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On March 31st we are going to discontinue the Fair Price Package program. Let us explain the reasoning behind this decision.

We came up with Fair Price Package (FPP) as a way to make up the price difference between various countries. Some games on GOG.COM have regional pricing, meaning the price of the same game in one place can be higher compared to its price in North America. In countries where the game is more expensive, we give users the equivalent of the price difference in GOG Wallet funds. In actual numbers, on average, we give users back 12% of the game price from our own pocket. In some cases, this number can reach as high as 37%.

In the past, we were able to cover these extra costs from our cut and still turn a small profit. Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore. With an increasing share paid to developers, our cut gets smaller. However, we look at it, at the end of the day we are a store and need to make sure we sell games without a loss.

Removing FPP is not a decision we make lightly, but by making this change, we will be able to offer better conditions to game creators, which — in turn — will allow us to offer you more curated classic games and new releases. All DRM-free.

We wanted to make sure you have some lead time to still benefit from the Fair Price Package. The program will last until the 31st of March, 2019, so if you would like to take advantage of it, now is the time. The funds you gather from the program will keep the 12 months expiration date from the moment you’ve been granted your last funds.
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First of all, thank you for your support. This was not an easy decision to discontinue the FPP program and we're grateful to you for understanding the reasons behind it. We see that quite a few of you raised concerns about GOG's future. As a part of publicly traded company, we can't comment on any financial results until they are officially reported, but we want to ensure you everything is good with GOG. Being part of a big gaming company, some reports - especially some given by significant media outlets - can often sound much scarier than reality.

You've been also concerned about your access to the games you’ve purchased on GOG. We've covered this topic years ago and it's been in our User Agreement for a long time (please check the section 17.3). This is not only a legal obligation to you but a core part of our ethics as a company.

But don’t worry, all is good, and we have a great plan for the future of GOG. We can’t wait for you to see some of the exciting things we have coming very soon.

EDIT: pinned
Post edited February 26, 2019 by elcook
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GOG.com: On March 31st we are going to discontinue the Fair Price Package program. Let us explain the reasoning behind this decision.
R.I.P. never forget.
I wonder what is the contingency plan when you shut down the servers.
Will users be handed out Steam keys or there will be a back up server for downloads only?
Considering the recent news of GOG's financials, this doesn't really come as a surprise (and it was probably to be expected when Epic announced their lower cut that other stores had to follow suit).

As someone who almost always pays the highest regional price, this has a quite significant impact. However I completely understand the reasons for doing this (and really appreciate the honesty and upfrontness -- I hope that's here to stay), so I don't blame GOG but rather the publishers whenever a game is significantly more expensive than in other regions.

Also, I think the publishers opting for significant price discrimination are just shooting themselves in their feet, because a higher price will just make it less likely for me to buy their game, and I find it likely that other people feel the same way.

But anyway, thank you GOG for keeping this program for so long and being honest with us.
Post edited February 26, 2019 by Lillesort131
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Breja: get on top of the rumors with some actual good news for once (some impressive new release, fix the website, bring new dev/publisher on board, anything)
I'm fairly certain if they had any of these lined up, they would have gone with it. The release of the original Bioshock editions was probably the ace up their sleeve that was supposed to soften the blow.
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Fesin: On the other hand, the pound will fall off a cliff and there will be a huge inflation, which means they need to actually increase the UK prices. Good luck paying 500£ for a 10$ indie game in the future.
Well yes, devaluation of the pound was my point, but normally poverty stricken areas get a special low price! At £500 they'd get no sales at all so it'd make more sense for them to make $0.01 per sale by selling it here for £5. :P
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GOG.com: On March 31st we are going to discontinue the Fair Price Package program. Let us explain the reasoning behind this decision.
R.I.P. never forget.
I wonder what is the contingency plan when you shut down the servers.
Will users be handed out Steam keys or there will be a back up server for downloads only?
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GOG.com: In the past, we were able to cover these extra costs from our cut and still turn a small profit. Unfortunately, this is not the case anymore. With an increasing share paid to developers, our cut gets smaller. However, we look at it, at the end of the day we are a store and need to make sure we sell games without a loss.
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PaterAlf: I appreciate the honesty, but let me be honest myself: The conclusion of the fair price package will lead to the fact that I will buy a lot less games here. Especially full priced ones and gift codes for giveaways.

