Saying GOG causes piracy is like saying video games cause violence.

Not quite. itch.io is "DRM-agnostic". They don't provide any DRM but they don't require devs not to use it. Some devs just use itch.io to sell Steam keys.

I opened the first torrent website to check out of curiosity.
Sorting the games by leecher nº, no GOG game to be seen on the top results. Only the usual triiiiipleA trash...
Sorted by seeders, well thats fun... In the 4 first results, 3 of them are The Sims 4....

Don't know how many are GOG versions but judging by the results, I believe who downloads these game don't care if it's Steam, GOG or Epic version as long it works.

Edit: Actually, now that I think about it, most of people pirating games don't even know GOG exist....

Which game is it?

I don't understand why piracy is a problem for the developer. The more piracy they manage to cause, the more popular the game must be. Unpopular game = game with no sales = dead game.

If GOG causes piracy, then the rational choice is to bring the game here.

I wonder, does it mean that there was no piracy prior to GOG's launch in 2008?

Mmm…
A bold statement! I almost fell like I'm obliged to verify!
Almost. They are lucky I don't have a Windows™ copy to try it out. :D

Anyone who claims GOG or DRM free gaming is the cause of piracy is full of shit.

This is an argument that lazy, stupid and/or predatory devs use as an excuse or as a scapegoat to distract from the real issues, and those are a combination of:

-Overpriced games.
-Aggressive monetization after the fact.
-Incomplete or buggy releases.
-Purchasing options restricted by region/storefront.
-Games lacking in content in general, making it harder to justify the cost for the user.
-Restrictive DRM and any hoops to jump through that makes the user feel like they're treated like a potential criminal right out the gate or forces the user into a walled garden scenario.
-Overtly anti-consumer company attitudes.

But the main cause of piracy is rather simple: Because it's something to do. But contrary to what so many studios bleat on about, this is rarely because a pirate doesn't want to pay for a product, it's simply because they can, most pirates never planned on paying for their product in the first place. If they couldn't pirate it, they'd go do something else. The numbers that get thrown about over 'lost sales' are completely asinine.

As far as I am concerned, The ONLY effective ways to curb piracy are:
-Deliver a quality (and feature complete) product at a reasonable price
-Don't force the user through any needlessly restrictive hoops
-Don't be a dick.

Piracy will never be stopped, it's futile to fight it in the aggressive manner that so many try to, all it really does is waste more money and make a lot of legit customers feel punished. The more respected the user feels by a company and its products, the more inclined they will be to support them.

No.

Remember when Kingdom Come: Deliverance had a one-month delay release on GOG for "technical reasons"? Everybody understood that it meant fear of piracy because of lack of DRM. Well, the Steam version of the game was already cracked on day one.

Lesson learned: DRM doesn't stop privacy. Actually, it may even encourage it, as pirates get a superior version than paying customers.

This right here times a million. Could not have said it better. +1. Cheers

Yep, for me it's kinda like new year's fireworks.

I might go out for a walk to see them, just because I can. But I don't care enough to buy any for myself, and if nobody was shooting fireworks outside, I'd just keep on doing the things I do on a normal day.

Why do people crack games in the first place? They're not doing it for money, or to steal money from a company. They do it because that's their fun, and for bragging rights. A game with no DRM doesn't appeal in anyway to them.

Thanks mate. :)

That is a rather nice analogy.

Ironically, it is DRM that actually makes me use torrents from time to time :P.

GOG isn't the cause. GOG just makes pirating easier. Pirating of software has been a thing since the 80s, which is long before GOG was even a thought. There are several different reasons that contribute to why software is pirated.

No.

Piracy is pretty much what it's always been, largely kids and people who can't or don't want to pay for games or want to try before making a purchasing decision in an age where demo versions are basically not a thing anymore.

If anything, GOG does more than other stores to reduce piracy given the number of older titles that previously were unavailable through legal channels.