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55 dollar Witcher game on GOG

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facattack

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It's on pre-order. Bad enough that Steam tries to sell downloads at the cost of a physical copy... not complaining, but there's indie games on GOG as well. Like Shadowrun Returns.
 
They have to sell it for that price. If they sell the download version cheaper than the physical copy, retailers like Walmart will refuse to stock the physical copy. Sales by Steam and GOG.com have a long way to go to compete with Walmart.
 
I tend to think of it this way: they sell digital copies at the price of physical copies because boys on the Internet will purchase the digital copy at the same cost. If they didn't sell a high enough percentage of volume at that same cost, then they would push back against brick-and-mortar stores who allegedly (and probably truthfully) wish to keep the pricing the same to ensure that their hardcopy sales don't suffer.

Personally... I've only purchased games from Steam/GOG to support indie/Kickstarter games, and digital copies of games to supplement games for which I already own copies and just found it cheaper to purchase the GOG copy than to spend time configuring an old DOS game to run properly under Windows (ie, the entire Wing Commander collection for $8, 99-cent specials of registered Apogee games, etc)

Purchasing a digital-only copy, especially ones that are laced with restrictive DRM, does nothing to advance the hobby, and holds me hostage to being able to use the game that I've purchased only for so long as the manufacturer decides to provide support for the game (thinking Ubisoft's uber-restrictive DRM that requires an internet-based license check before allowing the software to even load - as I don't have Internet at home any longer, and even when I did, I preferred to game while offline, that totally cuts me out). Further, following EA and Warner logic, if I purchase a digital copy, I no longer have rights for sale on the secondary market, or if following Autodesk's example, even to transfer my license to a second user free-of-charge.

It's for these reasons that I prefer non-DRM physical copies. One should always have the right to lend their copy, or sell their copy - physical or digital - when it's no longer of use to them. We (consumers) won this war with ebooks, now it's time to win it with software.

Also - notice that in NONE of this opinion piece have I supported piracy. To my mind, piracy/abandonware should only be an option when the software is no longer available for sale.
 
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Maverick1978 said:
It's for these reasons that I prefer non-DRM physical copies. One should always have the right to lend their copy, or sell their copy - physical or digital - when it's no longer of use to them. We (consumers) won this war with ebooks, now it's time to win it with software.
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Which is why I prefer software from GoG. They don't sell software with DRM on it. Hence why if you buy the Witcher or Witcher 2 from them, it's freaking /WIN/ compared to anywhere else. Even when Witcher 2 was new, if you got it from GoG, NO DRM! -- no reason to expect 3 to be any different since GoG doesn't do DRM. PERIOD. It's part of "who they are".

GoG seems overall to be 'tight' with the folks behind the whole Witcher series, they were first to offer the game as a digital download, they had it and the sequel at bargain rates within months of the commerical release...

Which is probably why for 3 I'll wait the extra 3 to 6 months for it to drop to $9.99 like everything else GoG sells. Oh noes, I havez 2 waits.

Generally I prefer GoG releases over just about everyone else's... because GoG fills an interesting gap for the industry, one that was missing.

Stores like GameStop and... well, is there anyone else left in the brick and mortar games only business? In any case, Gamestop makes a lot of money buying and reselling used games. These sales make a good deal of money for them, and NO money for the original developer. With GoG, you can buy the same games 'new', have no DRM worries, and pay the same or even less for them since really, all they have to charge is the profit and web hosting costs -- and for game developers it's REALLY brilliant because GoG then gives them a cut of the sale.

The end result is that the developer can now make money off of sales that before they'd never see a dime of, meaning they can have more revenue per game. "CD Projekt Red" has probably made more money off "Witcher 2" at it's $19.99 GoG price and $7.99 low sale price (what I paid for it through GoG) than they ever would have at the retail physical copy price. They milk the pre-sale and physical copy price for the few months where people actually give a **** -- and usually that is indeed only three to six months -- and then drop it to where normal people will go "Hey, it's only $10 to $20 now, I'll try it."

