Consumers vs Pirates: Round 3. Fight!

Our good friends over at CD Projekt (the Witcher) have created a new digital download service for pc gaming. The service is selling primarily older games all without DRM. The CEO recently gave an interview admonishing other publishers for being scared to go DRM-free. They believe in offering greater value for the consumer to entice them to purchase legally.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/cd-projekt-publishers-scared-to-go-drm-free


Also, a worthwhile plug for Good Old Games. http://www.gog.com/en/intro

Personally, I think this is great. Finally someone can see the silliness of creating a security system that has thus far only stopped people who wouldn't pirate software anyway. I like Steam, but even they have certain restrictions for usage. This is what the masses have called for. Let's hope they respond positively and help make these kinds of services successful.

 

if im buying a game i want a box/dvds/booklet, for many reasons.

1.i do not want the same thing a pirate gets if im paying money...
2.i personally like to display my collection in my house
3. i like the fact that i can reinstall at anytime without the fear of lost files or passwords
4. i like reading the paper manual when i get home
5. the service will probally fail, but then again i hate all the pay to download site's even steam. css/dod is outdated anyway and thats all they ever had, when it comes to exclusives.

 

Wasn't it 'Download Like A Pirate Day' a few days ago?


Fwiw, Stardock have been offering non-DRM games & apps for years.

And I'm a bit ticked off with CD Projekt/Atari at the moment. The Witcher game I bought a year ago does not contain the registration code I apparently need to install the Enhanced Edition update. DRM-free my ***.

 

I think that's the ticket. The most simple is the act of buying a game, and the less obtrusive the DRM, the less inclined to pirating a software a computer user is.
Digital distribution is the way for it, I think, specially because of its worldwide availability. To expect that a russian, brazilian, chinese or argentinian user don't download illegally a software because it was not distributed in his country and it's not legal is just unrealistic.
Personally, I had a habit of downloading a pirated version of a game to test it, if there wasn't a demo available. Steam changed it for me. It turned so easy to buy the games I wanted, and so many promotions, that I'm probably buying more from them than what's healthy.

 

I tend to agree, I prefer retail packaging as well. In fact, I haven't bought much on the internet for similar reasons. However, as we've seen, there is a growing number of people who prefer purchasing online. And consider the large pirate community. If devs can get even some of these people to buy legally, that would be quite a sales increase. In this case, GOG looks to be supplying older games that may be difficult to find. Or in some cases, very expensive to purchase.

Yeah Stardock has done a very good job. But I think they only sell games they created? Still, I like their model as well.

As for the Witcher, I saw your post. That sucks, but I know Atari has moved sharply towards DRM recently. They have their own problems. Hopefully you can get a key.

 

I'm excited about this service. Their games will be priced at either 5.99 or 9.99, and will be older games that aren't that easy to get, certainly for the vast majority of people. Classics like X-COM: UFO Defense, Fallout 1, Fallout 2, etc.

Some come with manuals. DVD's/CD's are so cheap now, and writers so standard, that there's no problem for almost everybody just copying the downloaded game onto a disk themselves, if they like.

Additionally, they will be DRM free, an increasing rarity these days. Download it once and you own it forever, and don't have to connect to the net or ask anyone's permission to play it.

One thing I am not sure of is how well some of these will play in Vista and XP. However, a beta user reports using some of the games perfectly on Vista 64. There is the helper program DOSBox for the rest of us now(if we can get the games) to help us play on modern OS's, but I wouldn't mind being able to skip the step of dealing with it. Not a deal breaker either way, as this can still be done, whether more convenient or less. I'm just a big spoiled baby and therefore obligated to prefer more.

There are lots of old games I wouldn't mind at all playing again. At the prices this site is talking about charging -- why not? Dozens or hundreds of hours of some of the best gameplay in the history of gaming for ... five or ten bucks? I can dig it.

 

Yepp retail for me too. Even css/dod I went out and bought it mainly because I like to have a physical copy of the game/cd-key.

 

Yeah, there's quite a few games that I never played when they initially came out. I'm looking forward to the Fallout games and I'd like to see the older RPGs. I was pricing out games like Planescape Torment and it's like $50-60 and up for a used copy! Even the Fallout games are like $20 on ebay. I'm interested to see just how many games they can sell.

 

Yeah, I also like to have the actual disk in my hand, then at least you have something.

 

I will NEVER purchase a game with DRM that limits my installs. Honestly, I don't even buy products with the hard plastic packaging that is 50x the product size. I hope all companies that invest in DRM go Bankrupt. If companies think adding 50 cents in security is going to force the criminal to purchase their product as opposed to purchasing it, they can kiss my potential purchase goodbye.

 

This is pretty great news. It would be awesome if they had Planescape: Torment on GOG.com...I've always wanted to play that game.

 

Okay so I got into the beta, it looks like. I got my "Your Beta access key." However, there is no spot on the front page or the http://www.gog.com/en/beta URL that came in the e-mail where I can actually enter the key.

I wondered if noscript or Adblock could be blocking anything, but no. I fired up Internet Explorer just to be sure, which has no blocking on it. Still no go. I have javascript enabled, flash player installed, etc.

Anybody got any ideas?

Funny thing is they just sent me the key, so it seems weird that if there was a log-in, they would make it vanish from the page somehow.

 

I got my key 14 hours ago and that beta link led me to a page that looked likes this:

 

I got mine about 5 or 6 hours ago and I didn't get that page, just the teaser page. However, I just got home and ate, and firing up my laptop, tried again and got to that page. I'm in! Cool. They musta had some kinda problem for a while.

Wow Fallout for 5.99! And I've found out that they actually reprogram things to work in Vista 64, so I won't have to use DOSBox or anything funky like that, which to me is a big plus. Also Fallout has a high resolution graphics pack you can download, which should be sweeeet!

Gonna get that one and X-COM: UFO Defense right away.

 

Well I'm in the process of downloading Fallout 2...I really like how they throw in all the extra stuff like avatars, soundtracks, the manual, and a reference card. I'm excited to see how it runs...my last experience with Fallout 2 on windows xp was marred by the fact that the colors became inverted every 5 minutes. This web-site may eliminate my needs for a high-end gaming computer...there's so many old games that I've always wanted to play.

 

Yeah, 10 or 20 bucks can get you an obscene amount of great gameplay there.

Unfortunately, my transactions crashed three times so far. That's what betas are for I guess.

I ordered Jagged Alliance 2, Descent 1 & 2 sold as a single item, Fallout 1, and Giants: Citizen Kabuto. I've played Descent 1 and 2, and they were gigantic fun. I can't wait to try them again. Don't have a joystick anymore though. Time to see what's being sold these days.

Anyone has any recommendations, lemme know.

 

Ergg, unforunately I'm still having the problem with the inverted colors. I posted it on the GOG forums...hopefully they can help me out.

 

Well, I tried my order three times and it didn't go through. Sent two e-mails and no response yet.

And they don't have X-COM. But still, it will be well worth it for the other cool titles, once I get this transaction fixed.

 

I prefer to have the CD/DVD with cases,etc in my hands. This service is good when a crazy CD/DVD Drive destroy your disc. Two months ago my C&C Red Alert Yuri's Revenge was destroyed in that way. I needed to go to the Torrents because I didn't have back-up.

 

I like having the CD too, but with really old games, you're not going to find CD's anymore. At least not at a reasonable price.

Also, they have gone in and optimized code so that the old games will work in XP and Vista and promise lifetime support.