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General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
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Posted February 21, 2014
The DRM-Free Revolution Continues with Big Pre-Orders and Launch Day Releases!

Good news! GOG.com is going to bring you more fantastic launch day releases, preorders, and other exciting new content from some of our favorite developers. We've lined up 3 big titles that we will be bringing to GOG.com in the next couple of months for sale or preorder that we think will be hits with all of our gamers; and we have more equally exciting games coming up soon.

If you've been a member of the site for a long time, you may recall that when we launched sales of The Witcher 2 on GOG.com, we had to add in regional pricing. The game cost different amounts in in the US, the UK, the European Union, and Australia. We're doing something like that once again in order to bring you new titles from fantastic bigger studios. Since we don't accept currencies other than USD on GOG.com right now, we'll be charging the equivalent of the local price in USD for these titles. We wish that we could offer these games at flat prices everywhere in the world, but the decision on pricing is always in our partners' hands, and regional pricing is becoming the standard around the globe. We're doing this because we believe that there's no better way to accomplish our overall goals for DRM-Free gaming and GOG.com. We need more games, devs, and publishers on board to make DRM-Free gaming something that's standard for all of the gaming world!

That brings with it more good news, though! As mentioned, we have three games we're launching soon with regional pricing--two RPGs and a strategy game--and while we can't tell you what they are yet because breaking an NDA has more severe penalties than just getting a noogie, we're confident that you'll be as excited about these games as we are. For a limited time, we will be offering anyone who pre-orders or buys one of them a free game from a selection as a gift from GOG.com, just like we did for The Witcher 2.

If you have any questions, hit us up in the comments below and we'll be happy to answer (to the best of our ability).

EDIT: Since we've answered a lot of the common questions already here (and lest you think that we've ignored you), it may be handy for you to check out the forum thread about this and search for staff answers by clicking this link here. (hat tip to user Eli who reminded us that the feature even exists. :)
Posted February 24, 2014
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Niggles: Perhaps Uplay games with all drm stripped out? :P
Haha.. That would be a start! :D
Posted February 24, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: sitting on the fora
I'm not sure if it's been established somewhere, but are you Dutch?
Posted February 24, 2014
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Lodium: Thats the problem really.
Some people will still buy games even though it has regional pricing because they want to play it.
Loads of people complain at EA but in the end a large majority of those who complained end up buying games from them annyway.
Well it's fine for people to buy new releases here with regional pricing in my view, as they'd have been regionally priced elsewhere anyway, except with the addition of some DRM crapware on top of that. So it'll be a much better deal here IMO, despite the unfortunate pricing scheme.

However the moment they start trying to put regional prices on games that previously had worldwide prices... that's when people should really get angry and start discouraging purchases of the affected games / complaining to the publishers about it.
Posted February 24, 2014
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adamhm: If they've managed to get something by the bigger publishers that otherwise would have been permanently locked into Steam/Origin/UPlay then this is a really big deal. It could potentially mark a big shift in the industry's attitudes toward DRM and as a result change the industry for the better. If this is the case then I support GOG's decision to allow regional pricing.

On the other hand, if it's something that would've been available DRM-free elsewhere anyway then their decision to sacrifice worldwide pricing won't make any sense and I will be very disappointed.
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Nicole28: I'm very much with this Adamhm. It makes no sense for GOG to drop the ball over games that have a choice not to go down that route or where DRM is not a factor.

I'm half expecting and hoping that the 3 titles are games that will be piled high with DRM elsewhere, if they aren't sold here. That would kind of justify the regional-pricing.

If not, the pitchforks and flames will be out here full-blast.
This is why I'm not against this move, I've turned down countless games (mainly) from EA and Ubi Soft because of their DRM and mandatory clients. But if one them comes here without DRM, I'll buy it region pricing or not.
Posted February 24, 2014
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ShiroiYami: There is a nice YouTube video about "The Regional Ripoff: Why Can't Gaming Be Fair?" (youtube.com/watch?v=nRdfYwvGTos ) it's from a user called "GOG.com - DRM-Free Games". At first I thought it was from "good old games".com but after this news that can't be posibly
LOL, I'd forgotten about this.

