Lamesauce. I know the majority of GoG customers are very likely in the US so they are hoping that their core consumer base isn't going to freak out but this isn't fair to everyone else.

I'll gladly gift games when I can to Aussies and others so I hope that region locking keys isn't going to be a thing.

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.

This is bad. Once you gave in to regional pricing pressure there will no end to it. Some claimed that DRM was also an "industry standard". Yet GOG was pushing against it. So why give up on flat pricing now? Such "standards" should be ditched.

I suspect that regional pricing is going to reinforce people's inclination to wait for sales: if I see a game offered at $x to Americans and $x+y (where y > 0) to me, I'm going to judge that the game is worth at most $x.

You know, I really get this point from a business PoV. As much as I love the "old" part of gog and would prefer for it to drop all this new crap and focus solely on old games (with possible exception of good indie games) I can see the need for more new games. And personally I couldn't care less about regional pricing for new games since I don't play new games (with occasional exception of indie games) and I'm egotistical jerk. But all I can see here is: And that would be fine and dandy if you actually had some competitor in the market. But you don't. So there is no alternative. So the other alternative is piracy. Which in my case doesn't sound that bad because there wouldn't be any piracy. The only AAA games post 2009 that I bought were Witcher 2 (here) and retail... ekhem, steam-key versions of DE:HR and Skyrim. Combine it with a fact that I didn't upgrade my PC at all since 2009 (now that I thik about it, I don't think I reinstalled Windows since 2009, shit, I didn't know it could run that long and not crash into oblivion (but it's getting there)) so no new games for me. You are my only source of knowledge of indie games and old games which I don't remember and I can't pirate something that I have no idea it exist. Well, I amassed so many old games and still collecting them (on consoles) that I probably have enough to last me a life time so I suppose it won't be that bad but it'll still be sad.

On a side note. This created nice opportunity for business for hamburgers, oh sorry, I meant citizens of U S and A. Since you're legally allowed to gift things to foreigners (I know, I buy a lot of stuff from USA and Japan) so making gifts restricted would be illegal (I think, not professional liar... tfu, lawyer (those tongue blunders today... :P)). So you could earn a bit by selling gift codes with minor commission for yourself (say, 50% of price difference). Yup, could be nice.

Voted and bumped

Yeah, it seems politicians all over the world are very ingenious to get the hardly earned money from their people. :(

wut? I'm playing PA and I haven't installed anything beside game client.

I would put this in my signature if there were such a thing on GOG.

Oh, how exciting.
(Sorry, my team is getting hammered right now, and this "announcement" gave me a good target for venting.)

Seriously though, if You'd spent the resources needed for this "exciting" stuff on hunting down and securing right for the classics instead, maybe You wouldn't need Your users, Night Dives etc. help to do it.

Wow, I didn't even think of the gift giving aspect of this thing. That is a HUGE problem.

Ah Your wrong about all games are uncensored Witcher 2 EE was censored for US in Australia because our MS BITCH government didn't want us rewarded with Sex for completing a certain quest Propperly so I grabbed the Dzips so I coul;d have the Full game Even though it comes up as I haven't Bought the game when I have just the AU version!

My short response is that the process is evolutive. GOG didn't know at the start what would be feasible, and what would have to be adapted over time. Just as none of us truly knows what the marketplace will look like five years from now, when new technologies and distribution channels have altered it yet again.

I do feel bad any time that people climb down from their higher principles. But I don't know enough about the full ramifications yet (and may never) to say definitively whether GOG is ultimately making the right or wrong move with this.

Wait a minute...what? Just how many policies have they sold out on? I want a list. The way i see it, we still get DRM free games, bonus stuff, good customer service. Aside from tacking regional prices on these specific games, what else have they sold out on?

What is the big deal? At the end of the news it mentions that they will do similar thing they did with The Witcher 2 and they gave free games to those who had to pay more then then $ price. If they are giving a free games to make it up to the buyer then I see no problem here.