery slope principle.
So because many people want old games to still be released on a site that was originally for old games automatically means people that want newer games is a minority. Ever think people may want both... or has this logic failed you?
high rated
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TheEnigmaticT: What stops people from going to pirate bay and getting everything for free forever?
The opportunity to buy it from decent sellers who uphold ethical practices. Like not price-discriminating between countries.
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Dreadz: That ignores the central question: why buy from GOG once it stops offering a fair price? Fair pricing was a major reason why I started using GOG. And today even Steam is offering some DRM-free games.

Basically GOG managed to kill its single unique feature that set it apart from other digital stores. I can get extra goodies on Steam. And achievements. And cloud saves. And so much more... The only thing GOG had going for it was the fair price.
DRM-free, which is their main selling point now, and the one they chose to focus on.

Sure, Steam has some DRM-free games, but likely most will stay integrated with Steam, while they may be completely DRM-free here. Also, for the more zealous anti-DRM free, downloading/installing Steam to download a DRM-free game is already a no-no, let alone paying Steam for a DRM-free game (promoting a company that has DRM)

For those who prefer DRM-free, GOG's the place to be. But yes, for those who don't have strong convictions about that, they're losing a strong selling point here.
Post edited February 21, 2014 by Pheace
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blotunga: So what will stop people to use a proxy or VPN to buy the games from another region (where it's the cheapest)?
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TheEnigmaticT: What stops people from going to pirate bay and getting everything for free forever?
People with strong ethics like GOG. Oh wait...