By Alec Meer on November 18th, 2010 at 8:25 pm.
We now know which download service CD Projekt’s much-anticipated roleplayer will premiere on, and it’s… Good Old Games. Which is slightly confusing, unless they’re using a time machine to go back and release the game on 5000 floppy discs in 1993, then re-debut it 17 years later in an age where PCs can actually run it. Still, makes sense – GOG is CDP’s own service, after all.
They’re sticking to their DRM-free guns with it and all. Which is very much practising what they preach: good on ‘em. If you’re suitably excited, you can pre-order it now. But when can you play it, and what do you get? I’m going to tease you. I’m sorry.
If you pre-order, you also get this stuff free right away: unreleased music from the soundtrack, HD wallpapers, avatars, and behind-the-scenes photos of the development team at work. Saucy.
CDP are promising day and date release with the retail version and fair worldwide pricing, which is also very welcome – we’ve seen all manner of weird territorial price-spiking from other publishers. Good to see someone finally acknowledge that ‘worldwide web’ means something. Although it’s not quite that simple. Allow me to explain, via the medium of copy and paste:
The game is scheduled for release on or around May 17, 2011, and is priced at €49.99 for EU citizens, £34.99 GBP for UK citizens, and $49.99 USD for the rest of the world. Customers who pre-order the game will receive 10% off their purchase, bringing the price for a pre-order down to €44.99 EU, £31.49 GBP, and $44.99 USD respectively. Because the price in Euros is almost $16 USD more than the price in dollars, and the price in GBP is roughly $6 more than the price in dollars, GOG.com is making its pricing fair by giving EU purchasers a $16 USD GOG.com store credit and UK customers a $6 USD GOG.com store credit to spend on any game at GOG.com after they finalize their pre-order.
Which is a canny way of dealing with complicated money and publisher-based stipulations that perhaps demand parity with retail costs (the disc-based version is being published by Namco Bandai). Not as good, clearly, as genuinely equal pricing, but that they’re doing something about it is excellent.
Oh, and if you pre-order you also get a free copy of either Gothic 2 Gold, Realms of Arkania 1+2, Realms of Arkania 3, Divine Divinity, or Beyond Divinity. And the download version also includes stuff like in-game soundtracks, a digital art book, a game guide, papercraft figurines.
I mean, blimey. They’re going all-in here. It’s one step away from promising free hugs to every purchaser.
Here’s why, in the words of GoG MD Guilliaume Rambourg. “This one-time offer is a great opportunity to help promote this highly-anticipated RPG by our sister company, CD Projekt RED. Further, by pre-ordering and purchasing their copy of The Witcher 2 from GOG.com, gamers will be supporting the developer more directly, since we’re sister companies. This offer reflects the principles that have made GOG.com so popular to our users, such as quality gaming, great value, and DRM-free downloads. The opportunity to bring this to our community and the internet at large was one that we couldn’t pass up, and we hope that you won’t be able to pass it up either.”
Or – good grief! – you can buy the physcial collector’s edition (pictured above), which includes an imitation marble Geralt bust, a bag of dice, a physical map, an artbook, stickers, those lovely papercraft figures, a replica coin and [head explodes]. Aaargh, so many things.
Details here.
Alternatively still, there’s a cheaper ‘premium‘ edition with only some of the goodies, while pre-ordering from various retailers also gets you some bonus DLCy stuff.
What a lot of bonus things, eh? Which version will you get? The game’s slated for May 17, all being well.
Sounds like I’ll be buying it straight from their site. That’s one hell of a deal they’ve got there.
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agreed, pre-ordered it yesterday strait from GOG. The bonus goodie tracks are rather nice too.
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I’m sorely tempted by any physical edition that comes with a map, but I think I’m going to have to go with GOG on this one simply because I wish to encourage DRM-free AAA games distributed through a zero-hassle site as much as possible.
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I would love to support them but I think it’s a bit too expensive for me unfortunately. They need to rename themselves, I would by all my games through them if I could to be honest. Roll on Good Games.
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Ditto, pre-ordered on GOG even though I still haven’t played The Witcher (it is in my pile of physical games) and it is more than I have ever paid for a game. But you’ve got to support the type of service you wish was standard.
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I normally prefer to have Steam support for games when possible, but in this case I see myself buying straight from GoG. Like you said, this is the kind of distribution method that needs to be supported and encouraged throughout the industry.
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They should just shrink the text of “old” by a point size once a week… eventually it’ll be sorted.
