I wanted to write an extensive comment on the situation GOG has gotten themselves into by allowing regional pricing. Why I don't just comment the announcment or the letter you might ask? Two reasons, first one, there is a shitstorm still going on, which is okay with me, in this case I see the shitstorm as neccessary, but it makes any discussion nearly impossible. Second reason is that I'll be commenting on the shitstorm itself which I wanna do from the outside.

I'm gonna make a bit of a boring start by pointing out what makes or made GOG so great and what keeps it small. The most obvious reason why you would by at GOG is that the games are DRM-free. Here, GOG is putting an effort to really make that possible. This is not only done by cracking and patching the games, but also much by how they manage accounts. First you may download your game as often as you like as long as GOG exists, which is really great. Other games you purchase only have a one time download only and give you access for a limited time. Now this one is pretty obvious, but there's a little bit more to it than meets the eye. You can also access your account from multiple computers at once and from multiple locations as well. Here are two scenarios where this might matter: You travel around and want to play your games. GOG could suspect that you shared your accounts and now people from lots of different places log into your account, but it turns out GOG just lets you. Another example is that you buy a multiplayer game at GOG and the next time you visit a friend you download the game there and play it together, back home again you realise that your login data is still stored on his PC. You could get banned for that, but it turns out that doesn't happen either. In case of both scenarios I've seen other companies beeing really bitchy, but it turns out that GOG doesn't suspect their customers to be criminals.
Honsetly I really love GOG for that. It's about trusting each other. And I'm glad that GOG provides trust to their customers.

A second reason to buy at GOG are the old games. I, for example, own hundrets of games and I'm not going to put them all in a shelf, I need the room for something else. Also time gnawed at many of the CDs and DVDs and when I want to play an old game again, it's search for the CD, search for the CD-Key, search for the patches, search for the cracks... etc. Or just buy them at GOG. Not only offers GOG the game itself, but also the manual and some extra goodies which make some people really happy.

Now we are getting to the meat itself. The pricing policy. GOG had the fair pricing policy. By fair pricing they meant that each game costs the same in each country. However that doesn't mean that each customer pays the same amount of money for a game. There are offers every weekend covering about 5% of the catalogue. Usually it's 50% off, so if you're planning ahead, withing 20 weeks you should own all your desired games at 50% discount. You could claim that that is not fair pricing and you'd be probably right, why should one pay less who frequently visists GOG than someone who just wants to buy what he needs at one time? The bottom line is GOG needs to keep their site interesting and they achieve that by bringing releases during the week and sales during the weekend. Noone really complains about that because most people enjoy this system. However mathematically speaking you could also say that GOG doubles the prices for 95% their games during weekdays. It's just a matter of interpretation. Reguardless, if you are really in for the lowest price, you are not here because GOG offers the lowest prices, but you are here because GOG, alongside all other platforms, might have the best offer at a given time.

So what makes regional pricing so bad? After all you can just use a proxy and get the game cheaper. In a way, it might me the weekend offer when you want it. Without having stable prices in the first place, can you really say something about conditions that make you pay more or less? And at the end of the day you'll see what you are paying for a game before you buy it and you have to decide if it's that much worth to you, that's to be expected from any customer in any store and doesn't apply to videogames only. So the whole matter can't be really about the money. What' it about then?

As I said before, the core reason to buy at GOG is trust. Bear with me now. If GOG decides to go for regional pricing, we should put trust in them that it's the right decision. The whole fair pricing policy has been very restrictive to them and as long as GOG remains true to their other ideals it's kind of something that had to happen and changes need to be made in order to keep their service up. That's the nature of things. Why they went for regional pricing was explained by GOG in their letter and these are valid reasons I'm not going to repeat here, this post is a long one anyway.
However the real big mistake they made was to announce: "Hey guys good news, we're getting rid off a core principle just to please publishers". Now a lot of people got insulted, angry and worried about that announcement and a huge shitstorm broke loose and it's good that it did and still does. If a company makes you angry, you should be able to give that feedback.
From the shitstorm arose various conspiracy theories about how regional pricing will be abused in the future and that the other principles, like DRM free will eventually fall as well. Well this is all speculation right now, but it showes that GOG made a second grave mistake. They took something away from the community, a centre piece of trust, without giving something back, save for the opportunity to buy a game. Now nobody knows what to expect of GOG. Yes there are promises, but they just showed they can break a promise. It's really the trust between GOG and customer that has been shaken. And the letter hasn't rebuilt that.
What we now need is a definite token of trust from GOG. To me that is transperancy. If someone else has a better idea, plaese comment!
I don't want a company to rip me off, that can only be achieved if they are honest with me. In this case honesty means I need to know why I'm paying a certain price. They can achieve that by making the region pricing badge aka "the mark of shame" or they can simply put an info link next to the price where it cleary states who pays what price for the game. Unless something similar happens, the trust remains shaken and the claim that GOG just does this to rip off customers is absolutly legit. It comes down to whether GOG wants that or not.

Now as a customer we are presented with two choices. Either we wander off to another plattform, because GOG just made us angry. Or we stay, because the recent change makes GOG not worse than any other plattform, just as bad as them and you get DRM-free here, which you won't get somewhere else. To GOG it's the question whether they want happy customers or customers who are only *almost* angry enough to leave.

To the community I can say that you all did a great job of standing together that you made a real efford to show that you'll not just eat what's presented to you without first thinking about it.

PS: I want to use this thread to establish a discussion about how GOG can regain the lost trust. IF you just want to tell me or them that regional pricing sucks, please do so, but comment GOG's announcement for that, I intend to keep this thread "clean".

