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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
Great news!! THANKS, GOG! =)
Posted March 11, 2014
GOG, thank you for listening to your customers. I was one of the voices who wrote you off, and had planned to never purchase anything from your store again. You have demonstrated respect and understanding for your customers, and have chosen us over publishers.

People tend to forget that complaining and negativity can be a powerful voice, but companies deserve to be rewarded for making the correct decision. Positive words are just as powerful as negative ones. So I say thank you to everybody at GOG for putting your customers first. You have demonstrated respect that no other company has.

I am happy to continue business here. The Witcher 3 as well as all future games developed by CDPROJEKT will be a day one purchase.

Thank you for listening to us.
Posted March 11, 2014
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adamhm: What I'm trying to say is that by allowing regional pricing for new titles GOG would be a lot more likely to get big titles released here at launch and that this would result in fewer games being permanently tied into Steam.

The vast majority of big titles these days make full use of Steamworks which makes it very unlikely they'll ever be released DRM-free and even if they do end up eventually being released DRM-free, they'll most likely be missing features such as multiplayer because the developers used Steamworks for them in order to reduce costs (why would a developer go to the effort and expense of developing/using a system independent of Steam if their game is only planned for release on Steam?).
The question is what "big" titles did you expect here thanks to regional pricing.

To the best of my knowledge and understanding (that's from reading articles, forums and personal contact), their reasoning is that the hardcore DRM-free market is small enough for them to completely ignore it in terms of sales/ profit. They plan and develop their games making full use of Steamworks because of its convenience (their argument) and the very big user base - it's something that pops up a lot with smaller studios and indie devs recently. I don't remember the name of that company, but they used to release DRM-free versions from the start and they used this very argument to drop them completely and go Steam exclusively.

GOG did not drop regional pricing, they only changed a part of it, so you will see more regionally priced games here. If those games come with all features intact remains to be seen, but I doubt that regional pricing was one of the reasons that games are tied to Steam.
Posted March 11, 2014
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BKGaming: Eh I think GOG should have stuck with there decision honestly. People may have complained loudly and those who complain always do (they would have gotten over it)... but as always the decision if something was worth the price is in the hands of the consumers. Now we will all likely miss out on games that we could have had here DRM free because certain consumers couldn't exercise there ability to not buy something that was overpriced but instead complained and threaten to leave GOG which would have been unlikely because GOG still gives the better value and nowhere else has flat regional pricing.

Not saying regional pricing is a good thing, it's not and is stupid... but it's the consumers who should show that by not purchasing the product... not complaining and blaming GOG for what needed to be done to get us more DRM free games. I just hope in the long run this doesn't effect GOG's profits to much and hurts us all.
If you don't mind donating 30% on top of your game price sure, at any other case - course no one will buy it. We ain't that stupid. In fact i stopped buying from steam for the same reason, unless it's dirt cheap.

This begs the question why would they bother if we do this? When they can sell their games day 1 for full price on their dedicated DRM platform and comfortably rip everyone off with the put up or shut up rule, why loose money on drm free and sale hunters? And don't forget the russian gifts.
Posted March 11, 2014
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HypersomniacLive: I don't remember the name of that company, but they used to release DRM-free versions from the start and they used this very argument to drop them completely and go Steam exclusively.
The only companies that did that, as far as I know, are Paradox Interactive and Stardock.
Post edited March 11, 2014 by Lugamo
Posted March 11, 2014
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yyahoo: Not buying games that aren't available DRM free sends no other message to a publisher other than the game simply isn't popular/good enough. Publishers couldn't possibly determine from low sales that it didn't sell because it wasn't DRM free. The only way to convince publishers that DRM free works is to show them positive sales when a game is made available DRM free, which is what GOG is able to do when it releases a game here. GOG opposing regional pricing will have no other effect besides simply not being able to sell the game here.
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Cavalary: And not selling the game of a rotten publisher is the right message either way. You don't rank your core values that you touted all these years and decide that holding on to one is worth throwing away the other. They haven't sold regionally priced games (excepting the court-ordered Witcher 2 snafu) so far, so that'd definitely be no change whatsoever, and I hope that (with the exception of these already contracted now) they'll continue not selling them.
Those who don't care for principles are free to make their purchases from other stores that have none (which is to say, nearly all of them). If this actually means that they'll properly go back to their policies in full then those of us who do can return here.
Screw your principles man, games are games, and when they go 75% off like they always do we're only talking about a few cents in the end anways. Why do we have to miss out on a lot of good games because of regional pricing ? If you don't support regional pricing on a game then don't buy it, it's really that simple. I feel like throwing a tantrum now because we probably won't be seeing a lot of good games here that we would have if we kept regional pricing. WAH WAH WAH I won't support gog anymore until they bring back the exclusive games with regional pricing! lol.
Post edited March 11, 2014 by Messi_is_Messiah
Posted March 11, 2014
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JudasIscariot: This double question?

