CD Projekt Comments on Next Xbox Blocking Pre-owned Game Rumors

We don’t really cover hardware, especially when it comes to rumors, but you may have heard recently that some websites are reporting that Microsoft’s successor to the Xbox will implement a system to limit the second-hand market, essentially blocking pre-owned games from being played. Questioned by Eurogamer, CD Projekt RED’s Adam Badowski, managing director of the studio, has given his opinion on the subject, and, unsurprisingly considering the studio’s culture, it turns out to be a negative one:

“It can be a bad thing,” Badowski said of the rumoured next Xbox technology.

He explained: “I assume you know we decided not to continue our beautiful journey with lawyers seeking pirates… “We are losing money not because of pirates; we are losing money because people decided not to buy our game.

“We should invest more power to upgrade and polish our products and convince players to keep our products, to be with us, to understand our needs – because we are an independent developer, we have to prevent lay-offs, we need to grow up and have the power to create new games.

Adam also offered some quick comments on the company’s first foray in the console market with The Witcher 2:

“We are a little bit worried,” Badowski admitted, “because this is a quite new market for us, and this is a second opening for the title. It’s kind of an experiment for us.”

…

“There is a problem, because you know that Microsoft policy prevents us from giving people content for free,” Badowski remarked.

“We promised to give our fans features like small DLC patches and extra content for free. It’s our general policy. So we have a huge problem right here with that. We need to think about it.”