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I just preordered too, despite not having played the first, and this being a little bit above my usual limit for buying a new game. But since I’m very much against DRM, this is a chance for me to put my money where my mouth is.
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Call me old fashioned but I am going to wait until the game is released, read some reviews and user feed-back and probably buy it a few months later when the prices drops slightly, some patches have come out and I have got through my vast back-log of great-games-I-haven’t-played-yet.
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On the other hand, if you buy it on Steam you get the game this month, if their store page is anything to go by….
http://store.steampowered.com/app/20920/
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If you’re referring to the release date bit I’m sure it refers to when it was listed on Steam.
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I’ll wait for standart edition. Don’t need those silly paper dolls, guides etc.
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Oh wow… One of the most anticipated PC games of the year, DRM free, that takes balls. Will be interesting to see the results. Anyway, I think I’ll both preorder directly and get a physical collectors edition.
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I think the free game is only one of those, not all. Still tempting.
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Actually pre-ordering from GoG gets you *one of* the listed games (your pick), not all of ‘em. In the event you’ve already bought all five from GoG they’ll set you up with an (unspecified) other game. It’s still by far the best digital deal going, though, especially for EU/UK buyers. (And if you’re an EU/UK buyer who just wants the cheaper price, and doesn’t care about the refund in store credit, GoG doesn’t seem to do IP verfiication, they just ask you what country you live in and politely take your word for it.)
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“€49.99 for EU citizens, £34.99 GBP for UK citizens, and $49.99 USD”
Fair pricing?
50 dollars = 36 euros, 35 pounds = 41 euros.
Yeah right. Paying almost 40% more is not fair pricing.
Edit: Appearantly, you get back the price difference. I’m sorry, I wasn’t really interested into the Witcher 2 and found the only part interesting which stated this. Still, you force customers to buy another game, but it’s not a bad move.
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Did you even read the whole article?
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they are giving the price difference back to people.
may be in credit, not sure.
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Even if I get $6 I’m still paying almost twice as much as if I bought a boxed copy. So I agree, it’s not fair pricing.
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Which is why
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I will say a little more then. I don’t think you can simply put the price in a currency converter and say it’s a decent price. It must be compared with what PC games are generally priced at in that country. Most PC games are available at £17.99 on release in the UK. But, it’s not as though other digital distribution services aren’t just as bad, so this isn’t aimed just at GOG and The Witcher 2.
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I would put AAA releases at least closer to £27 than £17, if not more, on release.
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Yeah, the standard price for PC games is £25-£29.99 though there are plenty of publishers pushing for £39.99 (Activision with COD and Starcraft 2 for example). Where you are getting £17 from I have no idea.
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Strange, I buy most my games at that price from Play.
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Well on Play
Starcraft 2 is £34.99
Civilization 5 is £24.89
Sims 3 is £28.99
New Vegas is £23.99
CodBlOps is £34.99
Need for Speed is £24.99
Football Manager 2011 is £27.99
The only top 10 game on Play at less than £20 is the Empire and Napoleon Total war compilation (which *is* a pretty good deal) and thats a compilation containing one 18 month old and one 8 month old game. The point being it’s not a new AAA release.
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But why not make them “fair” in the first place? Store credits are the very reason I’ll never buy with some kind of monopoly money on platforms like GFWL. Always a little debris for your next purchase…
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“Legal reasons.” Your call whether that’s sufficient explanation.
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@DrGonzo Thanks for flagging your opinions and statements as firmly in the ‘ignore’ bracket, few people do it so clearly!
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@ Bhazor
Just one example: you can get Fallout New Vegas for £16.99 from Amazon (inc. free delivery)
link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00272NCRC/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=
7 out of the top 10 games in CoolShop.co.uk are under £20 and 33 out of their top 40 games. It’s true that they are not all recent releases and that since the site is known for cheap prices it’s top 40 may well be influenced by this (ie. an especially cheap price meaning a title jumps into their top sellers). Play *used* to be the best place to look for the lowest prices but IMO it isn’t any more.
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I am tempted to buy it from GOG but I also value a physical copy. Also I don’t like downloading big games cos it takes so much time. It’s hard to decide. I’ll think about it later.
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Don’t sweat GOG’s ability to deliver. They’ve been able to do some pretty big releases (2+ gig) each with their CDNs. It’s wicked quick.
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I collect maps from games. then I frame them and put them on my walls. I also like busts…
So, depending on the pricing I might be inclined to go with the “All Out” edition.
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According to Amazon, the pricing is $130.
