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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
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You know, many of us have such a big backlog that we could stop buying games completely and still would have enough games to play for the rest of our lives. No need to go anywhere.
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fronzelneekburm: This is such good news, I hope this thread receives 10000 replies from people telling gog how awesome they are!
Hah, yeah, it's always great to see how much people can whine (although it's good, because you can at least change something that way), but I'd also like those people to come back and post something again.
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Senteria: But you said if you were going to do the difference out of your own pockets, you'd go bankrupt? That's what they told us, and now they apparantly are able to do it anyway? What happened.
From what I understand from the AoW3 update announcement, Triumph agreed to work with them on this, and obviously CD Projekt will, not sure about Larian now but odds are probably quite high. So that'd imply that those studios admitted to the unfairness of regional pricing and, while some retail contracts hold them to the prices themselves, they agreed to actually receive less from sales in regions with higher prices (possibly even a flat amount, except for regions where the price is lower of course), so by giving back the full additional amount GOG isn't losing.

If GOG would make up for the full amount out of their own pockets it'd really be hard to make profits, and either way really shouldn't happen, as then they'd be supporting the regional pricing model just as well, publishers wouldn't give a damn that they're selling potentially at a loss, money'll keep rolling in for them, and the model will never change.
Have to be honest: I did not see this coming. Too used to corporations being utter asshats I suppose.

Well done GOG. I'm happy about this. As the saying goes, it takes a long time to build up trust, and it can be torn down in an instant. However, I think you have saved the damage with this move, and I will certainly continue to shop here now.

For me, DRM Free is the most important reason, and it's why I don't, and never will, buy anything at that crap site, but Fair Pricing is obviously important too, and no customers want to be screwed (apart from people on the 'other' site of course... sigh).

Thank you GOG. Keep being Awesome =)
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wvpr: 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.
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HypersomniacLive: ^This.

I’m a bit surprised that there are people that seriously think that GOG’s move was dictated by a vocal minority of Internet moaners.
This is a business decision, just like their first one was. Sure, the complaints on the forum played a part because they reflect customer happiness of a portion of customers, but I’m fairly certain that the number of sales during these past two weeks played a much bigger role in both customer happiness and revenue.

By today’s announcement GOG isn’t really taking back what they announced two weeks ago. They simply stated their plans in a manner appealing to their objecting customers while making necessary adjustments to keep customer satisfaction and happiness high.

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TheEnigmaticT: Once we accept more than one currency--which is still a few weeks off--you'll be able to select USD or local currency for any transaction.
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HypersomniacLive: You still don't clearly say if it's going to be just a choice of currency or of price points (depending on currency).
I agree for the most part, although I do wonder if a mere two weeks of sales, including two semi major promotions as well as the pre order figures for AoW3 would be a long enough period to show GOG that regional pricing was a poor decision from a sales perspective. If so, there must have been significant drop off to spur this decision so quickly. I have to admit that I did not purchase any items from GOG since the first announcement, though in both sales there were games I almost certainly would have purchased had this situation not arisen. It is questionable if there were so many who were like minded that GOG felt a turn of face was the way to go, That being said, stranger things have happened.

I would agree that this almost certainly was a pure business decision, however the general reaction from people on here seems to be that they either think differently or simply don't care about the whys but that things have been rectified to a large extent. Whether this translates into regaining the sort of sales that GOG previously garnered remains to be seen, as I suspect that GOG will struggle to regain some of the goodwill previously shown towards it, particularly from those who saw GOG as more than a simple business. I hope so, as even from a pure rational perspective GOG is better than most other places.
Well this is the first time, yes the first one that I read something like this, a company taking measures (real ones) because the community didn't like something.
KUDOS for GOG :)
Things are back to normal.
I had to miss out on those sales untill GOG made up its mind but hey.

It is good to know GOG actualy listened.
This troubles me. With regional priced games, there was choice - don't like the pricing scheme, don't freaking buy it. But now choice is withdrawn. The loudest whiners with the longest wind won it. Taking choice away from the others.

Was there a poll i missed? How'd you come to figure that you were "listening" to your base?

