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GOG to use regional pricing for bigger releases

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There were a number of things GOG strived for when it launched. DRM-free gaming was a big one, as was adding extra value to games by bundling releases with soundtracks and other niceties. But there was also global pricing.

The cost of a game often fluctuates between regions, in some cases significantly. An example would be the $80 Japanese release for Tomb Raider. GOG wanted to avoid that, selling a game for a single price the world over.

That won’t be the case for bigger releases, though.

“If you’ve been a member of the site for a long time, you may recall that when we launched sales of The Witcher 2 on GOG.com, we had to add in regional pricing,” write GOG. “The game cost different amounts in in the US, the UK, the European Union, and Australia. We’re doing something like that once again in order to bring you new titles from fantastic bigger studios. Since we don’t accept currencies other than USD on GOG.com right now, we’ll be charging the equivalent of the local price in USD for these titles.

“We wish that we could offer these games at flat prices everywhere in the world, but the decision on pricing is always in our partners’ hands, and regional pricing is becoming the standard around the globe.”

While this is a back step on the site’s founding tenets, GOG are doing are sticking firm on keeping the game’s DRM-free. “ We’re doing this because we believe that there’s no better way to accomplish our overall goals for DRM-Free gaming and GOG.com. We need more games, devs, and publishers on board to make DRM-Free gaming something that’s standard for all of the gaming world!”

There are three games in particular that this new regional pricing model applies to. While GOG can’t say what the games are due to NDAs, they do say that they’re two RPGs and a strategy game. Buying or preordering these games, once they’re announced, will also net you a free game. That does soften the regional pricing blow somewhat.