Me, I’m torn – I want the artbook physically, but I don’t care enough to spend more than a hundred bucks on it; and the GOG deal includes the artbook digitally…
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As a gamer, I’d love to have all the heavy goodies, but as a semi-nomad I see the value in having pdfs of everything.
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I like the idea of physical stuff too, something tangible to hold on to the experience you (hopefully) enjoyed, but I used to travel for work 10 months out of the year, and have gotten really used to basically having my whole life fit on some hard drives, a few cd/dvd spindles and in one or two cardboard boxes. PDF’s are the way to go for me too. And a scanner to photo copy your proof of purchase, media and UPC codes when I actually do buy a box.
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That is brave. And even if i didnt really really want to buy Witcher 2 anyway. I would buy it just on grounds of that decision.
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I love CD Projekt, I love gog.com and I love The Witcher
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So much love!!!!§ :)
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I didn’t have much interest in this. But I’m guessing the list of games from which you get to choose a free one is a list of games you’d like if you’d like Witcher 2. And is also, neatly, a list of games that I own all but one off. Therefore Witcher 2 is right up my street. And $6 of GoG credit is worth exactly $6 of cash to me :)
I’ll still wait for reviews and that but this has put a game that wasn’t especially on my radar into the middle of it.
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Wow, they couldn’t make their digital version more attractive! :D That’s too good a deal to pass up, as long as they include both english and other languages.
edit: I just read in their FAQ, that the game “will contain full localization in English, French and German”. Hooray! :)
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Its available on steam to, which is where i’ll probably get it, I like having my stuff in one place.
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Yup, same here, I’ll probably get it on Steam (mostly because the offered methods of payment are more convenient for me), although I see no real reason to preorder it six months in advance.
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Well you get to appreciate the nicely designed preorder button that doesn’t even have to reload the page :) Also you don’t pay anything until the game is released so there’s no reason not to preorder either.
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Ah. So you’re not really preordering then, more signing yourself up for a mailinglist.
Still, it is a nice button.
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I was a firm proponent of getting all of my games through Steam – but there are SO MANY good games on gog.com that you’re not going to get anywhere else, that it would definitely be worth it to make an exception this once. Plus, you can always “Add non-steam game” and launch your gog.com games from steam if you want :)
You really can’t get more convenient than gog.com, all of their games install to the same gog.com folder in program files, I have a separate downloads folder that I put the DRM-free .exe’s in, and it all works out perfectly. Once I got out of my Steam-only mindset, a whole new world of digital distribution opened up before me, and it was glorious.
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But I understand if Steam makes the pricing easier for you. Which is funny, because Steam is usually pretty terrible when converting currencies…
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I’ve been thinking for some time that GoG would be my unquestioned choice for digital games purchases, if only they’d drop the ‘old’ bit. Presumably it’s the publishers holding them back on the ‘no DRM’ front.
This is enough to break my boycott of full price(ish) games, and even wonder if I can find an excuse to buy it more than once to show my support.
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Well if you really need an excuse to buy a second copy Christmas is coming and I heard that you haven’t got me anything yet.
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I’ll just wait for the details of the polish release. The first Witcher was released in Poland with all the premium content as an regular edition and it cost something like 25 euro, day one.
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Standard version is indeed 25eur in poland, collectors edition goes for around 58eur
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I just had to reply to this. If only to have a pork lamb combo.
Now we just need Meat Circus to get involved.
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Holy crap I love these guys. Absolutely nobody else would take these sort of risks. Bravo! I think this is one of the first times I’m ever considering pre-ordering a collector’s edition of a game. Heck, I don’t think I’ve ever pre-ordered a normal edition of anything.
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Holy crapopolis, it’s already second place in Steam’s top sellers list, only behind the behemoth CoD: Black Ops!
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That might be because the release date on Steam says it’s coming out this month.
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To me it doesn’t display any release date. Maybe they fixed it?
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Yet for some reason Steam has it on their store, releasing November 2010. Breakdown in communications somewhere?
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That’s fantastic. I was already going to preorder, but this is way better than I was expecting. I am incredibly excited not to be dealing with copy protection bullshit this time, because the first Witcher was my single worst copy-protection experience ever. I literally could not play my legitimately bought physical CD copy of the game until I’d built an entirely new computer (for unrelated reasons, six months later) because TAGES would not recognize my CD drive. I even tried pirating to get around TAGES, and THAT bluescreened my machine.
I loved the game when I finally played it, but I was thisclose to refusing to buy anything from CD Projekt ever again. It remains the only time that I have simply not been able to play a game I bought and paid for.