Of course, another reason I prefer GoG is you get an actual standalone .exe installer - and again DRM-free. Steam pisses me off with it's "you must use our installer, our downloader, our DRM, and you can't play unless we auto-update you to the latest version" crap.

Of course, I have the problem that a lot of the games I actually own I can't run with the DRM enabled, for some magic reason most DRM systems won't run on my hardware so I HAVE to run the crack to get them to run properly -- see the mess that was GTA4, the whole Call of Duty "modern" series of games (While 1, UO and 2 run just fine), FEAR 2... I have to crack 'em to even run 'em WHEN I LEGALLY OWN THE GAMES.

But that's DRM in a nutshell, inconveniencing legitimate users for something most people pirating will never actually have a problem with -- since so far the ONLY DRM model that has proven the least bit effective is what Blizzard has done with Diablo III or by making an MMO. On-system DRM is a waste of developer money and time as it has NEVER worked for more than two weeks; and in most cases the off the shelf ones like Starforce, SecuRom or Safedisc are often slapped aside with cracks available before the game even hits retail shelves!

Consider this: Microsoft. If this giant dumping millions if not billions of dollars into trying to protect Windows from pirating has their 'security' slapped aside in seconds, do you really think any of the game developers are going to have much more luck? Even Apple's "It's tied to our hardware" for OSX is fairly simple to bypass, with tools for force-installing even not-yet-released bleeding edge beta's being just one download away.

I like GoG better than anyone else out there in game distribution, they're the only company right now that IMHO "gets it" so far as PC releases are concerned. I mean right now you can download Witcher 1 + 2 together for $24, free and clear with no DRM. You get two executables that are complete standalone installers, and multiple downloads of extra media in PDF, MP3, PNG/JPEG and other common formats of all the other things the game would have come with (something Steam shortchanges you on) like the manual, game soundtracks, etc, etc...

My advice if you REALLY care about W3, and don't want to pirate, wait the three to six months after it's release, and buy it for $20 or less.

Though another reason I like them is they have Thief 1 & 2 (aka the real thief, as opposed to the steaming piles of manure known as 3 or the new "reboot")... that work flawless with NewDark, Enhancement Pack 1, and the various new hires texture packs for ten bucks a pop, and every few months they run a sale where you can buy them AND System Shock 2 for four bucks apiece as a single pack. Hell right now they're running a special of T1, T2 and T3 for $18.99, so a buck off T1 and 2 and they throw the pile of crap known as 3 in for free. I originally owned all three games but the discs long ago stopped working and/or were stolen by roomies, and had been pirating them when I needed a new copy for ages -- along comes GoG, priced them right, I said "sure, I like these so much I'll buy them again at that price!" (I paid $14 like a year ago for all three)

Can't beat that. Hell, just look at the current weekend promo:
http://www.gog.com/promo/nordic_weekend_promo_180714

Gothic 3, Forsaken Gods:EE, and dozens more three bucks a pop?
 
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Did I hear wrong or did Bethesda buy ID soft?

I noticed something about Wolfenstien 3D and Quake III: Arena being put under public GNU or something. ???
 
I'm right with you that GoG is the best of the digital vendors, and precisely because of their disdain for DRM. And their sale prices can't be beat - I guess I should've expressly stated that my mini-rant was more against digital-only distribution and initial digitla pricing matching that of retail pricing for a lesser product, and not subsequent, reduced-in-cost digital-only distribution.

iD long ago released Wolfenstein 3D and Quake III source into the public domain. ISTR that they released a few others into the public domain as well (though I could be confusing iD with 3drealms, as my brain tends to lump them all as "Apogee" rather than by the studios that designed the games)

This is why Wolf3D and Quake were ported pretty much everywhere - because it was must easier to do with source code made available.
 
And my usual insert wishing for GoG equivalent for old/vintage non-game programs (e.g. utilities, productivity apps, etc. etc.) If anyone from GoG sees this thread hint hint wink wink! :D
 
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