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GOG.com Implements Court-Required Changes; Uses Geo-IP to Determine Location for Witcher 2 Purchases

If you’ve been paying attention to news about the CD Projekt RED group, you’ve possibly heard that a French court made a judgement about a few things that were in dispute between CD Projekt RED and Namco Bandai Partners. Most of the decision doesn’t influence GOG.com, but one of the rulings from the court does: according to the findings of the court, the method that we have been using to determine what location a game purchaser is located at when they buy a copy of [url=http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/the_witcher_2]The Witcher 2 (and, as such, what version and price they are presented with) needs to be changed.

GOG.com has stated for a long time now that we believe that the best security is asking only for the minimum of information that we need to successfully transact business with our customers. Our opinion is still that including things like determining your location via Geo-IP, because there are several possible flaws with that system. However, in order to keep selling The Witcher 2, we will need to implement a Geo-IP based system for determining your location, per the orders of the court.

We will be implementing this system immediately; you will see that your local currency’s price is now featured on the product page when you visit it, based on your IP address. Since we've already announced the price for this game would be the same flat price everywhere during the Holiday Sale (which ends on January 2nd, 2012, at 23:59 EST Time), we’re not going to change the pricing for the Witcher 2 until this sale ends.

We remain committed to user privacy and keeping your information as safe and secure as we can. Further, while your profile’s location is, by order of the court, determined via Geo-IP when you purchase a copy of The Witcher 2, you can still set your country location for the forums as you would like, and your location doesn’t matter for buying any other games on GOG.com.

If you have already purchased your copy of the Witcher 2, we won’t be changing anything on your already-bought copy, just as if you had a boxed copy on a physical shelf instead of a virtual box on your GOG.com shelf.

If you have any questions about this, please feel free to ask it the comments below, or (if you’re a journalist) drop us an email and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
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Glexn: I can see why they'd have to do it for French users, but why the rest of us? What beef did Namco have with GOG and CDPR?
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lukaszthegreat: because namco is publishing outside france too.

and the beef was over contract for xbox360 version of TW2. CDPR signed up with THQ but Namco had the right to get the contract. They wanted but CDPR did not want them. They sued. and also accused CDPR for other misbehavior like nodrm patch on TW2 or GOG selling cheaper copies in certain areas (like selling cheaper TW2 in Australia because while they have to charge Australians more they allowed us to bypass that by having gog drop geolocation.)
In short Namco are dicks.
Stupid questions, but the GEO-IP is only to force different pricing, am I right? Or will we get different versions (censored) when we buy from different locations? Or will some areas excluded from sale (I remembered there were some problems for aussies)?

In short, except Namcos violations of my privacy (GEO-IP) and the different pricing for now, will be there any other problems for a customer in the future?
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lukaszthegreat: because namco is publishing outside france too.

and the beef was over contract for xbox360 version of TW2. CDPR signed up with THQ but Namco had the right to get the contract. They wanted but CDPR did not want them. They sued. and also accused CDPR for other misbehavior like nodrm patch on TW2 or GOG selling cheaper copies in certain areas (like selling cheaper TW2 in Australia because while they have to charge Australians more they allowed us to bypass that by having gog drop geolocation.)
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GameRager: In short Namco are dicks.
+1 Namco (Namco Bandai?) are arsehats. That's all there is to say really.
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GOG.com: We will be implementing this system immediately; you will see that your local currency’s price is now featured on the product page when you visit it, based on your IP address.
Local currency or not, will the price be the same everybody?
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kavazovangel: Local currency or not, will the price be the same everybody?
+1 I join in on your question: Same prices no matter which location? I.e. CORRECT conversion from Dollar to Euro OR 10 Dollars = 10 Euro? (as it sometimes is on steam :( ...)
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kavazovangel: Local currency or not, will the price be the same everybody?
Nope. They will have to increase the price for Europe, Australia and possible the UK.
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GOG.com: If you have any questions about this, please feel free to ask it the comments below
Are you allowed to lay out in detail how the court came to the conclusion and if so, was there a discussion on the horrible untrustworthiness of Geo IP information?

Thank you in advance.
What does it mean? More expensive game in Europe and no longer $16 free coupons?
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JamesBond007: What does it mean? More expensive game in Europe and no longer $16 free coupons?
It's not that bad, considering just one game is affected by that (Which is probably already bought by the majority of people who have interest in it)... well, at least just game so far.
All I can say to this is: Doesn't bother me, since CD Project started to stop piracy via what is essentially blackmail, they are on my no-buy list. Which is sad, as I really love pretty much everything else they do:

http://kotaku.com/5869908/the-wrong-way-to-stop-video-game-piracy
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Alenonimo: I bought The Witcher 2 on GOG.com because it was DRM-less, just like all the other products from the website.
And that has never changed, so get over yourself.
Too bad guys, you lost this one battle but certainly not the war. The willingness to fight is appreciated just the same. Forwards.
So is this DRM or not ? , I'm confused ( which happens easily at my age ! )
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summitus: So is this DRM or not ? , I'm confused ( which happens easily at my age ! )
It's not drm. Certain regions will only have access to a low violence version though as per the laws of their region.

As for asking if the $16 credit is gone, I don't see why that would be the case. Namco still get the same percentage. It's GOG that's being kind enough to have fair pricing as an incentive to buy here.
Post edited December 23, 2011 by Kabuto
Nothing to do with DRM. It basically means that GOG isn't allowed anymore to "trust" the nationality the user sets on his account, but will have use IP to determine the user's location.

I'd guess the EU price will still be higher and include a 'compensation' coupon as it was until now.

My biggest, and worst worry is for those regions which could get a 'censored' version.

EDIT: ninja'd by a kabuto.
Post edited December 23, 2011 by uchos