In a recent interview with IGN, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli says the vast majority of PC gamers pirate their games. He gives enormous figures of 15:1 to 20:1, which may or may not be true, at least for Crytek. However, as an industry, this number seems too large, yet reports of pirating Crysis specifically are numerous; not to play, but to test machines to see if they will run it.
Asked about online verification, Yerli stated that there will always be some way to crack the game or go around the system, and if not other problems can occur. The recent Mass Effect PC dilemma may hold back sales for publisher EA, but as of press time reports were not available for sales numbers.