Isn't it great to see a developer learn from DRM mistakes.It's also good to see they will not slap on some unbearable multiplayer when it's not needed(Mass Effect 3).My love for CDP has reached epic levels.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/witcher-dev-drm-is-worst-thing-in-the-gaming-industry-6407588

Yea I like that they have a good attitude about it and despite some fumbling, stick to their guns.

Sadly, I imagine this game may very well be pirated a lot. That a company is good to its fans or that a few hackers get no challenge out of breaking copy protection means nothing to some people.

Still, all that considered, this policy seems like a wise one. I imagine attitudes like this endear people to the company, thus by extension vilifying those that take advantage of their trust and kindness for their own 40-60 dollar gain.

Hear Hear.

Well, every game worth a damn gets pirated a lot. At least CDPR doesn't bugger their legitimate customers, which I greatly appreciate. They're pretty much the only developer which I still buy games from, as everyone else pesters me with third party drm.

i'd imagine not nearly as much as spore was reportedly pirated

Spore's piracy numbers have, sadly, been dwarfed by many games today. True, I believe it was the most pirated game ever when it came out, but over the next several years, piracy seems to have gone up and up. At least as of the beginning of 2012.

Yeah. I still don't really understand the logic in tackling pirates by the curious means of alienating paying customers, but what do I know...

Wasn't it a case of with The Witcher 2, the initial releases with drm were pirated far more than the drm free ones?

Much love to CDP Keep chipping away at Steam. Keeeep going

Speaking of piracy remember that it also often consists a portion of those who had problems with legit version and its annoying DRM. Since CDPR won't be using any DRM, owners of legit game no longer need to pirate a working version.

Additionally lack of DRM is damn good PR.

I like the way this company works, especially since i could download a free copy of witcher enhanced version from their web site since i already owned a copy of witcher 2.

These guys are easily some of the most intelligent people in the industry, because they learnt an important lesson: you cannot stop piracy and DRM doesnt work. This is something that every major publisher doesnt understand.

CDProjeckt know they can't fight piracy, so they figured why bother. They know their games are going to get pirated like crazy, but lets be honest, they were going to be pirated like crazy anyway. However they've removed that group of gamers who will pirate a game to avoid the game's horrible DRM. Instead they've got a number of people who will happily purchase their games because they're DRM free and actually great games. For CDProjekt, DRM will NEVER stop someone from buying their games and it will NEVER force someone to pirate it instead.

The simple fact is that they can't stop the unethical wankers who'll pirate games regardless, but they've created a good rapport with the community and made sure that DRM will never drive someone to pirate their games.

I don't know - but I know that some people had to pirate the game at launch, since the DRM wouldn't allow them to play the game they've bought.

Thank you CDPR. I can barely play PC games anymore because I refuse to use Steam, but at least I can look forward to their games.

I wouldn't call it the worst thing in gaming but this isn't exactly a new thing. CDProject Red has been against DRM for ages. Which is why they have a lot of loyal fans.

This, I know of a few people who have needed to pirate games simply because they don't have access to an internet stable enough to play the game (or internet at all) but would have gladly bought the game otherwise.

I wish Bethesda Softworks would realize Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection software of any type is broken including Steam I wish for all the future video games that they publish, release, ship and sell the physical boxed video games at brick and mortar retailer stores to be Digital Rights Management (DRM) free meaning no CD Keys, or Steam, Steam Works either. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the last video game I bought and will never buy video games ever again published by ZeniMax Media Inc or Bethesda Softworks. I will be sticking to CD Projekt RED more and more.

I don't have a problem with DRM to be honest as I do understand the need to protect a product. What I don't agree with is extreme measures of DRM, such as always online games. Think i'm mainly ok with it because of how Steam integrates things together, but I would still prefer that world where game companies don't have to resort to these measures of DRM and they get a fair share of money with the company not being greedy jerks.

I didn't read the article, I've read several anti-DRM statements made by CD-Projekt, so pardon me if I'm reiterating some of the points the dev made. DRM has shifted focus, it seems. It's not about piracy anymore, that's a losing battle, it's about eliminating the second hand market. I'd hazard a guess that Steam is the most popular DRM software used by PC gamers today. It's enjoyable and useful, but at the same time, you can't let your friend borrow your copy of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, which is beneficial to the companies making games. Instead, your friend will have to buy their own copy of the game. The reason this is beneficial and worth investing in is because the second-hand games market is as profitable as piracy, that is to say that the company who made the game makes no money from you buying a used game. So, instead of fighting the pirates, they're cornering the people who are actually willing to spend money, but on used games, which is why programs like UPlay, Origin and Impulse have popped into existence.

I don't mind the loss of second-hand sales and the change to digital distribution, but still, the thought of Gamestops shutting down makes me a little sad inside.

I don't think CD Projekt ever used DRM so I would hardly say they learnt from it. Yes, having no DRM is a nice feature but I couldn't care less. Just if the DRM isn't intrusive and annoying, then no harm done.

How do they get piracy statistics? If they can get an accurate estimate on piracy can't they identify pirates?

I wish. The statistics, I believe, were actually released by a torrent website (and from there reported by other websites), and I doubt they'll give away their users.

Well. They don't actually stop people pirating. They usually slap the wrist of 1 or 2 people and tell them to not do it again, but that is pretty much it.

You'd think they'd want to downplay how much they were used, small problems don't get the same attention as big ones.

They could check the torrents to see how many people downloaded a game, but there really is no way to get accurate statistics since it's all underground. All the statistics concerning the amount of piracy are estimations.

The most they could find out about pirates is their IP address, but that's usually not specific enough to identify an individual.