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Forums - Sony - Timed DRM

I've only been following the whole PS4 DRM a little but I'm curious how people would feel about a timed DRM.  I personally don't think Sony will use DRM now that they can get all kinds of great PR by not going that route but a timed DRM seems like a good compromise in my opinion.  Gamers don't want DRM at all and I'm sure plenty of developers want DRM.  The whole purpose would be that DRM might be beneficial for smaller companies in the industry. 

The goal would be for it to work kind of like how movies work.  People that don't want to wait for the movie to come out on DVD (Blu-Ray or whatever) go to the theatre (or they love going to the theatre or whatever).  Just like movies come out for home release a few months after release there could be a DRM release date a few months down the road after release.  This could also give a developer time to adjust prices in that time period.  Say the DRM release date is 4 months.  That would give the developer freedom to put the game on sale for the month before it goes off DRM.  Sell it whole price for three months and drop it down to $20 dollars off right before it goes off DRM and then once DRM goes away you can take the sale away or something to that effect.

I see people freaking out about the whole XBOX One DRM and how you won't be able to take your game to a friend's house to play it.  I personally see that as a simple fix.  The PS4 is supposed to be such a huge social media product.  You could just make it so that each PSN account has something like 5 top friends and those top 5 friends can get past the DRM so you can still take it to a friends house.  That would be a way for people to get around the DRM when they want to sell it to someone one EBAY or something, they would just have to friend that account but limiting it to five will limit the amount people can do that.

Just food for thought and curious on some people's thoughts on this might be.



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As digital purchasing is going up and smaller developers utilizing digital only I think the "need" for DRM is non-existent. 15% to 30% of purchases/profit on Vita are digital, that is a sign of where things can go. Provide a full digital library like the Vita does and you will attract higher digital sales. Digital sales beat out physical DRM from a profit perspective, so I'm surprised the industry would consider it a worthwhile venture. Publishers can't have their cake and eat it too. They need to present the option to the consumer and let them decide, not force it upon them. Honestly, consumers would be more welcoming to a digital only console than a deceptive sense of physical possession. Publishers want that retail space for their games, but they need to accept the trade offs.



Before the PS3 everyone was nice to me :(

They could just ask gamestop to not sell copies of used games until a couple months after release

 

Problem solved



No need for DRM.

Just have an online code for all MP games. You buy a used copy and try to put in the code, if Invalid you can validate it for $5.

Can still play the Single Player to your hearts content for no extra charge.