So good on them for taking this approach, and good on them for making really excellent Western RPGs. It’s my favorite genre and I wish we had more good games coming out for it – I cannot live on Bioware alone.
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The “pre-order” button seems to be simply a “get an e-mail when this launches for your bonus game benefit” button, since I’ve accidentally clicked it and haven’t so much as give them my real name. The FAQs suggest that a GOG pre-order is a no-obligation deal as well. Personally, I’m more inclined to pre-order a physical base edition (AKA the Premium Edition, complete with map and a Manual Like
Your MotherDevelopers Used To Make and generally enough swag to make it worth an extra £10-£15, for a standard PC game price). Loot the initial GOG bonus and carry on.report
It’s £25 quid to pre-order the special edition on Play.com at the moment.
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It’s a retail-style preorder (where you can change your mind whenever you like and don’t have to pay until you can actually get the game) , rather than a modern digital distributor style “you get to pay us full price now, then find out later the game’s a piece of shit and be stuck with it” preorder. One more good reason to give GOG money, from where I sit, though I can certainly understand the appeal of the physical editions as well.
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It’s very generous and all. But isn’t it a little strange that one of those free games isn’t the first one?
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That’s a good point. Unless they are hoping people who haven’t played the first will buy the second then go buy the first one. Even still, would be nice to get a discount code for the first one. I already own it, but for those who don’t that would be a good deal.
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I don’t think the original is actually available on GOG.
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The publisher for The Witcher worldwide is Atari, with CD Projekt holding publisher’s title only in Poland, hence no sweet deal of “old game for free” for the entire world. Witcher 2 seems to have way more publishers listed (in Wikipedia anyway), with CD Projekt being the publisher in Europe. I think that would be the logical explanation.
Also, if I am not mistake, GoG.com was set up after the launch of the Witcher, so all publishing rights with distribution are still held by Atari.
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Any news on what the system requirements will be? Really looking forward to this game but worried I won’t be able to run it.
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This is from an FAQ thewitcher.com forums -
“7. What system requirements the game will have? – As for now (end of August), TW2 runs smoothly on computer with high-end CPU / GPU and 4GBs of RAM. By the date of premiere, 2 core CPU and mid-end GPU will probably be enough to run the game smoothly. It’s been also tested on laptop – with success. WARNING! These requirements are VERY approximate. More info will be available in 2011, when the optimization will begin.”
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@DrGonzo Thanks! Just looked on steam and it lists:
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or similar AMD
Memory: 1 GB for Win XP / 2 GB for Win Vista
Graphics: Nvidia GF 8800 512 VR or similar ATI
DirectX®:
Hard Drive: 8GB for game and 8GB bonus content
Sound:
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I hope it’s right, that means my PC will able to run it.
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Pre ordered from GOG. It’s a good deal as far as getting games on day 1 (something I do rarely for pricier games) is concerned.
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I pre-ordered from GOG for two reasons:
1)They’ll receive all of the money, after the bank(s) takes their cut for processing.
2)No DRM. I almost would buy this for that reason alone, even if the Witcher wasn’t one of my favorite games.
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I will buy both, physical and gog.com download. I’m a fan
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Me too probably.
I’ve preordered the GOG version just so I can give those guys the money directly without Valve or Atari nabbing a share. But I will probably end up buying the physical version just because I’m a sucker for ludicrous box sets and that sleek black slab will go nicely with my leather bound Anno 1404 Chest. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Anno-1404-Collectors-PC-DVD/dp/B002DWAZQ2/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1290115857&sr=8-6
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Not getting it right away, but when I do it’s definitely going to be from them. Just burn the installer to DVD then you don’t have to worry about downloading it ever again.
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I’m fairly certain that in a moment of wallet hating weakness I’ll splurge on the crazy edition above. Unless the lesser premium one also comes with the art book and map.
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GOG is DRM-free but Steam has Steam Cloud. I know I’m buying the game but I can’t decide from where. I’m usually heavily Steam-biased too.
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I don’t think this game uses steam cloud.
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Steam cloud is only used in titles that make use of the Steamworks API, being sold on the Steam store alone doesn’t provide access to those features (like cloud saving or Steam’s mutliplayer back end).
The Witcher doesn’t make use of Steamworks, it’s just going to be sold on Steam. So no Cloud saving or the like.
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They specifically announced Steam Cloud and Achievement support for the Steam version during the presentation, but it’s been lost in the shuffle with the GoG announcement.