Bah. i'm not gonna whine about leaving GOG as the others did. But there are some games i want badly. i got excited that the regional pricing move might result in them coming here. These games were brought to mind, thinking i might finally get em, DRM free on GOG. i find myself edging closer to accepting DRM to get them. If i cross that line then there ain't much holding me here. Then it's about the sales, and access to what i'm looking for. Fah. This kinda hurt. /

(i'll keep an open mind, but already i look at breaking my exclusivity to GOG)
I have a mixed feeling right now, but GOG showed they listen to their users, yay for GOG and it's crew!
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WhiteElk: This troubles me. With regional priced games, there was choice - don't like the pricing scheme, don't freaking buy it. But now choice is withdrawn. The loudest whiners with the longest wind won it. Taking choice away from the others.

Was there a poll i missed? How'd you come to figure that you were "listening" to your base?

Bah. i'm not gonna whine about leaving GOG as the others did. But there are some games i want badly. i got excited that the regional pricing move might result in them coming here. These games were brought to mind, thinking i might finally get em, DRM free on GOG. i find myself edging closer to accepting DRM to get them. If i cross that line then there ain't much holding me here. Then it's about the sales, and access to what i'm looking for. Fah. This kinda hurt. /

(i'll keep an open mind, but already i look at breaking my exclusivity to GOG)
Here's another thought: Don't buy them at all, and tell the publishers that you're doing so because of their refusal to accept fair practices. (This doesn't have to mean that you can't play them, mind you.)
Good job gog!

We all know you won't satisfy everyone at once but at least now you can blame us conservative "one-world - one-price" fetishists that you can't get a hold on even MOAR DRM-Free games.

I can see in the comments; it is already beginning to work...

"oooh my god, I won't be able to get more games of some unknown super publisher just because gog staid true to their core-principles and listened to the boycotters"

I don't mind really, they can blame me all they want for their missing game-opportunities.
They didn't care about regional Pricing, I don't care about their wish to get obscure game x from demented publisher y who only cooperates with gog if there will be regional pricing.

Simply put:

I vote with my wallet
and I was already set to stop buying from gog the moment my prices changed to €uro.
But since that won't happen anytime soon now I'm going to celebrate and order one game from my wishlist, not that I have time to play it, or the download bandwith at the moment but as a loyal customer I show the most loyal support possible and will buy something.

What the Heck, I think I want to buy the Red Baron pack. Perfectly fits the occasion, don't you think?
My reading comprehension must suck, or I'm just a cynical bastard that's over-analyzing certain phrases, but I don't see how anything has actually changed. People seem happy though, so whatever.
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PixelBoy: I suppose not too many would mind a minor price adjustments, if those are necessary based on inflation, taxation, etc.

But unreasonable pricing only works to make people angry and disappointed. And whether it was intentional or not, your example is an example of bad pricing.

Instead of adjusting by what is necessary, $5.99 to $6.99 change would unrealistically go for the nearest .99 price. Which, in all likelihood, would be too much, considering what kind of percentage that 1.00 is when the original price is only 5.99.

Why not have adjustments $5.99 to $6.27 and $9.99 to $10.33 or something like that?

In the age of micropayments, it is old-fashioned to think that someone would be fooled by .99 prices.
I clearly stated that the value I used was just an example (not a recommendation), and I have highlighted in bold the words you must have missed - '(or whatever)' - which covers 24 cents, 34 cents, anything at all. ;)
Post edited March 11, 2014 by StormHammer
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Cavalary: Here's another thought: Don't buy them at all, and tell the publishers that you're doing so because of their refusal to accept fair practices. (This doesn't have to mean that you can't play them, mind you.)
That (boycotting games), and addressing concerns at national levels, seem to me the only way to affect regional pricing change. GOGs reversal to not sell regional priced games ain't gonna make a notable difference in the pricing war. steam doing so might'a garnered some attention, but still there is the legal battling. This isn't as simple as i think most of the con-camp might'a thought it to be. DRM-free is GOGs schtick and power. There they've made a difference. The difference they can continue to do with this has been undermined i think. It's all about the inventory. We'll see.
Post edited March 11, 2014 by WhiteElk
Wow, you actually listened to your customers and changed a decision. I'm impressed. Good job! I'm satisfied with the solution as it is now.

Thanks!