CD Projekt RED: Game Industry Should Use "Carrot Not the Stick" With Piracy

[Atmos Duality]

Really? That's what you're going with?

Yes, I see my poor phrasing now (was responding right before class began) so I'll amend my phrasing here.

The industry asserts that unopposed (no DRM) piracy kills business as pirates can always undercut the real deal.
CD Projekt takes pride in selling games with no DRM.
If conventional wisdom were true, CD Projekt shouldn't be in business. (theory)

Yet, in reality, (practice), CD Projekt is somehow still in business.

 

[BernardoOne]

DRM is awful and does absolutely no good at all. The only thing it will ever do is hurt sales and nothing more. Pirates crack everything in a couple of hours and the only ones affected are the legal customers.



DRM is crap and unnecessary. This is a simple fact. It will not help game sales at all.

Hell, I legally own some games and I pirate/crack them because the stupid idiotic drm is too much draconian. Batman Arkham City with its 5-installs maximum(and if you changed some part of your hardware it would use up another activation). Fortunately they finally changed it when the game became Steamworks recently. But I pirated it when the activation limit was in place, because thats some f***ing bullcrap. Same for Chronicles of Riddick and their stupid TAGES system that barely works and in some cases even doesnt let legal customers play AT ALL.

 

[Furism]

Isn't CDPR the company that tried to sue a couple million people for illegally downloading the Witcher 2?

http://www.complex.com/video-games/2012/01/the-witcher-2-devs-are-no-longer-pursuing-damaging-anti-piracy-lawsuits

Yea. They are. They condemn DRM, but then tried to sue people. Granted that is entirely within their rights, and pirates are doing something illegal, and yes CDPR stopped doing it, but really.I am not going to really listen to CDPR when it comes to how to "entice" people to pay for a game rather than pirate it, especially when their previous method was to ruin someone's life over a 50-60 dollar game.

Just because they don't like DRM doesn't mean they must like pirates. They would still like to make money off of their work, you know. Probably like you. Their point is that DRM is too intrusive for the legitimate users, and doesn't prevent pirates to play. But they can still try to prevent the pirates to play, as is their right.

 

[Scorpid]

Offering the Carrot doesn't do much good when the other guy can offer as many Carrots as you want for free

Because they can't. If you torrent Witcher 2 or whatever, you did absolutely nothing to assure there is a witcher 3 or Cyberpunk 2077 and you helped legitimize EA and Ubisofts goon tactics, great work stupid.

 

[Callate]

I generally applaud CDProjekt's stance on these things.

I also recently purchased a digital copy of a game that was widely available for the price of a web search for $25. It took the legal distributor three days to send me a freaking download code.

...

We've still got a ways to go before "as easy as piracy" is a widespread reality. GOG is great, but its standard of customer service is far from universal.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Offering the Carrot doesn't do much good when the other guy can offer as many Carrots as you want for free

But in order to get those carrots you have to do a funny dance naked during the full moon and there is a chance that the carrots are either rotten or possessed, suddenly the single nice carrot with the promise of more to come seems a much better option.

 

[Skeleon]

And this is why I love them, agree with them ideologically and financially support them. They (and their associated GOG) need to grow and outgrow the others, so that change can spread. Only when these pathetically scared little bitches see people like CD Projekt succeed with their customer-friendlier business model will they eventually see sense. Also, just bought Sang-Froid, DRM-/Steam-free.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I own both Witcher titles and will undoubtedly be buying Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3. These guys make great games, they then improve them and do not charge for these "Enhanced" versions. They care about their games, to make them as good as they can be, and they care about their gamers.

And the truth is he's right. "According to Iwinski, the best way to combat piracy is to make the legal method of buying games more convenient." Steam was pretty much the decider for me. The fact is, piracy is easier than buying from EA, Gamestop or uPlay. Steam however, I can buy, install and play a game legally in mere mouse clicks. DRM is entirely transparent and I can install what I went, when I want 24/7. That is convenient and the reason I am legal.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Some of the Paradox Interactive developers said something similar. The basic statement being that the best way to combat piracy is to actually make a game worth buying, then continually improve it with a combination of free and paid for content that people actually want, as opposed to whatever the developers couldn't force in to the initial release/deliberately excluded.

 

[Lightknight]

Is there any such thing as a "stick" where hackers are concerned? It seems to me that the only people the stick comes down on are the consumers. So the premise that they can use a stick at all is silly. But I guess that's their point.

