Game developer Jonathan Blow is concerned about his newest title The Witness’ s popularity on torrent sites will impact his financial status in the future.
Blow recently tweeted he’s glad gamers will be able to experience The Witness even if it is through piracy, but he wants to continuing creating games. The Witness has a hefty price of $40, which is higher than most indie titles.
“It seems The Witness is the #1 game on a certain popular torrent site,” Blow wrote on Twitter. “Unfortunately this will not help us afford to make another game!”
Blow experienced similar piracy with his first indie game Braid . However, the first time around he was to deter piracy with a fake version that cuts out half the content of the game. Blow told his Twitter followers he was too busy to create a fake version for The Witness .
@_LarZen_ That might happen on the next game, I don't know! I don't like DRM because I think people should have the freedom to own things
— Jonathan Blow (@Jonathan_Blow) January 28, 2016I'm glad that a lot more people will be experiencing the game! But I also want to be able to make another comparable game next! Just sayin'.
— Jonathan Blow (@Jonathan_Blow) January 28, 2016Piracy issues aside, Blow told his Twitter followers he’s having fun watching players explore The Witness on Twitch. The project took Blow seven years to complete with the last few months of development being the toughest for his team. Blow recently talked to iDigitalTimes about the game’s development process and how amazed he is with the final product.
“When there’s a project that’s that complicated during the last month or two is when you really have to nail down all the details and get them right. And the pile of details to get right are just immense because it’s been such a long project and it’s been stacking up for years. It’s kind of amazing we actually got the game done on time,” Blow said.
The Witness is available on PlayStation 4 and PC now.
