The South African Rand (ZAR) has crumbled against the USD and other major currencies in recent years. Steam has introduced regional pricing for SA and it's been a godsend. The average new game costs R599 ($40) now for us on Steam. This is a much more appropriate price point for us as $60 is a crazy amount for someone here to spend on a video game. $60 is R900 - 50% more expensive than the special price and about a quarter of what most people earn in a month.

Would it be possible for GOG to offer South Africans reduced prices? It sucks so much having to buy on Steam rather than GOG. I really like GOG and its DRM-free mission.

While we're at it, why not offer the same "regional" price to everyone, including those in places like the US?

While we're at it, why not ditch regional pricing all together and call it a day? ;)

Why don't we just drop currency and switch to energy credits?

What's the going KW/h in Poland?

$60 to the average gamer in India, Russia, Brazil, South Africa etc. is much, much more money than $60 to the average American gamer. Without an adjustment in price to account for the value of our currency in relation to USD, we would never in a million years make a significant purchase on GOG.com. Steam already adjusts for our regions, and in many cases results in prices half as much as GOG.com.

It's easy for you to say that all regions should pay the same USD amounts that yours do, but the reality is that it is unaffordable for most. You wouldn't want to pay $120 for a game, which is what the GOG prices feel like to me.

Cutting the prices for certain regions doesn't do US customers down; it just brings other customers around the world to the same level. As an example, the Big Mac costs $4.79 according to the Big Mac index. In South Africa it costs the equivalent of $2.09. And we don't snack on them like they're free - they're not a cheap purchase for a meal.

Which was pretty much exactly what the post you replied to stated.

You make a valid point, but what people find hard to swallow is this:

We all know it costs nothing to make copies of digital goods. So, if you can sell your game for, say, $5 in one part of the world, why can't you sell it for $5 here as well?

Sure, I guess it could be argued that they wouldn't recoup their investment if they priced it that low worldwide, but that leaves people feeling like they're subsidizing the rest of the world.

60 is still a wad of cash regardless you seem to think that a lot of people gamers included are not living near or under the poverty line in western countries
and most games on here are not even close to being 60 dollars to begin with
you also seem to forget that steam is a juggernaut a monolith they own 80% if not more of the pc gaming market
gog might have 5% if that

steam can afford to do things en masse gog can not
all they can do is haggle and gradually introduce price parity for regions step by step

and finally the slightly higher price tag for say vampire bloodlines is the price you pay for a drm free copy

I think publishers will always charge the maximum that they think they can get away with. Americans and many other strong economies around the world have accepted $60 for years now, so they keep it. In many countries that price exceeds the demand for the product and therefore cannot work. Here's a better idea of how much money $60 is to me:

According to 2015 purchasing power stats I just looked up, a loaf of bread costs $2.56 on average in the US. So you could buy 23.4 loaves of bread with $60. $60 is R884.56 in South Africa atm, and a loaf of bread costs R12 in almost all supermarkets (good quality full size brand name white bread). That's 73.7 loaves.

It's not so much a premium for the advantage of DRM-free as it is just outpricing an entire region.

Not to mention the fact that many regions have to pay above the original US (CN for mrkgnao :P) price. Because... reasons.

The average American is on welfare. Currency conversion is only a tiny part of the story.

Me want for Croatia too,can we get?!?

Of course. Because they've never had to change it. But it's really only been fairly recently that digital has become pretty much mainstream and their thinking hasn't caught up to that yet (or they've not been forced to).

But consumers are certainly twigging to the fact that with digital distribution there's abolutely no reproduction or material costs and it's now pretty much a global market. So, many people are left wondering why they're 'subsidizing' other countries by paying several times the cost for the same product.

Or, it's the opposite (as in your case) where many people are wondering why they're paying a big chunk of a month's salary for a game that has a much lower cost (relative to income) in another country. Indeed.

I'm not sure why that is relevant though? I can assure you that South Africa has more poverty than the USA. Most of the world cannot afford $60 for video games, especially considering the cost of a gaming PC to play them on.

To re-emphasise, I don't think it's fair to impose USD prices on the whole world. It achieves one thing only - prices out those countries so that sales will be absolutely minimal. It makes no sense for the gamers there and for GOG. No one wins.

You wouldn't buy new games on GOG if they cost $120, whilst being $60 on Steam. You'd literally never made a single new game purchase here, and that is exactly the situation for countries like South Africa, Brazil, India etc. All I'm asking is for pricing that allows us to support GOG.

Dude there must be a lot of countries that deserve lower pricing on GOG. Many currencies are terrible against the USD.

I'd love for lower digital prices, but I'm not optimistic that we'll get them for a very long time. First there's the problem of physical PC game sales, as publishers force digital prices to not rek the physical sales. When that eventually goes away there will still be the problem of physical console game sales, and publishers will want parity across platforms for that too.

Well, consoles are starting to move in the digital direction as well. So, maybe, in time there will be a change in pricing. Doubtful though, since if most people in the wealthier economies are still willing to cough up $60 US for a digital game purchase, then there's no incentive for publishers to drop their prices.