cdp.pl, formerly CD Projekt, has been one of the last holdouts against DRM. Founders of GoG.com and developer/publisher for The Witcher franchise, they offer a DRM-free platform for users to purchase games. Sure, they are usually good and old ones, aptly enough, but they are confident enough to include their most ambitious titles, The Witcher and The Witcher 2.
With The Witcher 3, we will see the title launch without DRM on GoG, trusting their users will purchase the title and be honest.
Apparently, the game will have a world slightly larger than Skyrim.
Hopefully, with very little empty space.
I have long been a proponent of DRM-free media, as you could probably tell. I believe that DRM-free titles end up netting more sales than the same title would have with encryption; even if that were not true, society is harmed more than enough to justify its non-existence. Sure, we all know unapologetic jerks and they are, indeed, jerks. Just because these jerks exist does not mean your company should, or successfully will, be the alpha a-hole on the a-hole food-chain. Chances are you will just upset your actual customers, now former customers. There are reasons why I never purchased (never pirated either, I just flat-out ignored the entire franchise's existence) another Crysis title after the first one's SecuROM debacle wrecked my camcorder's DVD-authoring software.
So, when The Witcher 3 comes out, back it up on your external hard drive and maybe even keep a copy on your home theater PC. Most importantly, buy it... sometime in 2014.
Only slightly larger than
Only slightly larger than Skyrim:( that’s a bit small I was hoping to see everything from the northern most parts of Kaedwen and Redania to the southern most parts of Nilfgaard… however because this game is going to be DRM free I plan to buy it on launch and I might even preorder it just to get the physical items. I like CD Projekt RED because they value their costumers and treat them very fairly. I just bought The Witcher 2 today since that game is awesome and it is (or was if your reading this 11hours from now) on sale on gog.com for just $5.99 that game is a steal at that price especially considering the additions that come with it….
When a game is DRM free (or
When a game is DRM free (or has the DRM removed 🙂 ) you can run it from almost anything. eg launching a game from a network folder.
I love being able to go to almost any computer with decent hardware, and connect a flash drive or external hard drive and just launch a decent game and have it just work.
I have even VPN’ed into my home NAS and launched games from backup, and have them work.
DRM free = ultimate flexibility. I currently share some install folders for certain games in order to run the games on the HTPC in the living room without having to install it there.