DRM is nasty. I do not see anything positive about it. The DRM is always cracked, the games get pirated, the publishers looks like ass hats, and it pisses off the customers.
Gabe Newell knows what’s up. Here’s a quote from his recent interview in Penny Arcade:
“We tend to try to avoid being super dictatorial to either customers or partners. Recently I was in a meeting and there’s a company that had a third party DRM solution and we showed them: ‘Look, this is what happens, at this point in your life cycle your DRM got hacked, right? Now let’s look at the data, did your sales change at all? No, your sales didn’t change one bit.”
Some of you are probably saying, “Wait, Steam is DRM, Right?” Yes, it is DRM. I can’ say that I am for it though I have no real complaints. It doesn’t get in my way when I want to install a game on another computer and it doesn’t make changes to any key system files. Most DRM schemes require customers to jump through hoops just to use a product they have already paid for. Steam does not do that.
I know I preaching to the choir here. I guess my hope is that some game publisher will actually read this and take note. Selling a game shouldn’t be a battle with the customers. It should be a rewarding experience.
I am at a point where I am mentally separating the old-school business models from the new. I look at a company for 10 seconds and then go, “Wow, they are old and stupid,” or, “Wow, these guys know what’s up.”
Openness is in. Listening to the customers is in. Frivolous legal action is out. Being a bully and trying to steal everyone’s toys on the playground is way out. Yet, many businesses are still doing this.
I am going to go more into this in the next episode of The Tek. I basically wanted to make a link to DRM and the old, out-of-touch business models. I know that some companies that use DRM on their games seem modern. They blog, they communicate with the community, they make modern games, but until they get rid of DRM they are just pretending. They don’t get it.
Publishers Should Listen to Gabe Newell on DRM