"Does that mean the equivalent price point? e.g. a choice between €4.49 or $5.99 for those in the Eurozone

Or does it mean the equivalent value in USD? e.g. a choice between €4.49 and $6.22 (which is €4.49 in USD at the current exchange rate)"

I believe this is an either-or scenario where you can choose to pay the EQUIVALENT in a given currency. So say a game costs $5.99, you can either pay the USD as always OR you can choose to pay the equivalent of $5.99 in GBP :) Feel free to correct me if I am wrong :)
Hmm, your interpretation sounds pretty good to me. Obviously I understand that's not a promise that that's how it's going to work but I hope you're right.
Posted March 11, 2014
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wvpr: Read Point 2 more carefully. GOG is leaving the door open for games with region-based pricing. They're promising to fight harder against it, but they will accept it and make up the difference when they can't get the publishers to agree. Their stance may affect the titles they're able to carry, but they're not going to outright refuse every title because of it.
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wraith808: So then... what's the difference? As I said in my first point

But what people aren't getting is that this will pretty much only affect the games that were going to be fairly priced already- just priced locally. Just as they are doing with AOW3, they could have offered that same offer, kept regional pricing, and been able to get more offerings to go DRM-free.
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wraith808: So is this only their back catalog that's not regionally priced? If so, then I wouldn't think it would affect negotiations with publishers.

... there's a definite disconnect in what some people think is being said (including me) and what's actually being said if they are still having regional pricing. After all, on AOW3, they'd already said they were giving people who were screwed by the pricing compensation.
The difference is that now GOG is promising to give store credit every time they are unable to get the publisher to agree to region-free pricing. That gives GOG more of an incentive to fight for region-free pricing, since otherwise they are making up the difference out of potential profits.

If GOG came out and said regional pricing for everyone, no exceptions, it would be a win for GOG and the publishers. If they said no regional pricing for anyone, ever, it's a win for GOG and their customers. With this latest announcement, they are giving concessions to both the publishers and the customers, at GOG's expense, because they can't keep both sides happy with their pricing system.

Going forward, it gives GOG a chance to show publishers they can thrive on GOG, and show customers the newer games GOG can make available. GOG gives up some of their income in exchange for growing their business. Hopefully, everyone wins.
Posted March 11, 2014
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JudasIscariot: I'll quote TET on this one as I think he provided the answer you are seeking earlier:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/getting_back_to_our_roots/post430

Key words in his statement: any transaction.
Nope, key words in his statement: USD or local currency.

Currency and price point are not the same thing, so the answer is still pending and I'd appreciate it if you'd relay this to TET or/ and anyone in authority to provide the clarification we ask for.
Posted March 11, 2014
Wow, after reading the news I am quite speechless. You are awesome, GOG.
Posted March 11, 2014
I can only say that i love you GOG.
Posted March 11, 2014
Just wanted to add my voice to those saying how happy it makes me to read this. I very much like non-regional pricing, but what I appreciate even more is how you listen to your customers - thank you!
Posted March 11, 2014
Although it's pretty awesome that GOG seems to be listening, I'm a bit concerned about the wording on point three:

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.
Without the rest of the post, I would read this as local pricing, with the option of paying the local price in USD instead of local currency (which would be pointless?). Would be pretty dirty if it was like that. Probably isn't, but it's still a bit confusing.

If it said "the option to pay in USD or the equivalent in local currency," that would make more sense.

EDIT: Oh, I think Hyper was asking this as well... Sorry, I didn't read all 15 pages of comments :p
Post edited March 11, 2014 by shadowbaneaxe
Posted March 11, 2014
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JudasIscariot: Also, I noticed you're back in the U.S.

How was the *ahem* flight? :D
haha you crack me up once again. I guess everyone got homesick after migrating to Russia. (:
Posted March 11, 2014
Whoa! GOG is awesome, it's impossible to deny it. I don't remember any other store having ever cared so much with making their customers happy as you guys do.

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dquadros: This may sound weird, but here in Brazil credit card companies are no longer accepting debits in our local currency from abroad. When they used to accept that, there was still exchange rates and transaction fees involved!
Yes, not the fairest of countries, right mate?

Not that it would matter on GOG for a while, because the Real isn't one of the currencies they would use regional pricing with, at least from the get-go. We were still gonna be charged in dollars.

Funnily enough, whenever I check Steam's prices for us brazilians the conversion rate always seems to be in our favor. Meh... After some bad experiences I had with them some time ago they lost my money forever, except for the rare games I must play from devs who won't ever launch on GOG.

Today's post is proof of something GOG has and Steam don't: respect for their customers. It's worth a lot more than those measly bucks I could've saved on games I bought here.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGetting back to our roots(1418 posts)(1418 posts)
(1418 posts)