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General discussionConclusion of the Fair Price Package program(910 posts)(910 posts)
(910 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted February 26, 2019
On March 31st we are going to discontinue the Fair Price Package program. Let us explain the reasoning behind this decision.

We came up with Fair Price Package (FPP) as a way to make up the price difference between various countries. Some games on GOG.COM have regional pricing, meaning the price of the same game in one place can be higher compared to its price in North America. In countries where the game is more expensive, we give users the equivalent of the price difference in GOG Wallet funds. In actual numbers, on average, we give users back 12% of the game price from our own pocket. In some cases, this number can reach as high as 37%.

In the past, we were able to cover these extra costs from our cut and still turn a small profit. Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore. With an increasing share paid to developers, our cut gets smaller. However, we look at it, at the end of the day we are a store and need to make sure we sell games without a loss.

Removing FPP is not a decision we make lightly, but by making this change, we will be able to offer better conditions to game creators, which — in turn — will allow us to offer you more curated classic games and new releases. All DRM-free.

We wanted to make sure you have some lead time to still benefit from the Fair Price Package. The program will last until the 31st of March, 2019, so if you would like to take advantage of it, now is the time. The funds you gather from the program will keep the 12 months expiration date from the moment you’ve been granted your last funds.
Posted February 26, 2019
high rated
First of all, thank you for your support. This was not an easy decision to discontinue the FPP program and we're grateful to you for understanding the reasons behind it. We see that quite a few of you raised concerns about GOG's future. As a part of publicly traded company, we can't comment on any financial results until they are officially reported, but we want to ensure you everything is good with GOG. Being part of a big gaming company, some reports - especially some given by significant media outlets - can often sound much scarier than reality.

You've been also concerned about your access to the games you’ve purchased on GOG. We've covered this topic years ago and it's been in our User Agreement for a long time (please check the section 17.3). This is not only a legal obligation to you but a core part of our ethics as a company.

But don’t worry, all is good, and we have a great plan for the future of GOG. We can’t wait for you to see some of the exciting things we have coming very soon.

EDIT: pinned
Post edited February 26, 2019 by elcook
Posted February 26, 2019
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Fate-is-one-edge: there will be a back up server for downloads only?
That would actually a pretty sweet idea if everything really goes tits up. I such a thing feasible? Users setting up a paypal fund so gog can continue to operate a server that will keep downloads readily available.

(Yes, I've entered the bargaining phase of the Kübler-Ross-model.)
Posted February 26, 2019
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fonwick: The stand-alone installers on GoG try to shove Galaxy down my throat every time but I can
at least block the 'GoG-only DRM' and close the process at install.
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Themken: Use offline installers with no Galaxy whatsoever attached. See the picture!
Not quite, sadly.
These are the processes Distrant 'offline' tries to open on install;

An attempt to write to a protected registry area has been detected.
Key Path: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\ZoneMap

An attempt to open a foreign process has been detected.
Target PID: 8500
Image Name: GalaxyClient.exe

An attempt to open a foreign process has been detected.
Target PID: 8500
Image Name: GalaxyClient.exe

Block ANY of the three and the installer halts at +/- 80% full. So offline installers are not fully offline at all. I don't have Galaxy but I need cancel it every single time from dialing in.

The ONLY way is to then proceed to stop GoG Galaxy in Process Manager [ see attached].

