Does DRM increase profits?

[MrPopo]

To quantify an "increase of profits" one would need to somehow figure out:

-how many people pirate the game
-how many people stopped pirating because of the "difficulty" in getting around the DRM
-how many people stopped buying the product due to the DRM being a hassle

All three are impossible to put a number on, so I'd have to agree with Corn's comments about appeasing investors.

That's the real crux of things. There's three groups, people who will always pirate, people who will pirate if they can but aren't willing to wait, and then people who always buy. The first group cannot be stopped, plain and simple, and the devs know it. They're really targeting group two. If it takes a week or a month for a fully functional crack to come out then that group is going to purchase the game to play it. The unfortunate casualty is certain members of group three. The real question is whether the people in group two outnumber the small percentage of people in group three who either have problems or refuse to buy on principle.

[CRTGAMER]

To quantify an "increase of profits" one would need to somehow figure out:

-how many people pirate the game
-how many people stopped pirating because of the "difficulty" in getting around the DRM
-how many people stopped buying the product due to the DRM being a hassle

All three are impossible to put a number on, so I'd have to agree with Corn's comments about appeasing investors.

That's the real crux of things. There's three groups, people who will always pirate, people who will pirate if they can but aren't willing to wait, and then people who always buy. The first group cannot be stopped, plain and simple, and the devs know it. They're really targeting group two. If it takes a week or a month for a fully functional crack to come out then that group is going to purchase the game to play it. The unfortunate casualty is certain members of group three. The real question is whether the people in group two outnumber the small percentage of people in group three who either have problems or refuse to buy on principle.

Agree about the primary target, maybe also targetting this group of DLC re-purchasers for a double/triple dip?

Sad thing is DRM downloads are part of culture because of ignorant convenience.

[Hatta]

-how many people stopped pirating because of the "difficulty" in getting around the DRM

That, in itself, doesn't tell you anything. You also need to know what proportion of this group went on to buy the game. DRM might deter a significant number of people from pirating your game, but they'll most likely just go pirate something else. In that case, you haven't gained anything, and potentially lost some valuable word of mouth advertising. Who hasn't bought a game based on the recommendation of someone who pirated it?

[MrPopo]

Sad thing is DRM downloads are part of culture because of ignorant convenience.

It's not even always convenience. Sometimes it's the difference between playing and not playing. Mega Man 9 & 10 are downloadable games on a proprietary platform. You either buy them through the console or you can't play them at all. I'm confident that all of these games will be made available after the console dies (if not by the companies then through the enterprising members of the internet). About the only PC DRM I can understand being pissed at is the kind where it installs something that negatively impacts system performance in a noticable way. For all the other ones involving contacting a server (which is the one people are really concerned about for what happens in 10 years) I'm confident that people will have found a way to reinstall and play this stuff by the time companies fold. It's just the way things work.

[enderfall]

-how many people stopped pirating because of the "difficulty" in getting around the DRM

That, in itself, doesn't tell you anything. You also need to know what proportion of this group went on to buy the game. DRM might deter a significant number of people from pirating your game, but they'll most likely just go pirate something else. In that case, you haven't gained anything, and potentially lost some valuable word of mouth advertising. Who hasn't bought a game based on the recommendation of someone who pirated it?

More or less, that was what I was trying to say .