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DRM in games leads to piracy, says Good Old Games

Good Old Games, the retro games site has made some interesting comments regarding DRM (digital rights management) this week, claiming that instead of preventing piracy, it instead encourages it.

PR and marketing manager, Lukasz Kukawski went as far as to say DRM's effectiveness was "close to none."



Kukawski, via Bitgamer:

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. 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?

The manager also says the DRM is so abusive that some gamers will buy the game to support the developers and then just use a cracked version to avoid all the restrictions:

I know people that buy an original copy of the game just so they don't feel guilty and then they will play a pirated version which is stripped of all DRM. That’s not how it should be. Let’s treat legitimate customers with respect and they will give that back.

Concluding that DRM is absolutely useless, Kukawski says:

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 possible believe that DRM works in any way to reduce piracy?

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Apr 2011 20:42

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• 14 comments

• plutonash

  huh? really...
  

  "Cable thief is a victimless crime."

  13.4.2011 20:51 #1

• ROMaster2

  They've only just figured this out?

  13.4.2011 21:45 #2

• shortybob

  DUH. I hope someone in the industry reads this.

  13.4.2011 21:50 #3

• KillerBug

  Agree 100%...even when DRM was young, I was downloading cracked versions of the games I bought just to avoid disk swapping.
  

  
  

  13.4.2011 22:57 #4

• GryphB

  About time someone gets this right....

  13.4.2011 23:12 #5

• nonoitall

  Couldn't agree more.
  

  14.4.2011 00:35 #6

• Mrguss

  Finally.... "Somebody" Grow a Brain and Used !
  
  Just for Fun:
  Richard Stallman: A Happy Hacker with Unhappy Message.
  http://bit.ly/erXpA6
  

  +4000

  14.4.2011 03:20 #7

• biglo30

  Originally posted by KillerBug: Agree 100%...even when DRM was young, I was downloading cracked versions of the games I bought just to avoid disk swapping. Same here, was really a pain having to swap out disc or always have it in the drive making noise all the time when the content from it was already installed on the hard drive.
  

  
  

  14.4.2011 10:43 #8

• lissenup3

  Hell F'ing yeah........Just recently I tried the demo to Crysis 2 and it kept making me "sign in" and somehow tied up BOTH my email addresses and wouldn't send a reset or release them. So basically I'm f'ed because the DRM is wanting me to talk to the B.S. mothership.
  
  Based on that experience with just the DEMO.............I'm jackin' the full version and IF it's fun enough to play online.......THEN I'll consider buying it.

  14.4.2011 13:10 #9

• HxCMANIAC

  What a novel concept.

  14.4.2011 15:17 #10

• dirtyphoe

  I'm a PC gamer who buys all my games to support PC gaming and still download the iso from a torrent site or no cd/dvd patch just so I can play my game without a disc in the drive. Ubisoft is one company that has lost all my support due to thier always online DRM just to play thier games. It's a shame that the pirates have an easier time running the game than someone who sinks $60.00 for that game. And please somebody try to discredit me, so I can post a pic of my PC game collection, becides the ones I paid for off of Steam! (Rather buy box version of game from Best Buy though)
  

  PhoenixDownn

  15.4.2011 13:48 #11

• kfir1

  LMAO ..... I totally stopped buying games with DRM since last year. Im still playing COD4 with no DRM BS and with a LEGIT KEY. Trashed my COD4 2, JUNK.
  
  DRM is PURE JUNK.

  15.4.2011 21:07 #12

• dirtyphoe

  You could of just installed COD MW with the original disk and legit key then used the no-dvd crack for SP and MP. Works just fine.
  

  PhoenixDownn

  16.4.2011 17:30 #13

• Kraknfart

  The so-called protection software from stream is just abuse of my internet connection. When I installed a game that used stream the site address on the outside of the shrink wrapped box did not exist, and the documentation said that online registration was required. No big deal.
  
  The big LIE was in what they didn't tell you, that installing the game would install a 60MB runtime module that is in contact with the stream servers all the time, even when not playing a game. Normally on start-up my PC sends abut 700 packets to establish my internet connection (I monitor my connection), with stream installed it about 7,000 packets!!!!
  
  I reject this theft of my capped internet connection, seems while THQ don't like their stuff being stolen, they have no compunction about stealing my internet connection bandwidth.
  
  I now play a cracked version of the game, with no stream boatware and I will not buy any games that use stream software. Well done THQ and the DRM suppliers, and you wonder why sales are dropping.

  18.4.2011 08:55 #14