No gamers like Digital Rights Management (DRM), but companies have been telling us for years that it's some sort of necessary evil. CD Projekt—the developers behind the very succesful PC RPG The Witcher 2—see it differently, though. In an interview with PC Gamer, company CEO and co-founder Marcin Iwinski reassured gamers that they stand by their anti-DRM position, despite rampant piracy of The Witcher 2.
Having monitored popular BitTorrent sites, Iwinski estimates that The Witcher 2 has been illegally downloaded around 4.5 million times, and he says that's an optimistic estimation. Despite this, he says, "DRM does not work and however you would protect it, it will be cracked in no time. Plus, the DRM itself is a pain for your legal gamers – this group of honest people, who decided that your game was worth the 50 USD or Euro and went and bought it. Why would you want to make their lives more difficult?"
Bravo, sir. There's a bit more in the interview, but that's the gist of it. "In my almost 20 years in the industry," he says, "I have not seen DRM that really worked." We wonder how many people will buy the game today just to support such an honest and realistic developer.
