PC game developers foretell the death of DRM
by Griffin McElroy 
{ May 11th 2009 at 5:30PM } 
The general sentiment of these interviewees is that DRM is extremely ineffective when it comes to preventing piracy, and that developers should either come up with alternate ways of ensuring the retail product is more valuable than the pirated product, or determine a different way to make money altogether (such as micro-transactions). For interesting insight from fine folks like 2D Boy's Ron Carmel and Stardock's Brad Wardell, we highly suggest checking out the full article.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Dante G @ May 11th 2009 5:36PM
I think steam is the way to go.
Noshino @ May 11th 2009 5:45PM
But Steam's security is often cracked as well
BigD145 @ May 11th 2009 5:53PM
Steam's security has caused problems in the past and will in the future.
Dante G @ May 11th 2009 6:12PM
Ok. It isn't perfect, but at least they offer some pretty sweet deals from time to time. That way you pay less and you're supporting the developers without them having to spend on discs production, packaging and shipping.
deanb @ May 11th 2009 6:18PM
Steam is a pretty good platform though because gamers trust them. Steam is like the prophetic savior of PC gaming and SecuROM is the anti-Christ. I would rather a developer publish their game on Steam than publish it with SecuROM.
Spore was one of the worst gaming moments in my life. I bought it at launch, it was then 2 days of forum scouring till I could play it, and it nearly included me having to re-install Vista. In the end I gave it to my sister, who by all accounts shouldn't be able to play it, Spore was registered to my EA account, I'd installed it on the three PC limit ( twice on my PC and a third on my mates to check it wasn't a dodgy disc), so somewhere along the line SecuROM is severely broken.
Steam, well I share(d) my account with my sis and that work's fine. I've even got some of my games on my Dads Pc so I can play there when I pop over. Sure I can't resell them, but like any store would trade-in Spore. Ha!
ooop's that got a bit ranty.
Noshino @ May 11th 2009 6:20PM
yah, but its only a handful of people that buys games JUST to support studios.
And when it comes to pirating, most do it because its free, so discounts mean absolutely nothing to them.
Anticrawl @ May 11th 2009 6:23PM
Steam is an awful awful program. I hate anytime I'm required to use or launch demos through that shit program that runs in the background. When I buy a game online or in a retail store it's mine to run how I want it. I'll be damned if I ever let them control that.
why not the LS2LS7? @ May 11th 2009 6:27PM
Steam is DRM.
Doug @ May 11th 2009 6:43PM
"Steam is an awful awful program. I hate anytime I'm required to use or launch demos through that shit program that runs in the background. When I buy a game online or in a retail store it's mine to run how I want it. I'll be damned if I ever let them control that."
I completely and utterly disagree with you. Steam takes practically none of your system's hardware, allows you to chat with all your friends either through text or mic, and has a pretty nice built in browser, community news section and games list. I see no reason to complain, if you're really having that big of an issue, you're probably doing something wrong.
Dante G @ May 11th 2009 6:44PM
"Steam is DRM."
I know. The thing is, you have your account, you have your games. If you bought a 3-installs-limit disc and already used those three up you're pretty much screwed.
I'm not saying steam will stop pirates. They can't be stopped. What I'm saying is that steam gives you a chance to legally own some great games for cheap. And since these predictions are saying DRM will die, I don't think steam will any time soon. It's a different kind of DRM.
