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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 21, 2014
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Darvond: IE: A very small minority that wasn't even that vocal? A minor minority that is massively outweighed?

Slippery slope principle.
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BKGaming: 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?
I'm sure I would have noticed on the community wishlist if that were so.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: Either we provide them with regional pricing or we don't sell their game.
Then don't sell their game.
Posted February 21, 2014
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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...
Fact is GOG is not a big player, not by a long shot and that itself means the impetus is on GOG to chase titles and prove a benefit to having them sold through their service.
Sure they can act all high and mighty, but equally the publisher can 'believe' that they can offer it exclusively through the steam platform and most of the customer base would just capitulate.
Why should they bother?
The only reason that they do bother is because we grow in number as people get more disallusioned with steam and other forms of gaming DRM.
Correction the other reason is that they can sell abandonware titles they have the IP to for money suddenly.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: Since then we've released games like System Shock 2...
Can You disclose how involved are You in actually getting the rights settled and all that for those titles (not specifically, just in general)? It's been my impression it's Night Dive and similar entities doing more of the leg-work on that these days, and You're just scheduling the release, without even much of an exclusivity window anymore before Steam and everyone else interested gets it?
I'm not talking about the testing, packaging aspect etc., don't want to sound disrespectful but I'm just interested in the legalities of getting the "files" to us. How much of Your focus and resources is going into actually pulling stuff out of limbo these days?
Post edited February 21, 2014 by MoP
Posted February 21, 2014
While I read that drm-free games is something gog won't compromise on, I'm hesitant to believe that at the current moment.

I'll be backing up all my games just in case.
Posted February 21, 2014
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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?
Ouch. Poor choice of question there, dude.
Posted February 21, 2014
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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...
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TheEnigmaticT: 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.
Your going to have a problem then.
Certain AAA games and publishers over here have buyers over a barrel in regards with prices retail store v digital prices. One reason supposedly why prices are always so ****ing high for AAA games released here
If EA/Activision/2K/whichever publisher decides to region price a new AAA game here and charge us 2 or 3 x the price, what will you do?. Anything?. Nothing?.
Posted February 21, 2014
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I find the amount of kneejerk reactions in this thread baffling. It is as if GOG did not deserve any shred of benefit of the doubt. I mean, they are only the best company in the industry, that does not count for anything, right ? Last 6 years of their service, nothing ?

Not to mention how incredibly patient and open Enigmatic is....when other websites/stores implement changes like that, do you ever see them on forums speaking with customers in such a detail ? Because I never saw that.

GMG recently changed their currency so basically they are worthless to me now.
But with GOG, I am perfectly willing to give them benefit of the doubt, because they deserve it. And if we get more DRM-free games here, and devs and pubs see that they sell well, it will accelerate DRM-free movement like nothing ever did before.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: snip
I wish I could trust you in this case but I have never seen fair regional pricing before and as you stated earlier the publisher will set the price, so I'd rather say I don't trust them to make the right decision. After all your hands are tied; when you don't agree upon what you (GOG) consider fair pricing they won't release their game(s) here.
Posted February 21, 2014
my guess for two: divinity, Planetary Annihilation
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: Either we provide them with regional pricing or we don't sell their game.
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ydobemos: Then don't sell their game.
Screw them then, especially for not revealing themselves in the first place.
Posted February 21, 2014
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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?
You guys helped prove the answer to that: The fact that a lot of folks just want a square deal and not be treated badly (or gouged) by publishers. It's easy for us to complain, after all, it's not OUR company that we're trying to keep open and competitive while maintaining our standards. From a purely idealistic stand, many would rather that you didn't compromise and simply elect not to sell games whose publishers won't budge on the one world price, but they're not the ones whose livelihoods depend on GOG turning a profit.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: What stops people from going to pirate bay and getting everything for free forever?
Conscience. But we are talking about different things here. Paying for something because it's the right thing is one thing, overpaying because of publisher greed (and that you were unlucky to be born in a country) is another.
Posted February 21, 2014
Hmmm... while I certainly wouldn't consider the regional pricing a good thing, this really isn't THAT big of an issue right now. Even back when computer gaming was still in it's infancy in the 80s there were far worse regional pricing issues, and because of the lack of more reliable Internet, far less people knew or cared about those issues. Considering how much of a minefield the contracts back then were (with some devs/pubs unintentionally signing away their rights to a specific game in a specific territory to different people), the current landscape for games rights (among many other mediums) are pretty preposterous. Certain companies own specific parts to different products that should have been sold as one whole, and some companies signed contracts with indeterminate timelines attached.

While the more current games have less of an excuse, and some publishers could, will, and currently do take advantage of these regional pricing issues, I believe that allowing regional pricing on specific games is OK if it means we see more and more old classics get released DRM-free. As long as the games are DRM-free you can always play them on different machines without hassle.

I still think that GOG should make as much of a stance against the practice as possible, but it would really hurt the awesomeness of this community if you couldn't just buy a game and gift it to anyone around the world. Please don't let regional pricing lead to regional games!

One of the things I'll miss about GOG.com is being able to have that feeling that the team of people behind the website were able to solve rights issues around the world, allowing games to be available in the same uncut format worldwide all at the same prices :( - while the site is still great, I understand why you're doing what you're doing, and I love seeing old games make their way here, it looks "the honeymoon is over". Back to the "real world" :(
Posted February 21, 2014
This is bad news for sure. I say screw launch day releases of games that are released with "regional pricing". Where did you leave GoG's principles?
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Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)