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If this helps, I lost my Plants vs Zombies and Everyday Genius saves because of an error with Steams Cloud system. Stupid me didn’t back up my saves since the big thing about Cloud was I did not have too. I hate being so gullible. :(
Also, the Everyday Genius guys replied to me super quickly and showed me a fix (Steam made a new folder and some other jibber jabber) which worked for everyone… except me. Popcap pretty much e-mailed me saying I am screwed. Cloud save is now off for all games on Steam for me. :)
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So which of the bonus games should I pick?
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I’ll put in a word for Divine Divinity. It’s a fun diablo like game with a wider, open world.
I had some fun summoning skeletons and killing everything in my path :)
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I’d say go with Gothic 2, being the only one of the list I’ve played. I’ve played it 4 times to be exact.
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Gothic 2 and Divine Divinity are outright classics and you should get one of the two, if you don’t have them already. I’d argue the other games are just Old Games, as opposed to Good Old Games.
Unfortunately, I already own both on GOG, so woe is me.
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Personally, I’ve not played the first Witcher, so I’d like to see a bundle where you preorder the second one, and get the first to be going on with.
Mind you, what if I do that and decide I don’t like the original, then I’ve just pre-ordered something I don’t want :(
Ok, maybe I should just find the first one cheap somewhere and decide if I like it first, then order the second one.
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Pre-ordered on GoG.
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Not seeing how to get physical Collector’s Edition, and it isn’t on Amazon. Am I missing something?
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:confused:
http://www.amazon.com/Witcher-2-Assassins-Kings-Pc/dp/B003VJNPPE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290007066&sr=8-1
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Well, it is listed on the Amazon US page, but there’s a ‘what are you looking for?’ message on Amazon UK.
From the Witcher Site, this link lists the retailers as of today:
http://buy.thewitcher.com/index.php
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I’m in the US. My Amazon-Fu is just really weak, apparently. Thanks, Zyrxil.
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Amazon.co.uk has them both listed… just the link from that buy.theWitcher site is borked.
Premium Edition
Collector’s Edition
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I didn’t realize until I visited the official site that they’re doing that bullshit vendor specific pre-order DLC bonus for this too. I sincerely hope this trends dies out very soon.
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Wonder why no Witcher 1 on gog
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It’s a bit odd that it isn’t on GOG yet, but considering this preorder deal for #2 I’d expect to see #1 turn up there in short order.
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That’s my guess too. Having a big launch for Witcher 1 on GOG (presumably at $9.99) a couple of months before the new one could really give them both a really nice boost.
Certainly they’d be missing a trick not selling their own game in their shop I’m sure they’ll get more money selling it for $10 on GOG than selling it for £12.99 on Steam.
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It’s really a question of which version rather than if at all. Leaning towards the Play.com Premium at the moment.
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Yeah, consider this pre ordered. ‘Nuff said bring on the game.
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Finally, someone who doesn’t rip of us Europeans. Their everyone pays the same philosophy has been a major selling point for me.
I’m tempted to buy the game now. Even though I should probably go and play some The Witcher first. Still haven’t managed to play it.
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I am getting both GOG version and retail CE version.
Why?
Because CDP is the best fucking company in the industry, that’s why!!!!!!!!!
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I’m leaning towards the Play.com premium edition because I want the physical special items. Paradoxically it’s cheaper too. Before I order I want to know if the disc version has any DRM though. Decisions, decisions (a bit like the Witcher really).
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DRM on the retail version is to be confirmed, hence why I’m holding out.
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Well that’s a rather beefy pre-order bonus. And I like GoG and The Witcher sooo, consider this pre-ordered :D.
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The collector’s edition, for once, actually contains genuinely interesting items. I’m not sure why, but the idea of a Witcher-themed card deck is really exciting me. I have absolutely no idea how to buy it, though. :S
I wonder whether the non-Steam versions will be able to be registered on Steam for steam cloud stuff…
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Ah, I see Play have the Collector’s Edition: http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/17675438/The-Witcher-2-Assassins-Of-Kings-Collector-Edition/Product.html
A slightly mammoth £70. Eep.
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As some others have said… I would really be tempted by a physical copy, likely the Premium Edition from Amazon (£24.49), just to have a physical map and pamphlet. Although… I’m also slightly tempted by the GOG deal, for no-DRM and for the Art Book, although I’d prefer a physical copy of that, but could only get that with the Collectors Edition (£69.99)… but I don’t feel I need the ceramic bust of Geralt, or the playing cards, stickers etc. Then again, I’m also tempted by Steam, to keep things in one place, and because my trust goes pretty far with them. Also, it seems individual retailers are getting individual DLC extras… like a ‘swordsman suit’ from Amazon, a ‘magician suit’ from Play etc.