Well I think we all know that the problem was wording. The Letter from the MD pretty much admitted it. Honestly, I find the alarmists quite disheartening. It would take more than one mistake for me to leave here. As you said, flat pricing was restrictive. It asked publishers to make less money than they would elsewhere, and give an advantage over both retail and other DD platforms. It was untenable, and anyone with a head on their shoulders saw that.

Thus, hard decisions needed to be made. They're already limited by who's willing to play DRM-free, there's no reason to put in other limits when we're seeing bigger companies coming around. Can't grow as a game store without games.

So now the question becomes whether we allow this ship to sink because of one mistake, or whether we continue to stand by the faith that has been built up over five years of outstanding service. For me, the answer is easy. So long as the games here are still DRM-free and the service is as outstanding as it always is, I'm sticking around.

However, you are right that a more concrete show of transparency would probably help silence some (not all) of the alarmists predicting the death of GOG over this.

Hear! Hear! The DRM-free aspect for me is the most important. If something seems too expensive, then I can always hope for sales. If DRM does arrive, then I'm gone.

It is all about the money. Of course it is all about the money. This is a business in the business of making money. Even after this debacle there are still some people who cling to the notion that this business is something more than simply a business with the ultimate number one priority of making as much profit as is possible and everything else is secondary no matter what it is. Every decision made by this company like any for-profit company is all about the money.

The decision to accept regional pricing was all about making more money.

If the day comes when games with DRM are sold here, that decision too will be all about the money.

That's just the way it is. Don't shoot me for being honest. It is what it is and no amount of idealism or wishful thinking will ever make it different.

Consumers are never forced to buy (unless you live here [us], and good luck with that.)

Buy if prices are acceptable.

dirtyharry50, I meant it's not all about the money for the customer^^ that the uproar the whole thing has caused, isn't because someone has to pay more and someone else has to pay less. It's about wether you feel cheated or treated poorly.

No shit it was always about the money. But GOG tries to balance it a bit with customer support. You can argue wether or not they failed recently with that. I don't really care.

The day they sell DRM games they become no different than any other store and mass people WILL leave (I would). That would be suicide. They'll never do it.

This is why the alarmists who expect DRM to come here soon make me roll eyes. The GOG people know that's all they really have that separates them from other retailers. Unless this place is shutting down, we're not going to lose that one most important thing.

Also, I find the cynical idea that making money cannot be done without being wicked. It's entirely possible to do the right thing and be profitable. That's usually how you manage to stay in business for decades and centuries and outlive the fads and trends.

When was the last forum or "my account" feature added? Yes it is all about the money.

For me, DRM-free is THE overwhelming reason to choose GOG.com It's the line that can't be crossed. Anything else is a bonus (appreciated, but not the main reason to be here).

The biggest danger in my view is if new customers coming from account-based DRM platforms like Steam/Origin actually ASK for DRM (starting with "optional DRM")... such moronic toolbags, in sufficient numbers, can destroy everything that has been built here on GOG. We have to remember the profit motive, afterall CD Projekt is a business. If there's enough demand for DRM someday, they may even end up doing it. It's our job to be completely unrepentent in "destroying" mercilessly any DRM-supporting toolbag who would even suggest the idea of optional DRM on GOG.com They should be booted out of our community for even making the suggestion. And if we constantly hold GOG.com to the fire for their DRM-free promise, it's very likely to stay that way.

DRM-free for life.

I'll give you the shutdown, though it was more a silly stunt than anything huge, but I don't see what's wrong with anything else here. EA, whether we like it or not, have a huge backlog of classics by virtue of their various acquisitions over the years. That they got EA to go DRM-Free on anything is actually amazing. As to new games... How is that bad? I'm not some retro obsessed tool who looks down at newer games, and the option of getting them here instead of Steam is awesome. I don't see what's so bad about being able to buy Steamworld Dig or Rayman Origins here. Besides, unlike some would have you believe, GOG has not abandoned classics, having recently put in a huge number of them, including the Red Faction series and Summoner. Their sales have also been getting better lately (That massive D&D sale was amazing!).

You forgot GOG's people ranting and raving about high % off sales as a threat to the industry before they adopted those practices for themselves too.

Small change there.

Which you sometimes won't get somewhere else. GOG is not the only place that offers DRM-free. The thought that 'They had to do it or those games wouldn't be DRM-free' is only partly correct.

I'm sure there will be games that are only DRM-free on GOG, initially. But look at the 2 of the 3 games they took as their examples.

Divinity: Original Sin. A kickstarter game which has stated for a long time already that it will sell the DRM-free version on their own website .

The Witcher 3. Seriously? If this game isn't DRM-free elsewhere, it's because CDPR/GOG choose not to make it DRM-free. (or went in bed with publishers who they knew wouldn't allow it ...)

I personally think this change was in no small part due to the high profile kickstarter projects, which are often already going DRM-free but also often stick to regional pricing. GOG missing out on these would mean they'd lose ground.

Well, for one thing, The games we had here, for the most part, had stood the test of time. They were games that had a high probability of being enjoyable, even if I didn't know anything about them.They lowered their standards a great deal with they brought new games here as there's no indication that they would stand the test of time.

What's more, their mission early on was to bring these games back DRM free and with compatibility patches.

They had other options, if they wanted to go that route, they should have just sucked it up and opened a sister site that dealt in new games. This new game bullshit took their eye off the ball and now they've given up region-free pricing for everything else in their catalog.

These points I listed,were all points where they chose to abandon their values and none of them have really made the site any better, it's more mainstream now, but not really in a good way. Other sites now have everything except for the size of the DRM free catalog.
Yeah I should have listed that.