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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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kroetenschemel: Since we won't be able to change GOGs minds, I have an idea everyone might be confortable with, I've posted this in the whichlist under this link:
http://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/fair_price_regional_price_badge

Effectivly each fair priced game, should get a badge that tells the user it's fair priced and vice versa regional priced games should get a region price badge as well.

Please support.
+1
Posted February 21, 2014
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jorlin: *If* those games are inferred here, it might be for the same reasons as for The Witcher 2 (You know, the Namco/ Bandai deal).
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Darvond: No, I don't know. I'd also be hoping that the CD PROJEKT would have become a bit beefy enough to publish self, especially considering that there are no hoops, since GOG is of their own family.
Nah, they made another deal for distribution with Namco/Bandai. Apparently, they are best buddies again.

http://www.vg247.com/2014/01/19/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-signed-to-namco-bandai-in-australia/#comments
Posted February 21, 2014
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Ravenvolf: Good idea.
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Darvond: That just seems backhanded to publishers and GOG.
Would u rather people come and keep asking/whinging why price for a given game is so cheap or so expensive when bought from certain area all the time?
Posted February 21, 2014
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Darvond: That just seems backhanded to publishers and GOG.
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Niggles: Would u rather people come and keep asking/whinging why price for a given game is so cheap or so expensive when bought from certain area all the time?
No, I'd rather not this be an issue at all and GOG remain with the 'one world, one price' policy.
Posted February 21, 2014
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amok: separate company entities.
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scampywiak: No they aren't. CDPR owns GOG and Marcin Iwinski said sometime ago GOG is what helps fund their games. Which is obvious, but he even went as far to say the better GOG does the better they can make their games.
Not true, as far as I know. CDP (the mother company) owns both CDPR and GOG.
Posted February 21, 2014
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Niggles: Would u rather people come and keep asking/whinging why price for a given game is so cheap or so expensive when bought from certain area all the time?
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Darvond: No, I'd rather not this be an issue at all and GOG remain with the 'one world, one price' policy.
And if they cant ?.
Posted February 21, 2014
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Darvond: No, I'd rather not this be an issue at all and GOG remain with the 'one world, one price' policy.
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Niggles: And if they cant ?.
Phooey to the publisher.
Posted February 21, 2014
You have to expand to have more force, more power, more clout with negotiations. If GOG doesn't expand, it'll be seen as a purveyor of two niche markets - retro, and indie. That doesn't mean that those two markets are all that niche (especially indie), but the perception is still there. In order for GOG to get its hands on all the goodies that the bigger companies are too piss scared to bring to the table right now for fear of pirates (that already cracked, torrented, direct downloaded, burned and shoved onto portable hard drives ages ago), they have to show bigger numbers with bigger products. The people here, as passionate and devoted as we may be, aren't going to produce those numbers while making bigger companies salivate at the chance to make a few more piles of money by buying the same array of retro and indie games endlessly. GOG wants to play in the biggest game possible, and their direct competition has already proven itself ready and willing to bend over and spread for pretty much ANYONE with enough cash behind them.

Edit - Also, it seems to me after thinking about it for a bit is that a good way to get products/gift codes region-locked is if people do decide to try circumventing it every chance they get.

Company - "We've set a price."
Customer - "We don't like your price (for whatever reason) so we're going to find a way around it."
Company - "People are getting our product more cheaply than we want, so we have to take steps to control how our product is sold."
Customer - "Those assholes are gouging the hell out of us! They don't care at all, they just want money!"
Company - "Of course we want money, it's how we stay in business. You're taking money from us, so now we're adding more restrictions."
Customer - "Those draconian bastards! I'll just steal it instead! That'll show them!"
Company - "People are stealing our product! MORE RESTRICTIONS!!!!!"
And so on.
Post edited February 21, 2014 by CarrionCrow
Posted February 21, 2014
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Darvond: No, I don't know. I'd also be hoping that the CD PROJEKT would have become a bit beefy enough to publish self, especially considering that there are no hoops, since GOG is of their own family.
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cich: Nah, they made another deal for distribution with Namco/Bandai. Apparently, they are best buddies again.

http://www.vg247.com/2014/01/19/the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-signed-to-namco-bandai-in-australia/#comments
Good find. Obviously it makes business sense to them but from my point of view it looks like madness: they already went to court once because they couldn't agree on the terms of distribution.
Posted February 21, 2014
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whodares2: I be willing to be the two RPGs are Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077. As far as the strategy game goes......I have no idea. Either way it'll be a fun time I'm sure.
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Darvond: Why would CD PROJEKT RED need to region price their own games?
I don't know about their contract but I can tell you what's the answer for most of the developers: retail. Yup.

Let me explain: developer signs a deal with publisher(s) (global or regional), who will not only give them nice financial boost in return for exclusive publishing rights (and most devs bleed money at the end of many years of development) but will also take care of all the retail presence (which is still a giant chunk of all day one sales) as well as of marketing and whatnot. Sometimes rights for digital distribution in certain region are also part of the contract, often though developer reserves this right. In most cases, developers don't really care about the price in that region - they just need money and agree to whatever terms.

Here's the fun part: such contracts usually contain a clause, which forbids developer for at least some time from setting a lower price in digital than in retail or face heavy fine (the logic is "we gave you some nice $$$ and you undercut us now in digital"). And hence all retail is obviously regionalised by currencies, purchasing power parity or greed of big publishers, digital becomes slave to this model as well.

And no, it's not about signing deals with the right people - sadly every single mid-size or bigger publisher works this way, so developer can either self publish and hope to be the next Notch, sit on an unlimited pile of money... or they have to agree on these terms.
Posted February 21, 2014
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CarrionCrow: GOG wants to play in the biggest game possible, and their direct competition has already proven itself ready and willing to bend over and spread for pretty much ANYONE with enough cash behind them.
Hello Humble LOL.
Posted February 21, 2014
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randomengine: This appears to only upset non-Americans and as an American, I really don't care as long as it means we get access to more games that are DRM-free.
Yep, this is the kind of attitude that makes the rest of the world love America and their foreign policies.
Posted February 21, 2014
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Darvond: Why would CD PROJEKT RED need to region price their own games?
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d2t: I don't know about their contract but I can tell you what's the answer for most of the developers: retail. Yup.

-snip-
So you mean that despite GOG being part of the family, I couldn't give metaphorical cake to them because of some contract I signed to give cake to people around the room?
Posted February 21, 2014
This makes me sad. I feel sorry for those who are going to be negatively impacted by this.

So, GOG is doing this to bring releases to their catalog? Good. But I demand full product. No more "Steam exclusive" bullshit.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: ...
I appreciate the time you're taking to talk to the community (especially because it's something like two in the morning in Poland). I can't help thinking that if instead of "WE HAVE AMAZING NEWS FOR YOU (but we can't tell you what it is yet, and oh, by the way...)" you had talked like and [url=http://www.gog.com/forum/general/announcement_big_preorders_launch_day_releases_coming/post731/?staff=yes]this in your announcement, a certain amount of hostility could have been avoided. Nobody likes to feel like they're being bullshitted.

I guess all that's left now is to wait and see whether this new policy is justified by the results.
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Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)