The Witcher 2 Pirated 4.5 Million Times, CD Projekt Estimates

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Earlier this month, CD Projekt Red announced that its most recent outing, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, could pretty much be deemed a financial success. All told, The Witcher 2 has sold one million copies since release, but as many PC gamers will know, the number of times a game is pirated typically greatly exceeds the number of times it was purchased legally.

The Witcher 2, unfortunately, is no different, with CD Projekt CEO Marcin Iwinski telling PC Gamer that he estimates The Witcher 2 has been pirated 4.5 million times since launch – an estimate he says is probably on the low end.

Still, despite the fact that The Witcher 2 was stolen so much more than it actually legally purchased, Iwinski remains unconvinced that DRM solves the problem with piracy:

From the very beginning our main competitors on the market were pirates. The question was really not if company x or y had better marketing or better releases, but more like “How can we convince gamers to go and buy the legit version and not to go to a local street vendor and buy a pirated one?” We of course experimented with all available DRM/copy protection, but frankly nothing worked.

Iwinski says that eventually, they just decided to offer high quality products without any restrictive DRM, and by sticking to that model, we have the “reasonably healthy games market” that exists today. In a world where publishers like Ubisoft lock their games away behind always on DRMs, a publisher like CD Projekt is definitely refreshing to see. Iwinski took some time to reiterate something that many PC gamers have been saying for quite some time: DRM is only an inconvenience to those who purchase the game legally.

I agree with the man, but what’s your take? Do you think DRM is only ever a hassle, or are there some forms of DRM that you think work? Head down to the comments section and share your thoughts!