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General discussionGetting back to our roots(1418 posts)(1418 posts)
(1418 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 11, 2014
Hey, GOGgers,

We're not perfect, we're exploring new frontiers, and we make mistakes. We thought DRM-Free was so important that you'd prefer we bring you more DRM-Free games and Fair Price was less critical and that it could be sacrificed in some cases. The last two week's worth of comments in our forums (nearly 10k!), show that's not the case. We didn’t listen and we let you down. We shouldn't sacrifice one of our core values in an attempt to advance another. We feel bad about that, and we're sorry. Us being sorry is not of much use to you, so let’s talk about how we will fix it.

One: DRM-free forever. Abandoning fixed regional pricing means it will probably take longer to get some games, but you've made it clear that sacrificing fair pricing for more DRM-free games isn't acceptable.

Two: We will adamantly continue to fight for games with flat worldwide pricing. If that fails and we are required to have regional prices, we will make up the difference for you out of our own pockets. For now it will be with $5.99 and $9.99 game codes. In a couple of months, once we have such functionality implemented, we will give you store credit instead, which then you will be able to use towards any purchase and cover the price of it in full or partially. Effectively gamers from all around the world will be able to benefit from the US prices.

This will apply to every single game where we do not have flat pricing, such as Age of Wonders 3 (full details here), Divinity: Original Sin, and The Witcher 3. If you remember the Fair Price Package for The Witcher 2, this will be exactly the same.

Three: We still intend to introduce the pricing in local currencies. Let us explain why we want to do it and how we want to make it fair for everyone. From the very beginning our intention was to make things easier for users whose credit cards/payment systems are not natively in USD. The advantages are simple because the price is more understandable and easier to relate to. There would be no exchange rates involved, no transaction fees, and no other hidden charges. However after reading your comments, we realized we have taken an important element away: the choice. In order to fix this, we'll offer the option of paying in the local currency or the equivalent in USD. This way, how you pay is always your choice.

Four: You are what matters, and we will be sure to involve you all more in what we're doing and why we're doing it. Let's start by meeting you at GDC - we’d like to invite you to meet us face-to-face Monday the 17th at GDC. Obviously, not all of you can come to San Francisco, so we want to invite all of you to an online event with us early in April to ask us whatever you would like. More details soon.

The bottom line is simple: there may be companies that won't work with us (although we will work hard to convince the most stubborn ones ;). Yes, it means we might miss out on some games, but at the same time GOG.com will remain true to its values and will keep on offering you the best of DRM-free gaming with Fair Prices.

Once again thank you for caring so much about GOG.com. We will work hard not to disappoint you again.

--Marcin "iWi" Iwinski & Guillaume "TheFrenchMonk" Rambourg
Posted March 11, 2014
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Licurg: I'm not entirely happy about this, because it would mean GOG is losing money, and if a lot of new games using this are added, and they sell well, it might be too much of a financial strain. How about making this optional ? So that way, people who have the "unfair" pricing, but don't really care about the money, can choose to not get "compensated" ?
I'm hoping they've made additional deals to make this work financially and in future this will only apply in a few cases and again will have deals in place to make it work.
Posted March 11, 2014
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Senteria: You guys don't know when to quit. First it's boo regional prices and then it's boo no new games. You can't just have everything from both worlds. GOG listens and thinks what to do based on the feedback. It's not like we tell them what to do or not do. Heck, some people would sell their soul to DRM to get new games, but GOG does not cater to those people.
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haleisback: These are different people complaining now,i would preffer drm free games over region pricing (even if i was effected by it)
Exactly, and to say that us in the US (or other countries with no regional pricing) shouldn't be upset by this is ridiculous. Yes regional prices suck, yes you shouldn't have to pay more for the same thing we get cheaper. I agree 100%. But the difference is you had a choice, if you didn't think the extra cost was worth that game you had the choice to not buy it. We now will all miss out on publishers who won't play game with GOG or GOG will obviously be a lot more picky now in the new games they bring here because they will be paying out of pocket.

This ISN'T a choice for us... it's something that was made rather we like it or not. Something we have zero control over. In a perfect world there would be no regional prices and every new game would come here new... but it's not a perfect world is it?

