nordlead said:
they inhibit casual piracy. Take your average consumer. They go into the store and buy a game. They want their friend to have a copy of the game. With decent DRM it prevents them from making a disc copy, or running without the DVD or installing. This successfully stopped piracy, and didn't hurt the consumer. However, this upper level of DRM only stops serious hacker for a few weeks tops, and then everyone downloads the torrents or cracks. This also stops those who know about torrents and stuff, but don't bother with it. However, the kind of DRM that they impliment does hurt the general consumer who bought the software. However, sucessfully stopping piracy for a single week could bring in thousands of extra sales, as the same people who pirate games aren't always the patient type and want the game now (or 2 weeks early for that matter). So, while I am against piracy, I am also against overly complicated DRM that can easily be cracked anyways. You'd think these large companies would hire some of the hackers to test out their DRM before bothering to even include it with their software. |
Yeah game companies (ie. 2K with Bioshock 1) have publicly said that their goal isn't to eradicate piracy altogether but to delay piracy long enough so that it won't sabotage sales. Given the front-loaded nature of gaming and how impatient gamers are, it's pretty crucial to lock down piracy for the first two weeks. If your game manages to get cracked before the street release date (Day 0 piracy), it can be devastating to sales. Contrary to popular opinion, preventing piracy can encourage would-be pirates to go out and buy the game. They're just not gonna buy every single game they would have otherwise pirated. It's a big mistake to assume that every pirated download = 1 lost sale but it's also a mistake to assume that piracy doesn't cause any lost sales at all.
While I understand what these companies are trying to accomplish though, they really take these things way too far at times. Install limits, requiring an internet connection to play an offline game, etc. These methods are horrible. I have one of those install limit games (it's from a small indie developer and on top of that, there is no known crack available on the internet) and if god forbid my computer's hard drive goes wonky or wiped out or whatever (making me unable to free up my 1 install limit), I have to contact eLicense, explain the situation, give them my credit card info (that I used to buy the game) and then they'll check their records and if they verify that I paid for the game, they'll issue me a new license. I really hope that kind of situation never happens. I understand that devs need to make their money but that's a real bullshit way to treat a paying customer. And if the eLicense servers were to ever go bye bye one day, I'm fucked. DRM outside of disc checks and Digital distribution are the devil.
