If this matter has already be tended to, then please point me in the right direction as to where.

What I mean by the title is just that. It baffles me that Steam and DotEmu have contracts with Sega to release old Genesis titles using their emulator, especially those amazing RPGs like Phantasy Star and Shining Force etc, and action games like Golden Axe and Shinobi, yet GOG does not have such a deal. Here I ask, has GOG attempted in the past to strike a deal with Sega? If not, is it possible? Or is something that once again most come from community efforts in order to justify the costs of these efforts?

I'm pretty sure they have, but Japanese publishers are problematic. Also, it's believed Sega doesn't want to sell PC games in Japan, so lack of regional rrestrictions is what keeps them off GOG

I wonder how much clout GOG actually has in pressuring publishers to release their games without regional restrictions. Does GOG's stance have any chance of making a mark at all, or will it simply hurt GOG and its customers?

I see. I was aware Japan is mostly a hand held concentrated market, with console and mobile games also flourishing, and that PC games are simply overpriced and unpopular, but I was not aware that there is an actual movement by private businesses to keep things that way. It is also fairly intriguing considering Sega is no longer in the console manufacturing business.

Yeah, it's pretty weird. Sega doesn't sell total war games in Japan, for instance, tons of their games on steam are blocked in Japan. They did ask the community to write letters to Japanese publishers, hoping that would help.

Sega is just weird these days. They also don't want to bring their more recent good games to the west (y'know like all the Shining games start with Shining Force 3 Episode 2 and various Phantasy Star games including the second online game).

Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force 1-2 and Phantasy Star 1-4 would fit very well on GoG, though.

The thing is: With regional pricing, they could just over price their games in Japan, but that wouldn't be really fair to those users that live there, so I suppose it is an honorable thing from GOG not to accept such an offer.

Mind you, this is all speculation. Who knows what really happened, or even if something happened at all.

But I think GOG would be OK with overpricing in Japan. They don't seem to care much about regional prices these days.

Oh, I was not implying something like what I previously stated actually happened. I was just thinking it would be an honorable thing on GOG's part. But I see what you mean by them not caring about regional prices. You know, sometimes I'm still tempted to change my IP to a Russian one. Getting a 20$ game for 4.18$ is just ridiculous. Not everyone living in countries with supposed good economies afford games at these prices, just like not everyone living in countries with supposed bad economies are poor.

just like not countries with supposed bad economies get the discount. I get you.

I seriously consider to make a quick trip to Russia and buy all those games in a legit way and make a big giveaway, I'm pretty close after all.

A list of games that are regionally-locked on the Japanese Steam store. It's not pretty, I would say, but that would be an understatement.

Tell me about it. Romania's economy isn't horrendous, but by no means it is pretty, yet we receive absolutely no discount in spite of the average salary there being exponentially lower than in western European countries where the Euro is very strong.

there is nothing recent about shining force 3
unless you consider 18 years ago "recent"

I said more recent and not recent. More recent than the times where Sega was still the coolest company ever is what I mean.

Does DotEmu have regional restrictions?