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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 13, 2014
copy thanks.... I wasn't certain I was reading what I read correctly since everyone seemed so happy on the ethics side... but I guess it was more about the recanting of the earlier policy.
Post edited March 13, 2014 by teknomedic
Posted March 13, 2014
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teknomedic: if this is about GOG taking a stand against this type of pricing..... then have they done it?

I ask because from what ive read... they are still accepting the unfair pricing.... but are only making it transparent to its customers by paying the fees themselves vs passing the fees to us.... so really, nothing has changed and no stance taken. GOG simply the most middle ground it could.
It's true that they're not taking an absolute hard line stance, but even the compromise they have now chosen to make in the event of differing region pricing is pretty much unheard of from a business perspective. The outcome is not perfect, and it's likely that many new game release deals will unfortunately be lost with this decision. However, the transparency behind this decision, from our point of view, is rarely seen amongst GOG's competitors. Even if they're not always the superior deal, GOG can at least retain their own identity in this way.
Post edited March 13, 2014 by StickOfPlywood
Posted March 13, 2014
agreed.... its part of the reason I buy so much from GOG, lol
Post edited March 13, 2014 by teknomedic
Posted March 13, 2014
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iWi: Linux you say ... hmmm ... let us chew on this ... ;)
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hedwards: I hope you guys can offer that. I'm back to buying games here, but it's hard to justify buying games that have Linux versions here when some other shops offer Linux versions to go with the Windows and OSX versions.
Why not just dual boot?
yea i know that win is crap but it still required for too many programs and games still.

The good thing is that steam and a few others have started pushing linux but its still not enough
and untill its enough i will dual boot
Saves me alot of pain until Linux is mainstream imo.
Post edited March 13, 2014 by Lodium
Posted March 13, 2014
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teknomedic: or did I miss something?
No, that pretty much sums it up. They're taking one for the team. Sounds more altruistic than it is, in part because they hope to

A) retain the existing customer base
B) expand the catalog to continue to bring in revenue

Nothing wrong with either of those - you grow your base and expand your offerings in order to grow your business, though there is the risk that the industry doesn't bite and the catalog doesn't expand as gOg hope it does. What we get as a huge benefit - if it works - is an expansion of DRM-free within the industry. Growing the catalog is nice. Making the publishers think about the long-term effects of DRM is much more important, and it goes beyond this little hobby of ours.

Part of the core problem is that a significant portion of the customer base doesn't value DRM-free as the big-friggin'-deal that it is, and thus that segment is willing to go elsewhere for the same product - or pirate those titles. Oddly enough this is done in the name of "principles".

I'm glad that people aren't going to see a big bump in pricing, but at the same time am concerned that this might slow the DRM-free push. Time will tell.
Posted March 13, 2014
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OldFatGuy: And for the second time now, I NEVER SAID that you did. Look, asking a question (Hint: there's one of these "?" at the end) cannot, by definition, misrepresent anyone, because it's not even representing anyone. It's a question. In order to misrepresent someone, one would have to assert something, not question it.
That question was loaded with an assumption that i did not make. That's the problem. The question you made assumed that i was ok with some countries getting ripped off by regional pricing, which just isn't true.

Notice that you asked me WHY not IF i agreed with some countries getting ripped off. There's a huge difference there. The question "Why did you kill John ?", for example, already comes loaded with the assumption that the interlocutor indeed killed John. That's exactly what you did. You asked me to explain something that i had never said.

Since you have a hard time understand simple things, i'll try as much as i can to make it easy to comprehend. Let's get back to your question again, shall we?

"So why rip off some countries a big deal instead of just spreading the pain around so everyone gets a little?"

Let's divide this sentence in two parts: A and B. A is the part until "instead" and B is what comes after it.

Your question was: "So, why A instead of B ?"
The things is, i have never said anything about A. I had never said if A was right or wrong. A was an assumption that i didn't make. You created that assumption yourself to misrepresent my argument, hence the strawman. I couldn't answer that question you made because i had never said anything about A.

Don't ignore the fact that your question didn't come out of nowhere. It was a reply directed at one of my posts. Also, you started your question with the conjunction "so", which implies that your question was a "conclusion" from my post, and as i have already said many times already, you couldn't conclude that from my posts.

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OldFatGuy: Have a great life, and from now on don't respond to my posts and I'll do you the same courtesy.
Looks like someone is getting all worked up over a gaming forum. No need to get so mad, really. You're too emotional on a simple forum discussion. No need to act like a drama queen. And if you can't deal with a different opinion on a forum, i really suggest you find something else to do on your free time.
Post edited March 13, 2014 by Neobr10
Posted March 13, 2014
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hedwards: I hope you guys can offer that. I'm back to buying games here, but it's hard to justify buying games that have Linux versions here when some other shops offer Linux versions to go with the Windows and OSX versions.
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Lodium: Why not just dual boot?
yea i know that win is crap but it still required for too many programs and games still.