Some of us care more about preserving gaming with DRM free copies than the price we have to pay to get them.
Post edited March 11, 2014 by BKGaming
Posted March 11, 2014
What i don't understand is why gog is getting praise for this.
They wanted regional pricing to get more game (and money) and now that the "listened" to there cry baby community we have regional pricing and they outright admit they won't get as many games.
So congats on being happy while getting screwed.
Posted March 11, 2014
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Licurg: I'm not entirely happy about this, because it would mean GOG is losing money, and if a lot of new games using this are added, and they sell well, it might be too much of a financial strain. How about making this optional ? So that way, people who have the "unfair" pricing, but don't really care about the money, can choose to not get "compensated" ?
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Namur: You can just let your store credit pile up and pay for every purchase you make instead of using it.
But don't they write that as a loss in their books, regardless of whether I use it or not ?
Posted March 11, 2014
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BKGaming: Erm, I was personally never booing regional prices... never agreed with them but accepted as a needed thing to get us more DRM free games. GOG let a small group of feedback influence there decision for hundreds of thousands of consumers... rather than sticking to there guns. Rather this works out in there favor has yet to be seen. This very well could make things worse down the road. Sooner or later GOG will run out of old games they can acquire and because of this they may find newer games hard to get too. Not to mention there profits could take a hit from this gifting of codes to make up for regional prices.

Then who did we blame?
GOG has to keep their suppliers happy and their customers happy. They dropped flat pricing because it was hurting their relationship with their suppliers going forward. It was a business decision they felt they needed to make.

By reversing direction, they are telling us they were losing too much customer happiness to make up for the better relationship with their suppliers. That's also a business decision. A store that has full shelves and empty aisles isn't going to stay open very long. It may look like mercurial mood shifts, when in reality they made two tough decisions they knew would cost them some support from one side or the other, hoping the long-term gains will outweigh the negatives.

It's a balancing act. They have to have enough customers to make future pricing models work. They feel that was in jeopardy.
Posted March 11, 2014
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evilnancyreagan: I had faith in GOG's decision to grow their brand, as they know their business better than anyone.

but, I guess I was wrong

apparently the collective (and unaccountable) moaners on the internet know how to do it even better.

well-played,

moan on.

on an unrelated note, anyone know of the best place to get a gunshot wound in the foot treated?
It's called an emergency room,there usually in hospitals.
Posted March 11, 2014
Great. Now games that might have had a higher chance coming to GOG DRM-free may not come here at all. I understand the hate towards regional pricing, but I rather GOG not sell games when they have to give out gift codes to make up for the difference.
Posted March 11, 2014
And once aqain the community is reminded that condescending remarks are a prerequisite for internet discourse...

Moaners, crybabies etc.

Whatever happened to respectful disagreement?
Post edited March 11, 2014 by Lemon_Curry
Posted March 11, 2014
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evilnancyreagan: I had faith in GOG's decision to grow their brand, as they know their business better than anyone.

but, I guess I was wrong

apparently the collective (and unaccountable) moaners on the internet know how to do it even better.

well-played,

moan on.

on an unrelated note, anyone know of the best place to get a gunshot wound in the foot treated?
Pixie dust and unicorn farts maybe? Happy thoughts work wonders also. Remember, use as directed and if you notice redness or swelling see your doctor immediately :-)
Posted March 11, 2014
Have to ask the question, not sure if someone else already has. If so, apologies for being redundant. If GOG is eating that much difference (up to 15 US dollars a sale in difference for countries with shitty region pricing rates), how much from each sale are they left with? i mean, hell, I know I'm a full-on scavenger, proven multiple times to be ready, willing and able to do stupid things (like stay up for 2 or 3 days at a time) just to get a good deal, but even with that I still want GOG to make some kind of appreciable amount for themselves to stay operational. That's a lot of margin to be losing with every single sale.

Additional - All right, fuck it. Have to be that guy, as well. If the people at GOG were half of what a fair few people wanted to start calling them as soon as they made a decision that was unpopular to some? They would have looked at people talking, all the back and forth, and told everyone who wasn't happy with it to piss off somewhere else, because that's how it was going to be regardless.

