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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.
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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
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Newbie: Well the mixes are gone now...
Age of Empires you didnt need a cd key to play multiplayer. counter strike, you didnt need a cd key to play multiplayer....what are you talking about?
Da fuck is wrong with you bring back a year dead thread to argue with people who most likely don't remember making those points to begin with?
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NovHak: I remember some years ago, people voicing concern about what will happen if Steam ever goes bankrupt. Steam replied, and promised they would take measures should that happen, so that people will still be able to play their games. Yeah, *would* take measures *should* that happen. So, what's the plan in practice ? Let me laugh.
I'm actually keen on if this will actually happen when steam goes down under....
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Newbie: Well the mixes are gone now...
Age of Empires you didnt need a cd key to play multiplayer. counter strike, you didnt need a cd key to play multiplayer....what are you talking about?
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paladin181: Da fuck is wrong with you bring back a year dead thread to argue with people who most likely don't remember making those points to begin with?
Well it has come to my attention that I never got any email notifications of new replies, and if I had, I would have checked in then but didn't and rarely login here, and this happens to the time I rarely log in to find out I have missed quite a bit of messages.....
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OldOldGamer: I have so many dos games I can't play anymore, simply because ... technology moved on.
...then ....don't move on? Or at least keep one dos computer to play these dos native games?
Post edited August 12, 2020 by Newbie
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NovHak: I remember some years ago, people voicing concern about what will happen if Steam ever goes bankrupt. Steam replied, and promised they would take measures should that happen, so that people will still be able to play their games. Yeah, *would* take measures *should* that happen. So, what's the plan in practice ? Let me laugh.
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AB2012: Gabe did reply back to someone asking him that, and I previously posted his archived Steam forum response (complete with screenshot) here:-

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/has_gog_said_what_would_happen_to_our_games_if_it_shuts_down/post32

As you can see, no actual "promise" was ever made, "Steam will remove all DRM if they shut down" is mostly an urban myth that Steam gamers made up to tell each other what they want to hear.
Oh...well...nevermind that then! Hah...
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Newbie: Is the flat pricing the $60 USD = $60 EUR = $60 GBP kind of deal or different?

What other values did they *used* to uphold, if I may so ask?
Flat pricing means the exact same price anywhere. as you pay when you buy a physical product from anywhere. If the game costs $60, you pay $60, whether you're in the US, Australia, UK, Russia, Romania, Brazil, China, South Africa, Indonesia or wherever. Either only charge in USD, as GOG did before regional pricing, or if you give the choice of multiple currencies (but not the obligation of using the local one!) make the conversion at the day's rate. There are a handful of flat priced games left on GOG, those on this list plus a few more not covered yet on MaGOG due to the legacy mode, like Warlords 1+2, Warlords 3 and Clash. Before 2014, that was all of them, and it was the second clear, specific value, or "pillar", of GOG, stated everywhere.
The other values weren't stated so specifically, but the policy, and what you kept seeing in their interviews and presentations, was to make it worth it for the customer, provide a better service than the "pirates" that they recognized as their competitors (actually stating repeatedly back then that they're not competing with Steam or other stores), by adding extra "goodies" to all games, providing complete editions that are fully patched and possibly getting additional fixes on top of the latest provided by developers, and going above and beyond in terms of support.
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Newbie: Wait...so all of this was because they created GWENT?!
CDP left it to GOG to manage the infrastructure for Gwent, which of course means a whole lot of added costs, both financial and in terms of workload for developers, support and equipment. Which meant both less resources left for the store and the need for an increase in income and a reduction of costs from other sources, leading to this drive for rapid growth at the cost of values.
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Newbie: Age of Empires you didnt need a cd key to play multiplayer. counter strike, you didnt need a cd key to play multiplayer....what are you talking about?
Huh? AoE was never on GOG. I was referring to the first games GOG sold, like Neverwinter Nights, where the GOG version did require a key for multiplayer all along.
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paladin181: Da fuck is wrong with you bring back a year dead thread to argue with people who most likely don't remember making those points to begin with?
Sure was wondering the same...
Post edited August 12, 2020 by Cavalary
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Newbie: Interesting....is there a list or someone keeping track of these "partial drm free games" anywhere on the forum or elsewhere?
The link to that is right there in your quote?
Unless you mean something else and I misunderstood.
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Newbie: Is the flat pricing the $60 USD = $60 EUR = $60 GBP kind of deal or different?

