Digital Rights Management is a thorny issue among gamers, one that’s likely not going away anytime soon. The chaps at Good Old Games, however, have long boasted of their DRM-free PC titles, and there’s a reason for it — the company doesn’t believe in its usefulness.
“What I will say isn’t popular in the gaming industry, but in my opinion DRM drives people to pirate games rather than prevent them from doing that,” said PR and marketing manager Lukasz Kukawski. “Would you rather spend $50 on a game that requires installing malware on your system, or to stay online all the time and crashes every time the connection goes down, or would you rather download a cracked version without all that hassle?
“If you see the news on gaming portals that a highly anticipated title has leaked before the release date, and you can download it from torrents without any copy protection because it has been already cracked, how can you possibly believe that DRM works in any way to reduce piracy?”
Man has a point. A very good point. While I don’t blame publishers from attempting to protect their games, there has to be a better way than relying on a failing system that serves only to punish the paying consumer. That doesn’t justify piracy, but it does send the message that paying consumers shouldn’t support certain titles. All I know is, GOG seems to be doing just fine, so maybe the industry should take a few lessons.
Good Old Games: DRM drives gamers to piracy [Bit-Tech]
