[Updated] Gwent source code is released, Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk source has been sold

[Master Disaster]

A twitter account for "vxunderground" posted that the Gwent source code was released and we've had external verification of its legitimacy from multiple sources.

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Earlier this week, Cyberpunk 2077 and Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt Red (CDPR) announced hackers had targeted the company and attempted to hold it to ransom. Now, someone in possession of the data has leaked at least some of it online publicly.

 

The news shows not only the risk that video game studios face from hackers, but also the continuing trend of hackers not only deploying ransomware to lock target machines for payment, but also threaten, and follow through with, the leaking of data.

 

"CD Projekt's Red ransomed data has been leaked online," the Twitter account vxunderground tweeted on Wednesday, along with a screenshot of folders that they said contained the source code for Gwent, a card game in the Witcher universe developed by CDPR.

The dump contains assets from multiple versions of the game as well as debugging/testing files used in the development process.

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Motherboard found an alleged copy of the data on a low level hacking and data trading forum and downloaded it for verification purposes. The data includes Gwent assets marked as being built with the Unity game engine; Gwent was made with that engine. The cache is also larger than a normal, legitimate download of Gwent from a game store, and the download contains assets related to multiple versions of the game. The download also includes what appear to be Testframework files, software game developers use to test applications.

Also included was a text file which reads

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Next release tomorrow

Then in a follow up Tweet vxunderground stated the hackers would be holding an auction for the source codes of TW3 & CP2077, Initially they bids would be starting at $1K however they quickly corrected this to be $1M. They said they would sell outright to anyone for $7M.

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Vxunderground said in a follow up tweet that the hackers are auctioning code for the Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 on another forum. A screenshot Vxunderground shared with Motherboard said the bidding started at "1kk $".

Source - https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjpapp/hackers-release-cdpr-data-gwent

 

Update

 

To all the people who still claim this wasn't done with money as the main motivator behind it, what do you say now?

 

The hackers are looking to get rich quick, any business/politics agenda seems to be disappearing pretty quickly.

 

I wonder what the next release will be? If they'e auctioning TW & CP and have already released Gwent it has to be some of the business docs they took, right?

[Guest]

Plot twist: the ransom is just a cover so they fix it faster

[Stahlmann]

I don't know much about this kind of stuff, but why would someone want to buy the source code for these games?

[Vishera]

6 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

I don't know much about this kind of stuff, but why would someone want to buy the source code for these games?

As a developer i would like to have good code in my projects,and lazy developers prefer to buy code from third parties.

But in this case it's a copy righted code,and they ask for millions,no game developer will want to get in this mess.

 

And without the graphics engine they can't compile the game.

[Master Disaster]

3 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

I don't know much about this kind of stuff, but why would someone want to buy the source code for these games?

Honestly, I have no idea either. $1M is a lot of money for something that you realistically cannot really use for anything except studying and will be out of date within a few months.

 

Perhaps the hackers are hoping that CDPR will buy their own code back to try and stop it from being made public?

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, valdyrgramr said:

1) Big brain criminal move there

 

2) Looking for ways to create mods/apply to  their own games in countries where the US or whatever country can't help them.  So many different reasons there.

1) What is?

2) CDPR already provide a fully documented modding SDK and no modder lwith even a modicum of common sense would use the games legit source to make mods from.

 

Plus what modder can afford $1M?

[Stahlmann]

3 minutes ago, valdyrgramr said:

2) Looking for ways to create mods/apply to  their own games in countries where the US or whatever country can't help them.  So many different reasons there.

But is the source code not bound to the specific engine and can't really be used for "Unreal" etc? And no modder out there is ready to pay millions to have an easier time creating mods for a game. And like others said, you can't really create and monetize a game with the code as it's copy righted.

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Stahlmann said:

But is the source code not bound to the specific engine and can't really be used for "Unreal" etc? And no modder out there is ready to pay millions to have an easier time creating mods for a game. And like other said, you can't really create and monetize a game with the code as it's copy righted.

The source code would include the engine, right?

[Vishera]

Just now, Stahlmann said:

But is the source code not bound to the specific engine and can't really be used for "Unreal" etc?

That's true,but you can change the code and take parts of it and make them work in your game.