What other values did they *used* to uphold, if I may so ask?
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Cavalary: Flat pricing means the exact same price anywhere. as you pay when you buy a physical product from anywhere. If the game costs $60, you pay $60, whether you're in the US, Australia, UK, Russia, Romania, Brazil, China, South Africa, Indonesia or wherever. Either only charge in USD, as GOG did before regional pricing, or if you give the choice of multiple currencies (but not the obligation of using the local one!) make the conversion at the day's rate. There are a handful of flat priced games left on GOG, those on this list plus a few more not covered yet on MaGOG due to the legacy mode, like Warlords 1+2, Warlords 3 and Clash. Before 2014, that was all of them, and it was the second clear, specific value, or "pillar", of GOG, stated everywhere.
The other values weren't stated so specifically, but the policy, and what you kept seeing in their interviews and presentations, was to make it worth it for the customer, provide a better service than the "pirates" that they recognized as their competitors (actually stating repeatedly back then that they're not competing with Steam or other stores), by adding extra "goodies" to all games, providing complete editions that are fully patched and possibly getting additional fixes on top of the latest provided by developers, and going above and beyond in terms of support.
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Newbie: Wait...so all of this was because they created GWENT?!
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Cavalary: CDP left it to GOG to manage the infrastructure for Gwent, which of course means a whole lot of added costs, both financial and in terms of workload for developers, support and equipment. Which meant both less resources left for the store and the need for an increase in income and a reduction of costs from other sources, leading to this drive for rapid growth at the cost of values.
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Newbie: Age of Empires you didnt need a cd key to play multiplayer. counter strike, you didnt need a cd key to play multiplayer....what are you talking about?
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Cavalary: Huh? AoE was never on GOG. I was referring to the first games GOG sold, like Neverwinter Nights, where the GOG version did require a key for multiplayer all along.
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paladin181: Da fuck is wrong with you bring back a year dead thread to argue with people who most likely don't remember making those points to begin with?
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Cavalary: Sure was wondering the same...
Yes, now I remember... I do remember they set this shop up specifically to fight pirates because they reckon the reason people pirate is because of drm and how publishers treat their paying customers.

As for the GWENT debacle, I'm assuming they've still not been able to recover the costs?

AS for the AOE quote, you said

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.
to which I replied with AOE didn't require any of the sort when playing multiplayer, giving an example of a game that was drm free even in multiplayer. The only drm that it had was, actually two, was a cd key and requiring the disc to be in your disc drive so it could load the game up. Otherwise you can just not need the disc anymore after install(Unless you have the original AOE 1 which streamed the midi music from the disc requiring you to keep the disc in the disc drive to get music playing in the background whilst you control your empire...).

And for why I brought back a thread from the dead, well I just answered that before your post if you bothered to read... Oh "was", so I guess you're not wondering anymore...heh.
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Newbie: Interesting....is there a list or someone keeping track of these "partial drm free games" anywhere on the forum or elsewhere?
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Klumpen0815: The link to that is right there in your quote?
Unless you mean something else and I misunderstood.
Ah yes, I must have missed that when I posted it...sorry.
Post edited September 26, 2020 by Newbie
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Newbie: As for the GWENT debacle, I'm assuming they've still not been able to recover the costs?
AFAIK Gwent has been doing pretty well since they brought it to Steam in May. And the Android version also has ~250,000 ratings (4.7), I don't know if that is much.
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Newbie: As for the GWENT debacle, I'm assuming they've still not been able to recover the costs?
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toxicTom: AFAIK Gwent has been doing pretty well since they brought it to Steam in May. And the Android version also has ~250,000 ratings (4.7), I don't know if that is much.
oh that's good to know, that they will be paying off their costs and more...and hopefully wont be breaking anymore "promises".....if there are any left to break just to survive....
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toxicTom: AFAIK Gwent has been doing pretty well since they brought it to Steam in May. And the Android version also has ~250,000 ratings (4.7), I don't know if that is much.
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Newbie: oh that's good to know, that they will be paying off their costs and more...and hopefully wont be breaking anymore "promises".....if there are any left to break just to survive....
Tell me. Which principles GOG had are ledt there to be broken? I can‘t see any.
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Newbie: oh that's good to know, that they will be paying off their costs and more...and hopefully wont be breaking anymore "promises".....if there are any left to break just to survive....
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john_hatcher: Tell me. Which principles GOG had are ledt there to be broken? I can‘t see any.
Well, after removing region free pricing, I guess all that's left is being a drm free game distributer and I guess having a friendly and understanding community and support staff................. Oh yeah and not requiring games to be client installed or updated or and even played through (multiplayer can be an exception I guess but you can still drm free a method for multiplayer, like age of empires had - you only needed the cd key for the install and thats it, oh well I guess you also needed the disc to start the game everytime as well but after that(and if you have the old old version, you would still need the disc to play its background music), drm free) only through galaxy like steam does...but I guess this is probably covered in the "drm free game distribution" principle points....
Post edited November 02, 2020 by Newbie