GOG’s managing director, Guillaume Rambourg, has said that surprisingly enough, it wasn’t the DRM-free version of The Witcher II which was pirated the most, but the retail version which shipped with DRM.

The reason, according to Rambourg and CD Projekt CEO Marcin Iwinski, has less to do with sharing and more to do with the reputation gleaned from cracking a title’s DRM.

“Most people in the gaming industry were convinced that the first version of the game to be pirated would be the GOG version, while in the end it was the retail version, which shipped with DRM,” Rambourg told Forbes.

“We were expecting to see the GOG.com version pirated right after it was released, as it was a real no-brainer,” added Iwinski. “Practically anyone could have downloaded it from GOG.com and released it on the illegal sites right away, but this did not happen. My guess is, that releasing an unprotected game is not the real deal, you have to crack it to gain respect and be able to write: “cracked by XYZ.” How would “not cracked by XYZ, as there was nothing to crack” sound? A bit silly, wouldn’t it?

“The illegal scene is pretty much about the game and the glory: who will be the first to deliver the game, who is the best and smartest cracker. The DRM-free version at GOG.com didn’t fit this too well.”

Back in December, Iwinski estimated the game had been pirated over 4.5 million times, and by now, that figure has probably risen significantly. Still, these numbers do not constitute lost sales, according to the CEO.

“It really puzzles me how serious software companies can consider each pirated copy to be a lost sale,” said Iwinski. “Maybe it looks nice in an official report to say how threatening pirates are, but it is extremely far from the truth.

“I would rather say that a big part of these 4.5 million pirated copies are considered a form of trial version, or even a demo. Gamers download [pirate copies] because it’s easy, fast, and, frankly, costs nothing. If they like the game and they start investing the time, some of them will go and buy it. This is evident in the first Witcher, where the total sales are 2.1 million units at present and the game is still doing well, although it is already five years old.”

Iwinski went on to say he doesn’t see a future in DRM, as it simply “does not work,” and the technology, which is supposed to be protecting a company’s investment, not only gets hacked within hours of release, but does nothing more than alienate the consumer.

“DRM, in most cases, requires users to enter serial numbers, validate his or her machine, and be connected to the Internet while they authenticate – and possibly even when they play the game they bought,” he explained. “Quite often the DRM slows the game down, as the wrapper around the executable file is constantly checking if the game is being legally used or not.

“That is a lot the legal users have to put up with, while the illegal users who downloaded the pirated version have a clean–and way more functional–game. It seems crazy, but that’s how it really works.”

http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/19/cd-projekt-pirated-games-are-not-lost-sales-drm-is-a-lot-for-legitimate-users-to-put-up-with/

Finally, somebody in the industry gets it!

Someone who actually gets it. Bravo!

CD Projekt has always gotten it. They just like to reiterate themselves every few months so the world doesn't forget how awesome they are. =)

And this is why I love buying from GOG

pirated games are lost sales

I pirated the Witcher 2, played a few hours and then decided to buy it to support the company, I did that with Crysis too didint like the game and deleted it. If every developer would make a demo that would not be necessary.

^ Witcher 2 is a nice game to support since they lack DRM already.

Obviously not all of those 4.5 million pirated Witcher 2's would be translated into real sales if the game couldn't be pirated but at least few hundred thousand copies would, and those are lost sales.

I'm not saying this justifies all forms of DRM, if the DRM is real hassle, but it's fact that piracy causes loss of revenue for gaming.

I know for a fact that I myself pirate if I can, because I'd rather get a free game than have to pay for it. With PC games I'd rather spend the money I save on stronger PC hardware instead.

Also I am tired of CR Project because they have gotten this reputation of being the good guys. Not having DRM works for them but it wouldn't work for everybody. I don't like CD Project, they're full of it.

sure not all pirated games are lost sales but so many of my friends did never buy a game anymore for pc since they could get them for free nobody can tell me they would never have bought a game if they would have had to buy them^^  and i believe they don't care if someone had to crack it or not, they just want to get games for free (these bastards lol)

maybe of 4 million pirated games 500k-1m are lost sales and some who pirated it will buy an other game then with the moey he still has but nobody can really believe that the industry would sell exactly the same number of games without pirating.

maybe many who pirate games spend the same amount they spend without that possibility but i have seen enough people over the last 15 years or so who stopped investing as much money as they did before just because they could get it for free. if i just think back to ps1 time when my whole school played all games for free and i was almost the only one who still paid for games damn...

but drm is useless that's correct and i would say it's just a tactic of them to say all of that. i mean, they can't change it but then you should get a good reputation in the gaming scene and they will get a good one with these statements. people will be willing to pay for these games more than for games from ea or activision.