The source code files for The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 and Gwent have apparently been up for auction over the past 24 hours with many of them already have been sold for over a million dollars. This is according to well-known data security group vx-underground.
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It has taken less than two days for the hackers to publish the files and complete the auction which is a short turnaround time for something this big. On Wednesday, CD Projekt RED announced that the company’s data servers had been compromised by an ‘ex-actor’ and that they would not give in to the demands.
Shortly after the company said they would “not come to an agreement” with the hackers, the group leaked the Gwent source code on a hacking forum and kicked off an auction for the files on the dark web. They followed up with The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077.
vx-underground claims that the auction was a success and that someone had purchased the source code data related to CD Projekt RED. However, the firm says that the total amount in which the files were purchased for was unknown at this time. The auction did start at one million dollars.
Many believe that CD Projekt RED themselves paid for the code. A screenshot of the sale agreement was published online. According to the information, the sale conditions stipulated that no further distribution of the data was allowed in any way. If CD Projekt RED paid for this sale then these conditions sound like something they would have enforced.
Update: we have confirmed the auction has closed. Someone has indeed purchased the material.
Image courtesy of @DrFurfagMD pic.twitter.com/TnQVqTiM5w
— vx-underground (@vxunderground) February 11, 2021
But the buyer could be anyone. Perhaps a competitor publisher or developer? Some users even suspect that the government may have bailed them out. Given the shady matter of the sale and the entire hacking situation, we won’t know for sure what exactly went down until more concrete information comes out of it.
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