On torrent site The Pirate Bay, typically the domain of illegal rips of media, one username among dozens uploading the horror game Darkwood stands out: the game’s publisher. Today, the Poland-based Acid Wizard Studio uploaded their own game for free with “no catch, no added pirate hats for characters,” their torrent description reads.


A lot of developers take the firm stance that piracy drains the financial lifeblood of their games. In 2012, the indie studio Hunted Crow was forced to take down iOS game Battle Dungeon after servers buckled under the weight of pirated copies. After developer Jonathan Blow released The Witness in 2016, he became frustrated when the $40 game skyrocketed to the top of a torrent site’s most popular games. Blow, a vocal opponent of anti-piracy software, noted that rampant piracy “will not help us afford to make another game.” Piracy’s toll on publishers’ wallets can be hard to calculate since it takes away from potential sales, a difficult-to-nail-down figure.

Darkwood


Acid Wizard is taking a more radical approach. After releasing Darkwood in Steam Early Access in 2014 to middling reviews, they’ve has been expanding and adjusting the game. Earlier this week, Kotaku contributor Stacie Ponder praised Darkwood for its unique use of perspective. Last week, it released in full on Steam, where Acid Wizard saw a comment from someone who refunded the game because they didn’t want their parents to get stressed out over the bill, Acid Wizard writes on Imgur.

“If you don’t have the money and want to play the game,” they say, “we have a safe torrent on the Pirate Bay of the latest version of Darkwood.” They explain that a flood of emails asking for free Steam keys helped bolster their decision to upload a free Darkwood torrent to The Pirate Bay, and asked that those who can afford it later buy it discounted on Steam.

Darkwood

It’s an interesting move that spits in the face of shady key-selling services like G2A, where Acid Wizard figures a lot of the free keys they’d send out would go. “This practice makes it impossible for us to do any giveaways or send keys to people who actually don’t have the money to play Darkwood,” Acid Wizard writes. “Please, don’t buy it through any key reselling site. By doing that, you’re just feeding the cancer that is leeching off this industry.”


The comments under Acid Wizard’s explanation post are widely positive. Lots of commenters said they’d try out the game from the torrent and, if they like it, will purchase it for real. Undoubtedly, tossing a free torrent on a popular torrenting site lowers the barrier to play and allocates Acid Wizard a lot of free publicity. In the end: People like free things.

“Hey look, an imgur post that is an ad for a game that doesn’t beg for money, instead gives you the game for free. Upvote for you!,” one fan wrote.