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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 March 10, 2019
low rated
Actually, if abolishing that policy is the price to pay, in order to acquire the rights for distributing games like Diablo/Warcraft, then maybe, it is worth the sacrifice. But only if you manage to acquire rights for ALL best oldies, like C&C series, GTA series and the rest of the top, all times classic bunch.
Posted March 10, 2019
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KiNgBrAdLeY7: Actually, if abolishing that policy is the price to pay, in order to acquire the rights for distributing games like Diablo/Warcraft, then maybe, it is worth the sacrifice. But only if you manage to acquire rights for ALL best oldies, like C&C series, GTA series and the rest of the top, all times classic bunch.
I doubt they just whipped up Diablo with adjustments in a deal with Blizzard on the fly, it's more likely that was already being worked on before Epic even started messing with the numbers.
Posted March 10, 2019
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KiNgBrAdLeY7: Actually, if abolishing that policy is the price to pay, in order to acquire the rights for distributing games like Diablo/Warcraft, then maybe, it is worth the sacrifice. But only if you manage to acquire rights for ALL best oldies, like C&C series, GTA series and the rest of the top, all times classic bunch.
Willingly giving up on the last bits of uncrumbled stone remaining scattered from what used to be GOG's 2nd pillar for just more games, that you pay for, can't be justified. But either way, Diablo doesn't have regional prices above base, not that I could find at least, checking manually. Just the RU/CIS discount (and a much lesser one than normal at that), actually a larger one for China, and a small one for Poland.
Posted March 10, 2019
low rated
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KiNgBrAdLeY7: Actually, if abolishing that policy is the price to pay, in order to acquire the rights for distributing games like Diablo/Warcraft, then maybe, it is worth the sacrifice. But only if you manage to acquire rights for ALL best oldies, like C&C series, GTA series and the rest of the top, all times classic bunch.
Poland is learning. Venezuela can't keep the lights on, and GOG is slowly coming around to becoming profitable again.

Everyone will into capitalism sooner or later. Or you can mount up the state police and learn the wonderful cuisine of eating dogs and cats.
Posted March 11, 2019
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bell02: i'm not ok with you guys and the road you are going
see shadowbanned thread here:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/gog_overtaken_by_sjws
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SPTX: Seeing your post being low rated, I guess the vocal part of the community isn't on the same wavelength as you. [...] I wonder how "positively" this turn GOG is taking will impact their finances.
Sorry for a long post, but it I just had to let it out. :-/ Well, I'm not happy with GOG terminating the FPP, and neither am I happy with Grimoire not coming to GOG. But it's not just pure "This is baaad, you evil ... evildoers!!!" rage. It's the very corporate way GOG has gone about these two things.

1) Grimoire. I'm a big fan of CRPGs. I was very sad to hear GOG had rejected The Quest as too niche, and I was really looking forward to buying Grimoire here. On the oher hand, I'd been following the game on Steam for about a year and I could perfectly understand rejecting the game on the grounds of the author being nuts. He's toxic, he regularly offends and ridicules his customers, he blames the bad press and reviews his game has received on people not liking his political stances - he's simply one perfect example of how a developer should _not_ behave. Yet the game is huge and exactly the same genre as many, many games here, and after about 18 months since release finally received a manual and is now very playable. And even though I'd always double-check what the dev says about anything, it really looks like he'd been in touch with GOG several times before and Grimoire was set to be on GOG. So, what bothers me is GOG not having the marbles to say something like, "Sorry, buddy, your game seems to be alright, but we simply don't believe we could work with you on the level of professionalism we expect from our suppliers."

2) FPP. Yes, it's abandoning one of the GOG pillars, as Cavalry repeatedly points out. And someone else in this thread also said something like, "You came into the business saying you want to change it. Now the business is changing you." Very, very true. Still, I could understand it if we were told about it in an open manner, like, "Epic is doing X, we have to do Y to stay competitive. We're sorry to abandon our former pillar, but we have to do it to stay in the black numbers." Instead, "incidentally", the news of GOG terminating the FPP had been published just minutes or hours before three other news items were published on the same day, so that this unpopular one would leave the front page immediately. That's cowardly and far from being open and honest. (While I have nothing against scheduling it shortly before the Diablo killer news - that's a pretty obvious stunt but fair comms.)

