completely agree
it is not just a few eurocents... it's as if us dollar had an exchange rate of 1.2 to 1.5€ (even if or when the exhange rate was the exact opposite, like when 1€ was worth 1.2 dollars, many publishers kept selling stuff here as if it was the opposite... so, to quote another gog user earlier, ANY/EVERY foreign money IS crap money compared to allmighty dollar... Being crap money happens if 1) your foreign crap currency is of lower value than allmighty dollar AND ALSO 2) when your crappy foreign currency worths MORE than the said allmighty dollar)

so yes, usually, regional pricing hurt gog because publishers sort of push some price differences by 25 or 30% MOAR here than on us.
If/when the price difference is equal or inferior to VAT i COULD understand (i say could because it's not as simple equation as that us price + europe vat = regional pricing... it is an oversimplified view)
but when the price difference is higher (WAY higher) than VAT here, you have to find better arguments to make m swallow the pill

i remember one game that had a ridiculously high pricetag for what it was (even if it was a decent game anyway) at launch, because of publisher, like 44€(Vikings Wolves of Midgard)and gog FPP program helped me have it at launch at barely 29€ (which was a more reasonable price for such game)
since then it had been on sales once or twice based on its infamous initial price tag, then the price tag was lowered at least, then it was on sale a couple of more times based on the new price tag

so what do publishers and devs want here ? do they want us to wait a year or two to see if their game perform well or not and come on the carcass of it (during sales) to get it at very low price ? or do they need/want customer support at launch to get their dev costs refunded enough and be able to keep being afloat before any price cut ?
If it's the later and not the former, then they would rather not be that greedy and give fair price to other markets than us.
I dont have the stats but i can safely bet that customers base market of "all the world minus us" is > to domestic/us market alone

but hey, be my guest, keep on going like that
me neiher, being patient is not my strong suit, well it depends of time and topic.
regarding people or things which disappointed me or backstabbed me in the past, i have usually no patience left..

now... you are worryign me.. What is this damn "gog direct to account" stuff you all are talking about ? i'm not very confident or reassured by this... I suppose it's yet one new stupidity to enhance the "user experience" like the previous times (which turned out to add more tediousness, more constraint and more limitations in my use of the service)

thank you for letting me know about this new deviltry

The physical market got killed, so CDP should open a physical store. Suuure... that makes PERFECT sense.

But they also went back on that and sell games, that have serials, a need for external accounts or require the GOG client.
I understand the reasoning behind some of that, but I feel that GOG is slowly becoming just another store.
After bowing to social media outrage, I started to stop considering GOG as my go-to shop.
The only thing that keeps me interested atm, is the optional client, because I really don't want stuff running on my system

Basically allows you to buy games and content via third party sites that have partnered with GOG (think Humble maybe or something like that) and have said content automatically added to your GOG account. But the third party handles the payment and refunds, etc. GOG just provides the game to your account.

Should allow GOG games to be found outside of GOG more often... similar to how you can find Steam keys online. Or at-least that is our understanding based on said user agreement.

Nature's first green is gold
her hardest hue to hold
her early leaf's a flower
but only so an hour
then leaf subsides to leaf
so eden sank to grief
so dawn goes down to day
nothing gold can stay.

yeah right... and so, letting the personal data floodgates opened between third party and gog in both ways... Third parties that are either unethical and dont give a damn about GDPR and my homeland regulation and/or simply are not legally bound to respect them at all ?
Thanks but i'll pas on this one.

if i want a game to appear on my gog library, i go on gog website to purchase it on gog ! (even if the "user experience" of shopping on gog website had become a torture session with red hot iron and nails)

sadly i can bet that direct account feature in EULA will still open the floodgates regardless of wether a customer do purchase on third party or not, and that the entire gog's customers data will be handed gently to third parties in exchange of a little contractual deal money...

Thank you for pointing my eyes on "yet another new trick of gog to abuse its customers without them having any way to oppose it (except... well... deleting account and stop using the service... which is always a choice but a radical choice, and if it's the only choice given, is not really a choice at all but hyppocrisy and a game of deceit)

PS: will G2A be one of the new third party partnering GOG ? :) it will be SOOOOOO beneficial for everyone (sarcasm)

Yea you need to relax a bit. IF this works like most other services of a similar nature, nothing will likely be "shared" with third parties other than what you personally share like your CC if you bought something though said third party. It will then probably require you to login or link your GOG account which would be handed completely through GOG via the GOG direct to account API.

If you don't care for that, then simply don't buy games on said third party service and link your account and nothing will change for you and nothing will personal will be with said third party.

GOG will use the API to simply direct you to GOG from the third party site and then redeem said game here for you after said third party accepts your payment. So nothing will likely ever be shared in that process.

You guys realise there are people like me who are willing to withhold - say - playing Bioshock until it appears on gog ;)
(In fact it was a real shock to me, I got it wishlisted on steam even when - bwam! - dream came true).

So you better be good and well, gog! You better be!

I think it's a bit a case of cultural differences. In the US you see taxes to be on the customer side, but in most (all?) European countries, they are considered to be on the side of the seller (who of course in exchange would increase the price of the product to cover them).

And if you compare average German and Czech wage you'll see that we're suffering from regional pricing too. Most games are overpriced in regCZ. On same level as Herman region. :/

The issue I can see with the Direct to Account feature is that the third party provider may restrict the number of activations for their game.
It also multiplies the possibilities of them disappearing, potentially leaving the games unplayable.

I generally agree with those users who support the DRM-free cause and are willing to pay more in regional prices. However, regional pricing by itself is a grossly unfair and stupid thing that exists because of publishers' greed. You could have made your reputation rock solid if you hadn't allowed regionally priced games on GOG at all.

As it stands, you did have a solid reputation previously. Remember "One World, One Price"? It was one of your core values. You have compromised it in order to continue your growth. The Fair Price package was a step back from that but the feeling was not the same anymore. And so it goes away now and no one is shocked. Definitely not as shocked as we were back in the day of the original Good News announcement about introducing regional pricing.

The thing with compromising core values is that even if you compromise them for the greater good, in the end they are still compromised.

Of course, taking a stand and refusing to allow regional prices could have negatively impacted your growth. Well...

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."
- Edward Abbey

They're skipping that part by not handing out keys but instead only hand out direct activation on the platform same as Steam did for a while on Humble. Not entirely sure why they stopped that after a while though.

Still remains the question whether the links to those activation might be shareable so there's one concern.

The other is regional locks. Ideally any link sold for a different price would be locked to it's own region so it won't be resold for profit or vpn'd by interested people (again, assuming it's still possible however tedious the process may be)

GOG Direct to Account info:

Could it be Skyrim?
Could it be Borderlands?
Could it be Bioshock Infinite?
Could it be Dishonored?
Could it be Mass Effect?
Could it be Command & Conquer?

COME ON, SURPRISE ME! :)

@GOG:
It was about time ;-)
And this maybe even helps with Games being added from the Community Wishlist.

@Critics:
Shush, many of you eagerly stuff 60 bucks for 1 new game
into the Game-Developers... uhm... Purses. So a few of bucks won't kill you.