Topic: CD Projekt: Publishers "scared" to go DRM-Free

[idolminds]

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CD Projekt on trying to get publishers signed up with GoG.com. They are scared by the lack of DRM despite the fact that all those games are already all over torrent sites.

I thought this quote was interesting:

"Piracy in Poland is always much, much bigger here than in Western countries so we got used to living with piracy and we grew up in a surrounding where there was no help from governments to actually fight piracy," he said. "So we had to learn to compete with pirates"

What a concept.

[Xessive]

Genius. These guys have my support.

[scottws]

Aren't these all old ancient games?  Why are the publishers so scared?  I could be wrong but I think the people interested in this type of thing would be people like us:  People who know a good thing when they see it and reward as such.

[MysterD]

Aren't these all old ancient games?  Why are the publishers so scared?  I could be wrong but I think the people interested in this type of thing would be people like us:  People who know a good thing when they see it and reward as such.

Publisher really shouldn't be afraid -- b/c old copies of their games ain't even getting them any money to be generated back to them b/c they likely don't keep the old games in print even. And b/c of this, Mr. PC Gamer sells his original copy of the game (that is no longer in print) for high prices and will profit on Ebay, Amazon.com, Buy.com -- or any of those places. Hell, just look for prices for SS2 and PST online from users and stores that actually have an old or used copy of them; they're HIGH.

Best of all, once CDPR gets a copy of the game's files, they just work their magic to get them going on Win XP, Vista, or whatever OS they want to support (if necessary). If anything, publishers with old games should see this GOG as an opportunity to make more even $$$ off an old game w/out even doing anything to it; hell, CDPR's doing all the freakin' work here by finding work arounds and stuff. Hell, CDPR and the publisher don't even have to press the copy on disc, which saves lots of money on printing discs, manual, etc; that's the gamer's job now, w/ the GOG Project.


I think publishers are thinking this -- they are afraid the GOG DRM-free copies of the game will make it on the Torrents -- and then not too many nor nobody will buy any copies of it directly from off GOG. That's why publishers are more likely to support STEAM w/ their older game catalogue than say GOG; b/c it has its own style of copy prtoection attached to it.

Since there's no DRM here, publishers are also afraid a user of GOG will just make a copy for their buddy; and that buddy will make another copy for another buddy; and the chain continues so forth and so forth.

[Xessive]

Aren't these all old ancient games?  Why are the publishers so scared?  I could be wrong but I think the people interested in this type of thing would be people like us:  People who know a good thing when they see it and reward as such.

So true!

Most of these titles will likely end up as abandonware anyway.

I don't understand why these publishers are so keen on encouraging piracy!

[MysterD]

So true!

Most of these titles will likely end up as abandonware anyway.

I don't understand why these publishers are so keen on encouraging piracy!

When a game is released early by pirates, maybe the pirates are their game's unofficial Q&A testers? 

Seriously, I think publishers just don't get it. They think it's THEIR way or the highway.

[Pugnate]

So true!

Most of these titles will likely end up as abandonware anyway.

I don't understand why these publishers are so keen on encouraging piracy!

hahahahahahahahahaah....

Imagine at some press conference:

Publisher: Well, we've included a new type of DRM on this software...

Xessive: Dammit! I don't understand why you are so keen on encouraging piracy!

Publisher: .... 

[MysterD]

I think publishers are doing install limits -- especially EA's, which have no revokes currently -- to keep down the amount of copies of old games being sold on Ebay, Buy.com, Amazon.com users, etc etc.

I mean, who'd want a copy of MEPC from a person who've already wasted even one install already?

[Xessive]

I tihnk the irony here is that these are all good old games which never had any form of DRM to begin with.

[MysterD]

I tihnk the irony here is that these are all good old games which never had any form of DRM to begin with.

Even the $10 Op Flashpoint didn't have DRM?
Or Colin MacRae Racing?
(Those are more modern on the GOG)

[Xessive]

Even the $10 Op Flashpoint didn't have DRM?
Or Colin MacRae Racing?
(Those are more modern on the GOG)

Yeah, they just had old-fashioned disc checks. The multiplayer is where they required a user login.

[MysterD]

ArsTechnica.com got an interview w/ GOG's very own Adam Oldakowski

Ars: Has convincing publishers to accept the DRM policy been tough?

Michal Kicinski: Yep. Actually that was one of the toughest issues we faced during the creation of GOG.com. Just like most innovative projects, GOG.com needs to overcome some stereotypes and obstacles which exist in the gaming industry. It's very hard for us—entrepreneurs who work hard to make a profit—to understand the corporate approach. We are able to show publishers that selling DRM-free old games will bring them additional revenue without extra costs, and the best part is that we can handle the organizational stuff.