This happens for each and every so-called offline installer (I picked Distraint cause of small file-size of the offline download).
Fancier games go and try to go online even more and not just because GoG chose to opt for small filesize by going online for each separate install of eg directX.
Attachments:
capture.jpg (11 Kb)
Posted February 26, 2019
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Lucumo: Pretty much, I hate getting screwed over by American publishers/companies because apparently $ = €.
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Pond86: Here in the UK it really doesnt make much of a difference. For example a game that is $9.99 here will be £9.99 here. End of. In reality at the moment $9.99 = £8.58.
If the Britsh have indeed $ = £ a lot of the time here, it would be even worse. Usually, though, the Brits don't get screwed over that often and have their own price, unlike the Euro countries.
Posted February 26, 2019
Always respected this program even though I don't think it really benefited me personally any. In any case, the transparency and honesty on display by GOG is very welcome!
Posted February 26, 2019
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Robette: Honestly, I never noticed it much. It was a welcome bonus when I noticed my next game was a few euros cheaper because I had some funds in my wallet, but otherwise I never felt much of an impact, so no hard feelings about the decision.
This. I really don't care. Still the best store by far.
Posted February 26, 2019
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Time to hire back EnigmaticT :)
Posted February 26, 2019
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Lifthrasil: I'm a bit sad that, after your 'become more like Steam' plans didn't result in more profit but even in a loss, you don't take that as wake-up signal. But instead you try to become even more mainstream and even less customer friendly. Do you really think that will help?
I completely agree, but in this case I don't blame them. This is the Epic Store's fault. In the past, I was always in favor of alternate storefronts to Steam. It meant competition, which in turn meant more favourable conditions for the consumer. The Epic Store changed all that. Instead of competition, we now get this insane race to the bottom and ihe customer is worse off than ever before. But hey, free game on a biweekly basis! Store exclusives! For all the shit I like to give gog for all the stupid shit they've pulled, this might actually be the one case where I feel like it's out of their hands entirely. It's adapt-or-die.
Posted February 26, 2019
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I come here for free DRM and old games that run on new hardware, the rest it is a bonus, so no hard feelings.
Posted February 26, 2019
I was never really comfortable with this program to begin with, so I'm actually glad it's going away. Still, I'm sure this'll ruffle some feathers.
Posted February 26, 2019
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Quite frankly I don't think will change anything by my side: ok, it's always a good thing to get discounts and better prices but, few cents won't change my financial situation and, if those moneys are to give support to the best online game store in the world, well then I'll be more than happy to pay that. GOG is freedom and freedom comes at a cost, in this case really small. I'll continue to purchase my games ONLY here, I don't give a single cent to Steam, Origin & Co. GOG is an idea, a philosophy, a lifestyle (refereed to game one and more) and I believe in all this so I'll continue to give my moneys only to these friends of mine. Guys I love you and always will be at your side: GOG forever!
Posted February 26, 2019
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GOG.com: Removing FPP is not a decision we make lightly, but by making this change, we will be able to offer better conditions to game creators, which — in turn — will allow us to offer you more curated classic games and new releases. All DRM-free.
I have more serious problems at the moment so I will have to think about it later. However, I am a bit disappointed that you are still using "Yeah, it's bad but for your own good" type of arguments. You should have learnt something after "Good news" fiasco. How about bringing some great releases first and only then announcing that it's achieved becauese you cancalled FPP? On the other hand... I'm not even surprised ;)
Posted February 26, 2019
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Matruchus: I would like to thank gog for keeping the program going for as long as it was possible. Especially cause for south European region there is no lower price on gog as it should be according to lower buying power then in the rest of the EU. So a lot of games on gog will be more expensive for us living in this region, then they are on Steam. And yeah some games have the US price but that doesn't help when the regional income is a lot lower then in the US.

At this point it really comes down to getting games cheaper or getting them drm-free. So people will have to decide now. The games will always be more expensive here cause of regional pricing and generally lower discounts on sales for games then on Steam. Valid for my region.

Also we all know publishers are getting extremely greedy. Sadly Epic Store has made that situation worse and publishers are getting too big of a cut now, for doing nothing. Lets not forget that producers of real life products aka physical products only get 10-30% on the final sales price. And those products are needed for living. Games are not, they are just entertainment and nothing more.
But to be fair, there are a massive number of self publishing developers as well, so a higher revenue cut for them does actually mean more money for them that they can in turn use the extra money to make better games.
Posted February 26, 2019
Don't mind it that much honestly,
If that's what it takes to keep gog kicking it's worth it.
Posted February 26, 2019
high rated
If GOG can't afford the Fair Price program, then that's understandable. Here's the ethical solution that solves that problem: scrap Regional Pricing.


Regional pricing is a scam that privileges some people, and discriminates against others, based solely upon where they happen to live.

By the same token Regional Pricing also - appallingly - universally assumes that all people of a country have the same amount of income. In any other social sphere, such universalization of a huge swathe of individuals would be socially unacceptable, and called racism or sexism or something like that. Yet some Regional Pricing gets a free pass in social acceptability.
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GOG.com: With an increasing share paid to developers, our cut gets smaller.
This part makes no sense. The GOG cut is still 30%. So from where exactly is the increasing cut to developers? And where exactly is the smaller cut to GOG?
Posted February 26, 2019
This is the result of mismanagement by the higher ups at the cost of GOG. That's all this is.

Translation:

Because of the incompetence by our superior we once again run into financial problems (as all previous Witcher games also did), and we are now cutting costs by firing people and shifting focus by our other employees by the GOG team to work on Cyberpunk instead as well as trying to squeeze more money cause the grandiose plans for Cyberpunk were far more costly and took more time to realize than expected.

If you haven't paid attention, YongYea made a youtube video a year ago highlighting the problems with CD RED's management, and if you'd actually followed the studio the last 10 years (with Witcher 1 - 3) you'd know this information to be true.

Again as always, I really appreciate all your guys work, I was a active community fan for close to 10 years but damn, you guys need to restructure your management team if you want to survive. Each game were delayed (atleast twice) with features cut and you continue year after year to have management issues which ultimately leads to budget cuts, firing people and delayed products.

As a devil's advocate, I rather have GOG over Cyberpunk. We have no good competition to Steam, so if I have to pick one, I pick the one that's better for everyone (both gamers and the industry) rather than a GOTY 20XX contender.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionConclusion of the Fair Price Package program(910 posts)(910 posts)
(910 posts)