 

[Entitled]

He is still kinda wrong in the sense of thinking about it in terms of pracy bein a thing that you can "combat".

You can make buying as convenient as you want, and there will always be a number of people who will still pirate.

Some of them wouldn't have the money for it.
Others grew up pirating, and find it more comfortable and natural than starting to bother with ANY online store.
Some others are practically non-audiences, who feel a mild urge to try out the game, that othwerwise comes nowhere close to wanting to own it.
Others are actual customers, who already did buy another copy and then lost it, or whose preorder was delayed so until then they helped themselves to a copy, or who want to make sure whether it runs on their machine.

Live with it, and focus on selling the game to potential customers, instead of stopping others from also playing it. The illusion that you can just defeat all piracy with convenience, is almost as delusional as wanting to defeat it with DRM.

You shouldn't add DRM to a game, but that's because DRM is moronic, not because if you remove it then you magically gain control over all piracy just as you wished anyways.

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I love this company so much. It's why I will be buying the most expensive edition of The Witcher 3, just to support them even more.

 

[not_you]

And THIS is why I continue to purchase from GoG/CDPR

But again, if companies know DRM doesn't work, why don't they take that stance to the shareholders... Surely if sales go up, they won't care...?

All DRM is is just a waste of time and money, since it's proven that any AAA title that is released is cracked within a week...

But w/e, hopefully CDPR will climb the ladder in game-dev world...
Still, can't wait for Witcher 3 anyway...

 

[Something Amyss]

<
"The industry as a whole knows DRM doesn't work, but corporations still use it as a smokescreen," he said. "[They're] effectively covering their asses, pretending to protect their intellectual property in front of bosses, investors, and shareholders."

I think this is probably accurate, but I'd like for people in the industry to confirm it some day.

Offering the Carrot doesn't do much good when the other guy can offer as many Carrots as you want for free

I don't know. Pirates can't offer much in the way of direct customer service.

its simple really the people who are investing money in company X expect to have a say in what makes the company profitable and it makes sense to someone unfamiliar with the industry that DRM would protect against individuals stealing the companies product.

And let's face it, people tend to invest without knowing the ins and outs of the business. People want to see their investments make returns. Piracy is a dog-whistle term for all media, and especially with the fanatical screams of the RIAA in the 90s, people have it on their brain.

But why use DRM if it's so broken, that's what I'd like to know.

Because it's easier to offer DRM than a mature explanation to people afraid of losing money.

 

[Extragorey]

People never bought games because its a hassle to pirate, it isnt. they bought it because they dont wnat to do soemthing illegal, they dont think its morally right to pirate or want to support developers/publishers.

And here we have the root of the problem. It's not about how easy or hard it is to pirate; it's all about how much integrity the consumer has. The growing problem of piracy in the video game industry (and the movie industry, and software, books, music, etc...) is a reflection of our receding moral standards as a culture. A lot of people don't even think piracy is wrong anymore - illegal, yes, but morally wrong? They'd tell you you're living in the past with outdated senses of right and wrong. Similarly, most people don't even know what the concept of absolute morality is all about. Modern philosophy tells us that all morality is subjective and relative and blah blah blah... And where has that left us?

With a generation of pirates.

 

[romxxii]

Go CDPR. But I would like a little further details. I am fully aware that share holders are the ones most pushing for DRM but my question is why. Why do people who are obviously out of touch and have little if any involvement with development of a game having such a huge say in how it's distributed?

Because it's their money that funded the publishers, funded development of the games. They, like any businessman, want to see a return on their investment.

 

[romxxii]

Offering the Carrot doesn't do much good when the other guy can offer as many Carrots as you want for free

Yes it does. Why do you think Steam has been so successful? I mean their DRM is honestly pitiful, and it gets cracked just as often as any other. So why do people still flock to Steam, when they could probably just go to TPB and get a release from RELOADED or SkidRow?

Well, it's simple: Steam's more convenient. Yeah, I have to pay for it, but I can download the game as many times as I want, on any PC I own, without having to look for the right crack, or worry that the crack will get flagged (inadvertently or accurately) as malware. Plus, I get free updates, and the damn thing partially installs during download, so once the download's complete I only have to wait for a 2-minute "installation". Finally, the amazing sales make piracy seem petty. If I can already buy a game for less than $10, what little excuse would I have for cheating the devs out of their hard-earned bonus?

Steam and GOG have shown that if you offer enough carrots, some people can be convinced to pay.