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General discussionGetting back to our roots(1418 posts)(1418 posts)
(1418 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 11, 2014
Hey, GOGgers,

We're not perfect, we're exploring new frontiers, and we make mistakes. We thought DRM-Free was so important that you'd prefer we bring you more DRM-Free games and Fair Price was less critical and that it could be sacrificed in some cases. The last two week's worth of comments in our forums (nearly 10k!), show that's not the case. We didn’t listen and we let you down. We shouldn't sacrifice one of our core values in an attempt to advance another. We feel bad about that, and we're sorry. Us being sorry is not of much use to you, so let’s talk about how we will fix it.

One: DRM-free forever. Abandoning fixed regional pricing means it will probably take longer to get some games, but you've made it clear that sacrificing fair pricing for more DRM-free games isn't acceptable.

Two: We will adamantly continue to fight for games with flat worldwide pricing. If that fails and we are required to have regional prices, we will make up the difference for you out of our own pockets. For now it will be with $5.99 and $9.99 game codes. In a couple of months, once we have such functionality implemented, we will give you store credit instead, which then you will be able to use towards any purchase and cover the price of it in full or partially. Effectively gamers from all around the world will be able to benefit from the US prices.

This will apply to every single game where we do not have flat pricing, such as Age of Wonders 3 (full details here), Divinity: Original Sin, and The Witcher 3. If you remember the Fair Price Package for The Witcher 2, this will be exactly the same.

Three: We still intend to introduce the pricing in local currencies. Let us explain why we want to do it and how we want to make it fair for everyone. From the very beginning our intention was to make things easier for users whose credit cards/payment systems are not natively in USD. The advantages are simple because the price is more understandable and easier to relate to. There would be no exchange rates involved, no transaction fees, and no other hidden charges. However after reading your comments, we realized we have taken an important element away: the choice. In order to fix this, we'll offer the option of paying in the local currency or the equivalent in USD. This way, how you pay is always your choice.

Four: You are what matters, and we will be sure to involve you all more in what we're doing and why we're doing it. Let's start by meeting you at GDC - we’d like to invite you to meet us face-to-face Monday the 17th at GDC. Obviously, not all of you can come to San Francisco, so we want to invite all of you to an online event with us early in April to ask us whatever you would like. More details soon.

The bottom line is simple: there may be companies that won't work with us (although we will work hard to convince the most stubborn ones ;). Yes, it means we might miss out on some games, but at the same time GOG.com will remain true to its values and will keep on offering you the best of DRM-free gaming with Fair Prices.

Once again thank you for caring so much about GOG.com. We will work hard not to disappoint you again.

--Marcin "iWi" Iwinski & Guillaume "TheFrenchMonk" Rambourg
Posted March 11, 2014
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Hmm, if it doesn't sell well they also won't lose a lot of money while if it sells well they'll have to pay a lot of compensation.

It's effectively like a price decrease. I guess they will still make profit with each sale, I would not advice anyone to go that low. But lower prices also mean increased sales. Profit depnds on both. Maybe the increased sales compensate the lowered price, maybe not resulting in higher or lowered profit. But I guess they won't lose really any money even in the worst case just earn less. So I would say that there is no need to be more selective. Every additional game will give them a benefit, maybe more, maybe less than before.
Posted March 11, 2014
Faith restored. Thank you!
Posted March 11, 2014
Awesome news!

And GOG still being awesome :)

Congrats :D
Posted March 11, 2014
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tomagabriel: ...the change as it implies less newer games. ...
I wonder how this is implied? But I would also like to hear GOG's estimation of this. So far they didn't say anything about it, did they?
Posted March 11, 2014
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Cavalary: Here's another thought: Don't buy them at all, and tell the publishers that you're doing so because of their refusal to accept fair practices. (This doesn't have to mean that you can't play them, mind you.)
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WhiteElk: That (boycotting games), and addressing concerns at national levels, seem to me the only way to affect regional pricing change. GOGs reversal to not sell regional priced games ain't gonna make a notable difference in the pricing war. steam doing so might'a garnered some attention, but still there is the legal battling. This isn't as simple as i think most of the con-camp might'a thought it to be. DRM-free is GOGs schtick and power. There they've made a difference. The difference they can continue to do with this has been undermined i think. It's all about the inventory. We'll see.
DRM free and flat price were both their values and power. And addressing them internationally seems to be a far better idea that nationally just in the areas that are fucked over by it the most. For publishers it's maybe missing some sales from the EU and Australia over potential regional boycotts (that are hard to truly get going anyway, most people not believing in their own power, to put it mildly) but still doing just fine everywhere else vs. missing out on a now-major distributor and potentially also on worldwide sales from people who stick to the DRM free principle, as the other major services are in themselves DRM. The latter will have a stronger impact, especially if it's a clear centralized policy that people from anywhere can back and coordinate in one place.
Posted March 11, 2014
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Bavarian: After thinking about this for a few days I was willing to bite the bullet and sacrifice flat pricing for the sake of getting more and newer games into DRM-free sale. Now that won't happen, thanks to all the wannabe boycotters.

