cataclism: Dude I get that you don't want to pay more than in the US but did you even bother researching why games tend to be more expensive over here in Europe before starting your crusade?
PixelBoy: There are several reasons, but for actual real reasons, four major ones are:
F rance
I taly
G ermany
S pain
...and the fact that it is costly to do translation and localisation for those countries. And that often inflates the price.
Which really sucks, if all you need is the original English version of the game.
Of course then there's the whole VAT/Euro issue, but that is often just a poor excuse to keep higher prices. Often the price difference is nowhere near the VAT rates or currency conversion fees...
VAT/Euro is not a poor excuse. It's the main reason.
Let me quote myself from another thread:
There's two main reasons for the higher price of games in Europe (and other countries, but I'm going to focus on europe). These are:
1 - Higher taxes. Taxes on games and other entertainment products are commonly higher in Europe. In my country for example it's 23%. In the US sales tax very rarely goes above 10% (it varies by jurisdiction).
2 - In Europe and most other countries, sales tax is included in the price. In the US (and Canada as far as I know) it isn't. So if you are in a store in Europe and the price tag says "€50", when you get to register you pay €50 and nothing more. In the US if the price tag says "50$", you don't pay 50$. You pay 50$ PLUS sales tax. If sales tax is 8% for example, you end up paying 50$+50*0.08= 54$. If it were 23% like it is where I live it would be 61.5$ even though the price tag said 50.
By giving back the difference GOG is also giving you back the tax difference, therefore they quite probably actually make less money from selling games in Europe.
Now, VAT in my country is abnormally high but it's not much lower in most EU countries. In Germany, where Lifthrasil, whom I quoted, lives, it's 19%.
If taxes in the US were 19% like in Germany a game with "50$" on the tag would actually cost 59.5$. (50+50*0.019=59.9).
A game that costs 60$ would actually cost 71.4$ which translates to €58.0034 which is not that different from the 60$ many new games cost at launch (like the witcher 3 for example).
So yes, the difference in VAT rates and the fact that VAT is included in the price in the EU do explain it.