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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Do you think this idea would work (DRM Related)?

JWeinCom on 12 March 2016
d21lewis said:
Wright said:

But how can stores know that you've deactivated the DRM from your console when going to sell your used games? Worse yet, what if people start purchasing used games and they can't play them because someone else has them online locked with DRM?

Waaaay ahead of ya, Wrighty Boy!  They could just pop the disc into the console they have behind the counter or search the serial number via some sort of database.  It'll say "The content of the disc is locked" or something.

Boo yah!

*edit*  Also, specific stores could have the option of disabling the lock.  If, for example, you sell your copy of Call of Duty that's swell.  But if you connect your console to the internet, your game expires like a Playstation Plus game with no Plus! 

O_o... When I worked retail *shudder* people would on average trade in five or six games at a time.  Sometimes it could be as many as 30, and we even had piles of 100.  Having to check each disc would make it nearly impossible, and people would try to take advantage of this system.  Plus, this would drive system prices up at least a bit since they'd have to have a cd writer.

I have a much better idea... if people don't want to change discs, they buy the game digitally.  They can't sell it, but that's the trade off.



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SvennoJ on 13 March 2016
SamuelRSmith said:
SvennoJ said:

People didn't want to have to go online to play a game from disc and I doubt 99% of households with consoles have them connected to the internet 24/7 or at all. Adding a unique disc ID costs extra as well.

Doesn't require always online at all. Only the first time you use the disc on the console, or if you want to play discless. Seeing as most people buy a handful of games each year, "always on" becomes "online 5 times a year".

I didn't say 99% of individuals, I said 99% of people who have the means to buy a game console. The kind of functionality I'm talking about could be achieved using just a few kilobytes of data, meaning it could work on cell network, satellite, hell, even dialup, with barely any time delay or cost to the end user.

The unique ID is part of the data on the disc that is written. A 5 digit code using alphanumeric characters allows for 50 million different unique codes for one game, and takes up 175 bytes.

It's an inconvenience which also questions ownership status as you're now activating a license.
But I'm surprised to see that it's actually up to 95% already and that was almost 2 years ago
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3-2014-95-of-ps4s-connected-to-the-internet-youtube-app-coming-this-year/1100-6420285/

However the unique ID is the problem. The size doesn't matter, putting it on the disc is the difficulty. A disc image is mastered into a stamper which is used to mass produce discs via a mould process. There is no place for variable data. That would somehow need to be added as a separate step on a different location of the disc.

Anyway it would suck if you take the console with you on holiday and you forgot to register the games you want to play at home :/
Mobile phone you say, $6 per kb while roaming, lol.

It costs more, it adds extra work to maintain the database, and it puts question marks on longevity and ownership. All for not having to swap a disc which you can skip already by buying the digital version in the first place.



archer9234 on 14 March 2016
SvennoJ said:
SamuelRSmith said:

Doesn't require always online at all. Only the first time you use the disc on the console, or if you want to play discless. Seeing as most people buy a handful of games each year, "always on" becomes "online 5 times a year".

I didn't say 99% of individuals, I said 99% of people who have the means to buy a game console. The kind of functionality I'm talking about could be achieved using just a few kilobytes of data, meaning it could work on cell network, satellite, hell, even dialup, with barely any time delay or cost to the end user.

The unique ID is part of the data on the disc that is written. A 5 digit code using alphanumeric characters allows for 50 million different unique codes for one game, and takes up 175 bytes.


It costs more, it adds extra work to maintain the database, and it puts question marks on longevity and ownership. All for not having to swap a disc which you can skip already by buying the digital version in the first place.

Yeah. The future proof problem comes into play. The database must be active forever. If the PSN or XB live service is orphaned, in say 15 years from the systems. You're fucked. Just like a digital copy anyway. That is not what people want. People are litterly trying to just copy the digital version. For the sake of being that lazy with swapping discs. The digital copy is the answer. Accept you lose sellability. And reuseabilty, in the future.



Uabit on 14 March 2016

That's what MS first wanted to do with X1.