So, was it today that SPAZ was going to be released, from DRM that is?

Yup, supposedly. Time to do some investigating!

Like, here? or what?

Uhm isn't this DRM free already? Just a serial key for MP needed?

Wasn't when I asked the developer, so I traded for it.

There is no multiplayer. It's a single player game and has an online activation key. They call it light DRM. I call it DRM, which means I don't buy it. Ah, if only people would learn that DRM = lost sales.

Oh wait, aren't they trying to claim piracy = lost sales?

So, is this your way of saying that it's both not true? ;)

I'm saying the usual argument is piracy = lost sales, which is not yet provable. The same cannot be said for DRM, though. I can definitively say that DRM has lost them sales, since I know a small handful of people (myself included) who will not be buying it as a result of DRM. Thus, lost sales. :)

Um, I can easily find a few people who pirated a game and didn't buy it. Thus, lost sales?

I fail to see why one is more 'definitively' true than the other.

I emailed one of the two developers and I have bad news, they seem to have changed their minds in the less than 3 months since they said May 9th. =(

I've asked permission to quote the email here and will do if I receive it. Ah, but can you prove those people would have bought it if piracy was impossible?

When someone says "I would have bought that game if it weren't for the DRM", that's proof.


Oh hang on, he posted his reply on their forum so I'll just link to it: http://www.spacepiratesandzombies.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=23417#p23417

That claim only has value if you honestly believe not a single person who pirates a particular game would have bought it if they could not get it any other way but legally. I'm not arguing that every single person who pirated it is a 'lost' sale, but if there were no other way to get it it's highly doubtful that none of them would have bought it at some point or another. (depending on price)

So, lost sales.

And just to argue a little more. I think I've seen plenty of people (some around here), who would happily argue that they 'would have bought that game if it weren't for the DRM', even though they have no real interest in the game but just like to be Anti-DRM so they say it anyway. So no, I wouldn't automatically take that as 'proof' either. (though more likely to be a lost sale)

And the pirates are able to play the game without worrying about DRM, as usual.

Ok, full email reply with names censored: =(

You have the option to buy it and not worry about DRM too.

I pretty much expected something like that, talk is always cheap. Never trust the empty "we promise to do it later..." promises.

No matter either way, it just goes back to the "maybe I'll check it in the distant future if I remember and still care, but at least I am not going to buy it into my backlog in advance"-list of mine. And no, I am not going to pirate it either.