Most of you people have no problems buying games at places like Steam where you have extra unfair regional pricing (something GOG intended to avoid if possible) and stinking DRM on top of that. But when GOG introduced regional pricing in order to strengthen the DRM-free aspect you suddenly acted like you had binding principles. You talk the talk, but do you also walk the walk?

This could've been the chance to get DRM-free AA(A) games from the last few years, or otherwise unattainable classics to your GOG shelfs. Perhaps you had to pay a little more than your neighbor, but it's still your choice to buy or not to buy. Now it won't "probably take longer" to get certain games here, it simply won't happen at all. Remember that, next time you complain about the indie-heavy catalog, or claim for Lucas Arts, Microsoft, The Elder Scrolls, Dead Space, etc. to make an appearance. But hey, no sweat. When shit hits the fan you can always head over to Steam, right?

To whom it may concern.
I completely agree.
I'm very disappointed. This was a great opportunity for GoG to grow beyond indie and classics and was worth our support, not all the talks of boycotting and crying about principles.
This u-turn is a failure and we will regret it in the long run.
Posted March 11, 2014
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anthology: ...We would have had the additional choice to get some new games, DRM free and with some free game thrown in, for the same prices as elsewhere.

Now we can only take it or leave it on Steam, Origin and that bunch.
I wonder from where people here take the confidence that newer releases cannot come to GOG anymore? Just because you can now freely select the compensational games? Is this making such a big difference?
Posted March 11, 2014
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Professor_Cake: I agree for the most part, although I do wonder if a mere two weeks of sales, including two semi major promotions as well as the pre order figures for AoW3 would be a long enough period to show GOG that regional pricing was a poor decision from a sales perspective. If so, there must have been significant drop off to spur this decision so quickly. I have to admit that I did not purchase any items from GOG since the first announcement, though in both sales there were games I almost certainly would have purchased had this situation not arisen. It is questionable if there were so many who were like minded that GOG felt a turn of face was the way to go, That being said, stranger things have happened.

I would agree that this almost certainly was a pure business decision, however the general reaction from people on here seems to be that they either think differently or simply don't care about the whys but that things have been rectified to a large extent. Whether this translates into regaining the sort of sales that GOG previously garnered remains to be seen, as I suspect that GOG will struggle to regain some of the goodwill previously shown towards it, particularly from those who saw GOG as more than a simple business. I hope so, as even from a pure rational perspective GOG is better than most other places.
Two weeks may not be a long time, but don't forget that the paying customer base is much larger than the forum community. GOG is not stupid, they know that having the most shiny new titles won't do them any good if a significant percentage of people don't buy them.

The results of these past two weeks combined with algorithmic projections for extended periods of time is what I think made GOG reassess the situation and come up with the best possible compromise at this point - a compromise I'm also fairly certain that they've run through algorithmic projections to determine its results and effects.
They could have let the discussion go on for another week or two to have more factual data at hand, but it probably would have costed them more by then.

Also don't forget that they're going to GDC in less than a week, so they didn't really have a lot of time to resolve a situation that apparently hit them harder than they initially thought it would.
Posted March 11, 2014
Dear GOG, let me start by saying that I am impressed. That is something I don't say lightly, especially not in these dark days of regional pricing and DRM.

To be completely honest I expected some sort of additional statement, maybe another open letter to the customers adressing the - pardon my french - shitstorm that was caused by the previous announcements. However, I did not expect a return to the previous pricing policy - at least as far as possible, with regards to already establshed contracts - as well as an apology on top of this.

While I did say that I strongly oppose regional pricing, for it is never fair - and I still do - I also do understand that despite the way it may have come across to many of us customers, the decision to take this step must have had a lot of careful consideration as well as planning involved. Stepping back from these changes, from a commercial point of view, is not something to be taken lightly, and I applaud you for doing so and accepting the consequences.

