By John Walker on March 8th, 2012.
CD Projekt will never use DRM again, said joint CEO Marcin Iwinski at a talk at GDC. Speaking to a rather thinned crowd, presumably dented by the post awards celebrations of the night before, Iwinski was explaining CDP’s philosophy for success with a PC exclusive game. And one element of that was to completely abandon DRM, since “It doesn’t work at all.” The talk also revealed how The Witcher 2 had sold over a million units, mostly in retail, but only 75,000 of them in the UK.
By Craig Pearson on January 25th, 2012.
I’m fairly ignorant of what’s on EA’s Origin, which I currently think of as a Battlefield 3 launcher. But even I can’t wilfully avoid the news of more new publishers dropping games onto the digital distribution service. Not when it’s the likes of Paradox, Trion Worlds, and CD Projekt.
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CD Projekt Vs The Pirates
By John Walker on December 19th, 2011.
You’ll likely remember that last week it was revealed that CD Projekt had hired a firm to send out letters to those they believed had pirated copies of The Witcher 2, demanding large sums of money. It’s a practice that is widely despised, due not only to its propensity for threatening the innocent, but more significantly, because it’s based on threats in the first place. A person receives a letter demanding an excessive amount of money (evidence for this story suggests in the region of €750, corrected from 900+ that was previously reported), or the recipient will be taken to court where they may end up paying a great deal more. These apparently necessary court cases will be dropped if the fee is paid. And that’s why I consider it such a serious issue. Never mind the severity of the act of piracy, this process subverts the legal process, avoids actually providing evidence and proving guilt, and depends upon scaring people into paying money they likely can’t afford. This is something I wanted to discuss with CDP themselves, who I thought had given unsatisfactory responses to other outlets who suddenly picked up on the story after RPS reported TorrentFreak’s week-old article. My discussion is below.
By John Walker on December 15th, 2011.
Remember how we all cheered when CD Projekt removed the DRM from The Witcher 2? Although the GoG version was always free of the legitimate-customers-only punishing code, all other sources came with the straitjacket. Post launch, however, they patched it out, letting customers enjoy the game without concern. It seemed an all-round sensible way to behave, and despite piracy they sold over a million copies of the game. A happy story. Except, well, now according to TorrentFreak (and seemingly corroborated here, along with mentions of a few other titles) the publisher is reportedly threatening alleged (but unproven) pirates with ludicrous legal letters demanding large amounts of money.
By Alec Meer on December 6th, 2011.
As I believe Jim wryly observed the other day, increasingly blogging about non-mainstream games entails blogging about non-mainstream games’ business strategies. It’s bundles, sales and more bundles as far as the eye can see at the moment, and latest to join the ranks of those appealing to the light-walleted is retromancery central Good Old Games.
Come Thursday, they’re knocking 40% off the price of The Witcher 2 (thus dropping it to £14.99/$23.99) and lobbing in a free copy of the Witcher 1:EE to boot. I believe this is about the best price there’s been for Witcher 2 so far right, at least for digital versions? Then come next Monday (12 Dec), they’re making olden strategy epic Empire Earth Gold Edition free for 48 hours, and slicing 50% off almost all the retro games in their catalogue. So you’ll want to go and lurk like a bargain-crazed pervert on GoG.com round about then. Full details here.
I didn't say "bifurcation" even once
By RPS on December 4th, 2011.
It is, apparently, the season to be jolly. So which is the season to be deadpan? And the season to be sardonic? It seems like who ever is deciding on which season is which attitude really hasn’t thought through a fair system of use, or considered the roles they play in our society. I honestly think a poll for the use of seasons is the only fair way to decide.
Anyway, which game is day four? Which, indeed?
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By Craig Pearson on November 11th, 2011.
The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings developers, CD Projekt, have given us the tiniest glimpse into how much Steam dominates the digital distribution market. Their lovely action RPG sold nearly a quarter of a million copies digitally since launch, with a hefty 81% of those coming from Valve’s increasingly monolothic service.
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By Alec Meer on October 3rd, 2011.
And again! A not entirely industry-representative yet unquestionably fascinating/depressing look at what comprised the top ten PC game sales for Steam compared to UK retail over the last week. Will The Sims’ dominance of retail continue unabated? (Obviously). Will there be any surprise returns to the Steam top ten? (Yeah, actually). Read on to find out the answers to both these questions and more, as long as those questions concern the chart-placing of contemporary PC games. If you want to find out the answer to what the Queen had for breakfast this morning or where Muammar Gaddafi is hiding, I really cannot recommend reading the rest of this post.
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By Jim Rossignol on September 29th, 2011.
Confusingly-named The Witcher 2 mega-patch, 2.0, is now live. I’ve posted the full list of its contents below. It’s a big list. A list that address many of the criticisms from my review. For even more elucidation of what is going on with TW2 check out this interview with the development director. (I also notice that the game is $29.99 on GoG for the next week. It’s a cracking thing, and I’d recommend anyone who hasn’t yet taken the plunge to do so now. It’s going to be in my top five games of 2011.)
Interviewing CDP's Adam Badowski
By Jim Rossignol on September 27th, 2011.
CDP have spent the months since the release of The Witcher 2: Assassins Of Kings putting yet more work into the title. This all comes to a head with the release of the 2.0 patch on the 29th. This enormo-patch adds a load of content (even – gasp – a tutorial!).
We spoke to CDP’s development director Adam Badowski to find out what the Polish development studio had been up to, and how they’d reacted to the feedback on their game. We also asked whether it would take four years to get to sequel, and were told that the team are still considering whether to make a full-blown expansion…
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By Alec Meer on August 15th, 2011.
You couldn’t wish for a vaguer statement, but when it comes to what may well prove to be the year’s best RPG, talk of a ‘new and improved PC version 2.0′ is EXCITING TALK. This news comes from the end of a noodly, AOR music video featuring some silly rocker put out by CD Projekt RED late last week. Most of the video is Geralt striking a pose, but the end boasts of the upcoming 360 port – and a major new patch for the PC version, dubbed version 2.0.
I have no details for you than that, but at a guess it will involve bringing the various tweaks, updates and newosity from the console edition into the PC original. Win-win, hopefully. You can watch the music video below, if you must.
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