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Digital Gaming Store GOG soon will no longer offer customers shop credit equivalent to how much it would cost their purchase in North America, a scheme they call a Fair Price Package. It is GOG's solution to the thorny problem of regional prices, which generally means that people outside of North America end up paying a higher price in their native currency. GOG itself is paying for these rebates, which claim to have an average of 12% of the game price and go up to 37%, but say they can not afford it anymore. That's a bit about rumors about recent GOG layoffs, though GOG says it's to help them secure more launches, giving developers a better sales cut.
As it largely does not use DRM and mainly make its GOG Galaxy client optional for downloading and playing games, offering rebates on regional price inconsistencies is a policy that makes GOG feel fairer than some other stores. Oh, the end is near.
GOG plans to close the Fair Price Package program on March 31. Until then, you'll still receive credit from the GOG Wallet store for applicable purchases. The credit will last a year before disappearing into cyberaether.
"In the past, we were able to cover these extra costs from our cut and still make a small profit. Unfortunately, this is no longer the case, "the GOG said in yesterday's announcement. "With a growing share paid to developers, our cut gets smaller. However, we look at this, at the end of the day we are a store and we need to ensure that we sell games without loss. "
They say that this change "is not a decision we make lightly." It seems that they are not just cutting costs, thinking and intending to pass on some of the released resources to the developers.
GOG says that with more money in their pockets, they "will be able to offer better conditions to game makers" to remain a compelling and compelling option for developers who are now looking for a bigger share of sales. They have not announced any firm plans yet.
Store cuts are a hot topic in the industry now. 30% has been the standard cut for the big stores of every sale for years, so things started to change in December 2018. Valve's Steam began to reduce top-selling games, dropping to 25% after $ 10 million . 8m) in sales, then 20% after $ 50m (£ 40m). This was a small change to placate large publishers, and of course it was very small. A few days later, Epic Games of Fortnite and Unreal Engine announced that it was launching its own store and would only receive 12% of sales. Epic supported this with millions of megabucks to fund freebies and exclusives, leading the Epic Games Store to take big budget games like The Division 2 and Metro Exodus off Steam.
With GOG being a smaller store than Steam in many ways, trying to stay competitive cutting your footprint might be wise. It is still bad news for people in regions with low regional prices. Maybe GOG is counting on clients who believe in the company's mission without DRM, and wanting them to thrive, enough to be accepted as a necessary evil. Which, given that people who use GOG tend to shop very carefully at GOG rather than at rival stores, may be right.
That's a little worrisome coming shortly after the layoffs last week. The GOG said only "about a dozen" people were laid off as part of the reorganization and that, in fact, they were hiring for many other positions. However, one of the laid-off employees whispered to Kotaku that "GOG's revenue could not keep pace with growth" and the company was "dangerously close to being in the red." Mysteries.
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