On another note, I also want to thank all those who, like me, were truly willing to 'vote with their wallets' by abstaining from buying more games from GOG. I leave it up to everyone for themselves to decide how much of a role this played in GOG's decision to stick to their principles, though.
As has been said before, now would be a great time for all of them to voice their opinion once again; just as much as we needed to make ourselves heard when we felt we were getting the short end of the stick, we need to make sure to show our appreciation for GOG listening to us!

I think it is safe to say that a lot of my faith in GOG as a company - and maybe a little more than 'just a company' - has been restored and as such I will give you the benefit of the doubt concerning possible future changes, as well as continue being a paying customer. As for the titles with fixed pricing, such as Age of Wonders III, I won't be buying any of those for the time being, at least not at full price. While it's a neat thing to offer extra gift codes to make up for the price difference - if there is one - I'm not a big fan of this practice; I personally like to save money - by buying at a good price - when I buy something, not maybe at a later time when/if I'm buying something else. That being said, I realize that's the only thing GOG could do except for not doing anything at all about it, so I certainly won't complain about them going out of their way to please their customers!
Post edited March 11, 2014 by XTRMNTR2K
Posted March 11, 2014
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F4LL0UT: I still don't get where people were getting this from. It was instantly clear that GOG decided to abandon one of their rules that they didn't think was *that* important to the community to fully support the most important one: as many DRM free releases as possible. And they clearly were thinking that they were doing a GOOD thing for their community. It should have been clear to everyone then, GOG is clearly stating that now, I hope NOW everyone friggin' gets it.

I can live with fewer titles on the catalogue if more people are happy now but it kinda pisses me off that the outrage that lead to this was largely about the "betrayal", not the regional pricing, while there clearly never was any betrayal of the customers. I'm okay with where we got but not with how we got here.
It´s simple: GOG had fair price as an unmovable principle before, but suddenly it wasn´t so unmovable. Once you show you can abandon a principle, it´s easier for people to think you could do the same thing on the rest. Yeah, somehow GOG is different, but generally, the longer a publisher or a seller keep itself on the market, once they start dropping some principles, it doesn´t take much time until they start doing the same on the rest. That´s how it works when the company starts caring only about money, even if those moves could actually make them lose money on the long term.

If it wasn´t that common, people wouldn´t have started to get scared so easily about that. In fact, trying to stand on their principles must be really hard and time consuming on GOG´s side. It´s too easy and tempting doing what the rest do. I surely think GOG would have more publishers interested, but I don´t think that would be good for GOG on the long term.

That´s how I see it. I could be wrong though.
Posted March 11, 2014
G L O R I O U S ! ! !
Posted March 11, 2014
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Care to share your so well informed sources that make you soooo sure that people complaining "wasn't majority"? That it was just a bunch of drama queens?
And from my 30 years experience of gaming I'll say that people who do not give a flying crap about anything else than their own benefits have a tendency to blame others for lack of "constructive feedback" and being "complainers" when said others start expressing their dissatisfaction and are asking for more fair rules of engagement.
Posted March 11, 2014
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TheEnigmaticT: Once we accept more than one currency--which is still a few weeks off--you'll be able to select USD or local currency for any transaction.
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Cavalary: That's the all important question about the "local pricing" now though, and the answer doesn't, er, answer it. So will it be $5.99 or $6.22?
I guess $5.99 or the equivalent in your local currency. Whenever they offer the ability to choose they have to aply actual conversion rates to make the whole system consistent.
Posted March 11, 2014
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anthology: ...We would have had the additional choice to get some new games, DRM free and with some free game thrown in, for the same prices as elsewhere.

Now we can only take it or leave it on Steam, Origin and that bunch.
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Trilarion: I wonder from where people here take the confidence that newer releases cannot come to GOG anymore? Just because you can now freely select the compensational games? Is this making such a big difference?
The sad part is that all those people believe in the status quo too much and lack any faith in their own power to create change. By accepting regional pricing for the sake of more games now they sacrifice the chance of changing this policy and getting the games fairly anywhere eventually. That will only happen if we unite more after this and fight the ones who still want to push these practices forward even harder.

(Of course, assuming this was a proper U-turn for GOG. Tentatively out of protest mode, but before a final decision I'm definitely first waiting for that $5.99 or $6.22 answer, and then will be bothered by the introduction of regionally priced games even if GOG will fully make up the difference, if any past the 3 already contracted will be added and especially if the publisher won't actually eat their share of the difference and accept an actual flat price, so GOG won't just eat the loss while they continue running this model as if nothing happened.)
Posted March 11, 2014
Awesome. Just awesome. A company that revised its decision. Keep rocking, GOG!
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionGetting back to our roots(1418 posts)(1418 posts)
(1418 posts)