And while we're honest:
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GOG.com: In actual numbers, on average, we give users back 12% of the game price from our own pocket. In some cases, this number can reach as high as 37%.
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PaterAlf: Maybe you should ask yourself and the publishers/developers how that kind of shitty regional pricing can even happen? Nothing justifies a 37% price hike from the (already high) US base price.
I already upvoted this but I would like to sign this as well since I agree 100% with everything you said!
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I really don't mind paying more for DRM-free games. I always buy games here As long as those game are released on GOG. Please do whatever you need to stay competitive and I will still buy games here .
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GOG.com: On March 31st we are going to discontinue the Fair Price Package program. Let us explain the reasoning behind this decision.
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Fate-is-one-edge: R.I.P. never forget.
I wonder what is the contingency plan when you shut down the servers.
Will users be handed out Steam keys or there will be a back up server for downloads only?
Uhh... You are aware that GOG hasn't announced their shutdown but rather the discontinuation of a price policy?
Eastern Germans earn 30% less than those of the former allied zone while paying the same or in some parts (Berlin) even more expensive rents.
I won't pay South-/Westgerman prices, forget it, it is not fair at all.

Screw those devs.
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Lucumo: Pretty much, I hate getting screwed over by American publishers/companies because apparently $ = €.
Here in the UK it really doesnt make much of a difference. For example a game that is $9.99 here will be £9.99 here. End of. In reality at the moment $9.99 = £8.58.

Fare Pricing means we should be getting £1.41 in store credit. 99% of the time you don't you just pay the £9.99 and thats what the game cost. Only certain developers seemed to use it.
Sad to hear this, but understandable, and I can certainly live with it. Even though having wallet funds left over often encouraged me to buy something I probably wouldn't have otherwise
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Nicole28: I called it in my post in the "Kotaku: Facing Financial Pressures" thread. GOG is preparing to take a lower cut. What people (developers) don't seem to understand is that services cost money. You want a lower cut, less service will be provided to gamers.
Prepared? I think they were already taking a lower cut throughout all of 2018, which is why they were running at a loss, they just didn't advertise they were taking a lower cut.
I guess there's goes my slim hope of getting the same price on GOG as it is on Steam on my region.

One thing I noticed about GOG is their half-assedness over everything that they do. They got regional price, but not world wide. This made the region that gain advantage on Steam laughed at GOG's price and scared away potential user base. They try to gave cashback to maintain those who screwed but didn't think of the long term impact on their on finance.

And that only on their price. There are other undercooked things like Achievement & Galaxy on linux . Heck, the new web design related like hard it is to find archived news and privacy breaching review section is still uncared for.
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Yep, this sucks, but indeed, thanks to you being honest about it, it's slightly easier to swallow.

That said though, it'd be an awesome touch if you at least kept the transparency: due to regional pricing, you're paying an extra $3 for this game, or something like that on the game page
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Emob78: Short version without breaking out calculators is that a bunch of other countries have crap money, and because of inflation and international dollar conversion and stuff, GOG came up with the idea that everyone could pay the same price for games, despite their own money being crap compared to the almighty dollar. Whatever difference in price that was lost in translation was a big debt bag that GOG decided to carry around for a while in order to please their customers that come from countries with crap money. This was called fair pricing, but in the end that debt bag wasn't quite so fair to the one entity that mattered most. GOG itself.

And it looks like GOG finally decided to put down the bag.
Actually, you've got it backasswards. Generally speaking the countries this applied to are ones that had a currency stronger than the US dollar. So they were countries with better money. :P
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Fate-is-one-edge: R.I.P. never forget.
I wonder what is the contingency plan when you shut down the servers.
Will users be handed out Steam keys or there will be a back up server for downloads only?
If it comes to GOG shutting down I wouldn't expect any contingency plan. The best we could hope for is a little warning, like with Desura. However expecting anything is delusional.
Post edited February 26, 2019 by SirPrimalform