NEWS
EVENTS
Video Game Piracy: Are Developers Encouraging it?
Other | Friday 15th November 2013 | Stephen
DRM has become a dirty word for gamers, it stands for "Digital Rights Management" and is supposed to stop piracy. The problem is that DRM takes on a variety of very intrusive forms and effects your honest gamer as much as it effects scurvy pirates. This would be moderately forgivable, or perhaps just more understandable, if it had the desired effect. If DRM does stop piracy then it makes sense why companies use it, as piracy can have severe negative effects. It's still a hassle for the legitimate end user, but it starts to fall under the banner of necessary evil.
Recently, Martin Iwinski of developer CD Projekt RED, famous for the Witcher series and online store GOG.com, has had things to say about DRM. The Witcher series has become a bit of a poster child for PC gaming, they are hardcore RPGs that take great advantage of PC hardware and are really damn good. 2011's Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings still looks absoloutly gorgeous to this day, and though it was ported later to the 360 that version was missing some features and didn't look as good. CD Projekt make really high quality PC games and the PC is the platform where piracy is a huge problem. You'd expect them to support a policy which supposedly helps their main market to stay profitable, but in reality CD Projekt Red are staunchly against DRM.
This has been true for a while. What is so notable about GOG.com is that it is totally DRM free, you can buy a whole bunch of games from it and none of them have DRM. GOG.com is still a popular service and its popularity echoes something that is also true of the music industry. Just a few years ago the music industry kind of declared war on piracy, it was unsure of the internet and thought that digital music distribution would kill music (well, the financial side of music anyway). We now live in a world where pirating music is about as easy as crossing the road, but the music industry is still doing really well.
The point here is that offering a decent alternative will evade a lot of piracy. Sure, there will still be pirates, but we live in a world where that is a sad eventuality. The internet has made buying music so much easier (due to things like iTunes), and for a lot of people ease of use really is the crux of the matter. Films, music and games all got to the position where piracy was potentially a lot easier than purchasing. Couple this with the lack of value of some products and you have a strong case for why piracy takes place. In embracing downloadable music as a revenue stream companies like Apple have taken the ease of use argument away from pirates, and at 99p a song it's now easier to just buy music. Piracy takes a bit more effort and music downloads are hardly expensive. Of course, piracy is still free, but most people are more than happy to just pony up a few quid, hence why the music industry is doing well in the digital age. The same is true with movies, services like Netflix have so many subscribers even when streaming and stealing movies is so easy. This is once again because of ease of use and value for money. This is why GOG.com works and it is why so many gamers use Steam all the time. Steam is by its nature a kind of DRM, but that is only because it's an online store and platform for PC games, it's DRM in the same way an Xbox 360 is.
The point Martin Iwinski from CD Projekt RED makes is that piracy is always going to happen, no matter what DRM you use. He talks about how every bit of DRM is cracked by pirates on day zero, meaning that it really does nothing. Here is the real core of the issue, DRM doesn't stop piracy. Games with DRM get cracked and pirated to the same extent as games without DRM, but DRM is really invasive and gets in the way of the end users experience. Of course this may not be the case if you pirate the game, because that awful DRM is gone and you are left with a better experience than the upstanding legitimate purchaser of the game. This is a bad situation and is why Iwinski is right for bucking the industry trend and ditching DRM.
He admits that the Witcher 2 (which launched with DRM, but had it taken out later and then ran better) was pirated a lot, but highlights that this was the case with or without DRM. In essence DRM doesn't do what it is supposed to do and it only really harms the person who actually paid for your game. So why does DRM exist? It's simple really, it's all down to investors and businesses needing to show that they are doing something to fight piracy. I think CD Projekt RED are onto the right track though, make your game easily available and put it on services that will make it a value and people will buy it. What CD Projekt RED are doing is building up a lot of trust and respect with their audience and it's something that will pay off for them. People hate DRM and will support a company that takes a stand against it.
Piracy is going to happen, it sucks but it's true. DRM doesn't work and only negatively impacts purchasers of the game. For this reason I stand behind CD Projekt RED and think they are making a great move. Other industries have shown that they can be profitable while accepting that piracy will happen and games should do the same. With DRM you are just encouraging pirates and not at all combating them.
