“Industry behaves rudely”: this is what Valve and CD Projekt RED said about piracy

In November 2011, the head of Valve Gabe Newell (Gabe Newell) gave an interview, where he said that developers and publishers are wrong about piracy. The quote is now somewhat outdated as physical copies and region restrictions are a thing of the past.

Piracy in most cases is a service problem, but a pricing policy. A pirate always offers goods anywhere in the world, which can be purchased in no time from a computer. Meanwhile, the copyright holder restricts the release by region, releases it in your country 3 months later than in the United States, and you can buy it only in a retail store. Obviously, the pirate service is more convenient.

Before we entered the Russian market, we were told that the Russian region is a waste of time, and everyone will illegally download our products. Now Russia is becoming the largest market in Europe.

Our success lies in the fact that both buyers and partners (eg Activision, Take-Two, Ubisoft, etc.) all benefit from their use of the services. And they can trust that we will not abuse our relationship with them.

In the book Blood, Sweat and Pixels, CD Projekt RED’s business development chief Rafal Jaki expressed the opinion that the industry is behaving in a rude way and that players are turning to pirated copies.

Ivinsky [co-founder of CDPR] likes to say that they believe in the carrot, not the stick. Rather than trying to protect the game from pirates, it is better to try to convince potential pirates that the game from CD Projekt RED is worth the money – just like then, many years ago, in the computer markets of Poland.

“If you have nothing to buy games with, you have two options,” says Rafal Yaki, business development manager. “Either you don’t play at all, or you are a pirate. But when you turn twenty, you start earning, maybe you start buying games – and you become a consumer. But what for do you need it if the industry behaves like a boor with you? Suppose you have money to buy – but why should you change if you see that they offer to spend money on DLC with costumes, which costs $ 25, and if you buy it at GameStop, you will receive a blue ribbon, and if elsewhere, then red? Why do you need it?”