It's pretty well understood that russia gets cheap prices because of piracy not finances. Regional pricing might be actually done fairly one day, but I doubt it.

Simple: one employee keeps all the SAUSAGES!

Has it already been enforced?...

That's not the case for many digital download services for some countries, and it likely won't be for GOG.

Take Thailand, for instance, where I currently live. We have even more bootleg stuff available than Russia (I counted over 100 shops and stalls selling every game I could ever want within 2 miles of my house the other month), and yet for most digital download services, when a game in the US is $39.99, we have to pay $59.99 or more.

Needless to say, 90 percent of Thais bootleg just about every game ever made and will continue to do so until prices come down to what they can afford. Particularly when the average Thai salary is less than $9 a day.

As for GOG and their regional pricing, I just checked with a guy I occasionally buy games from and he can get me everything in GOG's catalogue, including Age of Wonders 3 the day after its released and the other two games GOG have changed their prices for, for the equivalent of 3-5 bucks a game and delivered to my house free of charge.

Sure.......regional pricing is really going to stop piracy, ROTFL.

EDIT: The movie companies, however, are obviously a lot smarter than the digital distribution games websites and game publishers and developers.

They used to sell legal DVDs of movies for the same prices as the US. Result? Nobody bought them when one movie was the equivalent of 2 days salary, and you could buy every movie ever made on a bootleg DVD, perfect quality for $3.

So, the movie companies got a clue. Now, most movies are available in Thailand at the same price as the US when first released. Within a month, though, they've come down in price for between $3-5 per movie.

Result? The bootleg movie industry suffered a huge blow and a lot of shops closed. The movie companies charge more and STILL make a profit, by offering movies people in Thailand can actually afford to buy instead of forcing them to buy bootleg if they ever want to be able to watch a movie at home like half the planet is able to do.

In Soviet Russia beautiful gulag relocates to you.

Don't worry, I'm not saying you did say that, or attacking you for it :)

I'm saying it's the idiocy of the game developers and publishers that is a sight to behold, if they really think charging an arm and a leg for games, and regional pricing is going to stop piracy. It just makes it escalate even more.

And I know that's true for a fact, as I've asked literally hundreds of Thai gamers if they would buy legal games if they were cheaper in Thailand (I used to be a teacher, so asked this question to almost every class of Thai students I taught) and to a man (or woman) they ALL said they would buy legal games if they weren't 12-15 times more expensive than a bootleg. They'd even pay a little more than bootleg price to get a legal game, as not surprisingly they like to support the developers just like the rest of us do. But on a Thai salary, it's just not possible.

Oh and the comments from first world residents saying "If you can't afford a game, then just don't buy it as you shouldn't bootleg" just make me sick.

A huge percentage of video games on disc are produced in third world countries, including the boxing and packaging, and the publishers pay the workers pathetic salaries to do so. Yet, when those games come out, the people who worked in the factories that packaged the games can't even afford to buy one video game a year as the prices the publishers are charging are obscenely overpriced in a country where the average daily salary is less than many westerners are paid for 30 minutes work.

Yet you ask those first world residents to make sure those publishers pay salaries to third world country workers that are not only liveable but also allow them to buy some kind of small luxury now and again, and then hear them bitch and moan about why they are not going to pay MORE money for games they want to buy. They want it both ways it seems.

I'd concur. The price barrier in most asian countries is far fetched from reality ( considering the per capita income) for gamers to even consider. I'd be be willing to pay upto $19 for a new game but no more than that.

Most would consider even $19 as being too expensive.

Yep, because in places like Thailand, $19 would be more than 2 DAYS salary, or the equivalent of around $150-$200 a game for the average American.

I'd love to hear Americans scream if they were suddenly asked to pay that :)

People in Vietnam tend to work 28 days a month and have two free days in which they go back to visit their families. It's not a matter of being a callous pirate with no regard for the hard work of others -- US prices for games are just too high.

Same here in Thailand.

The average Thai works 28 days a month for the equivalent average monthly salary of just a bit less than between $275 and $300. The 15 percent who live below the 'poverty line' in Thailand make even less.

The laughable price of $50-$70 for a AAA game is obscene in a country like Thailand.

If you'd like to protest then I'd strongly suggest setting your location to Russia.

99% of software are bootlegs though right? :P

They can't de-force the gift of a russian comrade!

Does changing the location setting do anything now? :P