In this situation it's very hard for us to understand why we would receive a negative reply to our offer. It's just something that is outside of our business approach, and sometimes it can be very frustrating. It appears that sometimes it's not so easy to get through some mental obstacles and internal politics, and even if we're talking business, it's not always the business factors that are the most important. But we're very determined and stubborn in this matter.

It's all or nothing for GOG.com; if we manage to convince publishers to join our service, we'll succeed. If not, then we have to halt the project. But there are companies and people who stay true to their roots, and their products will be available at GOG.com. Now these companies are Interplay and Codemasters, but more are sure to join soon.

It would be fantastic if GOG.com would be the first thing to trigger the avalanche. We don't believe it would completely remove the usage of DRM schemes, but it could lead to restoring the appropriate relation between customers and publishers. Today this relation is far away from the motto of "customer always knows best," which might be old, but in my opinion, should still be the basis of the relationship between the seller and customer.

Ars: What do you think the problem with DRM is today?

MK: The problem is very simple. It's fear and panic on behalf of big companies who can't define the source of their problems, and most of all, can't find the right solutions for them. Some solutions they've come up with are so repressive that they seem absurd. I stopped buying music CDs when some record companies implemented protection that prevented me from listening to them on computers. I was listening to most of my CDs on my laptop at work, so for me they became useless. Whenever I saw the protection logo on the CD cover, I didn't buy it even if I really wanted to listen to it.

I don't know what the people behind this idea were thinking when they implemented such a stupid protection scheme. For me, it just means that the decision-makers sometimes lose touch with the reality their companies find themselves in. They just seem to not understand their customers. The decisions are made by some calculations in Excel that say such protection will reduce piracy by X percent and will increase the income by Y percent. Afterward, it appears that the projections weren't quite right, and instead of solving this issue another way, they go back and add more restrictions. And after that, it all becomes so absurd that people start to boycott, protest, and make fun of it. Then the companies realize what they did, and they give up on that crazy solution.

For me, the idiocy of those protection solutions shows how far from reality and from customers a lot of executives at big companies can be. You don't have to be a genius to check the internet and see all the pros and cons of those actions. In my opinion, management spends way too much time in business discussions and not nearly enough listening to customers' comments. I think it would help a lot if people who decide to implement those draconian DRM schemes would use them themselves and see how they can be a pain in the ass. I think that would be a new experience for them, and not necessarily a pleasant one. And the money for those people's salaries comes from gamers who pay their hard-earned money. That's something they should always keep in mind.

It's a little bit easier for us at CD Projekt, as we are a young company where gamers work at every level of the company. So it's natural for us to understand and feel most of the gamers' problems, and not just those related to DRM. I also had some issues with activating games (strictly technical, but still very frustrating) or with buying games through digital download, because they weren't available in my country. For me, as a customer, such obstacles are very hard to understand and to accept.

Luckily there are more and more very reasonable initiatives that attempt to meet customers' needs. I believe that the future will bring more good things in that regard. The Internet and the dynamic changes of the market provide opportunities for new companies that bring with them new models of activity. If the "old" companies stay with their absurd solutions, sooner or later they will lose their customers to those who listen to what customers have to say, like Valve, or Stardock, and hopefully, someday, GOG.com.

Ars: If there was an old game that you absolutely had to have for GOG, would you be willing to accept one that had some sort of DRM?

AO: We would do everything to make the game available at GOG.com without DRM. The DRM-free aspect of GOG.com is one of our main features and we're really proud of it. The games we offer are probably already easy to get on torrent sites, but we believe gamers would prefer to buy their products legitimately than pirate them. They just need a good reason to buy those games and we give them those reasons by selling games at low prices, optimized to run on modern operating systems and adding great bonus materials.

Ars: What about legacy DRM in old titles? How do you get around that?

AO: We try our best to get gold masters from the publishers, so as not to spoil any of the user experience reliving the old classics. So far we haven't had any really old legacy DRM to get around, but I'm sure we'll have an internal conflict over whether we should leave the old copy protection that required the use of the game manual to allow the user into the game. For now, it has been far more challenging to get games to run without requiring CD/DVD drives, but our programming team is the best, and I'm sure we'll manage whatever comes our way.

Ars: Do you think the issue of DRM is taking the focus away from what PC gaming is doing right? No one is talking about the gameplay of Spore, for example.

MK: It's true. DRM is a very hot topic these days. To me it means that the solutions proposed by the companies are very controversial. Of course, it would be better if they wouldn't be so controversial, and then we could simply talk about what we like the most—naturally, these are the games themselves. I believe that the subject of PC games is still worth looking at, and there are lots of things we can do in the future to retain its appeal. Although the PC platform doesn't have such strong PR and marketing support, its open nature offers huge opportunities for creative thinking, not only concerning games themselves, but also considering distribution or developing new genres like browser games. In my opinion, the rumors about the death of the PC as a gaming platform are greatly exaggerated.