CD Projekt: Publishers "Scared" To Scrap DRM

Darkwave · 22 Sep 2008 at 13:01

Eurogamer said:
The Witcher developer CD Projekt believes PC piracy can be fought by offering greater value, but said publishers are too scared to let go of the DRM safety blanket.

Boss Michal Kicinski was talking to GamesIndustry.biz about the CD Projekt games-on-demand service GOG.com, which aims to remove the infamous protection software causing anguish amongst the PC community.

"We're trying to convince [publishers] there is nothing to be afraid of," said Kicinski. "DRM-free, that is something they are really scared of, but on the other hand we can say 'all of those games are available pirated widely so it's better to sell them for small money than make the customer's life difficult and get some more revenues'.

"I think that if somebody is paying for the game then they deserve own it, not with a certain list of conditions - and sometimes the list of conditions can be long."

Kicinski said many companies were looking to drop DRM due to the complications it causes, which, in many cases, has begun to turn customers away from titles using the protection.

"DRM makes customer's lives too complicated, and this is usually because of some corporate ideas, policies and trying to be smart, too smart, in how to get customers and how to keep them and not let them go somewhere else. We are believers in the free market and bringing freedom to customers."

Kicinski's comments follow a backlash from the Spore community over the limited number of game installations granted by DRM software SecuROM.

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=242940

I've been saying exactly this for a long time now. If you make good games, they will sell.

Discuss.

Margaret · 22 Sep 2008 at 13:03

Death to DRM!

Dark_Angel · 22 Sep 2008 at 13:21

Will be great if it works/they do it.

It really bugs me that a game chews like 9 GB's or so of my hard drive to install, but then asks me to plop the disk in when I want to play.

It's one of the reasons I got COD4 and a few others via steam.

uv · 22 Sep 2008 at 13:25

at least we know it's the publishers that are holding it all back, and that the devs couldn't care less for DRM.

Can't wait for the day that the publishers realize they only hurt the legitimate customer

Darkwave · 22 Sep 2008 at 13:56

Does anyone know how much a SecuROM license costs? I'd love to see how much of our money EA are spending on that snake oil, on a per-title basis, while Sony DADC rolls in cash ******* themselves laughing.

aob · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:09

Games are pirated whether they have DRM or not, and whether they're good or bad.

It's just the day and age we live in.

The best defence companies can use is ensuring they're making good games. Good games sell.

Bengaboy · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:27

aob said:
The best defence companies can use is ensuring they're making good games. Good games sell.

I dont think its a defence at all - if someone wants to pirate a game they will do even if its the best game in the world - even more so infact.

Shamikebab · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:35

Good games do not necessarily sell either.

Delvis · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:38

If isp's had a monitoring system which tracked you more if you went to such torrent sites, and downloaded such content...then yes, piracy would go down.

Better yet, if the hosts of the torrent sites actually got rid of the links to illegal downloads.

eyetrip · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:39

The people who pirate will do so regardless of protection measures in place and regardless of quality of the product.

And pirating is not a recent phenomenon. It's simply easier for distributors, etc to see it going on now, whereas before it would be one guy copying games onto a floppy disk. If you knew someone else with a computer then you more than likely copied a game at some point. It's perhaps slightly easier now, but still not that much different.

The mearures they are putting in place now are simply to stuff over the legitimate customers by trying to eliminate re-selling of the products. It's akin to binding a console game to the machine it was first played on.

They probably lose far more money on people reselling console games than pc games. They can't do this to console games because it would kill the rental market

Darkwave · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:40

Delvis said:
If isp's had a monitoring system which tracked you more if you went to such torrent sites, and downloaded such content...then yes, piracy would go down.

It's not an ISP's job to spy on you unless they're hit with a court order, and thank god because people say 1984 enough these days. I can only imagine the uproar if ISPs got full authority to police your connection.

Delvis said:
Better yet, if the hosts of the torrent sites actually got rid of the links to illegal downloads.

