I would love to know who the fuck earns 22K in Greece.
The min legal salary per month is a bit over 500, with actual figures going 150+ down of that.
Even on the hayday most people who had some good experience didn't win much over 1000, talking about after decades of experience.
For many years I see in official papers claims of 22K+ as GDP per capita but for the life of me I have no idea how they come to that number. Perhaps the top 1% wins so much more that it raises the average, but 22K? lol

Did anything change since release re: Steam? And how soon after release?

Basically, is GOG's version the only DRM-free version left?
I'm probably trying to connect too many dots here, but I'm looking for a clue on a publisher that would exclusively favour/ trust GOG for a DRM-free release on a new title.

All this mess for an ARPG that I had to look up and barely had a Wikipedia page?

It's even worse here in Thailand.

Average monthly income is around 12,000 baht, which roughly translates to around $400 a month or $4,800 a year.

One of the MAIN reasons I was supporting GOG was lack of regional pricing. I'm from PL but I travel a lot (I mean A LOT) for work-related reason and so far I've been sure that no matter if I access GOG shop from UK, East/Central/West Europe, States, Middle East, Far East or South Africa (to name only a few locations that I'm frequently visiting) I will not be fleeced because IP of the hotel or staff house I have to stay goes into some particular range.
To show this support I was buying games that I already own or even I do not play frequently / enjoy so much. Because I want to show my appreciation for what you are doing.

And now you guys just show me your middle finger, but covered by some cheapo icing ("Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!") trying to hide the obvious fact that's your middle finger. And you think that I'll be buying this stunt?

You should think again.

So, as opinionated as it might sounds, lemme' tell you this: as for now, my hard earned dolars that few days ago you got for "Banished" was the very last money you got from my humble person; and I will think very long and very hard before I even consider to buy anything from you again...

If you don't count Steam's version as DRM-Free (it still has no CEG), i think that this leaves us with GOG's and the retail. (I don't think DRM was ever added in the retail version)
Also, since we're talking about Ubisoft, South Park won't be using Uplay, but Steamworks.

If those games are the reason, they should cancel this ASAP. I think that most of us own them because of (and only because of) bundles, and even if they are not bad games, they sure aren't worth the fuss.

Well i dont know about that.
If i woud take some examples from European contrys some laws are bound by principles but they still get bended and broken.
forexample my own contry state:

Article 1
The Kingdom of Norway is a free, independent, indivisible and inalienable Realm. Its form of government is a limited and hereditary monarchy.

Article 93
In order to safeguard international peace and security or to promote the international rule of law and cooperation between nations, the Storting may, by a three-fourths majority, consent that an international organization to which Norway adheres or will adhere shall have the right, within objectively defined fields, to exercise powers which in accordance with this Constitution are normally vested in the Norwegian authorities, although not the power to alter this Constitution. For the Storting to grant such consent, at least two thirds of the Members of the Storting shall be present, as required for proceedings for amending the Constitution.

The provisions of this Article do not apply in cases of membership in an international organization, whose decisions only have application for Norway purely under international law.

Article 94
The first, or if this is not possible, the second ordinary Storting, shall make provision for the publication of a new general civil and criminal code. However the currently applicable laws of the State shall remain in force, provided they do not conflict with this Constitution or with such provisional ordinances as may be issued in the meantime. The existing permanent taxes shall likewise remain operative until the next Storting.

Article 112
If experience shows that any part of this Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway ought to be amended, the proposal to this effect shall be submitted to the first, second or third Storting after a new General Election and be publicly announced in print. But it shall be left to the first, second or third Storting after the following General Election to decide whether or not the proposed amendment shall be adopted. Such amendment must never, however, contradict the principles embodied in this Constitution, but solely relate to modifications of particular provisions which do not alter the spirit of the Constitution, and such amendment requires that two thirds of the Storting agree thereto.

An amendment to the Constitution adopted in the manner aforesaid shall be signed by the President and the Secretary of the Storting, and shall be sent to the King for public announcement in print, as an applicable provision of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway.

I coud safly say these gets broken and bended pretty often
regardless of integrity.

Don't worry. People like to do magic with GDP here too. Our is circa 26 000 CZK/month ($1 305) but 2/3 of active population doesn't even have that. Of course, you always hear that in the news how wealthy we are with that average income and everybody sure is bathing in money.

Maybe, but if that's the case and those games would have released DRM-free elsewhere anyway without GOG's involvement, then it will have been pointless and completely unjustifiable for GOG to sacrifice such a major policy for them.

As far as I'm aware it is still DRM-free at both retail and on Steam.

I am very concerned about this situation. Flat policy was only reason, why I started buy any game online and for few years only from GOG, where I spend my money. I didnt bought any game from any other distribution - in fact, I have great collection of EA games on Origin and three titles on Steam but all that games were bought at local shop for fair price (for example Battlefield 3 for 36€, not for 59€ which wanna EA to they wallet through Origin for me as an EU user).

So there is question: "That means, the new games will cost 5.99$ and 5.99€ and also £5.99? Or there will also start counting like 1€=1$ for future games on GOG?""

TET:
There must be other ways to bring the "best games" to GOG without regional pricing. Whether it's in packs, with stacking discounts (like I mentioned before), or just waiting until they aren't brand new anymore, I'm certain there is a way. Usually increasing the volume of sales/turnover of inventory is the easiest way to reduce the cost per unit sold, and thus the price can be lowered while maintaining the same margins. If the only thing you guys need is to not undercut other distributors prices for similar products, then the object should be to make the products less similar, via one of my previous suggestions, or with GOG exclusives, etc.

I'm disappointed that my request to know if there was anything constructive we could do in opposition was ignored. It's not that often that a company is lucky enough to have customers willing to explore solutions that will still cost them (the customers) more money.

For example, new game comes out for $40 in the US. You need to charge me $50 due to regional pricing. Well, if you instead charged me $60, and included 2 games worth $9.99 as bonuses, then everybody wins. You get the entire gouged margin on the new release, and if you can get a regional sale agreement with the company whose 2 games you are giving away (they will see a spike in their sales that has nothing to do with those old games), you'll sell them at half price which should cover costs+. Nobody can say you're undercutting another product, because the products being sold are totally different (single game, compared to a package of 3 games with the discount coming off the older games).

The hard part is crafting a deal like that for each region, and then excluding the US/lowest priced country from those deals. That might be a tough sell, and I'm not really advocating this exact course, but it's that sort of collaboration -with us showing our willingness to pay to help get GOG to where we want to see it without sacrificing why we like it - that is such a missed opportunity.

Releasing the news early is good for both sides, yes. Recognizing that is not as common as you'd think. I'm glad that GOG's management can figure that one out. There are many examples of businesses not realizing that.

Just because something is good for more than one group doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. I tend to prefer win-win scenarios, myself.

For me, if GOG has some super-duper classics they can bring by having regional pricing, that will certainly make me second-guess my criticism, but even so I really don't think it would be worth it, losing this principle/selling point and a good chunk of fan support to bring back, say, the Fallouts, or Bethesda's/iD's backlog.

If GOG starts releasing AAA games DRM-Free them I bet some of them will end up on one of the list of DRM-Free games on Steam..