It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussion (archive)The LucasArts effect.(59 posts)(59 posts)
(59 posts)
Pages:
1
2
3
4
This is my favourite topic
Posted December 03, 2014
I have not and refuse to in the future, provide meaningful discourse.
Posted December 03, 2014
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.
avatar
cataclism: 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.
My comment wasn't specifically about GOG, but let's talk about GOG then:

1) Do non-EU customers end up paying more than the price tag shows during the checkout? AFAIK, they don't.

2) Aren't all sales officially registered within EU area (Cyprus/Poland/some other place)? Shouldn't that make VAT prices the default, which has never been the case so far?

3) I have hundreds of games on GOG, but to date, my receipts have never, not once, showed the VAT percentage, which at least in my country is required by law just like having the final price visible.
And often also stating which country's VAT rate is being used, if it's not obvious otherwise, which has never been shown in GOG receitps either.

4) Case Switzerland. I believe VAT in Switzerland is 8%. They are not part of EU and don't use Euro.
Why do they have to pay that extra price then?
(Of course if we think about those FIGS translation costs and increased production costs, 3 out of those 4 languages apply to Switzerland in that case. But that really has nothing to do with the taxation issue.)
Posted December 03, 2014
avatar
SCPM: There might be a LucasArts release tomorrow, since GOG posted this on their Twitch thread:
"Then, Thursday at 5PM GMT / 12PM EST / 9AM PST, come by Twitch.tv/GOGcom for a very special secret stream with Quill18. We can't tell you what it will be just yet, but we know it'll make many of you very happy"
It sure sounds like something with a lot of wishes from the wishlist will be added tomorrow.
Cool! :) Stuff like this shuts (some of us) up.

avatar
timppu: As for classics nowadays appearing more and more on Steam, I'm not convinced it is GOG's fault either. Maybe the classics just sell 100x times better on Steam (just like everything else, even the despised indie games), so the publishers like Eidos and such want to publish them primarily there nowadays. Or EA wants to release its own classics increasingly in its own Origin store. That makes for an unstable market for GOG to restrict itself to, especially if "GOG regulars" might just as well buy them from Steam, like e.g. you suggested.
I'm sure most well-known classics will sell better on Steam, but lesser-known ones (like the recent Retroism/ND ones) seem like they don't catch much attention because there are only a few reviews for many of those games and the forums seem rather dead.

It makes me wonder why *any dev/pub* would bother with GOG, then, if most games only get 1-2% of the sales of Steam. The logical conclusion seems to me, "Why bother?"
Post edited December 03, 2014 by tfishell
Posted December 03, 2014
avatar
F4LL0UT:
Augh! I want more mediocre Build era shooters! NAM and WWII GI! Can you imagine multiplayer on that? I NEED something to laugh at on occasion.

Someone get Cybermage!

Besides, for all the haters, I love Chaser, and that is not exactly Grade A classic. It really doesn't hurt to dig into the clones of yesteryear.
Posted December 03, 2014
avatar
ShadowWulfe: Someone get Cybermage!
Cybermage is awesome.
I'll raise you one Tekwar.
Posted December 03, 2014
avatar
Erich_Zann:
I would love Tekwar to be here. I just wasn't sure about the dates. I feel like Cybermage was around the same time as D3D, not sure about Tekwar. The point still stands.

I would really not be opposed to C grade older games brought back.
Posted December 04, 2014
avatar
ShadowWulfe: Besides, for all the haters, I love Chaser, and that is not exactly Grade A classic. It really doesn't hurt to dig into the clones of yesteryear.
This. I've enjoyed Chaser as well and I absolutely love Dredd vs. Death. Of course it's good that GOG has some quality standards but some games that got panned at release are genuinely fun and deserve a second chance.
Posted December 04, 2014
avatar
Erich_Zann:
avatar
ShadowWulfe: I would love Tekwar to be here. I just wasn't sure about the dates. I feel like Cybermage was around the same time as D3D, not sure about Tekwar. The point still stands.

