CD Projekt Plans to Make Witcher 2 Pirates Sorry

[Jarcin]

Wanna know how to stop piracy? This way!

I may or may not download things of certain sites, but if I see this actually going through and working, you can bet I wouldn't download it. It's one thing to wave a finger and say "hey now you shouldn't do that" but it's another in my mind to say "Don't do it, because we are watching you, and if we catch you, you'll pay....money...but before you do that we forgive you cause hey who don't like free stuff?"

They aren't being dicks about it, they are just looking to protect their product in a way that makes sense, watching and waiting, instead of baiting.

 

[gl1koz3]

I wonder what happens if you have a legal copy at home, but you just went on and played the downloaded torrent for whatever reason.

Yea, it is legal to do that, and how do they know if you have a copy of witcher 2.

Heck, if I pirate and got caught I can just buy a copy of witcher 2, and they can't do a thing.

Hmm, it would be still hard to prove it's actually yours and all that. Perhaps the mail/post trick can be used... mail the thing to your own address with the cheque and never open the package. If the date is before you are caught, then you can use that as evidence! The only problem... they (miserably) try to prevent you from copying the disk and some games even need it to play, so that's a double idiocy bonus to show off to the court.

 

[tzimize]

Hahahaha! That boat line was really funny

OT: These guys should give Bobby K. a crash course in PR management.

Also....GOD DAMNIT I cant wait for this awesome game. CD Project I think you are my new blizzard. I love you.

 

[omicron1]

It would be delicious irony if they sued every single pirater for $49.95 each. (Willing to settle out of court, of course!)

Nonetheless, I am proud to report that I have already preordered the game.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

They're aware that an IP address can be spoofed, right?
Have they ever heard of the phrase "Hire a thief to catch a thief?" That's what they need to do, hire one of these pirates to come up with effective ways to combat piracy.

 

[MazeMinion]

This is the way piracy should be handled.

No DRM, but companies tracking down torrents and fining those who download from them/host them? Fine by me.

 

[Cryo84R]

If they need someone with a bat to break some knees locally, I will give them my number and do it for free.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

They said that they would have DRM for The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. They did not.
They said they would have a console version for The Witcher. They did not.
You can talk the talk but if you don't prove yourself you'll just look stupid.

The lack of console version wasn't their fault, you know.

It sort of is and sort of isn't. They stopped paying Widescreen Games, they guys developing the console version. Their reasons for doing so were "meeting development deadlines", and "technical incapability created a risk of missing planned quality". Those aren't reasons to just stop paying a company doing work. Then the recession happened so they could'nt just up and find another company to start over again. I still think they should've held off on doing any work on The Witcher 2 until they were done with the console version.

 

[mistwolf]

It sort of is and sort of isn't. They stopped paying Widescreen Games, they guys developing the console version. Their reasons for doing so were "meeting development deadlines", and "technical incapability created a risk of missing planned quality". Those aren't reasons to just stop paying a company doing work.

Wait, they aren't?

If I am paying a contractor to renovate my house, and they are three months late, over budget, and it looks like crap, yes, that is a reason to stop paying them and stop them working.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

It sort of is and sort of isn't. They stopped paying Widescreen Games, they guys developing the console version. Their reasons for doing so were "meeting development deadlines", and "technical incapability created a risk of missing planned quality". Those aren't reasons to just stop paying a company doing work.

Wait, they aren't?

If I am paying a contractor to renovate my house, and they are three months late, over budget, and it looks like crap, yes, that is a reason to stop paying them and stop them working.

That analogy doesn't really make a good comparison in this situation though. We've seen the gameplay trailer for the console version of The Witcher. It looked better than the PC version, especially in terms of the combat controls.

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I think it was more of CD Projekt trying not to lose a lot of the money they made on their first developed game in the economic downturn. That, and if Widescreen Games wasn't a small company they probably could've taken CD Projekt to court. Abruptly ending payments to develop a game usually leads to lawsuits. That and CD Projekt didn't say anything about quality and deadlines being an issue until AFTER Widescreen Games told the gaming media about how they failed to deliver multiple payments at all. So if you're paying a contractor to renovate your house and you start to miss payments can you expect him to finish his job on time?

 

[CoL0sS]

Yeah it might be funny. But again what are they gonna fine a 12 year old kid who downloads the game without his parents knowing? 50% of his allowance ? XD But again it's better than limiting a number of installs or forcing people to be constantly connected to internet.

 

[Steve the Pocket]

Bonus points if they just have people fined/jailed for it instead of suing for actual money. That way nobody can say they're just doing it for easy money instead of to actually deter pirates. That's what got the RIAA in hot water.

That analogy doesn't really make a good comparison in this situation though. We've seen the gameplay trailer for the console version of The Witcher. It looked better than the PC version, especially in terms of the combat controls.

Keyword here: "trailers." It might have been buggy as hell on every single unit besides the one used to make the trailer, and nowhere near finished besides the parts they showcased.

 

[DeleteMe1112311]

I have to admit, it is really nice to see a company actually take responsibility for stopping piracy by taking the burden themselves rather than sacrificing customer satisfaction with useless DRM. My hat is off to you CD Projekt, bravo. Expect my order or pre-order as soon as I have money.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Bonus points if they just have people fined/jailed for it instead of suing for actual money. That way nobody can say they're just doing it for easy money instead of to actually deter pirates. That's what got the RIAA in hot water.

That analogy doesn't really make a good comparison in this situation though. We've seen the gameplay trailer for the console version of The Witcher. It looked better than the PC version, especially in terms of the combat controls.

Keyword here: "trailers." It might have been buggy as hell on every single unit besides the one used to make the trailer, and nowhere near finished besides the parts they showcased.

Okay, well I'll show you a demo of the game instead of a "trailer".
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And I can't really see that being called, "buggy" or technically inefficient. They announced the console version of The Witcher in December 2008 and cancelled the game in May 2009. They wanted a Fall 2009 release. I can't see there being a reason to pull the plug on a game due to "quality issues" 5 months into development. Especially when given less than a year to do so for both major consoles, with a relatively new company. And as I mentioned before, they didn't have anything to say about the game's lack of quality until after Widescreen Games made it known to the public that CD Projekt hadn't been making payments. Now you can't even call that fair. The fact that CD Projekt just up and stopped paying the developers is just a dick move, and probably not legal as seen with Bethesda and Interplay over Fallout Online. The real nail in the coffin is that Widescreen Games went bankrupt in July 2009. Had CD Projekt actually guided the developers if they cared so much about the game's quality, maybe people wouldn't have had to lose jobs. I'm sure the sequal to The Witcher could've waited considering the PC version sold over 1 million copies.

 

[chinomareno]

Probably a waste of money on their part, at least they don't try to extract millions from normal people.

 

[Racecarlock]

A company that knows how to deal with pirates? There's hope for humanity yet. Seriously, though, this is probably the best way to deal with the situation and I can't believe that other companies haven't done this sooner.

 

[Zakarath]

Yeah it might be funny. But again what are they gonna fine a 12 year old kid who downloads the game without his parents knowing? 50% of his allowance ? XD But again it's better than limiting a number of installs or forcing people to be constantly connected to internet.

I believe it would be possible to fine the parents/the payer of the internet connection in that case... not sure though.

It sounds like the cases where my college has been sued because of students pirating using its internet.