The price of the game picked up for a third time

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A statement from "SoftClub" (BioLogin, administrator on the forum "SoftClub") received today:


"SoftClub" shifts the responsibility on you - on "CD Project RED"! Waiting for your comments.:hmm:

Well, I think CD Projekt RED already answered your questions, so instead of copying SoftClub responses I would just focus on their arguments
We need to distinguish different roles from developer, publisher, merchant etc. CD Projekt Red is developer and may require publisher to distribute it for a fixed price i.e €100 to merchants. Merchants put their own prices on the top of the required fixed price. Russian currency got very weak in recent year, lost more then 50% of its value to € and $, so it is not CP Projekt RED to be blamed as they required they cost to be paid in € for example. Also merchants are allowed to set their own margins, but I assume CD Projekt RED may give them recommended retail price guidance, but with so much being taken from a value of RUB it is hard to expect merchants to lose money. I don't agree with SoftClub sending you to CD Projekt RED for answer, they just try to avoid giving you constructive answer
 
For amazon pre-order price is binding, as well as shipping charges at that time (even if your Prime membership expired by the time they send you a package, you'll still get free 2 day shipping). Also amazon has a policy to change a price of any pre-order if at any point between pre-order and delivery the price goes down. It guarantees that pre-order will get the lowest price. In any case I don't believe it is legal in USA to raise a price of the order already placed. Sure, they can cancel the order if they fail to secure the items, or items were never produced, and such, but after they generated an original order and we accepted it, it seems to be legally binding.

Neither is it legal in Germany, I have experience. Amazon (but not necessarily other retailers) promises to keep the price the article had when you pre-ordered or correct the price if it DECREASES, it guarantees that even if the price only changed for 1 hour that you will get the lowest price the article has been since you pre-ordered it.
 
Today, a representative of the campaign "SoftClub" told me that they are not the publisher of the game in Russia. In my country you publish games - CD Project RED! Why in the formation of prices for various publications you refer to "SoftClub"? They are a distributor. :facepalm:
 
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Today, a representative of the campaign "SoftClub" told me that they are not the publisher of the game in Russia. In my country you publish games - CD Project RED! :facepalm:

He is right, CDPR is developer and publisher, Softclub (not 100% what that is but i guess its game shop selling games) would be a retailer.
 
Strictly speaking, Softclub is distributor and (apparently) retailer. And yes, CDPR is still the publisher.

Chris's earlier post still applies - the publisher can specify a minimum price, but they can't really prevent a retailer from charging more if they think they can.

And, unfortunately, although some retailers, like Amazon, offer price guarantees, most countries don't have laws that stop a retailer from cancelling a pre-order completely or changing the details (including the price) of a pre-order before payment is made. The risk is always there. So if Softclub want to do this, or if they need to do this because of the drop in the currency, CDPR can't really do anything about it.
 
I'm sorry to hear that this is happening to you guys in Russia and the games price has gone up so high, it's a really pity.

Putting that aside as mentioned above, the games price in individual countries has nothing to do with CDPR. They can tell the distributor what the minimum price is but i think it's not up to them what they actually do. The value drop of the currency is possibly the main reason this has happened.

I have worked for quite some time in a distributor here in my country and i can safely say that the prices set for games are really not controlled in ANY way on the developer/publisher. I've been in meetings many times where the boss was saying that this game has a minimum price of €49.99 but it's gonna make a killing so we put it up for €54.99 or even worse.

Also as mentioned above, it's really easy for them to drop the ball on CDPR which is quite possibly not at fault. They are just trying to get the blame off themselves.
 
Preordered TW3 on GOG last summer. Price was 619 RUB. Now it is 1079 RUB and GOG is not asking me to pay more...
Sooo ... I think, it is SoftClub to blame.
 
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