...yeah... australian pricing...

[shivnz]

...yeah... australian pricing...

I dont' get it... CDPR has always talked about fairness and their disdain for regional pricing and all the other negatives that come along with it... even mentioning the price 'unfairness' on the GOG site (Since the price in your region is almost $19.98 higher than in the US, we’re giving you $19.98 back (~A$21.78) in bonus codes to get free classic games from GOG.com)

Yet overnight, on steam - where CDPR is self-publishing witcher 3 and can not say they're at the mercy of their publisher this time... they voluntarily choose to massively price gouge by inflating the price to a whopping 84 USD!? It just makes all this 'we hate regional pricing' stuff seem utterly insincere.... total bullshit.

I know cdpr doesn't read these comments, but.. ugh... I just wish for once a developer would practice what they preach and put the price back to where it was... a "fair" 60 usd for all...

And no, I don't subscribe to all that "because we think people can pay more, its reasonable to exploit them for as much as we can" rubbish that most publishers believe in... and from past statements, I didn't think CDPR believed in that either


Anyway, just my little "disappointment rant"... flame away, loyal cdpr fans....

 

[Medy89]

I couldnt really get what your problem is?
Cdpr is not at fault when it comes to your local retailers...
So who are you blaming? What are talking about 84 usd on steam?
I think youre mixing smth up here .. currently steam offer 17 percent off with addional 5 if you already own witcher 1 or 2 EE

 

[shivnz]

the current steam store price on the australian STEAM STORE has a base price of 84 usd. no one is responsible for setting that price OTHER than cdpr. and it doesnt matter that you get a w1 and 2 discount, because its still based on the unfairly inflated base price.

...by comparison, the american region steam store uses a base price of 60 usd.

and in case you're confused, you do know that the steam store has different prices based on your location... so long story short, on STEAM, the game is 60 usd for the americans, and 84 usd for australians (base price), and no one is responsible for that price hike other than cdpr.

Not sure which bit is confusing you... steam prices are not set by local retailers, purely by the publisher (in this case, cdpr)

 

[dragonbird]

no one is responsible for setting that price OTHER than cdpr.

I suggest you read this, it was about GOG rather than Steam, but still explains more about why this happens and why CDPR have to do it.
http://www.gog.com/news/letter_from_the_md_about_regional_pricing

Alright, but why is regional pricing needed for those (only 3 so far!) newer games then?

First of all, you have to be aware of an important fact when it comes to newer games: GOG.com cannot really decide what the prices should be. Top-tier developers and publishers usually have contractual obligations with their retail partners that oblige them to offer the game at the same price digitally and in retail. When they don’t have such contractual obligations, they are still encouraged to do so, or else their games might not get any exposure on the shelves in your favorite shops. This will change over time (as digital sales should overtake retail sales in the near future), but as of today, this is still a problem our industry is facing because retail is a big chunk of revenue and there’s nothing GOG.com can do to change that. We need to charge the recommended retail price for the boxed copies of the games in order for developers (or publishers) to either not get sued or at least get their games visible on shelves. You may recall that our sister company CD Projekt RED got sued for that in the past and we don’t want our partners to suffer from that too.

As gamers, none of us like this and I agree, it's unfair. But point the blame at the right people, the retail distributors.

And yes, I'd recommend buying from GOG. They do at least try to compensate for it.

 

[master_miller]

Why can't you just use GOG, then?