To sum it up - GOG used to be a friend with a "by gamers for gamers" attitude. Now we receive a lot of corporate bullpoop one way or another. And losing a customer's trust is the first step to losing that customer.
Posted March 11, 2019
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Cavalary: [...] Now they won't even have whatever interest in doing so that they had so far, so the ratio of games with higher prices for some regions is very likely to increase even more, and the amount of extra charge may increase as well.
I suppose time will tell if that ratio's going up, but out of those 1278 (at the time of my post #700) titles with no price hike in any region, only a mere 3% (rounded) were released after 2018.01.01, the rest (excluding any and all flat priced ones) have a higher price than the US base one in one or more regions.



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Cavalary:
Soon™



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Pheace: [...] A few good selling games doesn't really measure up against the loss of FPP.
A release people drool over after dishing out some sort of good news™ they expect their userbase to get/be upset about has been GOG's M.O. for years now.
Posted March 11, 2019
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elcook: 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
Here is the thing "I don't support your discontinuing of fair pricing", the reason is the UK & many EU countries tend to get the rough end of the stick compared to our American cousins.

I can accept it causes problems with naturally lower priced economies like parts of Asia, India & S America but if the 'up to 30+%' is what you are having to make up the difference for between Europe & US then honestly I don't believe that!.

Would a 'fair' approach to have been to introduce a cap of a max percentage? YES FOR CRYIN OUT LOUD!

What will be the impact of the decision? Well simply put a lot less people will buy from you in Europe ( and probably elsewhere). Some publishers abuse regional pricing I'm looking at you Nordic.

I used to exclusively buy Nordic titles via GOG as it was literally the only store I could get a 'fair' price, now I just won't buy Nordic games.

For those of us in Europe you have basically said 'we are increasing your prices beyond simple currency variations', the impact is people will spend less in your store... DRM free may be seen as a premium thing but considering the features lacking between steam & GOG for many games more frequent updates & extra content vs DRM free for the same price... a fool would buy from GOG instead of steam!

I've been a GOG customer for a very long time & spent a heck of a lot on your store & supported GOG, but don't for a second take that for granted.

You tell me your prices for me are going up, I'm telling you I will spend less money on your store!
Posted March 11, 2019
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Mark-Mark: I used to exclusively buy Nordic titles via GOG as it was literally the only store I could get a 'fair' price, now I just won't buy Nordic games.
Yeah, it's pretty lame of European companies to screw over European customers. Paradox is guilty of it as well (nowadays, something like Europa Universalis III is fair). Want the Deluxe Edition of Imperator: Rome? Pay 6.50€/$7.30 extra. Something like the Imperial Edition of Pathfinder: Kingmaker is 10€/$11.24 extra. Honestly, no, thanks. It just means that I won't buy games I'm on the fence about and will take a trip to the US for the ones I really, really want (which is pretty much never the case).
Posted March 11, 2019
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Mark-Mark: I used to exclusively buy Nordic titles via GOG as it was literally the only store I could get a 'fair' price, now I just won't buy Nordic games.
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Lucumo: Yeah, it's pretty lame of European companies to screw over European customers. Paradox is guilty of it as well (nowadays, something like Europa Universalis III is fair). Want the Deluxe Edition of Imperator: Rome? Pay 6.50€/$7.30 extra. Something like the Imperial Edition of Pathfinder: Kingmaker is 10€/$11.24 extra. Honestly, no, thanks. It just means that I won't buy games I'm on the fence about and will take a trip to the US for the ones I really, really want (which is pretty much never the case).
If I were you, I‘d male a trip to russia to get the right price these kinds of ripoff companies deserve. Just my 2 cents.
Posted March 12, 2019
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Lucumo: Yeah, it's pretty lame of European companies to screw over European customers. Paradox is guilty of it as well (nowadays, something like Europa Universalis III is fair). Want the Deluxe Edition of Imperator: Rome? Pay 6.50€/$7.30 extra. Something like the Imperial Edition of Pathfinder: Kingmaker is 10€/$11.24 extra. Honestly, no, thanks. It just means that I won't buy games I'm on the fence about and will take a trip to the US for the ones I really, really want (which is pretty much never the case).
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john_hatcher: If I were you, I‘d male a trip to russia to get the right price these kinds of ripoff companies deserve. Just my 2 cents.
Nah, I'm fine paying the base price of these games. If I don't think the game is worth the price, I don't buy it. If I want to stick it to those kinda companies, I don't buy it. All the games I already own will last me till the end of my life, so anything I buy is basically extra. It's only for owning a good game, supporting the developers(publishers too) of a good game and maybe even playing a good game.
Posted March 12, 2019
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john_hatcher: If I were you, I‘d male a trip to russia to get the right price these kinds of ripoff companies deserve. Just my 2 cents.
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Lucumo: Nah, I'm fine paying the base price of these games. If I don't think the game is worth the price, I don't buy it. If I want to stick it to those kinda companies, I don't buy it. All the games I already own will last me till the end of my life, so anything I buy is basically extra. It's only for owning a good game, supporting the developers(publishers too) of a good game and maybe even playing a good game.
Just remember to fact into the value proposition that GOG is very lazy when it comes to publishers updating games. They allowed Nordic to have darksiders 2 in a broken state for in excess of a year & still put it on sale.

