A part of the unfortunate case of Witcher II; we all know GoG asks the same price everywhere...

I was wondering, it is really fair? 5$ in South Africa, in Philippines, Japan or in US are not really the same. In poor countries it is actually more!

To actually see the difference The Economist shows (among many others) the Big Mac Index*. It is a nice and easy way to see the purchasing power of various countries.

So, I was thinking. If a shop like gog wants to be fairer should ask price proportionally to the LOCAL big mac price**.

Example: cheap games 1 big mac, expensive games 2 big macs.

It would mean, at time of writing, that a cheap game would cost:
1.61$ in India
2.32$ in China
3.86$ in Japan
4.07$ in US
7.19$ in Switzerland

Rich countries (rich for the Big Mac index at least) would pay a little more, poor countries would pay less.

I know that everyone would start using a proxy placed in India... but technical aspects a part I think it would be interesting.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index
** http://www.oanda.com/currency/big-mac-index

You might want to check out this thread
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/how_many_lunches

The point of equal prices for everyone is to treat all customers the same no matter where they are from.

It's not about removing the relative wealth differences between different countries.

Of course it is not really fair. But it's fairer than steam, where you have to pay 9.99€ for a game that costs 9.99$ in the states. And that difference has nothuing to do with the purchasing power.
But even here in Germany some people can afford a game every week, others can't.
The distribution of wealth in this world is just totally unfair, but gog can't do anything about it.

....and example: customers from Europe dont need to pay in euros.

Having them pay in euros is fine, as long as they don't do the "$1=€1" foolishness. As long as they use an accurate exchange rate there's no real difference.

Well, we pay in euros. Only that the banks "transfer" the euros into dollars. I actually pay a 0.25% service fee for that. We get priced in dollars.

Aaand I just noticed that this was stupid nitpicking. Time to go to bed ...

A side note about Big Mac price. In the western countries, Mcdonald is among the cheapest fast food. Oh the other hand, at least in China, Mcdonald is much more expensive than other local fast food. So using Big Mac price still won't achieve the level of fairness you might expect.

gog.com is fairer then most (if not all) other DD-services. If that isn't good enough..... changing the world making it a better place takes a bit more.

Besides, some people living in the same country are wealthier then others... your solution would still be totally unfair. Just sayin' .

A lot of the locals recommend (a friend visiting her family there reminded me of this when i asked how was the food) not eating the local fast food (or street food for that matter) ;) hahaah

Something similar applies here. In Brazil, fast food is for the elite. Well, at least the big ones such as McDonalds and Burguer King. The Big Mac here (according to the Big Mac Index) costs US$5.68, as if we were more developed than Canada.

The same also applies to many other products, such as cars. They're much more expensive here, and it's not because of the high taxes - profit rates are way higher than in developed countries, even before putting the cheaper workforce into the equation.

The concept of "fair" means different things to different people.

I make $120,000 - $140,000 a year, my brother makes twice as much and one of my best friends makes less than half.

Should we pay the same for GOG games?

Of course we should... If GOG tries to make me pay twice as much as they charge my friend, I will just find somewhere else where I can buy my games.

If GOG tried to do something about the distribution of wealth it would also lose the customers who they make the most money from.

This is silly, a) McDonalds is not a good index. b) GOG isn't at fault for each single country crappy economy or exchange rate.

A better purchasing power index should be found, or maybe looking up the mean salary in US dollars for each country, probably subtracting in some way the cost of life in each country.

But anyway, they charge the same amount (in US dollars) to everyone, if US dollars are cheaper or more expensive to you, that's YOUR problem and certainly not GOGs fault.