Piracy has been a problem for the multimedia industry but The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red thinks that piracy is "irrelevant" to how much games they sold since the release of their game.
Most games today come out with a strong copy protection like the seemingly uncrackable Denuvo that the Rise of the Tomb Raider and Doom 2016 uses. When The Witcher 3 was released, CD Projekt Red did not implement any sort of copy protection on their end which led to gamers easily pirating the highly anticipated title and it did not bother the developers at all.
CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwiński said during the infoShare 2016 event in June that they cannot force people to purchase the game and that they "believe in the carrot" instead of the stick, Gameplanet has learned. They also believe that they can only convince the people to buy The Witcher 3 and that it should stand on its own and sell if people really find it good.
With that said, CD Projekt Red is not promoting piracy. They are saying that The Witcher 3 still sold over 10 million copies even without a DRM present to protect the game from being pirated.
One of the oldest and largest arguments that companies have against piracy is that it can kill sales. If the people can get it for free, why would they need to purchase it anymore?
The Witcher 3's phenomenal sales just proves that the content and quality will help sell the product regardless if people can get it for free. CD Projekt Red said that they do not like when people steal their game but they will not put them in prison, TechnoBuffalo reported.
Iwiński also said that they have observed more people defending the game from piracy as fans bash people who ask for links on where to download the game illegally. They believe that people think they are fair compared to the other large game development studios and publishers milking their customers for money.
CD Projekt Red's statement on piracy with regards to their The Witcher 3 sales could also mean that their upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 game will ship without DRM protection as well. The company has not confirmed this but it does sound highly plausible considering their previous releases.