99.8% of Gamers Don't Care About DRM, Says EA

arcticstoat writes "If you thought that EA might have been humbled by the massive Internet backlash against its use of SecuROM in its recent games, then you'd be wrong. Speaking at the Dow Jones/Nielsen Media and Money Conference, EA's CEO John Riccitiello claimed that the whole issue had been blown out of all proportion. 'We implemented a form of DRM and it's something that 99.8 per cent of users wouldn't notice,' claimed Riccitiello, 'but for the other 0.2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them launched a cabal online to protest against it.'"

Comments

Good games sell, but sell enough?

[cliffski]

Good games do sell, but sometimes not as well as they should, and thus not enough (in a perfect market) to encourage good games get made.
Take Thief. That was an awesome game, and apparently also massively pirated, being a first person game with no multiplayer. The company went bust, but deserved to be wearing money hats for making an awesome game. That's a net loss for gaming in general.

And take "world of goo", an awesome game, that (like mine) ships totally DRM-free. It's pirated to oblivion, and they are no doubt losing tons of sales.

Contrast this with cheap movie tie-in games. They sell tons, based purely on hype, to people who have no idea about the more obscure, but better games. So we get more crap movie tie-ins and sequels, and less cool stuff like World of Goo.

Piracy hurts the industry big time, because it removes vital signals from the market. The games that get made are the games that sell. However much you like a game, your view is irrelevant unless you buy it, because we live in a capitalist free market, where profits determine what products get investment.

Short summary: don't pirate games. It is self defeating. Especially if you pirate games you really like.

Re:Good games sell, but sell enough?

[AKAImBatman]

So, no acknowledgment that (whether intentionally or unintentionally) you told lies? You still stand by your easily proven disinformation? And you then accuse me of "not agreeing" with you?

Here's a hint, old chap: Lies are lies are lies. Facts are not a matter of opinion. They are facts. And you are not in possession of them.

Until you can understand the difference, you are a troll and possibly a shill. Which is really too bad. I had a lot of respect for you after you published your article where you found that DRM was standing between you and your customers. Apparently, those lessons have not sunk in, because it sounds like you are blaming your customers for being greedy pirates rather than considering whether or not you are competitive in the market.

I'd explain why your games are not doing well (nothing to do with piracy, I can assure you), but I fear it would be pearls before swine. When you're ready to understand a thing or two about your market, hopefully someone will be there to educate you.

Good day to you, sir.

Re:Obligatory...

[TheRaven64]

Try some DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac that make you think: http://www.positech.co.uk/

And, once again, you fail. I went to the site, I saw a game that looked interesting, I clicked on the demo link, and it started downloading a Windows .exe file (irritating, since it didn't say 'Windows demo' on the link, so I assumed it would take me to a page to select the platform, since there was a Mac icon at the top of the screen). I know you've said before that there are Mac demos available... somewhere... but I got bored trying to find them on your site.

End result: I didn't find the demo, didn't try the game, didn't buy the game. Maybe I'd have enjoyed it if I had, maybe not. Oh well, FreeOrion had a full game download link in an easy to find location, so I think I'll play that instead.

Re:Games not on Wii

[Nursie]

Wii-only titles tend to be kiddie focused and like flash games.

Games that appear on multiple platforms - well why would you use a wii?

I have all three and we use the Wii least, the controllers are annoying, the gfx poor and the games "meh"