CD Projekt RED partners with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to bring The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to North America

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dragonbird said:
There'll definitely be a Gog version, and it'll be DRM-free - that's been confirmed by CDPR themselves.

When I said about "no guarantee", I was talking about the current deal where you get a free Gog version if you buy the retail one. Sorry about the confusion, I didn't mean to worry anyone.

And in response to


Again, CDPR WON the part of the court case about removing the DRM, the courts said they were entitled to do so.


Not disagreeing with you, it would just cost them a lot of money were the same circumstance happens again. Though I would imagine WB know of their crusade.
 
What exactly does it mean? Distributing physical copies? Marketing (i.e. advertisement) and etc.? I personally don't really care about physical copies (since there is GOG), and care even less about Warner Brothers. All I know they are one of the worst DRM freaks, and dealing with them must be a bad experience. If CDRP will deal with them, they have to insist on DRM free distribution. If not CDPR themselves, who else will do it for them?
 
The role and value of a distributor are lost on those who do not consider how damnably expensive and effortful it actually is to get a title that needs to sell millions into a marketplace where it can actually sell millions. A distributor who is well established in the market and who can fund and execute everything from advertising to shelf placement is absolutely essential.

CDPR is not so abjectly dependent on the distributor as many game studios are. Often the development is funded in whole or in part by the distributor. Because the development is on CDPR's funds, they have a lot more leverage than they would otherwise. But there is still an inequality of bargaining power at something like 50 to 1. That's how much smaller CDPR is than even the tiny bit of Time Warner that is Warner Interactive.

You couldn't buy the game for cheap (and $60 or whatever it comes out at is damn cheap) without a distributor to go out and get the volume needed to sell the game profitably at that price. CDPR knows this very well, being a distributor themselves, and has engaged a distributor that is capable of generating the sales in North America that it needs.

Whether they have to give away more control than some of us want them to seems to be a worthwhile question until you compare it to the alternative, which is that we do not get the game at all, CDPR loses their sunk development costs, and the next we hear from them has "bankruptcy court" in the headline. Because that is what would happen if they refused to deal on terms acceptable to the distributor.
 
What exactly are Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment distribution channels? Physical media only? Is it supposed to outperform digital distribution like GOG, or they have their own digital distribution channels? Or their role is purely marketing (i.e. directing people to GOG)?
 
Gilrond said:
What exactly are Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment distribution channels? Physical media only? Is it supposed to outperform digital distribution like GOG, or they have their own digital distribution channels? Or their role is purely marketing (i.e. directing people to GOG)?

Well, don't forget that we are not talking about only PC version. WB will promote and distribute X1 and ps4 versions as well.
 

Sken

Forum veteran
GuyN said:
The role and value of a distributor are lost on those who do not consider how damnably expensive and effortful it actually is to get a title that needs to sell millions into a marketplace where it can actually sell millions. A distributor who is well established in the market and who can fund and execute everything from advertising to shelf placement is absolutely essential.

CDPR is not so abjectly dependent on the distributor as many game studios are. Often the development is funded in whole or in part by the distributor. Because the development is on CDPR's funds, they have a lot more leverage than they would otherwise. But there is still an inequality of bargaining power at something like 50 to 1. That's how much smaller CDPR is than even the tiny bit of Time Warner that is Warner Interactive.

You couldn't buy the game for cheap (and $60 or whatever it comes out at is damn cheap) without a distributor to go out and get the volume needed to sell the game profitably at that price. CDPR knows this very well, being a distributor themselves, and has engaged a distributor that is capable of generating the sales in North America that it needs.

Whether they have to give away more control than some of us want them to seems to be a worthwhile question until you compare it to the alternative, which is that we do not get the game at all, CDPR loses their sunk development costs, and the next we hear from them has "bankruptcy court" in the headline. Because that is what would happen if they refused to deal on terms acceptable to the distributor.
The other factor is, who wants CDPR to waste their time talking to buying groups for every single potential client around the world, setting up trading accounts with volume rebate, promotional co-op, return and price protection markdown policies etc.

People like Warner already have these things well established and will provide all clients a submission well before the release with the details and expected sales of the Witcher 3, plenty of time to gather pre-order data amongst retailers to influence manufacture numbers.

There is also the benefit of a company like Warner already having agreed marketing space in most catalogs for major retailers, they'll make sure Witcher 3 hits its sales potential better than CDPR ever could.

GOG.com is just cream really and will be a small pie in overall sales.
 
Gilrond said:
I see. So the bulk of attention for WB with distributing TW3 would be the console market?

In NA? Absolutely. I would think they may have no DRM on physical PC copies simply because with DRM-free GOG back-up versions for every physical copy sold it wouldn't make much sense anyway, and the amount of PC copies sold in NA will be several times less then console copies. So just to grant it to CDPR who are against DRM is not a bad business move.
 
Gilrond said:
What exactly are Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment distribution channels? Physical media only? Is it supposed to outperform digital distribution like GOG, or they have their own digital distribution channels? Or their role is purely marketing (i.e. directing people to GOG)?

Warner Interactive has done both physical media and digital download for other games, though the unit sales they would participate in directly is consoles and physical media for PC, since CDPR already has GOG and Steam for digital.

