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1. Is there a particular reason the games are $5.99 or $9.99 instead of straight-up 6 or 10 dollars?

2. When a multi-platform game gets released on GOG, why is it always the DOS version?
Don't know how it is in Austrailia, but in the USA, most products are sold at $x.99. There is no way gog.com has some kind of unique reason for also selling their products like that. It's just how it's done.

The psychology behind it is that a potential customer will look at $5.99 and will be more likely to buy it than if it were $6.00. This is not a dishonest thing to do on gog's part. The price is clearly and plainly laid out for anyone and everyone to see. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a business stating a price clearly then charging that price for a product. Whether a customer chooses to buy the product is fully, 100% within that customer's control.

I had to say all that because some people will try to argue that this sort of thing is trickery or bad business or rude towards customers or whatever. It isn't. There is nothing wrong with it. The price is cheaper. The customer can clearly see what price s/he is paying in advance. Everyone wins.
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RickTommy: 2. When a multi-platform game gets released on GOG, why is it always the DOS version?
Because DOSBox makes compatibility with modern OSes way easier.
They choose Dosbox because working with early Windows games can be a real bitch, but I can think of a couple games that are sold as the Windows version instead of the DOS version here.
There's an older thread I remember about #1, and it had actual TheEnigmaticT commentary.
nevermind
Post edited January 21, 2012 by timppu
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Adzeth: There's an older thread I remember about #1, and it had actual TheEnigmaticT commentary.
Yeah, and remember:

"what's in blue, is always true" :)
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da187jimmbones: The psychology behind it is that a potential customer will look at $5.99 and will be more likely to buy it than if it were $6.00. This is not a dishonest thing to do on gog's part. The price is clearly and plainly laid out for anyone and everyone to see. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a business stating a price clearly then charging that price for a product. Whether a customer chooses to buy the product is fully, 100% within that customer's control.
It's to make the teller have to open the till in order to make change. I'm not sure why that has persisted online, but the reason they did it was to make it harder for the teller to pocket the money without ringing up a sale.

I'm guessing that with modern technology you no longer need to open up the till in order for it to register the sale, but at this point it's just standard practice.
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da187jimmbones: The psychology behind it is that a potential customer will look at $5.99 and will be more likely to buy it than if it were $6.00. This is not a dishonest thing to do on gog's part. The price is clearly and plainly laid out for anyone and everyone to see. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a business stating a price clearly then charging that price for a product. Whether a customer chooses to buy the product is fully, 100% within that customer's control.
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hedwards: It's to make the teller have to open the till in order to make change. I'm not sure why that has persisted online, but the reason they did it was to make it harder for the teller to pocket the money without ringing up a sale.

I'm guessing that with modern technology you no longer need to open up the till in order for it to register the sale, but at this point it's just standard practice.
Interesting, I worked in retail and I never knew it from that perspective. Thanks.
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thelovebat: Interesting, I worked in retail and I never knew it from that perspective. Thanks.
Like I said at this point there isn't really any good reason for them to do it as registers are much more sophisticated, but in practical terms it costs the stores money to price things like that as all of a sudden you have employees having to make change on virtually every non-credit transaction.

What I would like is for more stores to charge round numbers in most cases and add tax to the advertised figures.

Interestingly enough one of the local used game shops labels things as being almost $5 or almost $11 and only gives you the correct number at the register. Which is fine as in all cases you end up paying slightly less than the marked price.
I used to shop at a local game store where everything was already marked with tax, and they kept it to even dollar mounts. It was actually really awesome being able to hand over a $5 bill and walk away with a game.