Nuvendil on 30 January 2016
First off, Pirates are almost never indicators of true lost sales as most that pirate and then never buy had absolutely no intention of buying either cause they were only slightly curious or just don't give a crap and don't want to pay for anything.
Second, he needs to be patient man. Freaking SKYRIM was number one on Pirate Bay iirc for a good period following launch. And the game did fine. Give it time, if your game has what it takes it will do just fine.
