IronArcturus: What's going on? Why is GOG losing so many games? :(
G-Doc: The original news post is not that detailed, so I suppose some further explanation is needed. Our aim was to give you - as always - best possible DRM-Free digital distribution platform, focused on the people who use it. We believe in freedom of choice and fair treatment for all. For that reason, as we're introducing local currency payments, we're following the simple truth that $1 does not equal 1€, in other words, that 1:1 currency exchange rate for digital goods prices make absolutely no sense and are not fair to the buyers.
For that reason, along with the local currency payment option, we're starting to use our own pricing scheme that brings the value of non-US Dollar prices as close to their actual equivalents as we can help it. A game with $5.99 price tag - for example - will cost 4.49 Euro, 3.69 Pounds Sterling, 6.49 Australian Dollars, and 219 Roubles respectively.
Now, this is not your standard approach to pricing - just like our DRM-Free policy is not a standard approach to digital goods ownership. We did our best - and so did all of our partners, to keep all of the games in our catalog and offer them in the pricing scheme we've figured out, that we think is fair to all of you guys. Unfortunately, some of our developer and publisher friends had other obligations that made it impossible to reach a common ground. So, despite our combined efforts, the only sensible thing left to do, was to withdraw the problematic titles from our offer for the time being.
We know this is quite a radical step, and we're sorry if this causes you any concern. We do hope, that we'll figure this out in the future and will be able to re-introduce all these games to the GOG.com offer. There's definitely the will to do that on both ours, and our partners' side. For the time being, they've been kind enough to offer you a last chance to get the games we're removing from sales with a nice discount, so they can remain in your collections regardless of their future fate on GOG.com.
I hope this puts things into proper perspective, and clears out at least most of your questions.
Well, I'm glad we have a more detailed explanation to understand what's going on. Still sucks to be losing so many games though.
ThomNG: Dear GOG Community,
first of all I have to say that it is so great to see that "grown-up" attitude and how objectively the whole topic was discussed. It is a pleasure being part of the GOG.com community (both as a gamer and as a publisher's representative). Here is our statement on this matter:
At Nordic Games, we treasure all the strong and long-dated partnerships with our offline- and online retail partners equally. We believe and aim for an equal treatment between the digital, and the boxed versions of all our games and among said partners.
The decision to remove certain games from the gog.com platform was not an easy one. Gog.com and Nordic simply were not able to reach a mutual agreement at the moment. We considered several aspects and implications thereof, while also staying true to our equal treatment principles towards all of our partners worldwide.
However, this decision does not affect our company’s viewpoint on the following subject areas:
- We like the gog.com folks and we will continue to work together with gog.com on selected games
- We unrestrictedly share gog.com’s stance on DRM-free versions and we will keep releasing DRM-free and/or widely accepted DRM versions of our games.
- Our own equal treatment principles remain coherent; we do not want to put one of our partners in a special place and cause a stir with other partners
What do we mean with the last point exactly? Given gog.com’s decision to aim for an exchange-rate orientated pricing would leave us in the unenviable position of constantly having to adapt our pricings in all territories on- and offline to ensure an equal treatment. As exchange rates are very dynamic in nature with the potential of shifting rapidly, and given our network of more than 100 off- and online partners, this will result in a significant amount of extra time and work. For a company of our size, this can result in a non-manageable effort and will heavily impact our work hours, which we would like to dedicate to all the great games in our pipeline (such as The Book of Unwritten Tales 2, SpellForce 3, The Guild 3, MX vs. ATV Supercross and many more), rather than constantly adapting our global pricing structure.
We are aware that this decision might lead to raised eyebrows amongst certain members of the gaming community, but it had to be made and we as a company adhere to it.
With playful and gaming regards,
Nordic Games
Glad we have an explanation about what happened so we understand better. Still sucks to be losing so many games. I didn't realize Nordic Games have a DRM-Free policy. Where else might I be able to find their games? I tried their website, but it seems to be European only store.