One of the things that I have never quite understood is the obsession video game companies have with oppressive DRM schemes. Has there ever been a DRM "solution" that has not been cracked? Not to my knowledge. Game companies dump large sums of money into making games more difficult to play and often introducing security holes or otherwise compromising the stability of the consumer's system.
There is certainly piracy of video games. However, DRM doesn't stop it. Serious pirates will still crack the protection and download games. Law abiding citizens don't pirate and wouldn't with or without it. There is certainly a subset of people who DRM stops from using unauthorized copies of games, but how big is that subset?
I have not seen any data on this, but when costs of developing, implementing, and supporting DRM issues are compared to the lost sales from "casual pirates" not using DRM, does DRM make business sense? Again, I have no data, but it seems unlikely.
Now we have word that Ubisoft is taking DRM one step further. No details on titles or timing, but the company announced this week that they would begin requiring PC games to "phone home" every time the application is run. Ubisoft has one a history of DRM blunders, and this may prove to be the worst.
Ubisoft rep Brent Wilkinson said "We think most people are going to be fine with it. Most people are always connected to an Internet connection." Yeah... most people. But what about the rest? What happens when your cable modem goes on the fritz and it takes a week to get Comcast out to fix it? What happens when you take your laptop on a trip and want to play on an airplane? Maybe it won't affect most people, but those that it does are lost sales that go on top of the expenses of implementing and supporting the DRM scheme. DRM kept me from buying Spore and it will keep me from buying anything Ubisoft slaps this poorly thought-out DRM on.
Ars Technica sums it up best:
"This is fine," one self-professed pirate told Ars. "I only have to access the Internet once to get Ubisoft games. You're the ones paying for a broken copy."
Why do companies think it is profitable to be anti-consumer? Make a product people value and make purchasing a legit copy worth more than pirating it and you have no need for the costs and headaches of Ubisoft.