Anyway… It’s kind of moot til December, as I have few spare coins to splash around. Although I am likely to pre-order this, on the strength of the original (which I am still to finish, but started playing again tonight).
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I don’t know if this makes a difference, but…. GOG isn’t charging anything until the game is released(All I received was a confirmation email, with no request for account info). You get some digital goodies(avatars, some music tracks, developer photos and wallpaper) immediately, and you may always cancel/not pay.
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But, but… that would be like stealing (if I preordered with them, then decided to go for the physical copy from Amazon, and then cancelled with them… unless they take all the goodies away).
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Well according to their FAQ
“4. Can cancel my The Witcher II preorder?
It isn’t possible to cancel the The Witcher II preorder, however preordering it on our site doesn’t require you to purchase the game on our site, or at all.”
so I wouldn’t feel badly about it. Personally I’m a little confused as to how this constitutes a pre-order rather than just free stuff for GoG members.
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While I intend to buy it from GOG, I can see how it can be viewed as either a ‘present’ for GOG account holders, or a somewhat sneaky way of judging possible sale numbers. Also, if the GOG version receives the most pre-orders by a large amount, this could give them ammunition with Namco Bandai/Atari to release a boxed version without DRM.
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I’ll get the cheaper version, thank you very much.
I have no love for swag, but do not resent people who do.
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I’m not going to buy it there. I have no interest in paying an overprice just to get a store credit. Especially seeing as how I am in a EU country that doesn’t use the Euro. Forcing me to pay in a currency I don’t use makes zero sense.
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More like, you’re getting the store credit because you’re paying the overprice. If you live in a EU country where the game will sell for the equivalent of €49, then you will save money by using GOG.com. If your country has lower prices, then just say that instead.. Also, I’m not sure you know how currencies work. Tip: They convert.
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Of course currencies convert. But €49.99, £34.99 GBP and $49.99 USD doesn’t convert to the same thing. Forcing countries that don’t use Euro into using Euro is quite annoying, especially seeing as how it is by far the most expensive choice. Which I guess is the whole point behind forcing non-Euro users to pay in Euros.
D2D allows non-Euro users to buy from either .com .co.uk or .eu and use whatever currency they prefer.
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Just list your country as the United States and pay in dollars. I’m fairly sure that works.
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This is how to execute a boxed and digital release of any kind of game. Valve, please take notice next time you want to stuff a little piece of quickstart paper in the standard edition of your titles. Hell, even the pre-order DLC deals don’t sound as malicious as what Dragon Age dared to come up with.
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I’d love to support them by buying directly from their site, but I’m not going to pay over and above retail price for the privilege of doing so.
They can have ~£25 from me or they can have whatever their cut is of the ~£25 I give to some retailer. How they get themselves into a position to offer the same price is their concern.
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Attn. Gentlemen of RPS: It would be great if you guys would do an in-depth investigation of pricing decisions, who sets them and what pressures they’re under from retailers etc. It’s something I’ve always been curious about, and I’ve never seen a proper piece of investigative journalism on the subject.
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Good Old Games is a dangerous money-grab that’s killing big publishers. There’s a real problem with this kind of conflict of interests. CD Projekt’s monopoly on digital distribution can only end badly for the consumer AND business, developers get no practical incentive for packaging their title with GoodOldGamesworks. The problem with multiplayer through Good Old Games is there’s no consistency, if you buy a game through Yuplay you can’t play with people who bought the game through Good Old Games, and this is the problem with PC gaming in general.
wait what? i blacked out for a minute, where’d this text come from
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I’m torn between the physical premium edition from Play, for the map, and the GoG version, for the digital art-book.
I wonder if I could persuade them to keep the pamphlet thingy and the game-guide and give me the art-book with the premium edition instead.
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right now, I’m very low on cash, but I’m giving serious consideration to preordering the digital deluxe edition on GOG and the physical edition. I’ve paid full whack on a collectors edition exactly once before, but I do feel that CD Project deserve my money.
Now if you’ll excuse me, i better get back to earning a bit of dough . . .
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just ordered my physical edition on Amazon. I think that’s the first thing I’ve preordered in my whole life.
