I didn't, no, but the large group of people who lashed out at them did to the point where they issued an apology and stopped. Is that really so different than correcting an errant child?
Well, it shows they were sensitive to their market, but more than just children apologise as well. No matter how you slice it, after all, they did screw up by saying one thing and doing another - unless it worked out well for them. Which it didn't, of course.
When did Marcin Iwinski become a low-level employee not "in the loop"?
I don't know the circumstances. My employees aren't low-level - I have too few of them! They are unto gold! It was more a matter of communication and priorities with me - not sure what was up at CDPR. I'm not saying they weren't lying, just that there are other explanations. "You must be lying!" is such a jump-to accusation, and there are other explanations often, especially in business and especially while making statements to the media.
I'm not sure what causes people to stop pirating. Increased economic means? Age? Better packages in the legit games? Few pirates I've known would swap over to buying because someone caught CDPR lying, but who knows. Like the debate on gender in videogames, we have so little data on pirates and their motivations, change reasons, etc. I must say, I feel that, for instance a game like Watch Dogs, so disappointing to people here, would, if not justify piracy, certainly be a STRONG argument from the consumer side for a pre-purchase demo, or a "you can return it if it sucks" option as is common in so man other marketplaces.
It's funny how certain hobbies and media have such passionate fanbase. I mean, I know people that argue over Husquevarna vs Stihl chainsaws pretty passionately, or Dodge vs Ford, but they pale compared to the Nvidia/ AMD, Ubisoft-CDPR-EA-Bioware fans.
Is our disappointment related to an unhealthy value factor we assign to this leisure activity?