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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
Thread FIX attempt:)
Posted February 26, 2019
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RyaReisender: By the way, does anyone know what the actual new share is that GoG takes?
I'm curious about this as well since the opening posts implies (though little beyond that) that it will be used to lower their cut, but no mention of what the cut will be or when it'll happen.
Posted February 26, 2019
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zgrillo2004: Never understood what FPP is or what it did, but since I live in NA, it seemed that it didnt affect me. maybe an explanation to this will be nice.
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RyaReisender: Let's say there's a game that sells for $50 in the US.

Now the same game may cost $65 in another country because that country has for example additional taxes when buying something or the economy of the country is simply stronger than in the US, so people can afford more.

Now with the FPP, when I bought this game for $65, I would at the same time gets $15 from GoG as store credit.

That worked because GoG had a share of 30%. So if I bought the game, the developer would get $45.5 and GoG would get $19.5 of which they basically gave $15 back to me, so GoG's gain was still $4.5 from my purchase.

Of course if GoG reduces those 30%, they'd actually make loss with every game purchased, so it's not viable anymore.
Wait? Was GoG even making up the difference even including the taxes? That is insane if they were, the taxes should always be the responsibility of the customer. For a 60 euro game that included a 20% vat, that would be a 50 euro cost before the 20% VAT, and if the game was being sold for $60 in the USD, the Euro was already paying less than the US price once you take away the VAT.

Here in the US, even though GoG was not charging me taxes on my game purchases, I was still legally bound by law to pay the taxes for my purchases, so I had to include them in my year tax filing and pay taxes on it later.

So yeah, they were giving a credit back without taking into consideration of VAT, then they were insane and should have never done that in the first place. This whole time they should have looked at the price before VAT was included and then determine if the FPP would apply.
Posted February 26, 2019
Zilch effect for myself,appreciate the info all the same.
Posted February 26, 2019
Edit: The forum ate my first post :P
Post edited February 26, 2019 by NuffCatnip
Posted February 26, 2019
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popperik: it'd be an awesome touch if you at least kept the transparency: due to regional pricing, you're paying an extra $3 for this game, or something like that on the game page
No kidding.
Big +1 to
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Lifthrasil:
too.

But this is an untrackable topic due to forum bugs, visible messages falling farther and farther behind the posted ones.

Point is that... That’s businesses for you. If there’s money in it, it’s by definition rotten, can never be anything good. The hope, my hope during those first several years, was that they were more like a group, an NGO, fighting to change this rotten industry, that also happened to make use of a store in order to raise some of the funds for that endeavor. But it is in fact the other way around, just a business that made use of some fake values and mission statement to grow by attracting those who rejected the market otherwise, until they became big enough to no longer need us and show their true colors.
Posted February 26, 2019
As a customer, FPP was a nice thing to have and i'm glad it lasted for such a long time. A big "thank you" for this. That said, i'll continue buying my games here; after all, it's the DRM-Free service that matters the most to me. Cheers!
Posted February 26, 2019
high rated
This I must say though: why must we always swallow up the taxes? Regional pricing is basically the publisher saying "well, the taxes I should pay are your business now".
Wait, scratch that, they are based in fiscal paradises and they never pay taxes, so why regional pricing at all?
"Games cost too much to make" but CEOs swim in money like Kotick (45th richest CEO in America) and then they lay off 800 people because they have to cut costs. Screw this crap, I don't believe those lies.

Want to make business in my country? Pay taxes like I do.
Posted February 26, 2019
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Klumpen0815: Afaik the EU had plans to ban regional pricing because it is against most discrimination laws, does anyone know what happened to that?
I seem to remember that the final decision excluded digital content like this, so it was largely limited to purchasing physical goods across borders. But even without excluding it, that'd have meant no price differences within the EU, so they'd have just aligned all prices to the highest, as we see happening here too more recently, with Eastern Europe getting the high Eurozone price.

And yes, they definitely should still label games so you'll know if you pay more.
Posted February 26, 2019
Dear GOG, this certainly isn't a popular decision, and like several other people said, this won't make me leave, but it will make me buy less games. I think it will be somewhere between 12% and 37% less, so only time will tell whether this step will have paid off to you.

However, in your place, I'd explain in more detail what kind of overall impact the FPP had on your overall margins and how much more you'll be paying to the devs (I certainly don't mind supporting smaller devs, while I certainly do mind supporting some of the behemoths). I think we all know that you're a middleman (middlestore? :) ) who doesn't add (much) value (at least if the gamer, like me, isn't into achievements and social blahblah), so saying publicly that your margin was this, now it will be that, and if you scrap the FPP, it will help you get to blacker numbers, we could understand that.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that when it comes to an intelligent customer (and compared to, ehm, *other stores*, I think the GOG environment is more mature), honesty really is the best policy.
Posted February 26, 2019
You have my sword, my bow and my axe, GOG.

Let's go.
Posted February 26, 2019
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AutoPiloT2097: 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...
Well, it's usually not just a few cents, just look here:
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truhlik: It's roughly about 50 buck from Fair Price Package in my current wishlist. No wonder that it costs much :/
It also depends on the way you look at it. I have no issue supporting GOG but I have an issue with publishers who charge non-Americans more because they don't give a ****. Subsequently, in return, I don't care about purchasing their game. So far, GOG played the really good guy here and took it upon itself to solve the issue (they are a Euopean company after all, so they know the woes) by giving the affected user something in return (granted, with those funds one could only buy games but still).
Posted February 26, 2019
Isn't regional pricing the fault of retailers, who force publishers to fix prices even in digital stores to the same as retail ones? With the death of retail, there should be no need for regional pricing either.
Posted February 26, 2019
this sucks, and quite a lot

i do understand it, and do hope that, whenever is possible, return to it

also kinda hope that there are some really nice sales between now and end of it
Posted February 26, 2019
low rated
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Post edited February 27, 2019 by Djaron_paybug
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General discussionConclusion of the Fair Price Package program(910 posts)(910 posts)
(910 posts)