DRM Finally done right, thanks to SEGA

[AppleQueso]

To those chanting "NO DRM IS GOOD DRM", etc. Can I ask something?

It's a futile battle, certainly, but you have to remember that these companies have to do something to show to their investors that they're willing to protect their property.

If not a relatively unintrusive and/or reasonable type of DRM as this, what do you propose they do instead?

[Hatta]

<i>that these companies have to do something </i>

What they have to do is show that DRM costs them more business than it brings in. Then they can release DRM free games with the full confidence that they are doing the right thing for their bottom line.

Frustrate a pirate, and he'll go pirate something else. Nothing gained.
Frustrate a customer, and he'll go buy something else. You lose.
DRM does not convert pirates to customers.

[AppleQueso]

Except we're talking about practically non-quantifiable data. There's really no way to prove the effectiveness of DRM either way unless you make a lot of assumptions.

[Pulsar_t]

I can actually name a few uncracked games, but it seems it's more due to lack of interest in them.

[CRTGAMER]

To those chanting "NO DRM IS GOOD DRM", etc. Can I ask something?

It's a futile battle, certainly, but you have to remember that these companies have to do something to show to their investors that they're willing to protect their property.

If not a relatively unintrusive and/or reasonable type of DRM as this, what do you propose they do instead?

Its a trade off. How many more customers without DRM vs how many pirates would really had purchased. I think most of the piracy would never have purchased so DRM doesn't really equate profits but actually losses. The customers that will not purchase DRMs.

The devious DRM profit is years from now when a particular purchased "Rental" download support goes away, replaced by a newer console to once again be available for additional new old same game download purchase.

[Inazuma]

Getting better. At least I can considering purchasing the games in 2 years, instead of being unable to do so forever. Basically they are just pushing the release dates back 2 years. That's how I read it.

Curiosity:

Knowing that they will lift the DRM in two years, does that mean that you'll go ahead and pirate it before then, or will you wait two years and then consider buying it?

If I wanted to play a DRM game now, I would pirate it. If I want to play it later when the DRM is gone, I am more likely to purchase it. Generally I prefer to support a product that I like instead of resorting to piracy. I will usually pirate things that I am unable to purchase for one reason or another, DRM being one of them.

[Hobie-wan]

Frustrate a pirate, and he'll go pirate something else. Nothing gained.
Frustrate a customer, and he'll go buy something else. You lose.
DRM does not convert pirates to customers.

The only ones that win are the companies selling the DRM.

[Veno]

Actually, who remembers the rhythm game series DJ Max?
There was a DJ Max for the PC titled DJ Max Trilogy, and I think there was some type of non-piracy thing going that made piracy difficult, to where you had to buy it to play it.

[AppleQueso]

Its a trade off. How many more customers without DRM vs how many pirates would really had purchased. I think most of the piracy would never have purchased so DRM doesn't really equate profits but actually losses. The customers that will not purchase DRMs.

Again, this is unquantifiable. You can't really prove this either way.

I'm not saying I like DRM or anything so don't get me wrong.

There are ways to make games piracy proof. I've wondered for a while now why game companies just don't use digital watermarks or usb dongles if they really want to stamp out piracy.

Both have proven to be very effective in the software world.

[Hobie-wan]

... usb dongles if they really want to stamp out piracy.

FUCK. NO.

They were a pain in the ass back when CAD software for PCs used parallel port dongles. Quite often they interfered with parallel port devices that were plugged in through them even they were supposed to be transparent.

Plus they're not a viable option for games anyway. They were justifiable when the dongle was for use with a $1000 piece of CAD software that mainly used that 1 piece of software. An extra couple of bucks cost for a piece of hardware that you have to plug in for each game? Never happen. Nobody will pay the extra $5 that would be charged for the game to include it and nobody will want to have a keyring full of USB dongles to have to swap between when playing games on their PC or console.

Some company would just reverse engineer it and make a universal one you could update with patches for new games and just keep the 1 plugged into your system all the time.