GOG drops Fair Price Package program, blames rising dev revenue shares

Digital storefront GOG is discontinuing its Fair Price Package (FPP) program on March 31 in anticipation of developers netting a larger revenue share. 

The FPP was a form of store credit that GOG would give back to customers when they bought a regionally priced game that was more expensive in their country. 

For instance, if someone purchased a game in Europe for €40, but the same title retailed for $40 in the United States, that customer would receive the $5 difference back in store credit. 

GOG claims the average refund was around 12 percent of a game's retail price, but in some cases that figure could rise to as much as 37 percent. 

At one time, the company would cover the cost of FPP credit from its revenue cut while still turning a "small profit." That margin, however, is shrinking as developers begin to demand a bigger share -- a shift driven by the launch of the Epic Games Store, which made headlines by offering devs an 88 percent revenue cut.

"With an increasing share paid to developers, our cut gets smaller. However, we look at it, at the end of the day we are a store and need to make sure we sell games without a loss," reads a short blog post from GOG.

"Removing FPP is not a decision we make lightly, but by making this change, we will be able to offer better conditions to game creators, which -- in turn -- will allow us to offer you more curated classic games and new releases. All DRM-free."

Any funds users have already gathered through the program will last for 12 months, but it'll will be impossible to reap more FPP returns after March 31, 2019.