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.'"

No DRM for me anyway

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Interesting Strategy

[Brianech]

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.

Very nice.

[anomnomnomymous]

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.
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 [penny-arcade.com] :-D

Re:Someone gets it

[MareLooke]

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)

Re:Someone gets it

[evilbessie]

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.

Re:Someone gets it

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

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).