Gabe Newell: Most DRM Plans Are "Dumb"
In speaking with a blogger, Valve Co-founder Gabe Newell confirmed that he is still hating "most DRM strategies" and hopes publishers will continue to "abandon" bad approaches to beating pirates.
Blogger Paul Reisinger [http://ih8evilstuff.livejournal.com/16992.html], concerned about Electronic Arts' involvement with Left 4 Dead and the publisher's issues during the Spore DRM disaster [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/86883-Will-Wright-EA-Pushed-for-Spore-DRM], emailed Newell, who has been very vocal [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_158/5045-Piracy-and-the-Underground-Economy] against abusive digital rights management, for answers to his questions.
"Left 4 Dead is developed entirely by Valve. Steam revenue for our games is not shared with third parties," explained Newell, addressing Reisinger's worries that EA had played a part of the game's creation. "Around the world we have a number of distribution partners to handle retail distribution of our games (i.e. make discs and boxes). EA is one of those partners."
His company's partnership with EA didn't restrain him from commenting on some of its anti-piracy ideas, though: "As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I'll be able to play my game and maybe I won't)."
He is hoping that he can "discourage other developers and publishes from using the broken DRM offerings," and believes he is succeeding due to "a groundswell to abandon those approaches."
Source: Tech in Hiding [http://games.techinhiding.com/2008/12/02/gabe-newell-calls-drm-dumb-says-goal-should-be-to-create-greater-value/] via GamePolitics [http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/12/02/report-valve039s-gabe-newell-disses-drm]
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In speaking with a blogger, Valve Co-founder Gabe Newell confirmed that he is still hating "most DRM strategies" and hopes publishers will continue to "abandon" bad approaches to beating pirates.
Blogger Paul Reisinger [http://ih8evilstuff.livejournal.com/16992.html], concerned about Electronic Arts' involvement with Left 4 Dead and the publisher's issues during the Spore DRM disaster [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/86883-Will-Wright-EA-Pushed-for-Spore-DRM], emailed Newell, who has been very vocal [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_158/5045-Piracy-and-the-Underground-Economy] against abusive digital rights management, for answers to his questions.
"Left 4 Dead is developed entirely by Valve. Steam revenue for our games is not shared with third parties," explained Newell, addressing Reisinger's worries that EA had played a part of the game's creation. "Around the world we have a number of distribution partners to handle retail distribution of our games (i.e. make discs and boxes). EA is one of those partners."
His company's partnership with EA didn't restrain him from commenting on some of its anti-piracy ideas, though: "As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I'll be able to play my game and maybe I won't)."
He is hoping that he can "discourage other developers and publishes from using the broken DRM offerings," and believes he is succeeding due to "a groundswell to abandon those approaches."
Source: Tech in Hiding [http://games.techinhiding.com/2008/12/02/gabe-newell-calls-drm-dumb-says-goal-should-be-to-create-greater-value/] via GamePolitics [http://www.gamepolitics.com/2008/12/02/report-valve039s-gabe-newell-disses-drm]
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