There are limitations to this but you still get from this valuable high quality code in in your game.

[Stahlmann]

Just now, Master Disaster said:

The source code would include the engine, right?

Like i said i don't really know much about this stuff.

I have no idea if the engine is part of the source code.

[Stahlmann]

Just now, Vishera said:

high quality code

Very debateable.  

[Master Disaster]

Just now, Vishera said:

but you still get from this valuable high quality code in in your game.

I'm going to suggest you haven't played CP2077 then

[Vishera]

4 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

The source code would include the engine, right?

Usually it's just the project files.

2 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

I'm going to suggest you haven't played CP2077 then

Well,in games like Cyberpunk 2077 there are systems that are costly to make and take a lot of time to develop.

You can improve them and fix the bugs.

[Sauron]

Why would you pay 7M for a source code you can't even use commercially without being sued to hell?

[Master Disaster]

1 minute ago, Vishera said:

Usually it's just the project files.

That's actually something I just realised I don't know much about. Obviously the engine is developed independently of the game, does the engine get built before game development starts or do they include the engine source with the game source and build it all at the same time?

1 minute ago, Vishera said:

Well,in games like Cyberpunk 2077 there are systems that are costly to make and take a lot of time to develop.

Yeah I know, I was being facetious.

[SupaKomputa]

8 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

Honestly, I have no idea either. $1M is a lot of money for something that you realistically cannot really use for anything except studying and will be out of date within a few months.

 

Perhaps the hackers are hoping that CDPR will buy their own code back to try and stop it from being made public?

In big game studios $1M is nothing, if you can have those codes, you are saving a lot of time developing your game, paying expensive coders per hours and can just focus on the presentations (reskin) and marketing.

A chinese game studios can snatch this make a chinese version of Witcher or worse, Cyberpunk, and there's nothing CDPR can do about it.

[Stahlmann]

Maybe this is still a case where the hackes just wanted to hurt CDPR and now they don't know what to do with the code they aquired. (Tinfoil hat is on)

[Vishera]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

That's actually something I just realised I don't know much about. Obviously the engine is developed independently of the game, does the engine get built before game development starts or do they include the engine source with the game source and build it all at the same time?

You have to develop the engine before the game,

And when the engine is ready you can update it,and update the relevant code in the game together with the engine.

Most engines automatically update the code of the game after an engine update.

[Master Disaster]

3 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

In big game studios $1M is nothing, if you can have those codes, you are saving a lot of time developing your game, paying expensive coders per hours and can just focus on the presentations (reskin) and marketing.

A chinese game studios can snatch this make a chinese version of Witcher or worse, Cyberpunk, and there's nothing CDPR can do about it.

The problem with this entire situation is you have no idea if this anonymous hacker is just going to take your money, give you the source then release it afterwards anyway.

[flo_306]

oh no. I now feel kinda bad for CDPR. Sure whatever they did with CP is not okay. But this is going too far! 

[Vishera]

1 minute ago, Master Disaster said:

The problem with this entire situation is you have no idea if this anonymous hacker is just going to take your money, give you the source then release it afterwards anyway.

A general rule of thumb is not to pay ransom because these  kind of situation happened too many times.

[SupaKomputa]

4 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

The problem with this entire situation is you have no idea if this anonymous hacker is just going to take your money, give you the source then release it afterwards anyway.

Haha, yes, that would be a plot twist. Also you have no idea the source is real. How? Calling CDPR to confirm it?

[Delicieuxz]

$1 million might be chump-change to some die-hard Witcher 3 fan who has Bitcoin money. They might think having the source code is the most special / rarest fan memorabilia they could have.

 

I feel bad for CDPR. Of all the large publishers, I think they're one of the least-deserving of having something like this happen to them. But having some advanced game source code out in the public might as least help people learn how to code better.

[Vishera]

4 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Also you have no idea the source is real. How? Calling CDPR to confirm it?

It's easy for a developer to see if the code makes sense and does what it's suppose to do in the original game.

[SupaKomputa]

6 minutes ago, Vishera said:

It's easy for a developer to see if the code makes sense and does what it's suppose to do in the original game.

After reading it through, just realized that this is only for Gwent.

Let them have it, it's only a card game, and definitely not worth $1M.