The good thing is that steam and a few others have started pushing linux but its still not enough
and untill its enough i will dual boot
Saves me alot of pain until Linux is mainstream imo.
Not to go into off-topic, but I don't find Windows required at all, unless we are talking about some very specific use cases like using Adobe inDesign (which can possibly work in Wine already anyway). I.e. there is no reason to dual boot even anymore. I'm not using Windows for several years already.
Post edited March 13, 2014 by shmerl
Posted March 13, 2014
Wow... i didn't expect this o.O. I dont think I have ever seen a company do something like that! Great news, thanks gog.
Posted March 13, 2014
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Lodium: Why not just dual boot?
yea i know that win is crap but it still required for too many programs and games still.

The good thing is that steam and a few others have started pushing linux but its still not enough
and untill its enough i will dual boot
Saves me alot of pain until Linux is mainstream imo.
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shmerl: Not to go into off-topic, but I don't find Windows required at all, unless we are talking about some very specific use cases like using Adobe inDesign (which can possibly work in Wine already anyway). I.e. there is no reason to dual boot even anymore. I'm not using Windows for several years already.
Well last time i tried Photoshop or Fl Studio in Linux it woudnt work properly
And im using those pretty often.
Migth be my distro/version though,
Posted March 13, 2014
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alric_victor: Wow... i didn't expect this o.O. I dont think I have ever seen a company do something like that! Great news, thanks gog.
We pretty much forced them to do it, they didn't give a fuck for awhile. Smart move by them, or else they could have ended up like the Xbox one situation, they still lost lots of trust, but I'll continue to support them now.
Posted March 13, 2014
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alric_victor: Wow... i didn't expect this o.O. I dont think I have ever seen a company do something like that! Great news, thanks gog.
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Krum369: We pretty much forced them to do it, they didn't give a fuck for awhile. Smart move by them, or else they could have ended up like the Xbox one situation, they still lost lots of trust, but I'll continue to support them now.
I think the xb1 situation would have been a lot worse if they didnt backpedal on their anti consumer restrictions.
Probably same for gog but without as much impact as if they had said they would drop drm.
Post edited March 13, 2014 by Hawat
Posted March 13, 2014
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alric_victor: Wow... i didn't expect this o.O. I dont think I have ever seen a company do something like that! Great news, thanks gog.
You said it alric_victor. I went o.O too.

This is why GOG is my #1 game store. Even when they don't support linux...yet.
Posted March 13, 2014
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Krum369: We pretty much forced them to do it, they didn't give a fuck for awhile. Smart move by them, or else they could have ended up like the Xbox one situation, they still lost lots of trust, but I'll continue to support them now.
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Hawat: I think the xb1 situation would have been a lot worse if they didnt backpedal on their anti consumer restrictions.
Probably same for gog but without as much impact as if they had said they would drop drm.
True. They still haven't dropped the Kinect thou which has lost them many potential buyers, both because the spying and it costing $100 more. One of the reasons why people got the Xbox was because all their friends had it, now the same is happening with the PS4. The Xbox one is in a very bad position.
Post edited March 13, 2014 by Krum369
Posted March 13, 2014
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shadowbaneaxe: Except there's no rarity when it comes to digitally downloadable games (except on the Insomnia sale). And would you really pay 30% extra? The differences were just too great if you ask me.
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teknomedic: its rare to legally own said drm free copy of the game if rights owners refuses to sell on gog because gog cant afford to cover the extra overhead costs because you wanted to save $3 off the $13 game to keep it $9.99.

I get what you're saying.... but yes...I would pay $13 or 30% increase from $10 to have an even larger library of games to choose from.

let me reverse it..... will you still be happy buying $10 games if they never added another game to the gog library?..... or say... could only afford to negotiate for one new game a year?

know what I want.... a GOG plius....,them you can stay on gog classic and pay lower prices for a limited catalog and ill pay the higher prices to own games that will never be released on gog classic.

i have over 646 games on gog.... perhaps when you have that many youll be wanting a larger library over saving few dollars too. just a thought.
The issue would be that WE pay so YOU have a larger library, and that's not fair at all. Now if ALL prices for EVERYONE got nicked up, your argument could be a bit more valid... but it's not.

And we already have more expensive games on gog...

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teknomedic: that doesn't make my point invalid though.

gog themselves stated that some games may be delayed or never come out now because of this.

...how are you ok with that?
They/we refused to be taken hostage.

I'm OK with that.
Post edited March 13, 2014 by Zoidberg
Posted March 13, 2014
My opinion is that GOG made a mistake by promoting the "one world, one price" as a principle. They put too much emphasis on that. They used words like rip-off. Now they need to stick with that or risk losing customers.

I don't think 1$=1 euro is fair. Nobody thinks it is.

But I don't think one price for everybody is fair either. Different countries have different taxes. That means somebody (GOG or the developer) is paying those taxes instead of the customer. Or the price in some countries (US, Canada etc) is elevated to match the price in the high-tax countries. In this case some customers pay more than they were supposed to because of the "fair price" policy.
How is this fair?

I'm favored by "one world, one price" but I was ok to pay a higher price (than US) if that means getting more games on GOG (that wouldn't be here otherwise).

Game codes and/or store credit sounds nice but I hope GOG won't be to much negatively affected by this.

The option of paying in the local currency or the equivalent in USD it's also nice.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGetting back to our roots(1418 posts)(1418 posts)
(1418 posts)