One of 2026’s Biggest Gaming Hits Is Being Pirated – And the Studio Doesn’t Care

The gaming industry, as with many corners of the commercial arts, can be highly competitive and focused on profits above all else. That’s why sharing underlying source code for games is a rarity and why developers often fight so hard to combat piracy. Even fan-made mods made out of genuine love for the source material can be seen by the IP-holders as breaches of their rights as the rights owners.

While plenty of developers have gone through creative lengths to prevent the sharing of their titles through piracy, one of the biggest hits of the year doesn’t really seem to mind. In fact, their decision to use an open-source code for their game seems to have come with an awareness that their work may be copied by future developers, and they’re actually seeing the bright side of the situation. It’s a surprisingly positive approach to the issue, which is something of a genuine surprise given the typical perspective companies take to those kinds of issues in gaming.

Slay The Spire 2 Developers Don’t Care If The Game Is Pirated

Slay the Spire 2 is being pirated by plenty of gamers, but the developers don’t seem to mind. The issue stems from the game engine used by the developers at Mega Crit. After Unity considered charging developers every time a game using their tech was downloaded (a decision the company eventually decided against), Mega Crit shifted the development of Slay the Spire 2 to a different engine. Godot is open-source software, meaning that anyone with the right level of technical know-how is able to look at the underlying source code of the game. While that’s exciting on some levels from a game design perspective, it’s also meant that it is far easier for people to distribute the game online and access it without paying for the game.

As a result, the game was quickly spread online through digital piracy. Most developers and publishers would be pouring resources into anti-piracy tech or investigations. However, Mega Crit lead programmer Jake Card hasn’t been bothered by the prospect, responding in a Reddit thread that the company isn’t really planning on spending valuable time or energy on combating people who could steal assets or code from the game. Card wrote that “We figure people who want to pirate it will find ways to pirate it, so there’s no reason to waste dev resources on it.” He also expressed optimism at the idea of someone taking inspiration from the underlying source code, noting that “It’d make me extremely happy to find out that other game developers learned something from reading through our code and our scenes.”

Why Mega Crit Doesn’t Seem To Care About People Pirating Slay The Spire 2

It’s a refreshingly grounded perspective from the team at Mega Crit, which goes against the typical reactions that developers and larger companies have when their games are shared without their permission. Despite creative efforts by plenty of major companies, media piracy is one of those aspects of the industry that is always going to exist. It seems that Mega Crit has made peace with that reality, due in part to their decision to go with open-source software for their development. It certainly doesn’t hurt that it means Slay the Spire 2 is in the hands of more players, a boon for a company that is pleased people are playing the game at all.

It also certainly doesn’t hurt to know that Slay the Spire 2 is a massive hit, already quickly becoming a strong benchmark for the rest of the year. That success makes it far easier for the company to dismiss concerns about online piracy, as the game is already doing terrific business. It also helps that pirated copies of the game lack key features like multiplayer, meaning they can’t get full access to the full Slay the Spire 2 experience without eventually buying the full game. While it’s unlikely that other developers will share the company’s perspective on digital piracy, it’s a refreshingly upbeat perspective from one of the year’s biggest indie hits.