Why is Pathfinder: Kingmaker 30% more expensive here than on Steam? I would prefer to buy it here, but that is just too much.

Uhm, the prices are the exact same as on Steam?!

Explorer: 39,99 EUR
Noble: 54,99 EUR
Royal: 69,99 EUR
Imperial: 84,99 EUR

Are you sure that you've compared the same editions?

When they show the prices in my local currency (norwegian kroner) it is 388 kroner in GOG and 279 kroner in steam. After you replied I changed the currency/location to Euro and it shows both as 39.99. Really weird. But thanks for letting me know.

40 euros are about 382 kroner. Steam's regional price is probably locked in and almost never changes, while GOG's fluctuates with the exchange rate. Both haves up and downsides.

A simple google search will tell you this isn't true at all. 388 NOK is currently worth almost $48, while 279 is only $34. Google also helpfully shows us the exchange rate graph going back a few years showing a distinct lack of any big swings that would explain such a difference.

I have no idea what causes this huge differences in prices - if they were consistent, you could maybe point at some kind of difference in handling VAT, as that is so often the case when pricess across countries and continents are compared. But not only does that make little sense comparing two platforms selling in the same market, but there isn't even anything consistent about it. Checking recent releases, Darksiders 3 is the same preorder price of 630NOK on both platforms. CrossCode is 188NOK normal price on GOG, but only 140NOK on Steam. Star Control: Origins is again the same price (279 NOK) on both platforms. Etc, etc.

If you would've read carefully what I wrote, I wrote euros not $.

IMHO that's because of DRM-free distribution. At least that's the point for me buy from GOG, not from steam.

Let me reiterate. GOG uses a USD base price and adjusts it according to the exchange rate periodically. Steam uses a fixed regional price. So if the currencies fluctuate it might become cheaper to buy either from GOG or Steam, depending on where you live and how your currency fares currently against the USD.

I don t think gog use USD as base.
Many games have 1:1 prive conversion $->€ or $->£

A few times games that were priced 10$ would have been 10€ or 10£

I travel a lot, and GOG often show wildely different prices.
In a few instances I ve bought games that where even 10£ cheapers in other countries.
This is bad, at best.

Isn't the base Kingmaker price supposed to be $40? Steam's price is currently the equivalent of $34.39, which is a bit over $5 cheaper than what it 'should' be. GOG's price would exchange to $47.83, $7.83 more expensive than it 'should' be. If this was a case of GOG's exchange rate being more current and updated, how is Steam's price closer to current? How is GOG so far off at all? In fact, $40 has never been exchanged for more than 357 NOK in the past 10+ years. So they can't have gotten this pricing based on the exchange rate for $40 into NOK at all.

E: Had a Euro part wrong because glancing at steamdb's google result was off.

And none of this explains why so many games are the same price on GOG and Steam (and Origin too for Darksiders 3 preorders, which is the one game I bothered looking up as Origin and GOG don't share a ton of games).

E2: Looking at it more, it seems like the prices of this game are explained by the game being sold at $40/€40 on both platforms, and GOG just calculating NOK from EURO directly which gives us a difference of only 7 NOK, plausibly explained by exchange rates. I have no idea how Steam reaches its NOK exchange rate as it doesn't fit either NOK->USD, NOK-> EURO or anything else, even in the past several years. So I guess the difference between games comes down to which publishers bother to actually calculate USD/EURO rates when pricing their games on GOG? Makes special sense since the prices that match Steam are nice and round to the 10s, while the more expensive games on GOG have random price points like 388 NOK.

For me it's $15 Cheaper on GOG

same

If on GoG it costs more than $40, then you get the difference as store credit.

For example I have to pay 40€ and get 5.40€ as store credit.

(On Steam I'd have to pay 40€ too, but wouldn't get any money back from Steam.)