Bushnell: New encryption chip to effectively end PC gaming piracy

The reason piracy is so big becouse most of Europe dont have acces to these games.
Steam? They can go fck themselves. 50$+ 10$ VAT MY Ass.
Shouldnt games cost less like Warhawk?

My Thinkpad (T61P) comes with this chip. I was easily able to disable it through a BIOS setting. Regardless of some game industry exec's feelings on the subject, I like having control over the things I own.

Piracy is simple -
What can be done, can be undone. Anything you add can be subtracted...or bypassed all together.

I don't support buying used games or pirating games, because a GOOD chunk of the money (up to 40%)going towards new games goes straight to the hands of the developers. And another %40+ to the publishers. Used and pirate games...0%.
Music Cds on the other hand...well, just make sure you get tickets to the show when the band is in town.

The problem isn't that this chip will inconvenience the honest consumers, it's that the honest consumers will tolerate it, anyway.

I boycott any game that uses SecuROM, and I make it very clear to as many people as possible why I won't allow that crap on my system. Too bad major games that use it still sell like crazy. Don't tell me it's because most people don't know it's there. I tell people it's there, and they buy the game anyway because they just HAVE to have the game. People just don't have the willpower to boycott entertainment.

It's the same with DVDs. I won't buy Disney DVDs because of the plethora of ads they have on their movies, and the fact that on many discs, you can't skip over them, either. But, you wouldn't believe how many Disney DVDs the rest of my family has. They don't like the ads, either, but they just sit through them, anyway. WTF? People pay to watch ads? Yes, they do. Cable TV did it all the time before satellite arrived.

People complaining about the persistent online activation for Spore was encouraging, but after Half Life 2 effectively solidified Steam as a platform, I knew, once and for all, that the average consumer just won't fight for their rights. Even idiotic "pain and suffering" lawsuits wouldn't happen without the endless coaxing of a salesman... I mean, lawyer.

It's a good thing I usually like indie and console games. Almost anything from a big publisher has DRM that is unacceptable. The day they require me to hook a console to the Internet to play my games is the day I stop being a gamer, and I will do so as loudly as possible.

ugh. totaly love the idea of buying a game and not being able to use it if my mobo breaks or i get a new computer.

this is why console gaming is so appealing anymore. I dont like that as I prefer PC as my gaming platform but its just so much less of a hassle.. plus i can rent games on a console so thats a nice perk.

As for stopping piracy. Id suggest more swag. Stuff you cant get unless you buy the game. Some jackhole might have pirated bioshock but they sure as hell didnt torrent themselves a big daddy figure in the process

Umm, put a chip in my PC that can be controlled by gaming companies - I DON'T THINK SO.

This is just a fun challenge for the warez groups.

This will do nothing to actually benefit legitimate users and will only serve as a minor inconvenience to those who it's meant to stop. Just like DRM, our computers will become even more "defective by design".

When did it become OK for a machine to question the instructions of it's owner and disobey them at the request of total strangers?

"This won't stop the pirates. This WILL stop the consumers. Remember the huge uproar over Mass Effect on PC? Mr. Bushnell, do you really think you'll be immune from the same problem?"

Bushnell has no idea what the gaming world is like today, i doubt he even knows what mass effect or spore is. listening to his advice on this matter is like asking alexander graham bell which cell phone he would recommend...

https://www.trustedcomputinggroup.org/faq/TPMFAQ/

The chips are already in the masses

As several people have mentioned, TPM chips are becoming VERY common (especially in laptops). Enterprise-level businesses are even beginning to use them to secure company computers. There are still companies manufacturing motherboards and notebook computers without the TPM module, but there is a VERY strong push toward industry-wide TPM integration.

If game developers get behind this, it's only going to get worse, because individuals who refuse to use a TPM module due to privacy concerns will no longer be able to play the latest games (and, as several people have pointed out, replacing the motherboard runs the risk of making your game unplayable).

The problem with all anti-piracy measures is that they treat the honest customer like a criminal while the actual criminals continue finding ways to circumvent the increasingly draconian protection schemes.

At least with game consoles, it takes a lot before you get treated like a criminal (e.g., trying to log in to an online service controlled by the hardware manufacturer while using modified hardware, which anyone with half a brain should EXPECT to get them treated like a criminal). With the PC market, you are treated like a criminal from the moment you insert the installation disc into your system to the moment you finally get so fed up that you download a DRM-free copy from a torrent site.

TPM may be the way to stop piracy in the short term (though I agree it will be hacked much faster than the industry expects), but just wait until the Next Big Thing(TM) comes out and requires a new computer. Customers may not notice at first, but eventually they're going to want to play some older games, and they're going to be locked out of playing them. At that point, you couldn't pay me enough to be in a PC game development house.

we all know there will be errors with this thing at some point but the consumer better not flip the bill for this stupid thing be it $.02 or $2, since they certainly won't be doing us any favors by installing something nobody asked for. I smell class action

All it's going to do is drive up costs of computers if made widespread (which won't happen). It'll be as irrelevant to gaming as a physics processor...


Wow talk about dumb...

I give it a day. Maybe a day and a half. Then that company goes bankrupt. It'll be REALLY funny.

I'm not your friend, buddy

Why would this bring about a surge in PC gaming in countries that don't like paying for games? If anything, it'll bring about a lull.

Just another case of punishing everyone for the actions of a few.

Please don't compare used games to pirated games. Although there has been a lot of confusion about its exact usage in the digital age, in America the first-sale doctrine is a fundamental right of both consumers and resellers. I should stress that there is a lot of conflicting case history on it (especially in the digital age), but it is fully legal for you to sell a copyrighted work that you have legally obtained to someone else without the consent of the copyright holder. It is the framework that companies that sell copyrighted materials work under. It is not "stealing money" from the original company. It is part of the set of rules they agree to in order to do business in our country. It is a fundamental right of the consumer, and I'll be damned if people claim that exercising their legal rights is immoral.

Pirates, on the other hand, should die in a fire. Seriously. There is nothing legal or ethical about what you do. Don't give me this "big business is evil, man" crap either. I have my own grievances about big business, such as when they get involved in the judicial system just to make their lives easier, like they do when it comes to the first-sale doctrine and people cracking DRM on goods they've legitimately purchased. That doesn't give you the right to be evil too. Just because you think a company is trying to steal your money doesn't give you the right to steal a product from them.

"we here at Joystiq HQ are vehemently opposed to piracy. Partly because we think cheating music, film, and gaming companies out of their hard-earned recompense is a despicable act"

Joystiq, the fact that you would say this sort of thing days after publishing a huge how-to on DS homebrew astounds me. I understand that you may only be writing about homebrew but you're advertising/displaying all of the products that people pirate with and how to go about using them. I'm not saying you're intentionally promoting pirating but it just baffles me. I read that quote there and though "Are they serious?"