GOG gives all STALKER owners a free DRM-free copy

GOG continues to operate as if not being a dick to your customers is a sound business practice.

GOG continues to operate as if not being a dick to your customers is a sound business practice. Their new scheme, the "DRM-free initiative," is a small thing right now, but has the potential to become important for those people who want to continue to play the games that they own.

Essentially, owners of any retail, boxed game included in the initiative can 'reclaim' that game; gaining a free copy of GOG's DRM-free version. Right now it's limited to worldwide copies of the STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl, STALKER: Clear Sky and STALKER: Call of Pripyat, as well as Russian copies of Mount & Blade: Warband, Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword and Eador: Genesis.

To test, I grabbed the GameSpy activation code from my Steam copy of Call of Pripyat and entered it into GOG's new "Reclaim" page. As promised, the DRM-free version was added to my GOG account, complete with the bonus extras. (Although, to be clear, the purpose of the initiative isn't to drive people away from Steam, but rather to help those with boxed copies to ditch the now non-functional Gamespy DRM still present in their retail version.)

"We're doing our best to add more games," writes GOG. "Stay tuned for future updates and announcements as soon as we know more."