BlaqueBeird @ May 11th 2009 7:08PM
If Steam is DRM, it's at least DRM done right, by which I mean no limit to where you can install anything, and you don't even need to be logged once the games are installed, provided they aren't online. I love Steam, and am certainly glad it's available. And honestly, if it weren't for Steam, I would have lived up to my nickname by now, because I have no time to go to a physical store nor anywhere to safely hide game cases from the hooligans I live with.
jackal @ May 11th 2009 8:22PM
blaquebeird,
Steam isn't DRM done right for a few reasons. The first is that the service has to constantly run in the background in order for you to play something you just shelled out $50 of your hard earned money for. Now, this isn't a problem for games like Half-Life 2 because they aren't that CPU intensive but if you're running an incredibly demanding game like Crysis or GTA IV, the game could probably use those extra CPU cycles. Steam also isn't a problem if you have a high speed internet connection, but playing a game that uses it is PAINFUL on dial up. As much as those of us with DSL, broadband, or cable like to think we're the majority, we definitely aren't in North America. Hell, the difference between DSL and dial-up could literally be living on one city block instead of the one adjacent.
Also, while Steam has an offline mode, it doesn't always work and there are literally dozens of forums dedicated specifically to that problem. The client has to be up to date in order for someone to use offline mode (which is a problem, again, for people with limited internet connectivity options). It's also a problem if, say, your ISP is doing maintenance in the area and, because you can't go online, you can't update your client; that happened to me this weekend and I was pissed (to say the least). There are also issues with people having their accounts hacked on Steam, or for Steam itself to think those accounts have been compromised. BAM! You've been locked out of your own software and if you've spent $300 over the course of time on games, you'd be seething with rage if you weren't able to play them.
I also dunno about the rest of you, but my Steam client through a shit fit when I tried installing Half-Life 2 after Dawn of War II; no matter what, it wouldn't let the game install because there wasn't "enough space left on the disk". I had to uninstall Dawn of War II, install Half-life 2 and the outdated Steam client, reinstall it, and then update the client. That's definitely "DRM done right".
For any form of DRM to be truly "done right" it should be completely transparent to the user; you shouldn't have to run a service in the background in order to play your game, it shouldn't require online authentication PERIOD, and you shouldn't be stuck with a pretty coaster if you live out in the boonies or *shocker* don't have internet access (shit happens). There shouldn't be any potential for you to be locked out of your purchases, either. If you want to sell your game, you should be able to do so. The closest I've ever seen to "DRM done right" was with UT3 or Quake Wars. You're prompted for a CD key one time and that's it; you don't need to leave the disc in the drive, nothing runs in the background, and the game isn't permanently tied to some account.
why not the LS2LS7? @ May 11th 2009 9:15PM
Steam may be DRM done as right as it can be. It doesn't cause me huge problems day to day.
All it stops me from doing is selling, trading and loaning my games, which is something I despise. I frequently loan and borrow games, and if I cannot do them, my costs of gaming will go far up or (more likely) I'll get to play fewer games.
Shagittarius @ May 11th 2009 5:37PM
I'm not paying extra for a shorter game with DLC content just to pay the difference for pirates.
Ass-hats will hold back content and in the end all it equates to is a higher price. Bring back the days of large boxes with real manuals and chackkies and cloth maps and shit not just in the collectors edition and maybe it will make buying a legitimate copy more attractive. When you treat the product on a shelf like its just a medium for conveying data on a disk its not gonna get no respect.
MarkHawk @ May 11th 2009 5:50PM
Yes a more expensive box to ship and throw a bunch of shit in there and sell it to me...
And what game has been successful that gave you a shorter game and then sold you the rest as DLC? Was is Tomb Raider, because last I checked Midway was still in trouble and Tomb Raider didn't really help.
The Baron @ May 11th 2009 6:02PM
@MarkHawk
This is just a method to reduce piracy that has been proposed. I think it was the president of Epic who suggested that gamers should have to buy the ending through DLC to combat used game sales/piracy.
joeybeast @ May 11th 2009 5:43PM
Like Ron said DRM is to stop used game sales not piracy.
Piracy will never seize to exist.
WiNG [XBL&Steam: WiNGSPANTT] from lifeinagame.com @ May 11th 2009 5:44PM
Neither will pseudo-homophones cease to exist.
ThornedVenom (of the Fidlious Clan of Wong) @ May 11th 2009 5:48PM
Like David Perry suggested, be better than free.