Sincerely hoping that I can see a video of GOG people in monk robes telling complainers to go fuck themselves if bitching starts up down the road about limits on new games acquisitions. Regional pricing sucks, to be sure. But like Senteria said, now it's GOG getting nailed for it. Those "greedy spineless utterly unprincipled liars", as some fuckwits were more than happy to refer to them as.
Post edited March 11, 2014 by CarrionCrow
Posted March 11, 2014
What you seem to forget in your disappointment however is that The people around the globe can have now much better deals on GOG than the rest of the world. You are forgetting how GOG became this big in the first place. Friends and family have recommended GOG to them. I know I have.

If I could choose to get the game I have always wanted in store A or store B but I get even more games in store A as a bonus, I totally would go for store A. The more people going to store A, the more revenue store A makes. People that came here for the bonus that game offered will look in the catalogue and be like: Oh wow this game, it's been so long since I played it! And thus GOG gets more games sold and the new customers recommend the store again, etc.

GOG offers a good community, you own the games, you get more for your money now and good customer support including 30 day money back. Downloading and installing a game is not that hard to understand. What's not to like?

Also you will get your new titles as GOG will still have regional prices and so you got the best of two worlds. This can only work to their benefit.
Post edited March 11, 2014 by Senteria
Posted March 11, 2014
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Senteria: You guys don't know when to quit. First it's boo regional prices and then it's boo no new games. You can't just have everything from both worlds. GOG listens and thinks what to do based on the feedback. It's not like we tell them what to do or not do. Heck, some people would sell their soul to DRM to get new games, but GOG does not cater to those people.
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haleisback: These are different people complaining now,i would preffer drm free games over region pricing (even if i was effected by it)
Me too, and I already said so in the forums when the regional pricing was announced. But if it is the will of the majority to go this route (which, frankly, I doubt - it's always foremost those who are unhappy who are voicing their disagreement; but only a real poll could answer that question ...), I won't complain (too much).
Posted March 11, 2014
low rated
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evilnancyreagan: I had faith in GOG's decision to grow their brand, as they know their business better than anyone.

but, I guess I was wrong

apparently the collective (and unaccountable) moaners on the internet know how to do it even better.

well-played,

moan on.

on an unrelated note, anyone know of the best place to get a gunshot wound in the foot treated?
avatar
saberwolfxm: Pixie dust and unicorn farts maybe? Happy thoughts work wonders also. Remember, use as directed and if you notice redness or swelling see your doctor immediately :-)
I crammed a tampon in the bullet-hole

works like a charm :]
Posted March 11, 2014
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Licurg: But don't they write that as a loss in their books, regardless of whether I use it or not ?
You pay GOG in full, the full regional price, GOG gets its full cut as do publishers. GOG will only see less profit diretly related to that sale if you use the store credit instead of money to pay for a subsequent purchase. If you don't use the store credit GOG's profit from that sale is actually higher than from a purchase made in NA - even if you factor a flat VAT as the ceiling EU VAT (27%) there's always a phantom mark up on top of it that results from the 1:1 conversion.
Posted March 11, 2014
Well, thank you for listening.


The introduction of multiple currencies, if coupled with an option to pay in USD, is a very good solution

And thanks for confirming that regional pricing will not be the norm.

I would however like to come back on something I suggested in another thread. You could think of involving the community in some choices.

A first possibility is to organise polls . I am convinced most of us reacted strongly because we perceived this as the introduction of a general system. If you had launched a poll with "We are offered the opportunity to add AOW III, however we will have to do as for The Witcher 2 : is it ok for you ?" (and maybe limit the vote to profiles created before a certain date ) , the reaction could have been different

Or you could have a look at a system used by a wargames publisher (GMT, namely their P500 system) : let's say that you have the possibility to add a given classic but are not sure about there being enough interest , or that you have the opportunity to add a recent release, but with a differenciated price, .. you could launch a "Pre-order" campaign with a threshold. For instance, you could specify that the classic game will be added if 5000 games are pre-ordered. If the game makes the threshold, pre-orders would have to be paid and the game would be added to the catalogue. If it doesn't, pre-orders would be cancelled and the game would not be released.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGetting back to our roots(1418 posts)(1418 posts)
(1418 posts)