How embarrassing for GOG - and look at all the comments. Not one person remotely supportive of this and intent on dragging GOG's name through the mud because of it.

My comment, btw, is currently at the top :)

EDIT: On that note, I'm out of here. More important things to do than waste my time on the website of a company that just lost its integrity. Moving on........
Post edited February 24, 2014 by Bloodygoodgames
Posted February 24, 2014
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Ganni1987: This is why I'm not against this move, I've turned down countless games (mainly) from EA and Ubi Soft because of their DRM and mandatory clients. But if one them comes here without DRM, I'll buy it region pricing or not.
Yes, this would absolutely justify this move, but I'm more than sceptical. EA had to remove both Origin and Bioware Social Network, I really don't see this happen.
Posted February 24, 2014
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Ganni1987: This is why I'm not against this move, I've turned down countless games (mainly) from EA and Ubi Soft because of their DRM and mandatory clients. But if one them comes here without DRM, I'll buy it region pricing or not.
I'll tolerate Steam but I'll generally pay much less than I would if a game was DRM-free... and I refuse to accept any game that requires any other kind of DRM (especially not Origin or UPlay) even if it's free.
Posted February 24, 2014
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adamhm: If they've managed to get something by the bigger publishers that otherwise would have been permanently locked into Steam/Origin/UPlay then this is a really big deal. It could potentially mark a big shift in the industry's attitudes toward DRM and as a result change the industry for the better. If this is the case then I support GOG's decision to allow regional pricing.

On the other hand, if it's something that would've been available DRM-free elsewhere anyway then their decision to sacrifice worldwide pricing won't make any sense and I will be very disappointed.

I don't see GOG making such a major shift in policy unless they had a damn good reason to, so I doubt these games would have been available DRM-free elsewhere if GOG hadn't taken this decision. That's why I'm really eager to find out exactly which games they've managed to get.


snip
How realistic is it though to hope that these anticipated games will be Origin or UPlay titles?
I'm not ruling out Steam exclusives, I could see this happening, but Origin/ UPlay?
Posted February 24, 2014
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Novotnus: Even Steam didn't go that far yet.
And gifting is pretty important part of this community's culture, so I don't thing GOG would just kill it (because blocking inter-regional gifting is killing gifting in general).
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Niggles: Isnt Steam starting to lock down on it? ie stuff bought in russia store can only be activated on russian ips...or something like that?. they will soon do it to the ukraine and brazilian stores at some point....i maybe wrong.....
It's unclear how actively they are pursueing this. There was some news a while back about Valve trying to dissuade people from circumventing the regional prices, by threatening to lock the accounts of e.g. Russians and US citizens who trade with Western Europe, but I also heard rumors that they were forced to backpedal on it. Not sure which is true now. There are some "DRM" type measures on a few games and keys that prevent cross-region trading, but I think at this time those are still exceptions rather than the norm. However, it would be naive to think that regional pricing in combination with cross-region trading won't cause any issues (for the publishers, for GOG, eventually for the customers as well).

