GOG is under new(ish) ownership, as CD Projekt co-founder Michał Kiciński has bought back the digital PC game store from his old company. While there’s a change in management, it seems there won’t be a change in philosophy, as Kiciński insists the platform’s anti-DRM policy isn’t changing on his watch.
“This is a core value of GOG, and there’s no signs that it might die in any visible future,” Kiciński tells GamesIndustry.biz. “This is not only an ethical value, but it’s also very pragmatic. It helps people to enjoy games no matter what happens with the software provided by the platform or what internet connection they have.”
Kiciński criticizes the kind of game-buying experience “where you pay full price, but your rights are more as somebody who rents the game.” When you buy a digital game, you’re technically just buying a license to use that game – a license that can be revoked at any time. Technically that’s also true of anything you buy from GOG, but since the platform offers DRM-free installers that you can save as backups, your ability to install a given title can never be completely revoked.
“Since the very beginning, we haven’t seen DRM as a solution for piracy, because the games get pirated anyway, nearly day one,” Kiciński says. “We see DRM as something which can make the life of a legal customer more difficult. The only reason to keep it alive can be to please the owners of the games, because that’s their requirement quite often.”
“They couldn’t understand that it [wasn’t harming] their business because the game was already pirated,” Kiciński adds. “But they were not sensitive to the voices of gamers complaining that the DRM was causing some errors or slowing down the game.”
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