VALVe and DRM

[vlad321]

Gabe Newell Says DRM Strategies 'Are Just Dumb'

Valve president thinks developers should focus more on "service value."

By Kris Pigna, 12/02/2008

Evidently not content being the champion of free downlodable content, Valve president Gabe Newell has now gone on record as a critic of stringent digital rights management too. Responding to a letter that was posted, of all places, on the "ih8evilstuff" LiveJournal page (via GamePolitics), Newell said that DRM strategies "are just dumb" because they only decrease the value of a game in the consumer's eyes.

The letter expressed concern about Valve's publishing partnership with Electronic Arts, as the writer vowed to boycott all EA games due to their use of the SecuROM DRM software in PC games. In a short response, Newell wrote, "As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I'll be able to play my game and maybe I won't)." He added that Valve "really, really [discourages] other developers and publishers from using the broken DRM offerings, and in general there is a groundswell to abandon those approaches."

Despite that groundswell, the fact is DRM seems to only be getting more ubiquitous in the piracy-plagued PC market. The debate over the use of DRM peaked with the release of Spore, which was condemned by some gamers for its strict use of the SecuROM software (which only allowed three installations before you had to call EA customer service to be authorized for more). Still, EA's PC games continue to use the software (albeit a slightly less stringent version), and other developers are using the software as well, with Rockstar being the latest to employ SecuROM in the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 4.

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I really really like this guy, I think he's onto something here. I wouldn't worry about EA and Valve either, if it came to it Valve would drop them like they're hot.