‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt’ Makes Fun of DRM Copy Protection
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Digital rights management copy protection, otherwise known as DRM, is often considered the bane of gamers everywhere.
Digital rights management copy protection, otherwise known as DRM, is often considered the bane of gamers everywhere. While its intention to prevent digital piratesfrom sharing unauthorized (and usually free) copies of games is a noble cause, it rarely lives up to its intentions.
Instead, DRM generally creates a headache for gamers who actually purchased the games, forcing them to prove their game is a valid copy by requiring an always-on internet connectionor through other irritating methods, and yet pirates are almost always able to crack the game anyway. While some game developers insist upon including DRM with their games, others are choosing not to and one has now even gone so far as to make fun of developers who use DRM.
CD Projekt Red, the developer behind The Witcher series, has previously made it clear that they’re not fans of DRM themselves. Their latest game, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt , drives this point home even further with a tongue-in-cheek easter egg that makes fun of DRM. The easter egg is a book in, entitled “Gottfried’s Omni-opening Grimoire”. The book’s description describes a system called “Defensive Regulatory Magicon”, or DRM, which describes a nearly impassable magical security system. However, the book itself claims to be the key to defeating the defensive regulatory magicon, offering multiple ways to deactivate or bypass it.
The book’s name is itself a pun, using the same acronym as CD Projket Red’s DRM-free game platform, GOG Galaxy. GOG Galaxy is the newest version of Good Old Games, a service which offered older computer games without DRM, and now offers modern games without DRM. While other companies have previously buckled to the anti-DRM sentiment, like Microsoft scrapping plans to use DRM on Xbox One, CD Projekt Red is clearly taking every opportunity to prove that they’re on the side of the gamers.
It’s understandable that game developers and publishers want to be paid for the years of work that go into a game release. Even so, DRM usually just frustrates gamers who actually paid for their games, and pirates inevitably find ways to bypass the DRM and release pirated copies. Any gamer that’s been through a DRM-induced headache probably already appreciated CD Projekt Red’scommitment to not using DRM in its games, and this amusing easter egg is probably making them even happier.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Kotaku