Until a torrent file itself is actually illegal this is moot.

ffallic said:
before it would be one guy copying games onto a floppy disk

Don't copy that floppy!

Delvis · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:43

Ulfhedjinn said:
It's not an ISP's job to spy without a court order, and thank god because people say 1984 enough these days.

No its not, but they could atleast have some thing's monitored like that, its a touchy subject of course.

Until a torrent file itself is actually illegal this is moot.

a lot of torrent files POINT and contain information to illegal material, so how is that moot?

Actually...I dont know how you can say that..When you can go onto ANY torrent site, and find something straight away that is dodgey (Latest movie, game, software) ON the sites very own frontpage for 'latest downloaded content' or something.

If people running these sites want torrents to continue for the good reasons, they would close all links to external illegal content...But obviously they won't do that, because they want the links.

4p · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:52

Don't these people realise DRM does not stop piracy AT ALL?

helmutcheese · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:55

I don't really give 2 hoots or loose any sleep over it.

Lets catch and jail all Pedo's/Rapists/Murders 1st then go down the list to lesser crimes inc Speeding in car or parking on a D/Yellow.

Delvis · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:56

Thorpy said:
Don't these people realise DRM does not stop piracy AT ALL?

It just causes annoyance to us users at the end of the day...

I mean the latest one on Warhead, it seems ok to me...I can't see myself changing my rig 5 times in the time I wish to complete it 'If' and 'When' I buy it...It's just down the line, if you suddenly fancy a go at playing the game, then suddenly you can't, because your install limits have ran out, and EA no longer have a support department for the game anymore or something? It's silly.

Hopefully they release a proper re-voke tool for the un-installs....I have read that they are supposed to be doing this actually

Delvis · 22 Sep 2008 at 14:57

helmutcheese said:
I don't really give 2 hoots or loose any sleep over it.

Lets catch and jail all Pedo's/Rapists/Murders 1st then go down the list to lesser crimes inc Speeding in car or parking on a D/Yellow.

well yes, but you get next to no sentence on said above cases as it is...so meh.

But I shant go into that

Darkwave · 22 Sep 2008 at 15:01

Delvis said:
No its not, but they could atleast have some thing's monitored like that, its a touchy subject of course.

Not until the law is changed.

Delvis said:
a lot of torrent files POINT and contain information to illegal material, so how is that moot?

Torrent files themselves are completely legal as all they do is index, I'm afraid that's just the way it is until they change the law. If you want them to do this then I suggest writing to your M.P.

helmutcheese said:
Lets catch and jail all Pedo's/Rapists/Murders 1st then go down the list to lesser crimes inc Speeding in car or parking on a D/Yellow.

I wouldn't personally call speeding a lesser crime as it can result in your third major crime.

Adsta · 22 Sep 2008 at 15:05

Just lose the DRM what is it acutally doing to stop pirating ? Nothing thats what.

Spore was released and cracked 3 days before it was even released on retail lol.
What did the DRM on spore acheive ? Absolutly nothing except that those who have bought the game can only install it 3 times. Some great ownership right there.

helmutcheese · 22 Sep 2008 at 15:06

Killing and Murder ain't same IMO.

@ Delvis thats because to the Gov, money is more important than life.

1) I walk into street with shotgun and shot some Mofo for no reason, I get life (10-14yrs) but get out in probably 7-10years.

2) I rob a Bank with a dummy gun, I get 20years (and will do at least 18yrs for Armed Robbery).

System sucks.

Darkwave · 22 Sep 2008 at 15:08

Adsta said:
What did the DRM on spore acheive ? Absolutly nothing except that those who have bought the game can only install it 3 times. Some great ownership right there.

If anything I'd bet that the DRM on Spore probably cost EA/Maxis more in lost sales than piracy, because of the huge protests and backlash in regards to the DRM itself and the word of mouth effect from that.

helmutcheese said:
Killing and Murder ain't same IMO.

If you kill someone while knowingly speeding, it's murder IMO. But that's for another thread.