GOG Cleans Up Botanicula Preorder Mess

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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GOG Cleans Up Botanicula Preorder Mess


GOG has a sweet make-up deal for gamers who preordered Botanicula from their site.

The launch [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116855-Botanicula-Debuts-in-a-Pay-What-You-Want-Deal] of the much-ballyhooed [relatively speaking] Botanicula was made doubly sweet by its inclusion in the Humble Botanicula Debut. The collection of Botanicula, Machinarium, Samorost 2, Windosill and soundtracks across the board in a pay-what-you-want package is a ridiculously good deal for gamers everywhere - unless, that is, you happen to be a gamer who had already preordered the game from GOG for $8.99. That's $1 off the regular price, which is a deal, but compared to the Humble Bundle offer? I think it's safe to say that some early buyers were feeling burned.

For its part, GOG says it knew nothing about the bundle until it launched and if it had, it never would have taken preorders at all. But since that horse is out of the barn, the company has decided to make the best of it by giving those who purchased the game a comparable bonus package.

Everyone who purchased Botanicula from GOG before 12:00 GMT [8 am EDT] will also get a copy of Machinarium, the full soundtrack and, courtesy of developer Amanita Design, a digital art book of Botanicula designs and character sketches. Furthermore, to set the GOG offering apart from the Humble Botanicula Debut, purchasers will also get a free copy of The Witcher: Enhanced Edition Director's Cut [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116855-Botanicula-Debuts-in-a-Pay-What-You-Want-Deal].

It won't make everybody happy - nothing ever does - but under the circumstances, it's about as good as anyone can expect. As to how this little debacle happened in the first place, nobody seems to know [or at least they're not saying] but I'd guess that oversight and inattention figure prominently. Copies of Machinarium and The Witcher: Enhanced Edition will be added to GOG libraries automatically on Monday, while download links to the soundtracks and art book will be provided via email. For full details, go to GOG.com [http://www.gog.com/news/gogcom_gift_to_botanicula_owners].


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eniac0

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Aug 3, 2010
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Gog and humble bundle are privately owned companies and im not surprised the least bit that this is the sort of thing that would happen. neither gog or humble bundle have interests into sharing their plans with the other as they now compete the same market: the indie games.

GOG got screwed because you just cannot compete with 6 games for 0.01c. Granted thats not what most pay but that is the official "requirement".

All i can do is raise my hat to the GOG.com team, you guys really came through for your customers. im happy they got on the indie market. they did old games a lot of good in my opinion (even if they still lack many games id love to see there!) and i think that with old game and indie games combined, they can place themselves in strong competing position with humble bundle if they can sell the "old games" idea to younger people (that are going for indie games)
 

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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The concerning bit is that GOG's preorder wasn't a secret. It was out there for weeks. It's hard to blame GOG for not knowing what the Humble Bundle guys were up to, but the Humble Bundle guys, or especially somebody at Amanita, should've seen this coming.
 

Woodsey

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Aug 9, 2009
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Fair fucking play to them. They've been generating, and I believe this is the technical term, a metric fuck-tonne of good-will lately.
 

Tanakh

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Andy Chalk said:
The collection of Botanicula, Machinarium, Samorost 2, Windosill and soundtracks across the board in a pay-what-you-want package is a ridiculously good deal for gamers everywhere
To precise, you will only get Windosill if you pay more than the average, which was around $8 yesterday and around $9 today.

Anyway, good for GoG, they are the second place i look to buy my games from, really classy guys.

Andy Chalk said:
the Humble Bundle guys, or especially somebody at Amanita, should've seen this coming.
They certainly should, but if we can cut slack to EA or Ubisoft over worse stuff, I for one will not hold this over a stuido that is trying to get on it's feet.
 

Agayek

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Oct 23, 2008
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Andy Chalk said:
The concerning bit is that GOG's preorder wasn't a secret. It was out there for weeks. It's hard to blame GOG for not knowing what the Humble Bundle guys were up to, but the Humble Bundle guys, or especially somebody at Amanita, should've seen this coming.
This is pretty much my take on it. I could easily see CDPR missing the inclusion in the humble bundle, but Amanita at least should have been able to see this coming. I don't know all the details, but it certainly seems like whoever set up the HB deal screwed over GoG fairly spectacularly.

Kudos to CDPR for the turn around though. They really know how to treat their customers.
 

razer17

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Feb 3, 2009
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This is really good of GOG, since they didn't have too. It's not their fault that it became part of a humble bundle.
 

Kouen

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Mar 23, 2010
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PR Nightmare reversed into a Win for all :)

Good to see this still happens outside Valve (MW2 Ban incident)
 

Sizzle Montyjing

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Apr 5, 2011
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Wow, this is really fucking cool. Like, really.
That being said, I've barely played any of the witcher... maybe I should do so.

But seriously, GOG are sooooo awesome, they even gave me Fallout for free... along with everyone else, but that's even better!
I wish I bought more on there...
 

verdant monkai

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Oct 30, 2011
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At least one game company isnt deliberately taking the piss, and trying to milk the consumer for their last copper.
 

Covarr

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May 29, 2009
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Andy Chalk said:
but the Humble Bundle guys... should've seen this coming.
The Humble Bundle guys didn't care. Their own customers weren't screwed, and to the inattentive observer it would seem as though GoG is the bad guys in this scenario.

P.S. Thanks
 

robert01

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Jul 22, 2011
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Rule #1: Never purchase an Indie game that isn't in a bundle.
Rule #2: Follow Rule Number 1.

These new games are CDP dipping their toes into the 'newer' game market, and maybe their regular customer base doesn't know about the million different bundle deals.

I haven't bought an Indie game outside of a bundle in probably close to a year. Why? Because I know if I wait it will be in a bundle.

These aren't the kind of things that GoG can afford to keep doing over and over again, and I doubt you will see them make the same mistake again.
 

Veldel

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Apr 28, 2010
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There are reasons why i love gog and this is one of em and makes me glad to be a consumer for em because they treat us like people