So Shadowrun: Hong Kong is 50% off here and on Steam. Since our Canadian dollar is a measly $0.72 (better than .69 I guess...) it would come out to $13.90 here. But over on steam it's $10.99... But I want it DRM-Free! Curse you economics.
I realize it's only like two bucks, but it's the principle of the thing.


For discussions sake, I wonder how likely/long it will be if/when GOG accepts other currency's, without having to convert.

Even if GOG starts supporting other currencies, there is no guarantee that all games will have the same price as on Steam. What you are seeing on Steam isn't just the usage of different currencies, but also of regional pricing, meaning, a price that isn't affected by the currency exchange rate, either positively or negatively.

Alas the economics you refer to are not based on morals. If there's more demand in Canada, if they can get that higher price. They will charge it.

Trick is to not pay the price.

Hmm, I've seen the threads here complaining about regional pricing, but I didn't see why it was such a big deal. I mean, what's the problem if something cost's less somewhere else, where the standard income is also lower? Or is it that it goes the other way, so things get more expensive where people have a higher income?
And I would have thought they would end up the same? Here the developers must just set the price in USD since that's the only currency. On Steam do they also just set it once and Steam internally changes the prices? I would have to have not used some of my keys for that though, wouldn't I? :P

Someone will always complain about something. If we have a flat price then people who are disadvantaged complain, if we have a regional pricing scheme then other people will complain. Imho buy wherever it makes you feel better.

For me personally regional pricing isn't a problem, I pay a given price for a given game if I think it's worth it.

But... when the dollar was very weak a couple of years ago every one in Canada and Europe was "Boo hoo! Why are we paying more than the US? Regional pricing sucks." That's why Good Old Games (now GOG.com) made "no regional pricing" one of their holy trinity.

Now when things have turned around, the dollar is strong and regional pricing works in their favour, Canadians and Europeans are going "Steam's regional pricing are more fair. GOG should do it too." At least be consistent. You can't have the best of both worlds; it's either or.

(Not directed against you, just a general observation. Though it probably isn't the same people who were against regional pricing back then, who want it introduced now, but who knows...)

ZFR has answered the questions in part, but let me add my points as well. The problem has to do with GOG advertising "One World, One Price" (that is, the US price for everyone) as one of their strongest points and policies (along DRM-Free), going as far as to parody another store for having regional pricing, in one of their advertisements. Then, two years ago, they decided to scrap it by introducing regional pricing. The reception was so negative, that GOG eventually decided to implement the "Fair Price Package", which gave countries who paid more than the equivalent US price, store credit equal to the difference.

For instance, before the introduction of regional pricing, Blackguards cost $45 for European customers. After the introduction, Blackguards cost €45 for European customers, which at that time translated to about $60 and would give $15 back in store credit.

And I won't go over whether regional pricing is applied correctly to a country's relative income, because a lot of points have been made already on that matter. No, the American Dollar isn't the only currency here. There is also the Euro, the British Pound, the Russian Ruble, and the Australian Dollar. Having said that, the only countries with almost complete regional pricing here are Russia and the former Soviet Republics, with prices comparable to Steam on almost every game. For other countries with supported currencies here (like UK or Australia), the majority of the games still depend on the exchange rate with the American Dollar. Some other countries (like Mexico and Brazil) don't have a supported currency here, but have a lower USD price on a limited number of games, which is still noticeably more expensive than the equivalent one on Steam.

So, even if GOG added an option to support the Canadian Dollar, the price for Shadowrun: Hong Kong would remain the same for you, as it's not a game that is regionally-priced on territories outside Russia and the former Soviet Republics. You would only see a difference for games that do support regional pricing for all territories here, like Darksiders. On Steam, the developers/publishers have two choices; either set the price themselves for all supported currencies (and even implement regional locks if they so desire, since they have the power to do so) or set a standard price for the US region (or wherever they prefer) and hand it over to Steam, who will then set a typical price for the rest of the regions.

pretty much. cuts both ways doesn't it?

if you have a regional option, great, go with it. otherwise if you have other preferences influencing your purchase, look at the game, look at the platform, and see what's what.

but even with that, them going down isn't as hard on seller as us going up is on purchaser. which is why there are regions with ridiculously discounted prices to start with. this is all digital. there's no or right next to no overhead here. not to mention they don't bother with Q&A spending like they used to because they don't have stamp the stuff on plastic they have to buy. on top of that, they make more now anyway than when they were cutting deals with the large retailers.

I think I get it, since set prices wouldn't change along with the currency conversion, games would end up costing more for people outside the states, correct? I thought I read somewhere it had something to do with the Witcher 2, or am I off my rocker there?
And are those regional prices ever updated? I see what I'm getting wrong. I've been confusing supported currencies and regional pricing. I was thinking that supporting currencies was adding a set price in that currency. I now see that that is, in fact, regional pricing. Are those "typical" prices updated? And are the actual US ones ever increased if the US dollar loses value?

Witcher 2 was the first regionally-priced game on GOG. Having said that, GOG didn't give up the "One World, One Price" policy when Witcher 2 was released back in 2011 and it was, instead, considered an anomaly. The policy was officially given up in February 2014 and was replaced by the Fair Price Package.
Yes, they are. Sometimes, a regionally-priced game becomes flat-priced and vice versa, or a game might become regionally-priced in some regions, but not all of them, etc.
What you describe seems to have been the case for other stores who were originally only accepting the American Dollar as a currency (like GamesRepublic and Steam), before they started supporting more currencies and implementing a fixed, regional pricing. GOG seems to be the exception here, as they still have the majority of the games with a non-fixed price in territories outside of Russia and the former Soviet Republics.
Usually, no. There will be the odd developer/publisher or two, who will adjust a game's price to account for fluctuations in the currency exchange rate, but most developers/publishers are content with setting a fixed price. And I have never seen a game's US price change on account of the dollar getting weaker, but I have seen a few cases of publishers raising a game's price before a sale.

Exactly, that is how I do it. However, some price variation seems a bit ridiculous (but in truth, if the variation was small, there would be no point to doing regional pricing).

Yes, exactly. The euro has been supported for two years now, but back in Nov 2014, we used to pay 7.99 euro for a 9.99$ game. Now it's 9.19 euro. So had Canadian dollars been accepted, prices in CAD would have gone up too.
As Grargar mentioned, GOG supports other currencies, but (except unfortunately for Russia and some other countries) it mostly goes with non fixed regional prices.

Thanks for the info. I feel a little wiser ;)
One question though, I'm assuming publishers from other countries also pick the price in USD on Steam?

Hmm, so what I think I'm really looking for is GOG to support CND so I don't get hit by conversion fees. That and hope out dollar gets a little (or a lot) stronger.
Thanks for helping clarify things.

Not always. For instance, Frozenbyte commented that they used the EUR as the base price for Trine 3, and then made what they considered, appropriate adjustments for the other regions. I also wouldn't be surprised if other non-US companies used their local currency as the base price.