Mr Khan @ May 11th 2009 6:18PM
A surprisingly worthwhile contribution from Mr. Perry, and very true. People just have to want your game to the point where not paying for it ceases to be an option. I would imagine most piracy comes from fence-sitters anyway
Eh @ May 11th 2009 5:49PM
You would think they would give up DRM if only to avoid paying what is likely a significant portion of their budget on stuff like Securom.
I really dont understand why they bother, its not stopping piracy so why are they paying for it?
Zertoss @ May 11th 2009 5:53PM
Because pointy-haired bosses sit in meetings listening to sales pitches on a product that, if the current state of the gaming market is anything to go by, will never deliver, but they buy into the hype that's pitched to them and, against all logic and reason, you get yet another game with SecuROM.
Also a long sentence.
Noshino @ May 11th 2009 6:01PM
Because although its not stopping it, it does lower it.
The point is, you have idiots that think that they deserve to have games for free, and on the other side you have companies that don't want to see their profits shrink, so try anything to stop it, even if it means "hurting" (bothering sounds more appropriate) actual customers.
BananaBoat @ May 11th 2009 6:24PM
Hurting is the correct term. There are DRM schemes out there that are basically malware. They go through your system and knee-cap any functionality they don't like, without your approval (namely DVD burners, and image mounting programs).
There hasn't been a single bit of data to suggest that DRM has ever actually cut down on piracy. On the flip side, it has lost companies sales due to customer backlash. In a sane market environment, they'd stop with the excessive DRM altogether. Unfortunately, in an effort to kill the used games market, some companies are considering things like making the end of a game downloadable with a one time use coupon that would come with a game, or other such things. Essentially, they want to use DRM and EULA's to convert us from buyers into renters. I for one will never put up with it.
jackal @ May 11th 2009 6:29PM
Noshino,
Of course, you have publishers including DRM schemes that have proven to be completely ineffectual at stopping piracy and, because they do nothing but hurt legitimate customers, sales for that particular game go down the crapper because no one likes paying $50-$60 for a product that gives them far less freedom than a rental. Take a look at the Dark Athena PC port. No one's buying the game because it has 3 activations across three machines. That's it. If you uninstall the game, you don't get an activation back as is the case with some (but not all) EA games that use SecuROM; if anyone's uninstalled Spore, I'm sure they've noticed that it briefly phones home to EA's server.
Atari's also made it fairly clear that they have no intention of releasing an activation revoke tool and, should you require another activation for whatever reason, their stance is to treat you like a thief when you call them; EA, before they released revoke tools for all of their SecuROM games (on April 1st, nonetheless), was (more often than not, surprisingly) happy to just give you a new CD-key when you said, "activation limit" because A) it wasn't worth it to them having to deal with pissed off customers all day and B) that 1-800 you just made was on their dime.
What's an even bigger slap in the face is that Atari opted to use SecuROM (which has done SHIT ALL to stop even day one piracy) even after EA's abandoning it in favor of disc based authentication. When one, if not the, world's largest publisher says, "Eh...it's not really been worth it for us" and is going back to using a nigh 2 decade old form of anti-piracy, you really start scratching your head when Atari, who's been thoroughly unsuccessful for nigh 20 years, says, "Hey! SecuROM's the way to go!"
I was going to buy Dark Athena for my PC but Atari's "profit protection ideas" have guaranteed they'll never see my money and, before someone says it, no, I won't buy it for either of my consoles; if I'm not going to support Atari for fucking me on my primary platform, why would I give them even more money ($60 vs. $50) on the others?
Eh @ May 11th 2009 6:53PM
How does it lower piracy? In the old days before DRM you could make a copy of a friends disc and use their serial but you still needed to download a no-cd patch.
Today you can download the game, use the serial in the text file, and download a no-drm patch. The effort is still the same, except instead of replacing an exe youre just replacing some other file.
