Interview CDProject On DRM

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: CD Projekt; Witcher 2, The

<p>CDProject's CEO and co-founder Marcin Iwi&#324;ski <a href="http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-26-drm-treats-gamers-like-criminals" target="_blank">explains to Eurogamer</a> why DRM doesn't work and why a DRM free solution like <strong>The Witcher 2</strong>, stuffed with goodies like a Geralt bust or something, will work.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>"Let's look at Call of Duty," Iwi&#324;ski told Eurogamer at a press conference in Warsaw, Poland. "We are frequently checking the torrent sites before making our decisions. The game is out a few days and you have 100,000 people downloading it simultaneously. So it doesn't work.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>Indeed, PC-exclusive The Witcher II will be sold DRM-free on GOG.com when it goes on sale next year.</p>
<p>...</p>
<p>The breakthrough came when CD Projekt released RPG classic Baldur's Gate as Polish publisher. It included a D&amp;D book, five CDs (pirates were charging per CD), a map with a seal, a music CD and more.</p>
<p>Baldur's Gate sold 18,000 copies, up from the 3000 average. "Nobody wanted to believe us, including Virgin Interplay," Iwi&#324;ski said.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Well, in a sense their GoG deal worked, because it made me preorder the game, on the other hand if I was planning to get the game I would have bought it anyway. Pirates (I do it because I can muahhhahhaa) won't discover their virtues suddenly, you don't get the riffraff to pay for the game by adding a bit of useless crap. They can get it for free and they will, I'm afraid you're in for a disappointment Marcin.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com/#16234">RPGWatch</a></p>

 

[Multi-headed Cow]

But the collector's edition comes with potato carved in shape of Geralt's bust!

 

[DraQ]

I want to personally Iwiński right now, and not just for confirming my own line of thought.

No matter how effective various physical goodies are (and they can be sort of tokens of cool, which would make them fairly effective), they are bound to be more effective than something risky, demeaning and inconvenient (basically an equivalent of surprise buttsecks) that is only inflicted on legitimate buyers and that pirates get to bypass completely.

You can't compete with pirates in terms of pricing, you have to do it in terms of added value, be it actual irreplicable goodies or completely subjective stuff like giving your customers sense of superiority.


Also, much improvement over puke-inducing talks of cross-platform unification of interface and gameplay, which made me all and .

Barf.

 

[Mrowak]

Pirates (I do it because I can muahhhahhaa) won't discover their virtues suddenly, you don't get the riffraff to pay for the game by adding a bit of useless crap. They can get it for free and they will, I'm afraid you're in for a disappointment Marcin

Yeah, but let's face it - the kind of pirates you are talking about will pirate the game regardless of any DRM they could implement - they will just have to wait a little bit more for appropriate crack.

On the other hand, there are people who not remove games from inventory just because their copy has a shitty drm in it (spore, anyone ).

The logic behind it - I don't want to suffer shitty spyware that can screw my comp over all round, requires extra activation, probably constant access to net and so on. Why would I want to suffer worse treatment than pirates, and more importantly, why would I want to pay for that?

But if the dev says the game is DRM free and partially because the money did not go on development of that bullshit spyware system, I will receive more goodies in my standard box (which should be standard practice, not halleluiah miracle occasion) I might be convinced to give it a shot.

 

[Havoc]

On the other hand, there are people who not remove games from inventory just because their copy has a shitty drm in it (spore, anyone Rolleyes).

I fucking bought it! The fucking rage when I was in the village phase and further.

 

[CreamySpinach]

A DRM that can't be broken will save you more.

the moment you start putting out awesome games with huge amounts of contents, the more torrenting you can expect by so called "try before I buy"

If It i was up to me I would program the unbreakable DRM myself.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

If It i was up to me I would program the unbreakable DRM myself.

That would make you a very rich man. Very rich.

 

[DraQ]

I see I'm not losing much by having this cretin on ignore.

 

[CreamySpinach]

I see I'm not losing much by having this cretin on ignore.

bUt you are annoying by telling us about it.

