I loved The Witcher. Such a great, great solo role-playing game. With today’s official announcement that GOG.com will release a DRM free download version of the Digital Premium Edition of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings there’s no reason to not get excited about this one. Well, unless they screw up the sequel and it ends up being terrible but other than that there’s no reason.
This remains one of my most anticipated games of 2011.
PR time…
Good Old Games: http://www.gog.com is announcing that it will be the sole DRM-free distributor of the Digital Premium Edition of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. As a sister company to CD Projekt RED, the development house behind The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, GOG has been offering preorders for the title with exclusive downloadable content, but in a change of pace today it’s what they’re not offering for download that may pique a gamer’s interest.
GOG’s copy of The Witcher 2 will not contain any DRM, unlike all other versions of the Digital Premium Edition.
“DRM is not an effective way to combat piracy,” said Managing Director Guillaume Rambourg. “Our main concern has always been the user’s experience with the titles they purchase, and DRM effects that experience in a negative way, which is why we’ve been absolutely thrilled at the opportunity to distribute CD Projekt RED’s incredible RPG. We’re also pleased that we’ve been able to stick to our guns with The Witcher 2 and release it DRM free to all of our customers around the world.”
GOG will be hosting a live Q&A with CD Projekt RED Senior Producer Tomasz Gop and GOG’s head of marketing & PR Trevor Longino. The Q&A will be on Friday, March 18th, at 19:00 GMT and during the Q&A, Tomasz will be revealing some exclusive “Making of the new Geralt” concept art and discussing the changes in the fighting mechanic from the original game. Preordering The Witcher 2 is free on GOG (http://www.gog.com/tw2) and doesn’t compel the person preordering a copy to purchase it then, and everyone who does so by Thursday the 17th will receive a password to enter the UStream channel. There, they will be able to ask questions about The Witcher 2 and GOG live, and everyone whose question is chosen to be answered will receive a free game code good for any regular GOG title.
Was looking to pick this up on steam but I do like supporting GOG.com and this is 5 kinds of sexy awesome. I would say 6 kinds but I’m out of butterscotch and handcuffs. 🙁
I preordered it a couple of months ago, the first time it went up on the front page of GOG. I was gonna buy on Steam but when I saw the magic words (DRM-free) I no longer had any reason to go with them. I’ve already got a dozen games in my GOG library and I’ll definitely keep giving them my money in the future.
GOG, I love you. Don’t ever change.
That this will steer quite a few sales GOG’s way.
I had considered pre-ordering this from a couple sources but a DRM free version can’t be beat. I’ll actually own the game, not just rent it by buying it through GOG.
I agree GOG is awesome (it really is, just placed my pre-order for this today), but this is an extract from the GOG EULA:
This Program is licensed, not sold, for your personal, non-commercial use. Your license confers no title or ownership in this Program and should not be construed as any sale of any rights in this Program. You may not transfer, distribute, rent, sub-license, or lease the Program or documentation, except as provided herein; alter, modify, or adapt the Program or documentation, or portions thereof including, but not limited to, translation, decompiling or disassembling.
This was from the EULA from Zork. Zork! Isn’t there a limitation of about fifty years on enforcement of copyright?