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I originally posted this over on the Witcher forums but I think it might reach a wider audience here too. And seeing GOG is run by the same people and all I thought it apt to post here.
Back in September 2008 The Witcher Enhanced Edition was released on Valve's digital distribution system, Steam. At that time, when I started up my Steam client, I was greeted with the news of that release. Initially, I was very happy with this as I had been trying to buy the game for some time. Sadly, as the game was published by Atari, I was faced with a regional restriction and denied the opportunity to buy the game.
I admit, I was then very annoyed and made my feelings known on the Steam Witcher forum. To further expand on why I was so annoyed, I'd like to explain that basically, there is no domestic PC gaming market where I live. If you want to play a PC game (especially in English) all you can do is either import it (which is fairly expensive), hope that one of the very few stores in Tokyo sell it, hope that one of the Japanese online retailers have it (Amazon.jp or ifeelgroovy.net), or purchase via a DD service (Steam, etc.). Sadly, I was unable to find the game via any of those sources and could not find a US or UK based retailer that had it in-stock and would ship here. To further compound on this, the initial announcement for The Witcher on Steam was written in such a manner that it implied the game would be available worldwide. So that's why I was rather annoyed.
To my surprise, Tom Ohle stepped in to discuss the problem with me and offer up a solution. CD Projekt Red were kind enough to personally arrange for a copy of The Witcher to be sent to me. I thought this was a very nice gesture of theirs and I expected to have to pay them for the game and shipping, yet when I asked them how to go about that, I was told I didn't need to. So not only did these kind developers help to get a copy of the game shipped to me, they paid for it all, although they did warn me it would be a long wait due to the shipping method used.
Well, on Sunday morning, the game arrived complete with some nice The Witcher stickers. As such, this is my personal thanks to Tom Ohle, Tadek Markiewicz, and the rest of CD Projekt Red.
Really, that act alone has earned them my support and I look forward to buying a lot more games via GOG as their catalogue expands and in the event of Witcher 2 coming out, I'll be sure to buy that too =)
Oh... My... God! What are these people, fairytale elves? :-D
I am more and more impressed by the people behind this service at every turn.
Great. But I have the Steam version of the Witcher but they didn't release the EAX and Blur hotfix patch on Steam yet, retail patch is also not working on Steam. 3 weeks passed but still no patch on Steam. I hope they will release it soon.
Oh wow. That's several kinds of awesome.
Yep, CD Projekt is great. And it just achieved another level of greateness in my eyes...
UNLESS they HIRED you to TELL this all around their FORUMS to increase their POPULARITY! Huh? Huh? (just kidding :D)
The GoG people are probably the one company where things are done the easy way, instead of "on principle". You're probably one of 10 people in Japan wanting to play the game. But any other major developer would have said "Wait until it gets released for your market" (eventhough they know that it would never see a release in Japan).
It's good to see there's somebody in the industry who doesn't see the gamers as their enemies by default, but (while still making money, of course) helps out when it's not hurting them.
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Wishbone: Oh... My... God! What are these people, fairytale elves? :-D

Nah this is WAY too good to be true, I think there's something nefarious going on. There's probably headcrab eggs in the box somewhere. Give it a few months and Bansama will be the leader of a horde of japanese zombies all staggering around and moaning "GOG!" instead of "Braaains".
Then again the japanese might be the best equipped to deal with a zombie uprising, look at all the japanese games that have zombie hordes. Failing that there's always godzilla.
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Wishbone: Oh... My... God! What are these people, fairytale elves? :-D
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Aliasalpha: Nah this is WAY too good to be true, I think there's something nefarious going on. There's probably headcrab eggs in the box somewhere. Give it a few months and Bansama will be the leader of a horde of japanese zombies all staggering around and moaning "GOG!" instead of "Braaains".
Then again the japanese might be the best equipped to deal with a zombie uprising, look at all the japanese games that have zombie hordes. Failing that there's always godzilla.
well certainly machetes and Japanese Katana's are better weapons than rifles.. at least for Zombie Defense.
.... WHAT?!?!!
just to get it right, they gave you a copy of The Witcher.... for free?
are we sure they are a gaming company (you know like EA)? or maybe more of a welfare company?
Is this a part of a plan to take over the world?
This confuses me i have to meditate over it.
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acare84: Great. But I have the Steam version of the Witcher but they didn't release the EAX and Blur hotfix patch on Steam yet, retail patch is also not working on Steam. 3 weeks passed but still no patch on Steam. I hope they will release it soon.

As do I. Maybe the GOG people can pass the word along to the Witcher people and so on?
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acare84: Great. But I have the Steam version of the Witcher but they didn't release the EAX and Blur hotfix patch on Steam yet, retail patch is also not working on Steam. 3 weeks passed but still no patch on Steam. I hope they will release it soon.
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Urb4nZ0mb13: As do I. Maybe the GOG people can pass the word along to the Witcher people and so on?

I don't know I talked about this issue on The Witcher forums but I got no answers still.
hey, I'm having issues, I can't buy gog.com games in my area.. can gog.com send me one for free?
hahah, just kidding. only reason I can't buy, is because I don't have any money!
but truly, CD Projeckt is a company that I know to go beyond the expectations of people. The Enhanced Edition upgrade which was free to existing owners of The Witcher, including even the extra goods, and the many great deals that happen here frequently on GOG.com prove beyond a doubt that it is a company that stands apart from the crowd.
You've got to be kidding. Take a picture of you standing before the Tokyo Tower, holding the Witcher box and a paper saying "Greetings from Japan!" and I'll consider believing you.
...right, I wasn't too serious with the above, but still, this does sound too awesome to be true. Even for CD Projekt.
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acare84: Great. But I have the Steam version of the Witcher but they didn't release the EAX and Blur hotfix patch on Steam yet, retail patch is also not working on Steam. 3 weeks passed but still no patch on Steam. I hope they will release it soon.

I'm guessing that has to go through VALVe as well, hence the delay.
GOG (and CD Projekt) know the most durable way to build brand loyalty in the world of skeptical consumers.
They earn it, every time they do something like this.
That is.... almost unbelievable. Scratch that. It is completely unbelievable, but if it really did happen... holy crap!
Hmmm, I wonder if UK_John has read this yet...