 

[Fowyr]

If It i was up to me I would program the unbreakable DRM myself.

Imbecile. Any DRM can be and will be broken. Because in the final it is one or several conditional jumps.
Unbreakable may be only application where code runs on the server.

 

[lehphyro]

Now they need to lower the price. It's too expensive for people who have to pay double because they live in third-world countries.

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

I cannot speak for pirates, but speaking for myself the number of games I do NOT buy due to DRM only increases. I have even started to turn to the dark side of late due only to DRM. It is that simple.

On the flipside, DRM does nothing to stop piracy. I actually think it increases it in a manner, because pirates themselves enjoy a new effort to stop them, and being the first to crack the new system. So, DRM could be put down as a new release for hackers. A copy is then waiting, sometimes before the game can even be bought (sometimes months it seems, when the new English version of Drakensang 2 is taken into account...).

So, DRM stops sales, amuses pirates, and does nothing to stop the downloading of pirated copies.

Personally, I just cannot believe the major companies have not been told this by now. What poor business sense and knowledge, and no doubt these DRM schemes cost a fortune to implement. Ridiculous.

 

[Raapys]

I think the problem is that the people who invest money into it want to see the company at least try to do something about the 'piracy problem'. Regardless of if those measures are effective or not.

 

[Elwro]

<p>The breakthrough came when CD Projekt released RPG classic Baldur's Gate as Polish publisher. It included a D&D book, five CDs (pirates were charging per CD), a map with a seal, a music CD and more.</p>

Hey! I bought that original edition and didn't get any music CD! Filthy Pollacks lying again.

 

[Mrowak]

<p>The breakthrough came when CD Projekt released RPG classic Baldur's Gate as Polish publisher. It included a D&D book, five CDs (pirates were charging per CD), a map with a seal, a music CD and more.</p>

Hey! I bought that original edition and didn't get any music CD! Filthy Pollacks lying again.

Well, there was one in mine

Too bad I ended up losing it and the whole game when I was moving houses

 

[Elwro]

Well, there was one in mine

Shit.

Maybe I forgot about it... what was on it?

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Did you get the map with a seal at least?

 

[Mrowak]

Well, there was one in mine

Shit.

Maybe I forgot about it... what was on it?

All the music from BG2 (sans expansion of course) in the form of audio tracks.

I distinctly remember playing that cd each time I was doing some school projects in word.

Hate myself for losing it

Here's a link to the site saying what the game had:

http://www.gry-online.pl/S016.asp?ID=317

 

[CreamySpinach]

If It i was up to me I would program the unbreakable DRM myself.

Imbecile. Any DRM can be and will be broken. Because in the final it is one or several conditional jumps.
Unbreakable may be only application where code runs on the server.

If that is how you feel about it then ok. Just don't try to force that nonsense on our children.

 

[Avu]

What happened to that theory that DRM is here to stop second hand sales and not piracy?

 

[Elwro]

All the music from BG2 (sans expansion of course) in the form of audio tracks.

So that's the reason - you're talking about the second part of the game. The first part came with a sealed map (yup, I got it, and I still have it - it's pretty nice) and a book + 2 nice manuals.

 

[Mrowak]

All the music from BG2 (sans expansion of course) in the form of audio tracks.

So that's the reason - you're talking about the second part of the game. The first part came with a sealed map (yup, I got it, and I still have it - it's pretty nice) and a book + 2 nice manuals.

Darn, got confused

So CDProjekt ARE Filthy Lying Pollacks!!!

 

[adure]

i dont need any china trashcan crap.
i want a cheap game, and support with patches and free dlc.

 

[Mrowak]

i dont need any china trashcan crap.
i want a cheap game, and support with patches and free dlc.

Fair enough. In that case hopefully (i.e. I hope it'll be cheaper) GoG release should be for you.

 

[godsend1989]

i dont need any china trashcan crap.
i want a cheap game, and support with patches and free dlc.

i don`t need any of that crap or warever.
I want a pirate game, and support with cracks and obviously cracked dlc.