GOG in the Year of our Lord 2018

The spouse and I watched this documentary last night while we ate dinner. It was really well done, and gives you a greater appreciation for what they have to do at GoG to bring us all those old games. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes GoG and what they do.

As for NOLF… they’re STILL working on it.

Almost more hyped for the fact that SWAT 4 is currently 50% in the sale occurring along with the NoClip GOG documentary debut. Unless I’ve missed a previous sale somewhere, I swear that is the best discount it has had so far on GOG. Either way, insta-buy time.

Yup. Still pull out SWAT 4 from time to time. So satisfying to complete a level with zero kills. How many games can we say that about? 😂

I feel bad for GOG. The last time I bought a game on GOG was in June of last year, and then I was spending less than $5. Whatever they did when they brought Canadian dollars to GOG made them 10-20% more expensive than Steam. The rest of the games I get are through Humble bundles, which are Steam keys. I’d love to support GOG more but they have to compete. What’s with that?

Totally agree. Lightly (or even sometimes moderately) discounted GOG games are still typically no cheaper than undiscounted Steam games for me. And if Steam is discounting also then it’s no contest.

It only works if the game is available only on GOG but the reality is I have most of those games I want now.

I think I’m buying enough at GOG to more than make up for both of you. :)
I’ve bought almost 100 games there since January I think.
3 at Steam or redeemed at Steam, and only because they were 3 of the very few AAA titles I bought.

Of course, if I weren’t one of those “antiDRM guys”, those numbers would likely be reversed.
Well, it also helps that I love old games.

Typically have the opposite experience here in Australia personally. Not only is our Steam Store, and many third-party stores, still in US Dollars, meaning you have to factor in exchange rates and the currency conversion fee, but many publishers also like to price match the local (Australian Dollar) retail price to boot. So since GOG deals in our local currency it isn’t uncommon for many new releases to be ~10%, or more, cheaper through GOG compared to Steam just due to the whole exchange rate thing.

Additionally, GOG’s ‘Fair Price Package’ kicks in and refunds me store credit when there is any difference between the US and regional AUS pricing too. Better than getting absolutely no sort of compensation elsewhere, and I buy enough games on GOG to rarely be sitting on unused store credit.

Really? In New Zealand I have the opposite experience. It’s weird that you have USD pricing for Steam but we have NZD. As does Gamersgate.

Generally I find the GOG AUD converted to NZD prices are more expensive than the Steam NZD price for undiscounted games. That actually goes for most retailers. So for example if Game X retails at USD 40, this is about NZD 60 give or take. But the NZD Steam price will be say $55 so it virtually has a built in discount. So often a game offered by retailer Y at a 10-20% discount becomes the same price as the undiscounted NZD price for that game on Steam.

Ironically, while Gamersgate is one store that does charge in AUD the prices are often the Steam Store price after the conversion from USD to AUD anyway, give or take a few cents for fluctuations in the exchange rate. It’s a weird one that is for sure.

I sometimes wonder whether New Zealand benefits at the moment with Steam as we are such a tiny market; they probably should have done some pricing adjustment as the NZD has dropped but they just haven’t got around to it…I’m not complaining though!

I wonder, though, how much the price disparity is GOG’s choice or is it something to do with the lack of DRM and publishers/developers requiring a higher price to put their game on that platform? Some games, like Divinity: Original Sin 2, for example, have the exact same price ($54.99 CDN). Obduction, as an alternate example, has a 17% markup ($38.69 on GOG vs. $32.99 on Steam). If it was all due to exchange rates, you’d think the price differential would be the same across the board. So there must be something else in play. It’s just unfortunate that whatever that something else is, it doesn’t work the opposite way for GOG.

I have to agree. More to the point that because GoG charges in AUD, I have a much better idea of what I’m paying for as opposed to questioning what the current exchange rate is, and how much of a rip off that $20USD game might actually be.

Steam wins in terms of volume of games, but I find myself preferring GoG more often these days.

Hard to say when attached with regionalised pricing, since Obduction happens to be slightly cheaper on GOG compared to Steam in Australia. Would be hard to separate what is down to trying to encourage purchases of DRM-protected copies and what is just the vagarities of a publisher’s stance on appropriate regional price points – something which THQ (Nordic) and GOG had a falling out over in the past.

Not to say it doesn’t happen sometimes, unintentionally or intentionally, via delayed release dates and\or other mechanisms, but the regionalised price differences might just be purely coincidental.

Obduction shows $29.99 USD on Steam and GoG for me. So it may indeed be due to regional pricing variances between the two services. Perhaps differences in the methods used to calculate regional prices?

EDIT: Just to be clear, exchange rates are important, but not the only factor that goes into regional pricing. I’m not an expert on this stuff, so I don’t exactly know what those other factors are. But they may not resolve into a flat markup percentage across the board.

If providing more value – by offering DRM-free products – isn’t “competing,” I don’t know what is! If you don’t perceive this as additional value, then of course you have no reason to buy anything on GOG. Stick with Steam.

For me personally, if I care enough about a game to buy it at all, I’d spend 2x the price (at least) to get it DRM-free.

Honestly, DRM-free is only a minor consideration compared to Steam. I have a pretty huge collection of games on GOG (although not as large as Steam simply because Humble bundles usually offer Steam keys), so it’s not like I don’t approve of the service, and I’d prefer to buy there if I could. However, I don’t have an unlimited supply of funds and making money stretch as far as it can is key (wish I could spend 2x the money without blinking; you’re a lucky one). When the games are the same price (like Divinity: Original Sin 2), considerations may be if the game is a sequel and needs to have the previous game on the same service (or not) to do things like import saves (not typically, so usually not an issue these days), which may get patches first, which might have DLC/expansions first, etc.

I’m not complaining, as I have a choice as a consumer and I’m able to determine what’s the best bang for my buck. And businesses can make a choice on how they want to compete. We all happy.

I also don’t have an unlimited supply of funds – I wish I could buy any old game on Steam without any consideration as to whether it’s DRM-free or not!

Gotcha! I flipped it around on you! :)

In any case, we agree.

In some rare cases for old games, support might be a consideration: for instance, a bunch of oldies published by Nightdivestudios receives regular updates on Steam, while GOG just ignores them for internal policy reasons.
And in the case of those DOSBox games sold on Steam, they are as DRM-free as GOG’s.

Woohoo. I’ve always had a weakness for hidden object games. They’re very relaxing.

Holy crap you guys: