marcin-iwinski
Latest
Witcher dev says 1080p vs 720p is 'a PR differentiation'
We're not sure at what resolution The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will run on consoles, but Marcin Iwinski, co-founder of developer CD Projekt, doesn't seem to believe it matters much. "It's more of a PR differentiation," Iwinski told Eurogamer. "We had the debate in the studio about it and actually asked our tech guys to explain how it works," Iwinski said. "And they sent me some complicated graphs that if I have this size of the screen, and I sit one meter or two meters from it, then I might be able to see the difference." Iwinski said he and his team are still working on maximizing each system's power, but that there were no plans to place artificial restrictions to make the game run the same across platforms. "It's against our values to dumb anything down for the sake of some business arrangement," he said. [Image: CD Projekt]
CD Projekt Red's winning formula: focus and respect
Marcin Iwinski, co-founder of CD Projekt Red, says his company has a pretty straightforward recipe for success: Stick to what you know and respect your audience. "You will not see from us a lot of diverse stuff. We will not suddenly start making racing games, because I do not think that is where our strength is," Iwinski told Gamasutra. "At the end of the day, what really matters is the experience which you are having with the game when it's out. And this is the one unique moment which defines us. If it's an average experience, pretty much what we are doing every day doesn't make sense." Iwinski also said respecting gamers has a direct correlation to sales, using CD Projekt Red's handling of The Witcher series as an example. CD Projekt Red produced the first game then The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, followed by The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 2: Enhanced Edition. Rather than charge PC players for the Enhanced Edition content, CD Projekt offered the DLC up for free. Iwinski said this choice was made because "we think we could have done better" so "here it is." Iwinski added that gamers "appreciate" that approach and "they tell their friends we are doing a good job and we respect them. And ultimately it will result in a sale." Some may wonder why CD Projekt Red would offer the content for free and not charge for it, to which Iwinski replies, "I think the value in the whole proposition is that we are honest, straightforward, and fair, and this pays back. So you can call it a business model, in a way."
The Witcher 3 DRM-free on PC; 'gamer-friendly' solution sought on consoles
The Witcher series of action role-playing games is reaching further than ever before, with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt launching simultaneously on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in 2014. The new consoles have been mired in discussion over DRM (digital rights management) recently, with Microsoft instituting connectivity requirements to play games, and PlayStation leaving publishers to decide how to control the sale and resale of their content. The Polish developer behind The Witcher, CD Projekt RED, now tries to find an ideal incarnation for its publicly asserted values, which are staunchly opposed to DRM of any kind. "I can only talk about our intentions; we don't have any agreement finalized yet," CD Projekt co-founder Marcin Iwiński tells me, carefully choosing his words. "It's all quite early and we're finding out about it this week, at the conference. But our intention, obviously, is to choose the most gamer-friendly solution." In CD Projekt's perfect world, those solutions would be aligned with their PC- and Mac-based digital distribution platform, GOG.com, where games are 100 percent DRM-free. "Whatever the solutions will be for our partners, we choose something ideally as close to what we have on GOG as possible."
Witcher 2 dev CD Project RED ceases legal action against pirates
After some strong words and even stronger legal actions, it looks like Witcher 2 developer CD Projekt RED is curtailing its actions against pirates over stolen copies of its last release. CDP co-founder Marcin Iwinski penned an "open letter to the gaming community" wherein he states that, "immediately" his company will "cease identifying and contacting pirates." Make no mistake, Iwinski isn't flipping his stance on pirates or the concept of piracy. "It hurts us, the developers. It hurts the industry as a whole," he writes. He is, however, flipping his company's approach to dealing with piracy, rolling back past legal options and taking "your opinions to heart" instead. Iwinski also points out that unless folks pay for games, companies like his "won't be able to produce new excellent titles for you," which we fully stand behind. So, in conclusion: Piracy? Bad. Legal actions against pirates? Also bad. Questions?
4.5 million pirated copies of Witcher 2 out there, according to CD Projekt
Polish developer CD Projekt claims that its Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings has been pirated more times since release than you might have expected. In a recent interview with PC Gamer, CEO Marcin Iwinski does some quick back-of-the-hand calculations according to what he saw on illegal downloading sites, and comes up with 4.5 million copies of the game obtained illegally. He also says, however, that "as of today we have sold over one million legal copies, so having only 4.5-5 illegal copies for each legal one would be not a bad ratio." He then suggests "the reality is probably way worse." Still, CD Projekt isn't interested in digital rights management, and Iwinski says that it would cause more trouble for legally paying gamers than it would stop any piracy. The solution, he says, is to both add value to buying games legally, and educate users about why it's the right thing to do. "We started offering high value with the product -- like enhancing the game with additional collectors' items like soundtracks, making-of DVDs, books, walkthroughs, etc.," he says. "This, together with a long process of educating local gamers about why it makes sense to actually buy games legally, worked. And today, we have a reasonably healthy games market." Iwinski's got a point -- it's often an easier battle just selling more legal copies of a game (by providing a better value to customers) than preventing would-be pirates from beating even oppressive DRM.
CD Projekt exercising caution before bringing Witcher 2 to consoles
During a recent press conference, Polish video game developer CD Projekt discussed the possibility of its upcoming RPG sequel, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, getting a console port. Speaking to Eurogamer, CD Projekt CEO Marcin Iwiński said that while the game's technology does support multiple platforms, it'll be a matter of "we'll see" in the months following the May PC launch. "We know how many players, especially in the UK as well as in the US, play on Xbox 360," he said. "We are pretty good at maths. That's all I can say for now." The Witcher 2 senior producer Tomasz Gop, also likely to be a math pro, explained that the porting process isn't a last-minute consideration. "We're doing a reality check every half a year or so. We take a level from the game and we try to put it inside our engine, because it's console capable on Xbox 360 and PS3," he said. "It's doable." Gop noted that developing for consoles alongside the PC version hasn't been an option, prompting the team to exercise caution first. "Three reasons: time, people and money. We have not released any console games yet. That's why we're approaching this topic with even more caution."