They are wasting millions of dollars on crap that doesnt do anything. They should be using that money to make up for lost profits due to piracy.
Cosmo @ May 11th 2009 5:49PM
Good, DRM is only hurting PC gaming, and DRM is the last thing it needs.
MarkHawk @ May 11th 2009 5:54PM
But without it you have things happening like Demigod. It's a win lose. I hate DRM on Dawn of War II (I want a copy but can't buy it used or trade on Goozex for it) but at the same time a developer is just having there games stolen left and right.
DRM isn't the right solution but there just aren't many out there. Even Steam isn't perfect. No internet or your account can be hacked and you can be locked out of your games.
SunKing @ May 11th 2009 6:47PM
"I hate DRM on Dawn of War II (I want a copy but can't buy it used or trade on Goozex for it) but at the same time a developer is just having there games stolen left and right."
And that's another reason why companies want DRM: it can practically eliminate the second-hand market.
BigD145 @ May 11th 2009 5:56PM
I, and many others, foretold this years ago. Game developers need to stop playing the fool when they obviously are not. DRM is only going away now because companies don't want to pay the upfront costs of dealing with another party in development and distribution during a recession/depression. They'd rather take their chances and hold onto market share until things get better. DRM may revive on the rebound.
MarkHawk @ May 11th 2009 6:00PM
I still find it sick how many people think they deserve games that they didn't work on or pay for. People sink time, money, and careers into this stuff and your just kicking them in the back. If the end product is crap then reviews will tell you that and you shouldn't buy it. Don't justify stealing it because you don't think it's worth your money.
I am buying more games these days then I ever have but I also want more games then ever did in my life. I don't steal any of them though. If I can't afford it, I watch for it to on sale through CheapAssGamer.com or I trade for it on Goozex.
Noshino @ May 11th 2009 6:09PM
Not only that, what is even more sick is how they excuse it claiming that they do it to fight the man. It just pisses me off.
The problem is that nowadays piracy hurts them even more than before because people that pirate also, and most likely more often, play online, taking resources that they didn't pay for. That's why Carmel of 2D Boy is more ok with piracy, but just take a look at Stardock, a company that was so against DRM is even releasing their security system.
Shagittarius @ May 11th 2009 6:09PM
I think its fine for kids in High-school to pirate. They don't have the disposable income to spend on games at that point. Hell if I didn't pirate when I was in high school I woulda never got my start in the games industry.
Its the old losers that still pirate when they have the cash to spend that are the real problem.
Noshino @ May 11th 2009 6:17PM
Shaggi, that is another problem, if they are shown that it ok to pirate games while young, they get used to it, and it becomes even harder to get them to pay once they have the means to.
I mean, after all, why would you pay for a game when spending a few hrs finding and downloading a game means you can get a game for free?
Mr Khan @ May 11th 2009 6:25PM
My term paper for Microeconomics suggested this: that there is a certain group of pirates that are not going to pay for the game, and so its hard to count what they do as an actual loss, then there are the asshats who just like their money, and who could actually be buying this sort of thing
Companies shouldn't be worrying about the former group, since the losses to them really incur no negative impact (unless they are online games, then they incur higher server fees without extra revenue), and focus on the latter.
Noshino @ May 11th 2009 6:58PM
Mr Khan,
In a way, it is true, but like you mentioned, when there are online features, then the studios have to pay for those that didn't, and nowadays, most games do have online features, specially PC games.
Another problem is that if companies stop releasing games with DRM, then it sends a message that it is alright to pirate games, for small studios its ok since their audience tends to be a niche one, but for big ones such as EA? Giving up would just open the doors to even more pirates.
deanb @ May 11th 2009 6:05PM
Micro-transactions (for games it suits) seem to be the way forward. It already looks like that's how EA re going with Sims 3.