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Expensive? What am I missing? Its listed as 45 dollars on their site, that is a VERY good price for us Europeans who will no doubt have to pay at least 50-60 EURO on steam. Converted to Norwegian Crowns 45 dollars is roughly 280. Heck yeah thats incredible for such a big and new title.
It may be different in the US, but I don’t get why someone would say this is expensive and that they are money grabbing. This deal is so much better than steam for example, what are you guys talking about?!
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To me, it clearly says Euros, not Dollars. 45 EUR now (50 – 10%).
Well, 50 EUR (or dollars, fuck you Valve, which started this conversion tradition) used to be the standard price for a new AAA title. Now it’s often 60 EUR, in my opinion too steep no matter what. So 45 EUR is still quite good. But clearly not as good as 45 USD. And they had to do something with it – there are gifts on Steam…
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Not particularly crazy about the bonuses and what not, but their continued support for the first one is already worth at least half of their asking price for this one for me. Sold!
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Awww. Lovely. Sadly my PC won’t run any such witchcraft, so Xbox version it is. Hopefully I’ll get a free cloth map of Microsoft’s Content Restriction Division.
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Hate to rain on your parade but this is PC-exclusive
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Unless something drastic changes/has changed, it’s coming out on Xbox eventually. I’ll just have to play the Waiting Game (also not PC-exclusive) til then.
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This is a day 1 buy for me; I bought “The Witcher” on sale from Steam and loved it, so I want to give a little back; these guys deserve my money.
P.
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But will there be free hugs in the DLC?
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Saw this pop up on Steam last night and very nearly pre-ordered it right there and then. Glad I didn’t, as I would very much like to support CD Projekt’s DRM free approach with GoG, so I’ll definitely be getting it from there instead.
Now to decide which ‘extra’ game to choose…
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I’d really prefer the physical collector’s edition with the physical art book, physical guide, physical map and so on, but…it’s $130 fricking dollars, probably largely because of the bust of Geralt’s head along with a few of the other useless decorative frippery they’re including. And I don’t want or need most of that stuff, and the digital preorder includes digital versions of most of the stuff I -do- want, for only $45. So…even though digital versions of the artbook and guide are dramatically less valuable to me than the real thing, it’s kind of a hard thing to pass up. If only there were a release midway between the no-frills “premium” edition and the insanely expensive CE, sort of like how, say, Halo games have had a regular release, a collector’s release, and then the hugely expensive “legendary” release with the stupid helmet and so forth for a couple games now.
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ok so you got what you wanted, and you still want to sound like an grumpy old man? hah.
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Pay attention.
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Seriously. I don’t want this stuff to be digital. It’s only an acceptable substitute in the context of having to otherwise pay nearly three times as much for the real deal and its attendant pile of useless price-jacking rubbish.
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Bloody hell, this is one of these “food for the week or a game purchase in the name of the Greater Good” moments. I can’t possibly say no to that deal, can I?
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On the up side, you don’t actually have to pay them until next May, so you’ve got some time to save up.
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This is ridiculous. The ‘pre-order’ is essentially just saying ‘Yes, GOG, I will buy The Witcher 2 when it comes out… maybe.’
In other words, not only you don’t pay anything right away, there is actually no obligation to buy the game from GOG or buy it at all!
“4. Can cancel my The Witcher II preorder?
It isn’t possible to cancel the The Witcher II preorder, however preordering it on our site doesn’t require you to purchase the game on our site, or at all. We would be more than happy should you wish to purchase this game from us eventually, though. :)”
At which point, the only sane question is the one filed under 7:
“7. Are you guys crazy?
We get asked that a lot.”
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It’s a lot like a retail preorder, many places let you set up a preorder but don’t really obligate you to come by, pick the thing up, and pay for it. IMO it’s certainly preferable to the usual digital download model of buying a game months in advance, paying full price, and being locked in to buying it no matter what you learn between now and then. I’ve no idea why anyone would ever do that, really.
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Hope y’all remember what a bugfest the first release was
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So was Fallout: New Vegas for a lot of people. That didn’t prevent it from becoming my favourite game since Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura (which was ridiculously buggy too, now that I think of it).
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This is a brilliant deal for Australians, given that the in-store price will likely be $80+, and our dollar is currently sitting at US$1.01. Not that I’ve bought anything at retail for years, but still.
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Would Witcher even reach store in Australia ? (actual question due to your trouble with rating system due to that zealot I forgot the name)
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witcher one was released here but like in USA censored version.
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My God, do I see multiple game DVDs before me? Have CDProjekt taken the challenge of pumping more content than can be squeezed or cut to fit a single DVD? Is it possible we may have arrived at this generation’s Wing Commander 3?
