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General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(70 posts)(70 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
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 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: Sure, game is 35 euro. Since we aren't set up to process euro, we charge ~$45 in USD (the USD equivalent) for it and explain why.
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VanishedOne: Have you plans to offer other currency options? As several people have pointed out, regional pricing + currency conversion fees will make GOG extra-expensive.
Yes, eventually. The "when" of that is determined largely upon when all of the contracts / development can be finished.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: GOG.com will remain DRM-Free, certainly. The games that we're bringing you guys? If they're not DRM-free here, I don't see them being DRM-Free anywhere.
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RS1978: That sounds nice in theory, but a DRM-free game I can't buy as a German is of no avail for me. Steam has many games which are not available or only censored available for German market. What you describe is exactly such a situation for further releases.
True enough. And I hope that will never happen, but if it does, then there's still a game that's DRM-free in 195 other countries in the world, which seems a lot better to me than a game which is DRM-free in 0 countries.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: To my knowledge, there's no plans currently underweigh to change how gifting works.
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IAmSinistar: Thanks, I'm glad to hear that. Hope it remains the case, then.

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TheEnigmaticT: We're from Europe after all (well, everyone in the company but me. w0rma, and TurnipSlayer)
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IAmSinistar: Wait, Judas is from Europe? When did Hell join the EU?
I was born in Poland but lived in the US most of my life :)
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: To my knowledge, there's no plans currently underweigh to change how gifting works.
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IAmSinistar: Thanks, I'm glad to hear that. Hope it remains the case, then.

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TheEnigmaticT: We're from Europe after all (well, everyone in the company but me. w0rma, and TurnipSlayer)
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IAmSinistar: Wait, Judas is from Europe? When did Hell join the EU?
He was born in Poland, I think. He just grew up in Hell. :P
Posted February 21, 2014
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Gydion: Care to comment on Japan and Japanese publishers in particular? They seem particularly keen on regional restrictions.
There's no plans to do treat with Japan differently than the rest of the world at the moment.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: The phrasing may have been a little bit inelegant. It was that we could either sign these games and bring them DRM-free (I don't see any other digital distributor who's our size trying to sign AAA content DRM-free, do you?), or else stay with flat regional pricing and then not have the games.

GOG.com will remain DRM-Free, certainly. The games that we're bringing you guys? If they're not DRM-free here, I don't see them being DRM-Free anywhere.
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wpegg: I have some kind of questions TET, but they're kind of rambling thoughts. Whatever they are, I'd be interested in your views on them. All of these questions come from what I believe is a valid assumption, which is that you believe fully that this is the right thing to do both for GOG and its users.

I've probably been here longer than most here nowadays, certainly long enough to remember the beta days, and the early GOG press anouncements and quotes like "When it comes to games, we like it cheap and unprotected". There were many announcements back then about how you guys believed in keeping the cost down, and believed in one price for everyone. With this announcement, as well as the previous abandonment of your low prices, do you regret having these goals in the first place? I mean, your credibility with us right now is looking pretty poor, you've sold out on all but one policy.

I don't think you do regret having the goals, I suspect your answer will be along the lines of "We'd love to meet all of these, but this is necessary for GOGs future". I'll continue on this assumption. If so, then I suppose it makes me wonder if you feel you would have been better off not trying for these other things in the first place? DRM-free was always your top dog, do you feel you could have moved faster, grown faster, and brought more games to us faster if you'd only run with that policy, and caved on the others earlier, or never even had them?

This brings me to wonder, if you feel that the policies were never particularly valuable, do you feel GOG has marketted itself badly? Which I suppose would fall squarely at your door. There were many people who were swayed by these "side policies" into supporting GOG, and energetically prompting others to do so, have you mis-sold to them in terms of brand loyalty?

Perhaps you feel that these things were necessary then, but as GOG grows they're not. If that's the case, have you "used" those of us that do consider these things to be a reason we supported you so fully? I can believe many supporters of these other "side policies" would feel like stepping stones right now, there to get you through the quiet days and shout your name across the net, but no longer appreciated now you've got the presence.

I'd appreciate your, and everyone elses (constructive) thoughts on this.
It can be problematic to make bold statements. "Flat pricing worldwide" was definitely a bold one, and you can see it's gotten us into some trouble today. :)

The problem for us is looking at the future of GOG.com and DRM-free gaming. We could, I suppose, settle into our niche as "that place that sells old games", and let it be.

We have bigger dreams than that. We started by selling new games DRM-free with The Witcher 2, and when that experiment worked out well for us--well in this case meaning "we earned money" we realized that we were on to something. The fact that we can routinely pull in a decent percentage of Steam's revenue for new titles--despite the face that we're a small fraction of their size means that we're doing something special. Now, GOG.com is a special place, so that's not incredibly shocking to me. Since almost all of these games that we are selling so well are sold at the same price everywhere in the world, it's not our pricing that's making a difference.

This makes sense to us, because we believe that DRM-free is different and important. So then the question becomes, if we're looking to grow, to be more than we are, and to make things different not just for us but also for other games around the world, how can we advance the DRM-Free Revolution? The best way we could think of to do that is to bring AAA games that are being released on their launch day to GOG.com, and to show that these games will sell well without DRM. That they won't be pirated any more than a game will because it's the Internet.

This is a risky call. I think big decisions are always risky. It may even be it's the wrong call. We'll find that out as we move forward. But this is us saying that we believe in the DRM-Free Revolution enough that we think it's the plan for us going forward. We think that making GOG.com the premier place to get games without DRM is what's most important for us.

