The next big PC game will be The Witcher 2, which should be released on May 12 (and if you’re cool like me you will have already pre-ordered). Unlike a certain other big RPG this year, it actually looks like it was developed within the past few years. If you order it from Good Old Games (the company behind GoG, CD Projekt, also developed the game) it will be completely DRM-free. That is to say there will be no DRM whatsoever. No having to worry about limited installations, no having to worry about your Wi-Fi connection dropping and thus cutting you off from the all-powerful authentication servers, none of that nonsense. What a concept—treating your customers like customers and not potential evildoers!
The game’s devs talked to Bit-tech, and argued what so many people have said over and over again, that DRM merely pushes people to piracy. Does this scenario sound familiar?
I know people that buy an original copy of the game just so they don’t feel guilty, and then they will play a pirated version which is stripped of all DRM. That’s not how it should be. Let’s treat legitimate customers with respect and they will give that back.
That was the game’s PR and marketing manager, Lukasz Kukawski, making all kinds of sense. The lack of DRM (at least from the GoG version; the retail version will include DRM because of contractual obligations) won’t create a rush to pirate the game. How many times have we seen games wrapped in 85 layers of DRM leaked online weeks before their retail release? Many times, thank you.