I also quite like the idea of Freemium games. Sure it doesn't work with all games, but it would be great to see it implemented more often. So I'm keeping an eye on Battlefield Heroes n Free Realms to see how well they do. Because its impossible to pirate free games it doesn't matter. And those that would pay can get the extra features.
As for stopping pre-owned sales (which I don't know any stores that do pre-owned PC games anyway) just include incentives, like codes for a few extra MP maps, or some other kind of in-game item/quest/whatever.
Robobagins @ May 11th 2009 6:13PM
I say go back to the DRM of ages ago, asking for things from the manual, or two use a code wheel. They were at least fun, and if someone goes to the effort to priate those.... well they were going to pirate it anyway.
Also more demos.
KeegdnaB @ May 11th 2009 6:16PM
The truth is if someone wants to pirate a game, they will find a way. All DRM does is punish people who actually by the damn game and gives them no reason not to pirate it.
The Baron @ May 11th 2009 6:57PM
This is very true.
Nobody ever asks this question of the industry: when has DRM actually worked?
I challenge you to find one game which is unpirateable. The game being so crap that nobody wants to seed it doesn't count (although that does sound like an effective anti-piracy measure).
THE WICKER MAN (BWF) (GT: Dalek Prime) @ May 11th 2009 6:25PM
DRM is as evil as Hitler's ghost. It haunts my 360.
Anticrawl @ May 11th 2009 6:26PM
I've been punished by a games DRM after purchasing it legally so now I often find myself going out of my way to punish publishers that push DRM out on certain games for the PC.
why not the LS2LS7? @ May 11th 2009 6:30PM
These jokers will not give up DRM. They're just going to move to online activation and then say it isn't DRM since it doesn't prevent you from running on multiple machines.
EA will say they aren't doing online activation, but you can be sure that the online component will fail to work if you can't pass their tests. So pirated copies will work as free crippleware demos, but you still will need to pass an online test to run the whole game.
Jinsenken @ May 11th 2009 6:50PM
Movers and shakers eh? What about producers?
I can play my games, with no DRM...
No DRM...
No DRM...
mynk @ May 12th 2009 12:41AM
look at me look at me
all proud and its good to be
gaming in a (drm) free world
BlackDove @ May 11th 2009 7:48PM
"Publishers aren't stupid. They know that DRM doesn't work against piracy," he explains. "What they're trying to do is stop people from going to GameStop to buy $50 games for $35, none of which goes into the publishers' pockets. If DRM permits only a few installs, that minimizes the number of times a game can be resold."
So that's what it was about.
It was never about piracy.
Brit @ May 11th 2009 9:59PM
Actually, that explanation makes no sense in the context of CD-keys. I don't buy it.
BigD145 @ May 11th 2009 10:27PM
One person already paid $50 for the game. Gamestop bought it and resold it at a premium. How are developers losing money? I could slap a game I bought new on Craigslist or eBay and get $35. Am I cheating the company in some way? Do they want me to give them back the game for free so they can resell the same copy for $50 more? Yes. Yes they do. F* 'em.
dogmaticatheist @ May 11th 2009 8:11PM
The solution is so glaringly obvious. Make games that people actually think are worth spending their hard earned money on, and you will increase sales!
deanb @ May 11th 2009 8:33PM
Games worth buying are worth Pirating.
As mentioned people who pirate are never gonna buy the game, whether its good or not. If its a great game and they have the option of spending their hard earned cash on it or grabbing it off TPB and they are so inclined to do that, then what choice will they take? This isn't Fable where you grow horns n your skin goes all funny if you take the bad choice.
Awesome games get pirated more than bad crappy ones. FACT
These guys are finally admitting piracy will not go away and DRM doesn't work. It doesn't change their sales in anyway, but they are now not living in ignorance.
Micro-transactions/DLC n sub's are currently the only sales model that will mostly guarantee sales of PC games, cos you cant pirate free stuff. and you can't pirate stuff tied to an account.