If the big rights owners had their way, buying used DVD games would be called piracy too... and, oh dear, someone other than the rights holder can make a profit off of it! The horror! Call the FBI!

you beautiful bastard x

The cause? No.
Do their offline installers get handed around a little amongst friends? Likely, but who has real-world friends anymore to share games with? The newer generation only talk online really, so real-world file swapping is almost defunct.

Someone usually has to make that crack, though, and that takes time and effort(most times, unless someone is cracking similar drm out of another title that has already been cracked).

I typically see cracked Steam versions of games way more than I see GoG versions of games on pirate sites though most of the games can be purchased on each site. Then I'll see people fighting nut and cock on Steam forums about how GoG is for pirates.
It's ironic.

From my experience working in companies ran by CEOs, typically CEOs (and all of corporate) are completely out of touch college educated idiots that think they know more than a person on the ground actually doing the job, which is probably why we rarely see AAA games here.

That also sounds like the US Government.

Well free software (typically GNU or GPL'd) you just download the sources and compile, or download the pre-built binaries and use.

Though the business model could include paying for it, As Stallman says 'free as in free speech not free beer'. One early example of success was RedHat which you could download it for free, however if you paid for it you were paying for customer service and tech support and not for the price of the software (considering 90% of it was already made software by other sources, a distro you just compile the packages you want and master an iso to burn usually).

The only big reason i can think to 'pirate' free software, would be if you wanted to hijack and add unwanted code, though most downloads includes MD5 and other checks to ensure the data was untampered with.

Wouldn't be surprised. We all would have had experience with the first generation of 8bit computers and had it in schools. Then there's the NES and other early handhelds, when we had perhaps the worst of what was to offer before hardware picked up and gave you something better.

Plus a number of games GoG originally sold was heavily 80's and 90's games, or more or less what other companies considered junk and they didn't think they'd make any money on. Games the only way to get ahold of them WAS to pirate it because they weren't otherwise preserved.

Perhaps we should have a survey. Anyone 30-40 years old, did you:
1) Use/own a 8bit computer? (Atari, Apple2, Commodore 64, Sinclair, etc)
2) Do any BASIC programming (in school probably, not the same as #5)
3) Run/load software using a tape player
4) Use a 1 button joystick
5) Enter a game/program from a magazine (Could have borrowed a book from the library too with BASIC games, usually text only and not system specific)
6) Play/own an NES and games? (or at least rent them when video stores still existed)
7) configure your autoexec.bat or config.sys files to get games to run in MS-DOS?
8) Find shareware games were your best friend? (MS-DOS)
9) Have to use pkzip to extract files.
10) Used Windows 3.11 to any degree

People will find a way to do what they want to do. No system is infallible. If someone wants to steal a game and is determined they will eventually get it.

The way I look at this is through the lens of "the customer is always right". A lot of people misuse this quote and interpret it as meaning companies need to do what the customer wants. But it actually means the company should be selling what is in demand. I spend most of my time here so I'm not an expert. But there is a sizable market for DRM free.

Has the OP provided what game and what Dev yet?
Probably not and I suspect this is just a topic to stir up some controversy.

Anyway, in addition to what I said earlier.
The only scenario perhaps, aside from price. where some might go looking for and grabbing a pirated GOG DRM-Free game, would be in the case of where the publisher took their game off GOG (removed it), and they are to blame for that not GOG.

I reckon Duke Nukem 3D games would be the perfect example of that, along with many others.

Basically, if it is a choice between a cracked version or an original clean DRM-Free version, I would imagine the latter is the preferred option. It is a matter of conscience though, and whether one is willing to bite the hand that feeds, and the threat against GOG's continued existence.

At the end of the day, someone still has to provide (pirate) the GOG version, and I cannot see the motivation for that being common at all. Motivation usually requires enough angst, either against the publisher/developer or GOG. But see the end of last paragraph.

I guess there would be some, who feel angst against those who are not willing to provide their game at GOG, and so do deliberately seek out a cracked version, but of course that is not a GOG DRM-Free version ... except if it once was available at GOG.

My favourite handheld was the original Xbox.

All the above. C64, C128 (1-button joysticks for the commodore), XT, and 386SX.

Please ask the same developer whether or not his game was pirated from Steam.

WRONG
MISTAKE
LIES
FALSE

I was a consumate pirate once, especially after Steam kicked it in the gaming scene. The ONLY reason i had to pirate games, was DRM and anti-consumer licenses-agreements.

Ever since GOG happened, or rather, when i discovered it, i dropped piracy and finally built my ideal collection! I am still missing lots of titles, but if and when GOG manages to get those titles, i am sure as hell buying them!

GOG is a cause for DROPPING PIRACY! It eliminates ANY reason to pirate a game... You need no crack, you can manually burn it, you can keep it, admire it...

This is all a misunderstanding and misinformation. And no mistake. All groups out there, like Skidrow, NOSteam, Reloaded, are numerous and exist, in order to CRACK games, plus they specialize heavily, if not exclusively, in Steam and DRMed products. Remove DRM and watch sales skyrocket, instead; as well as crackers go out of business!!!

I did all the above, except that finding shareware games weren't my best friend. I literately spent hours downloading them from BBS praying for the stable connection, it was the worst experience.

1. Yes, A Commodore 64
2. No.
3. Yes, whenever the damn player actually felt like working.
4. Yes.
5. Once, it took me all day and there was a typo in the code I was never able to correct.
6. Owned many and rented more constantly.
7. Yes.
8. I played ALL the shareware.
9. Yes.
10. Yes.