Last year, CD Projekt RED, developer of The Witcher series, started sending out letters to pirates of The Witcher 2, demanding payment and threatening legal action. Soon after the studio stopped sending the letters and issued an apology for its actions. Recently CD Projekt's PR Specialist Agnieszka Szóstak admitted the letters weren't the best way to go about the matter.
It was all about sending letters to people who we knew pirated [The Witcher 2], and say, 'Hey, we know you have the pirated version of the game, and it would be nice if you could actually pay for it if you find the game good enough.'
Although, once we started doing that, we got lots of feedback from the community—from gamers, and not even pirates, but actually legal gamers with a legal version of the game, saying, 'You know what, guys? That's not entirely right to do that.' And they were like, 'You're saying that DRM is not such a great thing, and you try to give your games without it, but on the other hand, you're doing something like that?'
So, we’re not afraid to say that wasn’t the best choice and best solution we could have done. And that's why we kind of resigned and we don't do it anymore.
Szóstak does believe asking for money was a fair decision, however, just the letters weren't the best idea. She adds, "It is fair to ask for money for a job that we do. And for content we do believe it’s actually worth paying for. So, it is fair to ask for money, although one thing doesn’t collide with another."
That "another" refers to CD Projekt's current views on DRM and customer service, both of which are highly regarded by gamers. Future CDP games won't have DRM of any kind, plus they'll benefit from free DLC, modding tools, and more, like the Enhanced Edition for both Witcher games. Still, those letters did anger some people, but at least CDP is admitting the mistake.