Some games have gone literally years without GOG getting the publishers to bring them in-sync with their steam counterpart & still periodically went on sale. If GOG want a premium they are gonna have to work a heck of a lot harder to justify it.

If you are thinking of buying from GOG because they are DRM free, just remember 'not' all games are DRM free on GOG. They have been allowing the definition to slip to allow for online checks for offline multiplayer & online authentication.

Now days 'DRM free' actually means 'DRM free but only for single player'.

If you want a game for multiplayer buying it on another platform is your best option.

If the justification for killing 'Fair Pricing' was to give the publishers/Devs a bigger cut then they better start earning it as frankly GOG has allowed both big & small companies to be poor suppliers & customers have been the ones suffering it!
Posted March 12, 2019
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Mark-Mark: Now days 'DRM free' actually means 'DRM free but only for single player'.
To be fair that was always the case. Back in the day it was, say, needing a CD key for NWN multiplayer, now it's on-line checks and Galaxy, but DRM is DRM.
More concerning are games that have (optional) content or features applying to singleplayer as well requiring 3rd party accounts. And there are a couple of such cases. That's where even this last remaining pillar is showing a few cracks too, not the multiplayer.
Posted March 12, 2019
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Mark-Mark: considering the features lacking between steam & GOG for many games more frequent updates & extra content vs DRM free for the same price... a fool would buy from GOG instead of steam!
You dropped the ball there. I fully understand not wanting to buy on GOG anymore, but if you're going to put back on Valve's shackles, I don't see the point. You'll still be wasting money.
Posted March 12, 2019
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Mark-Mark: Just remember to fact into the value proposition that GOG is very lazy when it comes to publishers updating games. They allowed Nordic to have darksiders 2 in a broken state for in excess of a year & still put it on sale.
Yeah, I don't buy those in general. GOG-Mixes helped keeping track of those games but at least we can still refer to the relevant thread.

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Mark-Mark: If the justification for killing 'Fair Pricing' was to give the publishers/Devs a bigger cut then they better start earning it as frankly GOG has allowed both big & small companies to be poor suppliers & customers have been the ones suffering it!
The bigger cut that is subsidized by non-Americans even.

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Mark-Mark: Now days 'DRM free' actually means 'DRM free but only for single player'.
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Cavalary: To be fair that was always the case. Back in the day it was, say, needing a CD key for NWN multiplayer, now it's on-line checks and Galaxy, but DRM is DRM.
More concerning are games that have (optional) content or features applying to singleplayer as well requiring 3rd party accounts. And there are a couple of such cases. That's where even this last remaining pillar is showing a few cracks too, not the multiplayer.
I don't have much of an issue when it comes to extra software for non-LAN/direct connection multiplayer. As someone who mainly played RTS, it was pretty much always required. Sure, ideally you have server lists etc directly implemented into the game but how many (indie) devs can actually do that? Not too many. No LAN/direct connection is a shame though. Even small games like Clonk had that back in the day. Everything third-party is a no-no though.
Posted March 12, 2019
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KiNgBrAdLeY7: Actually, if abolishing that policy is the price to pay, in order to acquire the rights for distributing games like Diablo/Warcraft, then maybe, it is worth the sacrifice. But only if you manage to acquire rights for ALL best oldies, like C&C series, GTA series and the rest of the top, all times classic bunch.
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Emob78: Poland is learning. Venezuela can't keep the lights on, and GOG is slowly coming around to becoming profitable again.

Everyone will into capitalism sooner or later. Or you can mount up the state police and learn the wonderful cuisine of eating dogs and cats.
"Capitalism" is the reason the US is punishing Venezuela for pricing it's oil in yuan? o.O
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionConclusion of the Fair Price Package program(910 posts)(910 posts)
(910 posts)