Online retailer Green Man Gaming is offering The Witcher 3 for quite a bit less than the likes of Steam and GOG. However, CD Projekt Red has advised prospective players not to purchase their copy of the game from GMG, as the studio does not know where the keys came from.
Green Man Gaming CEO Paul Sulyok says that the keys come from approved retailers that they approached after CD Projekt Red decided not to work with GMG.
Want more Witcher 3? Here are the best Witcher 3 mods.
“I would kindly ask our fans no [sic] to buy via GMG at this time,” asked CDPR’s business development manager on the forums this evening. “We had not sold them Keys and dont [sic] know the origin of them.”
In a statement sent to PCGamesN tonight, Paul Sulyok explained that Green Man Gaming has been an approved retailer for CD Projekt Red since 2011, but, as CDPR has said, they aren’t an approved retailer for The Witcher 3.
“Green Man Gaming (GMG) has an official contract with, and has been an approved retailer of CD Projekt S.A. (CDPR) products since 11th August 2011. Following a 6 month dialogue with CDPR about the launch of The Witcher 3, we were disappointed that despite the offer of significant cash advances, and other opportunities to officially work together, (we even offered to fly to Poland to discuss in detail how we could and wanted to support this launch), CDPR chose not to engage with a number of significant, reputable, and successful retailers, including ourselves, as they instead focused on supporting their own platform GOG.“
Green Man Gaming got around this by getting in touch with retailers and third parties that had been approved, sourcing keys from them.
“We believe that CDPR’s desire to support their own platform by working with retail outlets that would not conflict with their own is greater than that of meeting the demands of their audience, therefore we made the decision to indirectly secure the product and deliver it to our customers. To do this, we reached out to third parties and retailers that were approved by CDPR, to legitimately pass these keys onto our customers. This means that at some point, revenue has been passed directly onto CDPR, and any additional discount on the title is absorbed by us, as we want as many people enjoying The Witcher 3 as possible.”
Sulyok says that CD Projekt Red is still getting revenue from these keys, and that the 35 percent discount is being absorbed by Green Man Gaming. Sulyok also wants to continue working with CD Projekt Red, saying that he’d “welcome a renewed dialogue” with the developer.
“[We] are keen to continue to not only support the launch of The Witcher 3, but to keep celebrating and bringing the whole catalogue of CDPR titles to a worldwide audience, as we have done since 2011.