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Estimated 4.5 Million Copies Of Witcher 2 Pirated

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by Matthew Kato on November 30, 2011 at 09:49 AM
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Fighting piracy is an ongoing battle for companies like Poland's CD Projekt, developer of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, which believes that its latest game has been hit hard.

In an interview with PC Gamer, CD Projekt CEO and co-founder Marcin Iwiński estimated that more than 4.5 million copies of the game have probably been pirated, but he still counts the company lucky in a way. "...I would say that’s rather on the optimistic side of things; as of today we have sold over one million legal copies, so having only 4.5 to 5 illegal copies for each legal one would be not a bad ratio. The reality is probably way worse."

Regardless, Iwiński says he's skeptical of the effectiveness of the DRM used by other companies.

"We have seen a lot of different protections," he said, "but there are only two ways you can go: Either you use light DRM, which is cracked in no time and is not a major pain for the end-user, or you go the hard way and try to super-protect the game. Yes, it is then hard to crack, but you start messing with the operation system, the game runs much slower and – for a group of legal gamers – it will not run at all. None of these solutions really work, so why not abandon it altogether?"

Head over to PC Gamer for the full interview for more of Iwiński's views on DRM.

Also, check out Adam's glowing review of the PC version of the game. The Xbox 360 edition of The Witcher 2 is being published by Warner Bros., and is scheduled to hit shelves early next year.

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  • by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:00 AM
    first

    First to start a flame war =P everyone is so jealous of my mad clicking skills.

    I personally do not care what you think my fellow interneters. Just relax and enjoy the melodic sound of the waves as you surf the web.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:01 AM
    Probably a small number compared to games like Skyrim or Portal 2. I'm sure tons of these pirates are outside of the US and Europe as well, one million legit sales is pretty good. It also doesn't count Steam sales.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:02 AM
    I wonder if it will be as bad on consoles? Probably not. But that still a metric ass-load of copies stolen to a company that actually takes interest in the consumer. Oh well. Whatcha gonna do?
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:04 AM
    It's unfortunate to see piracy of this magnitude. I'm sure The Witcher 2 at least made a profit from it's sales, but obviously it could have made much, much more money which translates to the devs making more games of even better quality. It's a shame.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:05 AM
    Well,I have to applaud them for taking it in stride...but having 4.5 to 5 illegal copies for each legal? Ouch...thats gotta be a huge dent in ones profits. However,I do sorta agree with them...the light DRM is usually cracked in a day,and the heavy ones which require constant access tend to be something of a pain for consumers... Well,hats off to anyone who bought it legally anyway,you're good people! (Personally I'm waiting for price drop/sale,probably via steam.)
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:05 AM
    And that is why I support such devs as CD Projeckt. They know how to treat their customers right. And why don't companies get it, we don't like DRM period! Take note Ubisoft, this is how you treat your honest customers, now with some crappy DRM. And I strongly suggest that you read the entire interview, he has some really good points. CD Projeckt has my money for any game they make in the future.
  • by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:09 AM
    I'm not surprised. I'm from Bolivia, and when I visit and go look at game shops, it's very obvious why there is a need for piracy outside of industrialized areas like the U.S. and the U.K. In Bolivian money, around 7 bolivian dollars is one American dollar. The amount people get payed varies, but I can tell you having an upper middle class family in Bolivia where the majority of the family is in the military and are teachers, 60 dollars is still a *** lot to pay. When you go to a game shop in bolivia, they have the original copy of the game, and pirated copies. They say, "would you like the pirated copy for 60 bolivian coin? Or the original un-pirated copy for 440 Bolivian coin? I don't think anyone would want to pay 440 for one game.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:10 AM
    This is sad. I wish this wasn't the case. I mean c'mon ITS STEALING. You wouldn't rob a gamestop, so why rob them for their hardwork.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:10 AM
    I'm not sure why people pirate or buy used games.

    Why not spend the extra $5 so the money goes to the developers who made the game, in which will help support future releases?

    If you're cheap then at least wait for the price drop instead of pirating, otherwise you should pay up if you can't wait.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:14 AM
    Piracy really sucks. I paid full price for my physical copy of the game shortly after it released. I'm glad I'm one of the few left, who still believe in rewarding a game company for a quality product. I bet most of the people that do this, can probably afford the game too. Shameless losers.

    I Feel bad for CD Projekt. They're being so kind about it, by trying to focus on not upsetting the fans with new rules and DRM's(something you don't see too often). Fight the good fight people.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:16 AM
    And I hope every single one of those 4 million people gets found and arrested.
  • by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:19 AM

    that sucks

  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:22 AM
    I am looking forward to buying a LEGAL copy for the 360 when it is released. Hopefully it won't cost $80 to cover the profit lost from the pirates...
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:37 AM

    And some people wonder why there are certain companies that only make games for consoles...

  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:38 AM
    well lets put it this way: the witcher was held very high as a great game, but lacked huge in popularity. because of the witcher being so good, the witcher 2 then got a ton of praise before its release, enabling it to have a gigantic advertising campaign, thus, appealing to a broader audience within the gaming community. since the game was only released on pc at the time, then obviously their only market is pc gamers. if you game on pc, you most likely know a lot about pc's lol. i think these two facts combined created a reaction, which was to download the game illegally. the reason being, its obviously a great game, but because of the unfamiliarity with the series, people didn't want to drop 60 bones on something they're unsure of. and if you have a decent processor and g-card, you def know how to download something, so therefore, you download the game illegally. i pirated this game, but the rip runs really iffy. i'd like to blame my processor, but a legit copy of crysis runs fine. if it makes the developers feel any better, i'll most likely be picking up the 360 copy lol.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:49 AM
    And how many of those 4.5-5 million would have bought the game if it was not available for pirating. Probably not more than 10% (my guesstimate, speaking from experiences with people I know). I personally don't pirate games anymore, I just wait for them to come on sale on Steam.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:49 AM
    The way to stop piracy is if Delvelopers & Publishers & Disc Manufacturers create a new form of disc that combats piracy,

    If that don't work then the companies that Manufacturer disc drives , should revolutionize the industry by creating drives that can detect a pireated copies thur means of wifi or thur the drive it self. then these *** can F OFF.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:53 AM
    Pirates can rot in Oblivion for all I care...
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 10:54 AM
    This is a company that looks at piracy as a real and inevitable occurance. It's a step in the right direction I think. The bigger companies look at pirates as evil thieves trying to destroy them. CD Projekt understands that there will always be a group of people that will try to screw the system and knows that just because a few jerks (OK, I know that 4.5-5 million is not a "few") mess everything up, the honest customers should not have to bare the burden. Companies should do some reaserch to find out why people pirate their games. I would never blatently steal a game, but I can sympathize with someone who spent 60 dollars on a game and found out they couldn't play unless they were constantly connected to the internet. I can't say I wouldn't try to get around that myself. It wasn't long ago you could buy a game and bring it home and it was completely yours.
  •
    by Wednesday, November 30, 2011 at 11:00 AM

    I hate hearing news like this. Developers put so much of their time and effort into making these games. They deserve much better.

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