Sfon: The fast removal of DRM signifies something far more sinister. Some of the more perceptive of you might already have guessed as the truth. Let me go over this clearly for those still struggling with putting it all together:
First, DRM is broken before digital distribution release, rendering it useless.
Next, comparisons are made showing that the DRM has a much greater impact on performance than expected.
Now you are probably thinking that the proper response is to continue to insist that the DRM is working. If so congratulations, you think like a sane, red-blooded human being.
However that is not what CDPR did. In a shocking move, they removed the DRM simply because it was not stopping copyright infringement yet was hurting those that were willing to work within the system. This is not the behavior of a company run by our fellow human brothers and sisters. Rather, it is the behavior of an alien intelligence we can scarcely comprehend and that has little regard for how things are done on this great planet of ours. God's favorite planet.
So then what do they want? Our women? Our brains? I do not know. I know only one thing: This serves as a warning to all of us. And when the day of reckoning comes we will either have heeded that warning or all we love will be lost.
I lol'd...sometimes looking at it from a completely different angle makes things so clear, right? Thank you for this post haha :-D
On another note I would like to say what has already been said. CDPR as a development group was very clear on where they stand with DRM. Does that mean that all of their publishers are aligned with their philosophy? No. CDPR is a relatively young team, while these publishers have been around for decades. They are from the "old world". You can liken them to the Music Industry moguls who will do anything that is perceived to protect their investments. DRM, as already was clearly stated by CDPR and many others, and is self evident on EVERY single modern day computer game release, does not prevent piracy. Nor does DRM in your itunes collection. On one side, music artists (of any actual worth) are not concerned about DRM technology placed on their music, they are more concerned with getting their music out there, heard, and appreciated. On the other side, their record label (and some more financially focused artists as well) are concerned with getting the music out there with as little leak in potential profits as possible, and will support distributors who spend extra processes on "perceived" protection. Until it becomes
clear to all that DRM is not effective, this cycle will continue.
Ultimately it is up to CDPR's to reject publishers that support DRM, but the fact is that any major computer game publisher does in some form or another. So at this point it is up to the head of the company to decide whether they want to go completely independent, with limited distribution channels, or to take their chances with DRM and publish via the mainstream route.
GOG as great as it is and as much as it should be imho, is not a "major" publisher, and has the lucky fortune of being a sister company to CDP. The fact that DRM was removed so quickly in the other versions of the game is due to two reasons, I feel. 1) It has to do with the fact that they already had a version (GOG) without DRM, the DRM was tacked on to all other versions.
2) As was previously stated by someone in this topic and by CDPR themselves, they had planned at some point in the future to remove DRM from all versions of the game, if possible.