Game platform GOG fires employees and stops paying back price differences
Game distribution platform GOG.com, formerly known as Good Old Games, has laid off an unknown number of employees and is ending a program that compensated customers for game price differences in different countries.
GOG reports on its website that it will stop the so-called Fair Price Package program on March 31. The game distribution platform states that some games in the range have regional prices that can sometimes be higher than in North America. In the countries where it is more expensive, the price difference is compensated in the form of virtual money that can be spent on GOG. GOG states that it reimbursed users an average of 12 percent of the game price out of pocket and that this could sometimes go up to 37 percent.
The game platform states that it has been able to support this program so far by sacrificing its own revenue and still managed to make a small profit. This is no longer the case, according to the website, because it pays a larger share per game sold to the developers. As a result, the profit that is brought in is further reduced, according to the company. According to GOG, this step is therefore necessary in order not to sell games at a loss.
GOG says it hasn’t taken this decision lightly, but it will allow it to offer better terms to game developers, allowing for more classic and new games to be offered. The money obtained on the basis of the Fair Price Package can, as usual, be spent up to one year after receipt.
It seems that GOG is not doing well financially. Not only is the Fair Price Package program being terminated, but there have been layoffs recently, according to Kotaku. The website reports that an official GOG representative has confirmed that people have been fired, although more new people are said to have been hired in the meantime. However, an unnamed employee who has been laid off says that the layoffs are estimated to affect ten percent of the workforce and that the company is in dire straits. The layoffs are said to have been made on the basis of a ‘financial decision’.
On the GOG game platform, it is mainly about making old games and games available without DRM. The platform is owned by CD Projekt, the publisher of The Witcher 3. The Gwent card game has become a financial disappointment, according to two people at the studio, which CD Projekt would attribute in part to GOG’s limited reach.