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Patch For The Witcher 2 Removes DRM Shortly After Release
A reader writes with this excerpt from Ars Technica:
"A little over a week after its release, The Witcher 2 is getting its first patch, and with it all versions of the game will now be DRM free. 'Our approach to countering piracy is to incorporate superior value in the legal version,' explained development director Adam Badowski. 'This means it has to be superior in every respect: less troublesome to use and install, with full support, and with access to additional content and services. So, we felt keeping the DRM would mainly hurt our legitimate users. This is completely in line with what we said before the release of The Witcher 2. We felt DRM was necessary to prevent the game being pirated and leaked before release.'"
I bought it from gog so there wasn't any DRM in the first place for me. Still, great attitude for them to take. Hope more companies follow suit.
This is a new take on DRM and piracy. On the plus its temporary, BUT if it fails to prevent being cracked before the release it could just annoy legit buyers for a week. I for one think its an interesting and positive strategy. They could gain with day 1 sales, and legit buyers get a DRM free product in 1 week. Personally I would put up with it, some may disagree. If you are super anti-drm simply wait 1 week before playing. Seems like a new, positive step in the right direction, and I'm at least happy to see a company try something new.
Most pre-release games come from people working at factory level. People that can swipe a freshly pressed disc. Alphas and Betas are the ones that are either leaked internally, or hacked (like we saw with Half-Life 2).
*cough* paradoxplaza.com/thewesterfront/2010/9/the-drm-dilemma *cough*
What the summary fails to mention is that the company still will actively be looking for pirates on torrent sites. Paradox Interactive's approach is not to bother at all, but rather provide those with unique CD-keys additional benefits.
Clicked pie.
Wow, I'm really liking this move, and I think it makes sense. Still, quite admirable that they don't leave the DRM on there for longer.
:-D
The first few weeks is when a game is most at risk of being pirated. Nonetheless, this game is already on several torrent sites, so it's not as if the DRM worked in the first place.
Anyhows, this is sortof obligatory: Penny Arcade's view on The Witcher
When you shoot a mime, do you use a silencer?
Which is just another form of DRM and it makes the resell value of your game basically zero (which of course is the entire idea). 0-Day DLCs and forced online activation (so you get access to all the content you already paid for) are even worse than the other crap as they require you to give up personal info (to be able to sign up) to companies that have your privacy as a very high priority (hello Sony)
The story was DRMed until now.
It was mainly the publisher, the CDProject guys never were happy about the DRM to begin with. Btw. the same goes for the price fixing on the publishers side. They wanted the same price for Europe and the USA, the publisher wanted to charge more in Europe and hence GOG (which is owned by the same company as CDProject) simply gave refunds for various other games in their catalogue to make up for the price difference.
CDProject are really nice guys and I hope they sell a load of games everyone who pirates this game really is a criminal they went great lengths to be customer friendly.
I bought the game on GoG($45 USD) because it was $30 cheaper than the Steam version($75 USD) on the Aussie store. DRM free was just the icing on the cake.
I don't need to test my programs.. I have an error correcting modem.
The DRM was causing severe issues with the game. The only logical move they could make aside from telling their users tough luck was to remove the DRM.
It's certainly a nice story but it's not for the right reasons. They're just aiming for some good press by putting a positive spin on the fact that their DRM was defective to the point of breaking the game for its users.
When I buy a used car I don't get the original owners warranty or any free stuff which may have come with the original purchase, free services, road tax, insurance offers etc. Not entirely sure why you think a secondhand purchase should be the same as buying new. Being as this is a relatively effective and less intrusive way of reducing piracy it's better this direction than others have taken.
If you can come up with a good solution to reducing piracy and rewarding genuine purchasers of software then you could make a lot of money.
Also when I buy a car I am generally required to give lots of personal information, are you suggesting that you should be able to just have software like a book. Well it comes with some services (online content, updates, support) and it is reasonable to request registration for such services.
You however seem to want the moon on a stick, which I am unable to assist you with.
Perhaps it is different in the US, but in the UK you can transfer benefits like free services when you sell your car. Obviously they don't recreate the exact same sales package as they do for new games.
Pretending that this is the same as 0-day / new only offers in games is naive or misleading. I doubt many players have any issue at all with the odd novelty addition for new games, however games have moved well beyond that now. People who buy second hand, get the game with significant content or entire areas of functionality removed. Game devs are no longer even pretending to add extra for people who buy new, they are openly nerfing games for people who buy second hand (removing aspects like multiplayer, or campaign segments).
Given how much they some companies hate the second hand games market, I don't understand why companies like EA don't simply make their games so they don't work at all if not bought new, or require a ~£5 payment to activate a 2nd hand copy. At least that would be clear, easy to understand and honest (even if I don't like it).
Just in case someone wants to reinstall the original Witcher: The Patch 1.4 on this page http://www.en.thewitcher.com/the-witcher/1/ will remove the DRM that comes on the retail CD. You will need to download the appropriate language patch in the same directory. And then you can apply patch 1.5 for extra content.
CD Project are trying. They fucked up big time with the registration servers, but I do not think it was trough malice. Never attribute to malice that which, yada, yada...
No good deed goes unpunished...
Which part of the article you linked to said "Weill actively be looking for pirates on torrent sites"? All I see relating to the web in the article you linked to is this: "This does not mean, however, that we support piracy or think it is ok to share our games freely over the web. We still believe people should pay for the games they play. After all, this is what keeps this industry running." There's nothing I can find about pursuing pirates online, unless I am missing something? After reading the article I feel like buying the game, is it good? Going to watch some trailers in a bit.
No it's not.
There used to be a pretty decent trade in going up the side of a mountain, bringing down a block of ice, and selling chunks out of it. Then along came freezers, and everyone could make a "copy" of that ice chunk right in their own home. Now ice hauling is no longer a viable business model. Times change, technology disrupts, and sometimes something that was once lucrative becomes superfluous or worthless.
The selling copies model is dead, and it's only thrashing at all through enforced monopoly (an enforced monopoly over thoughts and numbers, no less). That's not going to work, with a machine designed to make copies in every living room. You are correct that asking nicely for a donation often does, and I often give one. But it's tough to demand money for something people can easily do themselves. If a chef develops a delicious recipe, but it's relatively easy to cook, a lot of people will cook it rather than going to the restaurant. Those who do go to the restaurant will see some benefit in paying that premium (added convenience, the atmosphere, what have you). And no, it makes no difference that in this case the cooking only takes a button press-if anything, that means less reason to go to the restaurant.
When you develop something that's not actually scarce, don't be surprised if you don't make a ton of money from it. Ideas spread easily, especially now that we've got a global network designed to do exactly that. We're well into a new paradigm here, and if the lumbering old giants want to ignore that-well, we all know what happens when you fail to adapt.
To fight the war on terror, stop being afraid.
When I buy a used car I don't get the original owners warranty
Not sure what brand you're buying. Maybe you need to buy a better car brand. When I bought my used car (private sale, not a dealer), it still had almost 2 years left on the warranty. And I know it transferred because I made use of it.
It was a SAAB, and I live in the USA.