GOGcom has released a new update addressing the fans directly. GOGcom is taking back their regional pricing policies, and will ensure fair, flat pricing stays in effect for their games.
They reveal they went through almost 10,000 comments in the forums, and basically went through some soul searching in regards to their plans for regional pricing. They explained that they thought the push for DRM-Free was the priority, over concerns about fair pricing, and that fans would share the same opinion.
With this in mind, they reiterate that they will continue to release games completely DRM-free, and that they will fight for games to have flat pricing worldwide. GOGcom is ready to go so far as to pay out of their own pockets in situations where they have to abide by the publisher’s desire for regional pricing.
Now, GOGcom clarifies that in spite of taking back those policies, they will keep the system that allows non-US gamers to play in local currencies. As they have put it, they set this up in the 1st place so that pricing in those regions would be transparent, easy to understand, and would eliminate hidden charges. Taking fan requests in mind, however, they are now setting it up so that users have the choice of buying either local currency or in US dollars, whichever is best for them.
For the moment, they are making the difference for games that were already sold under regional prices with game codes, but will eventually enable store credit. Finally, GOGcom is setting up meetings, both at GDC in San Francisco, and online in early April.
Region locking and regional pricing seemed to be inevitabilities in the industry. GOGcom’s decision to take it back seems to indicate it is possible to do things differently, if perhaps in a very specific scope. We laud GOGcom’s actions and hope to see other platform holders also handle customer feedback in their policies in this way.
