Lecturer in Programming for the Computer Games and Entertainment Industries
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UK - South East
The Valve boss says DRM wraps negativity around products
Valve co-founder Gabe Newell has made known his objections to digital rights management in games, claiming that copy-protection systems diminish the value of a product.
Speaking last night at the Game Developers Choice awards – where he picked up the Pioneer Award – Newell cited what he saw as a central problem with DRM.
“One thing that you hear us talk a lot about is entertainment as a service,” he said.
“It’s an attitude that says ‘what have I done for my customers today?’
“It informs all the decisions we make, and once you get into that mindset it helps you avoid things like some of the Digital Rights Management problems that actually make your entertainment products worth less by wrapping those negatives around them.”
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Newell’s comments were greeted with cheers from the packed crowd looking on at the Moscone Convention Center – cheers that, tellingly, resonated from the developers and industry luminaries in the room.
Newell’s criticism of DRM comes in the wake of a new row regarding Ubisoft’s “always-on” DRM technologies.
For the PC edition of Assassin’s Creed 2, customers need to play with a stable and constant net connection – which sends continuous data to Ubisoft verifying that the game is genuine.
Criticisms have centred mainly on how Ubisoft is basing tough security measures on temperamental net connections. Spotty net connections on the user’s end – or even just a router that needs a quick off/on – will prevent players’ access to the game.
Ubisoft has in recent weeks been subjected to DNS attacks on their servers from disgruntled hackers. The server farms that went down prevented customers from playing the game.
ubisoft and all other wants no piracy,but to stop piracy ,the drm which needs stable internet is a bad choice ,it will effect the original buyers for sure,well they miss one point,they pirated dvd's and torrents are only their enemies,but they never thought that they were dealing with another monster called internet.
we call i can't crack a .exe to skip come checking,but i can attact a server with simple easy metaspolit.....
so ,for next time ,try with a method , that will not effect the orginal buyers not even 1%,gud luck ubisoft...
oh yeah,im downloading ac2 for pc ,i already have 360, i wann see graphics in this pc edition..
Guys behind GOG.com have made their statement about DRM long time ago - DRMfree games is one of their strongest features. I hope more and more people in the industry will realize that DRM works against fighting the piracy rather than fighting it. Let's see if Newell's speech will effect the industry and Steam itself.
about the customers when they opened up Steam for 3rd party DRM... Besides I find Valve oposing DRM to be nothing but hypocritical. Steam _is_ DRM and a DMR that requires you to be online atleast once to play. It locks games to your account so that you cant lend them to someone or sell them on. How does that increase the value of the game Mr Newell?
You can transfer the license for a game from one steam account to another. yes steam is a kind of DRM but its more of a market place. you go on steam see whats new,watch trailers, try demos, buy, and download games. if your downloading the game yes your going to have to be online at least once. you can also go in offline mode so you can play games without the internet connection.