I would really not be opposed to C grade older games brought back.
Both are 1995 if I recall right. They were reviewed something like two or three months apart in the magazine I read back then.
Post edited December 04, 2014 by Erich_Zann
Posted December 04, 2014
avatar
F4LL0UT:
Dredd vs. Death is one of my favorite shooters. I get that it's campy, low budget, and not exactly a shining example of quality, but I can't help but love it to death. My biggest dislike of the game was how short it is. I felt like there were not enough of the extra challenge missions, and even then most of them were just survive wave after wave.

It would be great if Rebellion made more.

Edit: @Erich, my bad then. In my defense, D3D was at the beginning of 1996, so kind of similar. There were quite a few entertaining clone type games back then.
Post edited December 04, 2014 by ShadowWulfe
Posted December 04, 2014
avatar
JudasIscariot:
avatar
Barry_Woodward: How many technical problems could the adventure games that run on SCUMMVM have? Release The Curse Of Monkey Island, Day Of The Tentacle, The Dig, Full Throttle, Maniac Mansion, Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure, Loom and Zak McKracken And The Alien Mindbenders now while we wait for the more technically challenging Lucasfilm titles. ;)

P.S. GOG, please consider releasing standalone classic versions of The Secret Of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge. Why?

-The special editions are PC only. A SCUMMVM alternative would allow Mac and Linux users to play.
-There's only English text in the special editions' classic mode.
-To give those only interested in the original versions a cheaper alternative.

Vote: http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/the_secret_of_monkey_island_original
Here! Here!

I want more adventure games, especially the ones I remember the puzzles too so I can look smart to people who are struggling.
Posted December 04, 2014
avatar
cataclism: 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.
avatar
cataclism: 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.
Again, that would mean that Russia has negative VAT. Otherwise it would be very hard to explain how some games can be more than 2 times cheaper in Russia than in the US.

Try checking some games on https://www.steamprices.com, especially in the Top Rip-offs category.

For example, this is the table I got for L.A. Noire (https://www.steamprices.com/eu/app/110800/l-a-noire):

US: $ 19.99
Europe (region 1): € 29.99 » $ 36.98 (+84.99%)
UK: £ 19.99 » $ 31.35 (+56.83%)
Australia: $ 49.99 » $ 49.99 (+150.08%)
Russia: ??? 349 » $ 6.58 (-67.08%)

Never mind the fantastic Russian negative VAT. Everyone knows Russians are crazy. But what about the spine-chilling Australian VAT of more than 100%? I can feel their pain...
Posted December 04, 2014
avatar
ShadowWulfe: Dredd vs. Death is one of my favorite shooters. I get that it's campy, low budget, and not exactly a shining example of quality, but I can't help but love it to death. My biggest dislike of the game was how short it is. I felt like there were not enough of the extra challenge missions, and even then most of them were just survive wave after wave.
My biggest concern was the anti-climactic ending. My problem wasn't as much that it's too short as it's lack of a satisfying ending, it ended kinda aruptly without a good build up for the finale. But yeah, an awesome game. It blows my mind that a game as fun as this one gets universally panned by critics while the ultimate punishment for a completely un-fun AAA game is like 80/100.

Speaking of "medicore" shooters that are more fun than many critically acclaimed AAA games: Counter-Terrorist Special Forces: Fire For Effect. Maybe not as good as Rogue Trooper but still, a really fun third person shooter nobody's heard about and one of the earliest cover-based shooters I've played (much older than Gears of War, btw).

And I just discovered that it's actually available on Steam. God dammit! This one needs to come here!
Post edited December 04, 2014 by F4LL0UT
Posted December 04, 2014
avatar
F4LL0UT:
If it appears in one of those cheap type bundles I will definitely pick it up. The graphics remind me of Project Snowblind for some reason.
Posted December 04, 2014
avatar
Niggles: Anyone ever consider the face some of the "old classics" evil empire store is releasing may actually be turds rather than classics?
avatar
F4LL0UT: Blasphemy! NAM is just as good as Duke 3D!
Amen!

avatar
ShadowWulfe: I would really not be opposed to C grade older games brought back.
I would love to have them here. They might not be exactly masterpieces but still fun to play.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)The LucasArts effect.(59 posts)(59 posts)
(59 posts)