Dealing with pirates? Give them free copies of your game

This War of Mine launched on Nov. 14, and of course just as quickly it was placed on The Pirate Bay for anyone to download and play without paying. Piracy remains a huge, widespread problem in the world of PC gaming, but developer 11 bit studios responded by ... offering the pirates legit copies of the game.

This is the message the studio put in the Pirate Bay comments:

It's Karol from 11 bit studios, the developers of This War of Mine.

We are really happy to hear that you like our game. They prove, that spending 2 years on it was worth it.

I would like to say thank you to everyone, who decides to buy the game and support us — because of that we'll be able to develop TWoM further and create even better games in the future.

If because of some reasons you can't buy the game, it's ok. We know life, and we know, that sometimes it's just not possible.

Here are some codes for the steam copy of the game, so some of you can take a look at it. And if you like the game after spending few hours in, then just spread the word, and you'll help us a lot.

11 bit dropped 10 Steam keys for This War of Mine in the comments.

"It's just that not all pirates are the same. Of course there are people that would pirate the game even if it would cost 10 cents, but you can do nothing about them," 11 bit's Pawel Miechowski told Polygon.

"What many of us often forget though, is that there are also other people. Folks that are doing that, because they are simply pissed about the current quality of many games, or those who simply can't afford the game at the time, because of some personal reasons," he continued. "That's why we believe that instead of treating everyone the same way, where pirates are the most evil people on earth, it's better to talk and try to find a solution, where everyone somehow benefits."

The comment thread has already turned positive, with fans lauding the game and offering to tell others about it. That sense of good will was one of the goals of giving away copies of the game to the pirates.

"You can't buy the game, but you would like to suport [sic] us? Tell your friends, and who knows, maybe one of them will pay for it and that would give us few bucks," Miechowski told Polygon.

"Pretty well known Polish indie developer Sos did something similar some time ago, and just like in our case it proved, that it always pays back if you try to understand people, instead of condemning everyone."

You can read more about the development of the game, and then take a look at the trailer.