Be still my heart.
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Nah, that’s the Soundtrack CD and the Behind The Scenes DVD you’re looking at.
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Imma is buying the version in article’s pic
only 76 AUD. cheaper than new standard releases here. shipping to Land of Kangaroos will cost extra tenner or two.
worth every penny.
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It’s DRM free… There IS justice!
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I have no interest in ‘bonuses’, just the game itself at a reasonable price. So I will be waiting for it to come down to such a price first before I order, just as with any other game thankyouverymuch.
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Pre-ordered on gog.com: I’d like to get the printed artbook and the soundtrack CD (rant about music digital distribution in general: I’d wish in this day and age more artists / shops gave customers the option to choose a lossless format like FLAC instead of only lossy ones like MP3), but the Collector’s Edition price is a bit too steep, and I love the idea of the developers getting more of my money.
Also, gog.com way of handling digital distribution is awesome, as my debit card logs can testify (well, “could”, as I’m not going to make them public).
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Don’t publish logs, it’s unsafe, your card number and CVV code would be enough to me.
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Saiko Kila: I was about to fetch the data ( my memory is bad ) but a clearly ill pigeon seems to have found the way to enter the room I left my wallet and mobile phone in.
I don’t want to risk catching pigeon flu by entering the now infected room, but without paying in advance, the decontamination squad won’t come to remove the pigeon and disinfect the room: if you could be so kind to provide your card details, allowing me to pay the squad, I’ll return the monée as soon as I get my card back and post the information you asked.
P.S. Of course, there will be an extra for your trouble…
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Sounds utterly fantastic. I think The Witcher might be one of the very few fantastic games that I’ve never played.
Is it worth me checking out the original? I notice it’s only £12.99 on Steam.
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If you want to play the best RPG since Bloodlines, hell yeah it’s worth it.
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I think I’ll put it on my list for the inevitable post-Christmas Steam sale.
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Would it be juvenile to point out the appropriateness of this boob -controversy game including a real bust for you to handle?
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I’m just sayin’ that they go full out and nude up the art book and cards (ala witcher 1 cards) and I bet they’d see a noticeable spike in sales ;)
This may be the first game I buy not on steam when given the choice.
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They don’t really need to drop the “old” from the name if they start releasing new games. When I drink booze I often say (to myself) “Good old booze” even when the booze is not usually that old.
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CDPR is a bit cheeky with the playing card set, love it.
I’m definitely buying it. Defo over GoG (to give them as much of my cash as possible), and maybe a physical copy later to get the physical goodies.
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Ooohhh. which one… If TW2 is half as good as the first one was, I might consider getting the ridicously overpriced platinum edition mine-is-bigger-than-yours edition, but for the time I have preordered from GOG, because, honestly, they throw a shitload of stuff at their customers, and DRM-Free, that has to be rewarded. Plus, the money goes to the right people, too.
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I’m torn between the two options, I really am. Get a physical copy from Amazon – my favourite games retailer – and save a few quid in the process or invest in a fabulous piece of decision-making by a company I really hope do well and get an old game for my trouble. I’m no fan of DRM but I do love a good map+manual…
Hell, I still haven’t played the first game yet although I ordered the ‘Enhanced Platinum’ edition earlier this week. From what people are saying I think I’ll enjoy it but even if I don’t…the screenies for 2 look bloody amazing.
(yay! – Hooray for being able to comment again!)
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Sweet deal, but given the games not due out until May 2011 I’m not feeling the rush to pre-order (like some have mentioned I’d like a middle of the road physical copy, with the Art book & making of DVD, but less of ‘Bust of Geralt’ and other unnecessary knick knacks). However worst comes to the worst the GoG deal seems pretty sweet.
What I think is interesting (and so far it doesn’t seem anyone has considered) is why CDProjekt have listed it for Pre-orders now? Esp given the game is still quite a ways off. I think they are probably looking for further funding from bank/investors and having a healthy pre-order list is a means to help them secure that. Positive in a way, but worrying in others, if they are that low on funding, esp if they don’t make their target date, or the game reviews badly.
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“which includes an imitation marble Geralt bust”
So THE WITCHER II gives you head? That’s very generous of them.
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Holy fuck, are us Americans getting boned on the pricing.
80 dollars more for the Collectors Edition? Fucking ridiculous. I know for a fact the Polish release isn’t seeing this kind of mark up.
Seems a bit shitty to be quite honest.
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