Kudos to CD Projekt RED: new patch removes DRM and enhances consumer experience

Brian Ambrozy 26 May, 2011 at 11:59pm ET Article published in Gaming

Today CD Projekt RED, developers of The Witcher 2, announced patch 1.1 for the recently released (and critically well-received) RPG. While it has the usual round of minor bugfixes and updates, two giant glaring things in the patch notes stick out: SecuROM DRM has been stripped from the game, and performance has been increased up to 30% in some cases.

The patch notes seem to hint that removal of the much-maligned SecuROM is directly responsible for the massive performance increase. The bigger question is: what does that mean for gaming in general? Developers (and hardware manufacturers, at least for PC gaming,) release patches and updates that tweak performance in tiny increments: 2%, 5%, and so on. If CD Projekt RED was able to get a thirty percent increase in performance by removing SecuROM, that is a pretty serious condemnation of the technology.

Development director Adam Badowski said,

“Our goal is to make our fans and customers happy and to reward them for buying our game and DRM schemes does not support our philosophy as they might create obstacles for users of legally bought copies. Our approach to countering piracy is to incorporate superior value in the legal version. 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. This purpose has been served, so we are pleased to let our users enjoy the full freedom of game usage they deserve.”

This is a beautiful sentiment and one that other developers and publishers should take note of: There is a middle ground that helps prevent piracy without punishing legitimate users.

The patch will automatically install for Steam users. Others can download the patch from The Witcher website

Comments

27 May 2011 ~ 12:01am Thrax Thank you CD Projekt RED. I will be buying your game because of this change. Count on that.
27 May 2011 ~ 12:03am primesuspect Honestly, this makes me want to go out and purchase this game right now JUST to support this kind of mentality. Vote with our pocketbooks, etc.
27 May 2011 ~ 11:54am AlexDeGruven I may never play this game, but I'm seriously considering purchasing it specifically to support decisions like this.

Bravo. Let's hope other developers take notice.

Edit: Do we have contact information for them for E3? I see them only in PMRs, but I'd love to talk to them just to congratulate them for doing this.
27 May 2011 ~ 12:06pm GooD Nice ! I was thinking about waiting for a price drop before trying the game but now i'll buy it as soon as i can to encourage this kind of decision.
27 May 2011 ~ 12:23pm primesuspect

AlexDeGruven wrote:

Do we have contact information for them for E3? I see them only in PMRs, but I'd love to talk to them just to congratulate them for doing this.

If you look at the calendar I shared with you (AHEM!) I made an appointment with them. I also emailed the senior producer for the game and personally thanked him for this.
27 May 2011 ~ 12:25pm AlexDeGruven lol... I suppose I should go forth and do that, then.

Carry on.
27 May 2011 ~ 4:36pm Cliff_Forster They only remove the DRM from games I don't care to torrent! ;*)

All kidding aside, good post in recognition of this move. DRM is an evil that must be destroyed!
27 May 2011 ~ 8:58pm Bandrik In one single move, Projekt RED has jumped to my personal (and rather short) list of worthwhile game companies to rally behind. Ultra mega kudos to the team for doing this, and for all the RIGHT reasons.

My interest in the Witcher 2 used to be only a casual curiosity stemmed from positive remarks I've heard about the game so far... but after this, I'll most likely be picking it up sometime.

This really is awesome news. However, I really, seriously hope that this will become a trend with game providers, and not just a notable instance that only occurs every blue moon or two.

To the rest of the gaming industry still using crippling DRM: your move.
29 May 2011 ~ 10:27am yagga I may actually buy a game again, if things like this start happening.. Haven't bought a game in a few years, including from one of my favorite series, which turned evil with activation requirements.
29 May 2011 ~ 2:17pm Bandrik And now apparently, Poland gave President Obama a copy of this game as a gift. Interesting.
The Witcher is not just a Polish-developed video game series, it's based on a series of books by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. So The Witcher is something of a national pride symbol, as well it should be.
29 May 2011 ~ 2:45pm RyanFodder I bought this game. I don't normally buy single player games anymore... but, due to a lot of factors, including the gaming community at Icrontic and supporting this decision, I will start with Witcher 2.
29 May 2011 ~ 6:02pm pseudonym Awesome move.

And buy the game because it is GOOD, not because it doesn't have DRM. The first one was great also. Give it a shot!