Posted October 12, 2010
Good point about digital versus physical sales. I think digital sales have overtaken physical copies for the PC. I don't think that large numbers of pirated copies equals large potential profits, but I was taking developers viewpoints, whereby even a slim amount of thwarted pirates might yield massive profits, or for a small studio a slim profit could be all the difference in the world. In the end, though, I've no way to be sure.
The Ubisoft DLC is, so far, the worst example of piracy-prevention gone awry. In a way, I can understand their reasoning. They acknowledge that no DRM is hacker proof, so instead they create a method that in theory takes weeks, instead of days, to crack. Their hope, then, is to use it simply as a delaying mechanism, whereby pirates would get frustrated waiting for the game to get cracked and go out an buy it themselves, since most sales for a game come in the first month.
There are two flaws I see with Ubisoft's DRM. The first, as we've talked about, is that there isn't much overlap between pirates and potential customers. The second concerns the nature of the DRM. The delay strategy of the DRM may be a temporary obstacle to pirates, but it would be a permanent obstacle to customers that'll be in place well after a game has been cracked. Any time a pirated copy of a game is easier to run than a legitimate copy, a serious mistake has been made.
The Ubisoft DLC is, so far, the worst example of piracy-prevention gone awry. In a way, I can understand their reasoning. They acknowledge that no DRM is hacker proof, so instead they create a method that in theory takes weeks, instead of days, to crack. Their hope, then, is to use it simply as a delaying mechanism, whereby pirates would get frustrated waiting for the game to get cracked and go out an buy it themselves, since most sales for a game come in the first month.
There are two flaws I see with Ubisoft's DRM. The first, as we've talked about, is that there isn't much overlap between pirates and potential customers. The second concerns the nature of the DRM. The delay strategy of the DRM may be a temporary obstacle to pirates, but it would be a permanent obstacle to customers that'll be in place well after a game has been cracked. Any time a pirated copy of a game is easier to run than a legitimate copy, a serious mistake has been made.