GOG will be an important, though indirect, beneficiary of the promotion of both the game in general and the physical product. But without the physical sales, GOG alone won't make the game's costs back. The fact that you and I may strongly prefer GOG does not matter. There must be a certainty that the unenlightened masses will buy the game into unit sales in the seven figures, or we won't even get the GOG downloads.
 
cmdrsilverbolt said:
I don't understand why it matters even if the retail version does have DRM- people can get the DRM-free game from GOG, should be good enough.
First off, we cannot be sure that they will repeat this giveaway. Secondly, as dragonbird said, there’s multiple reasons why a digital version isn’t an acceptable substitute for some people - a slow (or no) Internet connection being one of them.

cmdrsilverbolt said:
Or if you're into having a boxed version for collection, then get the DRM free game to play, and the boxed version later; I don't think anyone will be running out of either of these versions of the game.
You know, that’s great if you can afford to buy two versions of each games (one DRM-free digital one and one DRM-ridden retail one) but that’s not the case for everyone. We wouldn’t even be upset if it wasn’t CDPR that we are talking about but they are one of the few developers still stemming the tide against DRM and moves like this just feel like backstabbing. I mean did they not learn from last time?
 
Demut said:
We wouldn’t even be upset if it wasn’t CDPR that we are talking about but they are one of the few developers still stemming the tide against DRM and moves like this just feel like backstabbing. I mean did they not learn from last time?

What moves would that be??? Am I missing something here? Right now all we know is that they found a distributor for NA. Nothing was said about DRM on a disk, as far as I know.
 
Given that part of the Angry Joe interview which gregski already mentioned it does seem like the retail version is going to include DRM ...
 
Demut said:
Given that part of the Angry Joe interview which gregski already mentioned it does seem like the retail version is going to include DRM ...

Hopefully, WB decides not to. If CDPR gives a free GOG copy for every physical one, to put DRM on a disk, which actually costs money and makes disks more expensive for a distributor to produce, does not make any financial sense at all. Why to waste money protecting something nobody would want to steal anyway because every torrent on the planet will have a DRM-free fully playable GOG version on the day of the release? I hope WB will see the light of reason.
 
vivaxardas said:
I hope WB will see the light of reason.
Amen. The only way this would make sense is if CDPR would NOT remove it this time (and also give out free GOG copies). Maybe that’s what Warner Bros. is hoping for - that CDPR won’t dare pull that stunt again. Or maybe they actually put that in their contract :S
 
All I will say is if the physical boxed version of the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt sold at brick and mortar retailer stores has any Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection software of any type like CD Keys, SecuROM, or Steam, Steam Works on it I will fell like CD Projekt RED accepted a contract from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment that will be very upsetting to the loyal paying customer who despise Digital Rights Management (DRM) and who have also been a fan of CD Projekt RED since the first The Witcher video game was released.

I hope CD Projekt RED gave Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment a contract on how to sell their video game and that means no (DRM) on the physical boxed version of the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and that Warner Bro. Interactive Entertainment accepted CD Projekt RED's term on how to sell their video game.

If CD Projekt RED accepted Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment contract on WB's terms to include (DRM) then quite a lot of people will fell backstabbed.

Right now Wasteland 2 is coming out in October from inXile and published by Deep Silver and the physical boxed version of Wasteland 2 sold at brick and mortar retailer stores will be (DRM) free in North America and maybe the rest of the world as well so I will be buying 4 copies of the physical boxed version of Wasteland 2.

I will hold off buying The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt the first day it is released if there is no mention from a CD Projekt RED if the physical boxed version of the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will have (DRM) on it or not. If CD Projekt RED answers this question before The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is released that there will be no (DRM) then I will buy more than 10 copies I have the money for it if CD Projekt RED says there will be (DRM) I will not buy it not even off of http://www.gog.com/ PERIOD. I am against all digital and no physical boxed versions of a video game not existing or physical boxed video games with (DRM) software on them I will save my money and go else where.

I hope I won't feel sad in the coming months up until the release day of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
 
By the way, someone please tell Konrad Tomaszkiewicz about “He, she, it - the s must fit” :p Such a simple rule yet he still doesn’t know about it, apparently.
 
Ballowers100 said:
All I will say is if the physical boxed version of the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt sold at brick and mortar retailer stores has any Digital Rights Management (DRM) copy protection software of any type like CD Keys, SecuROM, or Steam, Steam Works on it I will fell like CD Projekt RED accepted a contract from Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment that will be very upsetting to the loyal paying customer who despise Digital Rights Management (DRM) and who have also been a fan of CD Projekt RED since the first The Witcher video game was released.

I hope CD Projekt RED gave Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment a contract on how to sell their video game and that means no (DRM) on the physical boxed version of the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and that Warner Bro. Interactive Entertainment accepted CD Projekt RED's term on how to sell their video game.

If CD Projekt RED accepted Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment contract on WB's terms to include (DRM) then quite a lot of people will fell backstabbed.

Right now Wasteland 2 is coming out in October from inXile and published by Deep Silver and the physical boxed version of Wasteland 2 sold at brick and mortar retailer stores will be (DRM) free in North America and maybe the rest of the world as well so I will be buying 4 copies of the physical boxed version of Wasteland 2.

I will hold off buying The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt the first day it is released if there is no mention from a CD Projekt RED if the physical boxed version of the PC version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will have (DRM) on it or not. If CD Projekt RED answers this question before The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is released that there will be no (DRM) then I will buy more than 10 copies I have the money for it if CD Projekt RED says there will be (DRM) I will not buy it not even off of http://www.gog.com/ PERIOD. I am against all digital and no physical boxed versions of a video game not existing or physical boxed video games with (DRM) software on them I will save my money and go else where.

I hope I won't feel sad in the coming months up until the release day of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

So, you won't buy a physical copy with DRM even when they will give you a DRM-free GOG copy with your purchase? You would choose to skip TW3 altogether just not to participate in DRM-promotion in any form? That is some serious commitment! Wow! The only things I feel that strong is about not killing babies for fun, and betraying my country. Well, I hope you'll get lucky.
 
Where did he say we would skip it altogether? Maybe he would merely wait until the EE is released. Or, just putting the possibility out there, download an illegal copy.
 
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