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Game Industry Vets On DRM

An anonymous reader points out an article at SavyGamer in which several game industry veterans were polled for their opinions on DRM. Cliff Harris of Positech Games said he didn't think his decision to stop using DRM significantly affected piracy of his games, accepting it as an unavoidable fact. "Maybe a few of the more honest people now buy the game rather than pirate it, but this sort of thing is impossible to measure. You can see how many people are cracking and uploading your game, but tracking downloads is harder. It seems any game, even if it's $0.99 has a five hour demo and is DRM-free and done by a nobel-peace prize winning game design legend, will be cracked and distributed on day one by some self righteous teenager anyway. People who crack and upload games don't give a damn what you've done to placate gamers, they crack it anyway." Nihal de Silva of Direct2Drive UK said his company hasn't noticed any sales patterns indicating customers are avoiding games with DRM. Richard Wilson of TIGA feels that customers should be adequately warned before buying a game that uses DRM, but makes no bones about the opinion that the resale of used games is not something publishers should worry about.

5 of 372 comments (clear)

  1. Piracy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    I generally download my games, and if they are good I buy them. So I never have problems with DRM, and I do still support the companies. Net result: a huge pile of unopened dvds (even in the original wrap), and no problems with any game.

  2. whoever plays games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    is a stupid tard and deserves every form of DRM the 'industry' is throwing at him and his shit-eating monkey friends.

    stop playing stupid games - become productive and do some coding!

  3. Re:Unavoidable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Pigs arse. People like you are exactly who one of the publishers are talking about when it comes to not paying for games. Because lets face it, no game in the world is going to be good enough for you to part with a buck. There is going to be some trivial fault or functionality in the game that makes it non perfect. If it is non-perfect, why should "hairyfeet" have to pay for it. Even if it was perfect, you'd come up with an excuse not to pay for it. Perhaps it isn't open source. Or if it was open source the license wasn't the right license.... Parasite.

  4. Re:Unavoidable by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    And amazingly, you're still a virgin!

  5. Re:Unavoidable by kz45 · · Score: 0, Troll

    "What are you, a moron? No one even suggested that.

    However, there is a large group of people who buy the game and then download a no-cd crack because they aren't putting up with that crap."

    What are you, a moron?

    Show me proof.