It was a hard call, because it is a big change and it does involve us changing something that's been a part of us since we launched. Without making this call, the kind of transformative change that we think is important to keep GOG.com growing and to bring DRM-Free gaming to more people simply won't happen. So many new games are tied up in legal requirements thanks to retail partnerships that mandate regional pricing that anything almost every quality new release would be inaccessible to us.

We hope that this is the right move for us. We hope that you guys, the people who've brought us to where we are, will agree with this choice once you get the chance to see it in action. Time will tell, and we'll be listening to as we go. This is new territory for both you and us, and we're looking forward to exploring it together.
Posted February 21, 2014
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Ralackk: http://www.pcgamer.com/uk/2011/11/21/gog-director-explains-the-distributors-new-direction-how-good-old-principles-still-apply/
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RS1978: "Why should I care about the rubbish I talked yesterday?" :p
2011 is hardly yesterday, but you are correct; this is pretty much in direct contravention for what he said back then. Look for my longer answer up above for why we decided to change.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: -snip-
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Darvond: No offence, but there's a reason why I frown upon marketing people.

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HypersomniacLive: HypersomniacLive: And I will repeat that I don’t appreciate – like at all – the way they introduced regional pricing under the misleading announcement title and the guise of great news – that’s also a practice I was not accustomed to nor expected from GOG.
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Darvond: That more ore less is why.
As a marketing person, I'll try not to take offense. :P
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TheEnigmaticT: The fact that we can routinely pull in a decent percentage of Steam's revenue for new titles
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navara: You do realise that by including regional pricing you're actually killing one of your advantages again Steams, so you basicaly shoot yourself into legs instead of pulling that percentages?
Well, no. Most of these new indie titles aren't regionally priced. So that's a pretty clear indication that's *not* the reason why we're doing so well in comparison to Steam.
Post edited February 21, 2014 by TheEnigmaticT
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: <My question and TET's response>
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wpegg: I appreciate your response, and it does go some way to answering many questions here. I was hoping you'd address some of the "inner" questions there, the bits with question marks after them. I know that right now you're fighting the PR war and it would be silly to fan flames, but perhaps later you will address the questions I asked?
They're pretty in-depth and I'm answering you guys in the fora from a poker game I'm currently losing, but I'll try to get back to you. Some of them aren't questions I can answer, and some of them aren't questions I *should* answer, but I'll respond to the ones I can.
Posted February 21, 2014
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makr3la: Important question to TheEnigmaticT:
Will you change your Privacy Policy now?
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RadonGOG: This is really an interesting question, would love to hear the answer on that one!

And still, there´s another non-answered question left: Why don´t you just raise prices for everybody on this planet instead of dividing the world again? I just don´t get the point why we shouldn´t accept higher prices---ATM you are so incredibly cheap that this would possible with ease!
Oh, and please fill the gap at this "What is GOG"-line! It feels so disappointing!
The short answer is that your suggestion is non-competitive to the point where we'd be shooting ourselves in the face commercially.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: ...
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Elenarie: Here's an interesting question. I am originally from Macedonia where the average salary is about 300 EUR. We pay the same price like western European countries that have average salary of 3000+ EUR.

So, with this regional pricing, will we see price reduction to 90% of the original price, since hey, its a regional price now? (Its a rhetorical question, I know that we will be paying the same price as rich European countries)
Regional pricing is developer or publisher determined; if they want to do it, then we'd be happy to go along with them on it.
Posted February 21, 2014
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Elenarie: Yea, "lets do regional pricing, but charge you in a foreign currency, because why the hell not!"

If you're doing something, at least do it right, there is 0 reason for an European citizen to pay for a product in $ when the price is advertised in EUR.
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RS1978: That's the tax for being DRM-free.
We will have local currencies. Soon. Let's just say that getting those on board is not going quite as fast as we'd hoped, but the goal is to be accepting EUR, AUD, GBP, and RUB in the next few months.
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Vainamoinen: Easy and central question: How many pricing territories will you provide to your partners? Four and only four?
You know, I don't know the answer to that. I know we're scheduled to have four more currencies, but I don't know how many different "regions" there will be.
Post edited February 21, 2014 by TheEnigmaticT
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: Regional pricing is developer or publisher determined; if they want to do it, then we'd be happy to go along with them on it.
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brunosiffredi: Maybe if GOG.com presented more information about how pricing will change for these new titles, which regions or countries will actually see some change, etc., people wouldn't be freaking out so much.

Is this regional pricing going to be different for each country or just some countries? I hope regional pricing does not mean overcharging customers in regions that are already economically disadvantaged, like South America, Africa, eastern Europe, etc.
Due to NDAs and due to the fact that we don't have contracts signed for a lot of the games that we're working on bringing to GOG, we can't go into more detail because we ourselves do not know all of the relevant details.
Posted February 21, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: There's no plans to do treat with Japan differently than the rest of the world at the moment.
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Gydion: Hmm, at the moment. Am I reading too much into your responses or is region locking on the table for future releases?
I can't give you more details because we don't know. So "at this moment" means that we don't have any plans for this at all. But we only have plans for the immediate future, as far as Japan is involved, so I can't say that it will never change.
Posted February 21, 2014
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gbaz69: I believe all gog's current prices includes taxes (even at the same price).

So gog is probably making less money per sale of games in certain regions.
(aka: if one country has no taxes the base price of 5.99/9.99 is good, but if there are 20% taxes involved, gog will be taking a 80% intake vs the usual 100%)
You are correct about this (for the EU, at least), but after 5 years of not charging more in Europe, it's hardly a main motivator for us at the moment.
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionAnnouncement: Big Preorders & Launch Day Releases Coming!(70 posts)(70 posts)
(70 posts)