CD Projekt Red's eagerly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 has been released, with its highest profile release being the PC version of the game. Reports show that the game has already hit torrent sites and is being pirated. Notebookcheck first reported the news.
Let's make the position of Tom's Hardware clear: pirating is bad. We don't condone it. You shouldn't do it. It also may put your PC at risk to malware. Instead, purchase a legal copy or wait for it to go on sale.
Cyberpunk 2077 was released on three platforms for the PC; Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG. The latter is owned by developer CD Projekt Red, and the biggest appeal of GOG is that they offer DRM-free versions of games; this is the version of the game that is floating around on the internet. Not having any form of DRM makes it fairly easy for those savvy enough to repackage them and distribute them across the internet, which is the very thing that's happening to Cyberpunk 2077 right now.
Both Steam and Epic Games Store act as the DRM for many games on their respective storefronts. You can't play games without logging into the services (except for a few). And sometimes, they also use other DRM such as Denuvo, which also tends to cause performance-related issues due to higher CPU demand. In some cases, it locks legit users out of games completely. This is why some developers eventually remove the DRM after a while.
Cyberpunk 2077 is currently available on PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG), PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and S, and Google Stadia, all of which are platforms to legally purchase the game.
