But still - is it the most important thing to say in the interview?

If you read the comments under this article, you'll see many negative responses.

And it's not the whining "you give away Fallout, but I already have it", it's something much more serious, "I will decide what's good for me".

This wasn't the best thing you could say.

I agree with this.

We aren't being trained to buy bad games. What I think the industry is actually worried about is that we are being trained to buy good games at low prices. Steam's pricing system only falls apart if the amount of people no longer buying at full price are not replaced by a commensurate amount of people buying at the lower price point.

To make the math simple, let's say new games are priced at $50. Two years down the line, those games go on sale for $1. Each customer who bought it new is worth 50 people that bought it on sale.

Over time, some of those people that normally buy games new will take to waiting to buy them for $1, and will then be worth less to the industry. Certainly you will sell a lot more if the game is $1, but will you bring in 50 times the amount of new customers for each full purchase payer that was lost over time? That's what determines whether the low price points are damaging the industry or not.

Many companies in many industries compete aside from price. Price alone doesn't always determine whether a product is good or not. Its up to GOG to differentiate itself enough from the competition to allow it to grow.
Definitely. People will be 'trained' to wait and want prices to be much lower and wait for cheap sales. Having said that, there are those who will buy early/pre order and keep prices for certain games artificially high even if they don't really deserve (sold on brand and reputation rather than quality product) to sold at such higher prices (looking at you COD franchise).

Iif you read the interview in another way, that's exactly what he's doing.
A steady, loyal customer that doesn't wait or expect insane price drops to make a purchase is the kind of customer that will ensure a company makes profit.

You personally pay money to buy games, not support the developer/publisher/distributor. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the conflict of interest.

See, cuts both ways :)

I think the relevant difference here is that one is talking about themselves (the consumer) and the other is also about the consumer (not themselves) :)

The main goal is to profit maximize for the company . But for many companies, the whole customer experience and after sales support is getting more important (if not equally in some cases) not only to retain old customers but to bring new ones it. Isn't as black and white as it used to be.

Thanks for clarifying this. I understand your point better.

I think that the point you make has a grain of truth- that thinking of games as only worth a small amount of money somewhat also cheapens our feelings for them. But on the flip side, it also opens the door to consumers that never would have played the game before because it was too high of a price barrier; and for those people, it will give them their first opportunity to emotionally connect with those games. So, some may lose the love while others gain it.

I actually think I love gaming more (on the whole) because of the big sales though. Like I said earlier, I play for breadth more than depth, so I can afford more games and I gain a wider understanding of gaming as a whole, which makes me appreciate individual games in a different way because I see where each game fits into the larger historical context of videogames in general. However, it is true that there are few games that I really devote many hours too and really appreciate their depth. There are exceptions though. Right now, I am in love with The Witcher 2 and I am determined to play it through to the end, and perhaps even do another run or two after that. My first run is actually taking a long time because I just keep walking around and snapping screenshots. It's a beautiful game.

I value that emotional connection with games as well, but I don't feel like it has gone away. And though I spread that emotion out across many games now thanks to deeply discounted sales, I still spend devoted time with the games I most cherish. I appreciate your concern because we both want to see that emotional connection to gaming, but I am not sure that your concern is entirely founded about big sales breaking down that connection.

I agree with what you wrote, and this is how I understood the interview. But I think some understood something different.