At least unless the publishers are happy enough with only getting the extra money of an uninitiated majority (?) and turn a blind eye on the "losses" they suffer from the few who know how to circumvent the regional pricing, but that doesn't sound like something most publishers would be fine with. ;)
Post edited February 24, 2014 by Leroux
Posted February 24, 2014
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HypersomniacLive: How realistic is it though to hope that these anticipated games will be Origin or UPlay titles?
I'm not ruling out Steam exclusives, I could see this happening, but Origin/ UPlay?
I have no idea, although Ubisoft has previously shown a willingness to experiment with DRM-free releases at launch (Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, Prince of Persia 2008, Rayman Origins all launched DRM-free) so I'd guess they're more likely than EA. That's partly why I'm so curious about what GOG has signed up... I'm sure it must be something pretty major for them to make such a big policy change.
Posted February 24, 2014
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Niggles: Isnt Steam starting to lock down on it? ie stuff bought in russia store can only be activated on russian ips...or something like that?. they will soon do it to the ukraine and brazilian stores at some point....i maybe wrong.....
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Novotnus: Yes, there are such plans...
Still, it's Steam. Big almost-monopoly.
Copying this policy would be too risky (not to say: suicidal) for GOG.
Plans, heh. It's already being implemented. Not sure if that's the case with many games, but some of them (Dishonored for example) have a "This game is not giftable in your territory." notice.
Posted February 24, 2014
Just dropping by to show some support for GOG on this matter. I know this was certainly one of the hardest decisions to make on the history of this company, but it will be accepted by users eventually. The reginal pricing issue is a punch on our faces and we didn't want it to happen, but this move definitely means more DRM-free games here we wouldn't get otherwise. Some publishers like Ubisoft and 2k Games seem to love this practice, sadly, and they won't change their mind just because GOG customers want them to.

GOG's main goal (DRM-free games) is still intact, but their business model MUST expand in order to accomodate more customers and release some big games we are still missing here.
Posted February 24, 2014
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geoconker: Just dropping by to show some support for GOG on this matter. I know this was certainly one of the hardest decisions to make on the history of this company, but it will be accepted by users eventually. The reginal pricing issue is a punch on our faces and we didn't want it to happen, but this move definitely means more DRM-free games here we wouldn't get otherwise. Some publishers like Ubisoft and 2k Games seem to love this practice, sadly, and they won't change their mind just because GOG customers want them to.

GOG's main goal (DRM-free games) is still intact, but their business model MUST expand in order to accomodate more customers and release some big games we are still missing here.
Eh once you compromise on one principle the next will follow sooner or later. And this is not the first principle GOG would compromise at (DLC ie.).

I think Guild Wars 2 is a good example of this happening too.

Getting run of the mill AAA games on GOG is imo not worth it.
Post edited February 24, 2014 by Reaper9988
Posted February 24, 2014
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Here's why this makes no sense to me: GOG depends on trust and loyalty. GOG sells us DRM-free games that we could re-distribute to others, and expresses trust that we won't. We, in turn, reciprocate by honoring our commitment to just use our copies on our own machines. I am sure that some people cheat, but I would wager that most of us do not. I would further wager that many of us buy games on GOG when we could get them from other services, partly out of a sense of loyalty. For example, I have Steam, too, but I buy some stuff from GOG mostly because I support what it represents. I appreciate a company that doesn't treat its customers like aspiring criminals. However, GOG probably can only compete in the same world as Steam if it feels special to its customers. How does any of this work when GOG adopts a policy that it expressly rejected as a core matter of principle in the recent past?
Posted February 24, 2014
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geoconker: Just dropping by to show some support for GOG on this matter. I know this was certainly one of the hardest decisions to make on the history of this company, but it will be accepted by users eventually. The reginal pricing issue is a punch on our faces and we didn't want it to happen, but this move definitely means more DRM-free games here we wouldn't get otherwise. Some publishers like Ubisoft and 2k Games seem to love this practice, sadly, and they won't change their mind just because GOG customers want them to.

GOG's main goal (DRM-free games) is still intact, but their business model MUST expand in order to accomodate more customers and release some big games we are still missing here.
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Reaper9988: Eh once you compromise on one principle the next will follow sooner or later. And this is not the first principle GOG would compromise at (DLC ie.).

I think Guild Wars 2 is a good example of this happening too.

Getting run of the mill AAA games on GOG is imo not worth it.
Gog never advertised itself as being pro complete editions being sold here.
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Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(4041 posts)(4041 posts)
(4041 posts)