Valve: We've Made DRM Obsolete

[Keane Ng]

Valve: We've Made DRM Obsolete

The newest version of Valve's suite of development and publishing tools, Steamworks, adds new anti-piracy features that the studio boasts will make DRM "obsolete."

DRM's joining the company of cassette tapes and telephone booths in the wastebasket of obsolete technologies, or at least Gabe Newell would tell you so.

Valve's latest version of Steamworks, a free suite of tools for developers to make and publish games, expands on its anti-piracy features with a new technology that Valve is saying will make DRM a thing of the past.

Complimenting the anti-piracy features already built into Steamworks, Customer Executable Generation takes the anti-SecuROM approach by making multiple installs of PC games easy as pie, according to Valve. "A customer friendly approach to anti-piracy, CEG makes unique copies of games for each user allowing them to access the application on multiple machines without install limits and without having to install root kits on their PC," Valve said.

"Delivering this extension of services on Steamworks first anniversary, demonstrates our commitment to continually develop the platform to better serve the community working with these tools," Newell said. "As we roll out these features, we continue to look for new ways make PC games easier to create and better for customers to experience."

Newell has had plenty of disparaging [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87805-Gabe-Newell-Most-DRM-Plans-Are-Dumb] words in regards to DRM in the past, saying that "most DRM strategies are just dumb." For Newell, 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 talked the talk and now it seems that he's walking the walk with Steamworks.

The new Steamworks also includes previously announced support for in-game downloadable content [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/90253-Steam-Adds-In-Game-DLC-Support] and the new matchmaking and lobby system that Valve introduced in Left 4 Dead.


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[renegade826]

VALVE! I demand you to get of your high horse right now!

 

[Mr.Bubbles43]

VALVE! I demand you to get of your high horse right now!

Why because they are trying to fix a problem people complain about?

I don't see any problems with this personally.

 

[TheBluesader]

So what exactly are Gabe and company doing? How are they protecting their games without DRM and rootkits?

I know they're not going to tell until they show, and I won't believe it until I see it.

 

[Headwuend]

So what exactly are Gabe and company doing? How are they protecting their games without DRM and rootkits?

By providing excellent games, service and deals. It's as easy as that.

 

[John Funk]

So what exactly are Gabe and company doing? How are they protecting their games without DRM and rootkits?

By providing excellent games, service and deals. It's as easy as that.

If only. Excellence doesn't guarantee a thing. See - Goo, World of. Besides, that doesn't exactly come bundled as a feature in Steamworks.

I admit I'm curious to how they're planning to go about this as well.

 

[TheBluesader]

So what exactly are Gabe and company doing? How are they protecting their games without DRM and rootkits?

By providing excellent games, service and deals. It's as easy as that.

I suppose that might cut down on some of the piracy. But is that really all Valve means? That they're going to be so "cool" to gamers, we won't feel the need to pirate their stuff as much?

I had always heard rumors that Gabe commutes through a portal from Candy Smiles Island. I guess it's been confirmed.

 

[DragunovHUN]

VALVE! I demand you to get of your high horse right now!

Why? If there is one developer/publisher that has the right to sit on a high horse, then that's Valve.

 

[D_987]

People pirate games because they don't have to pay for them - this isn't going to solve anything in my opinion.

 

[Skrapt]

I suppose that might cut down on some of the piracy. But is that really all Valve means? That they're going to be so "cool" to gamers, we won't feel the need to pirate their stuff as much?

I had always heard rumors that Gabe commutes through a portal from Candy Smiles Island. I guess it's been confirmed.

Any form of anti-piracy software will be broken whether it takes 30 seconds or 5 minutes it will be no matter what if someones determined enough. The fact is that the only real way to cut down on piracy is to offer a better service, make your company appeal to gamers making them want to support you and making stuff cheaper/free.

 

[Valiance]

If this works, I'll be impressed.

I admire Valve's efforts, really, trying to take an impartial view.

 

[shial]

People pirate games because they don't have to pay for them - this isn't going to solve anything in my opinion.

Actually they are not trying to solve piracy, they are trying to solve DRM being used as an ineffectual weapon of mass destruction against piracy.

 

[KDR_11k]

DRM is Digital Rights Management. Steam does that. It doesn't obsolete DRM, it IS DRM. SecuROM and its ilk isn't really DRM, it's mostly just plain old copy protection, one part about DRM is that it was supposed to allow the rightsholder more control over the user like time limited purchases and stuff. More than just preventing copying, also preventing use in certain ways.

 

[John Funk]

I suppose that might cut down on some of the piracy. But is that really all Valve means? That they're going to be so "cool" to gamers, we won't feel the need to pirate their stuff as much?

I had always heard rumors that Gabe commutes through a portal from Candy Smiles Island. I guess it's been confirmed.

Any form of anti-piracy software will be broken whether it takes 30 seconds or 5 minutes it will be no matter what if someones determined enough. The fact is that the only real way to cut down on piracy is to offer a better service, make your company appeal to gamers making them want to support you and making stuff cheaper/free.

Or to offer a subscription-based program that you need to play, a la MMOs.

Sure, you can set up a private server, but they A.) don't work as well as the real thing and B.) are often costly to maintain, which is why they're rare.

 

[ChaoticLegion]

If this works, I'll be impressed.

I admire Valve's efforts, really, trying to take an impartial view.

Agreed, I'd also be impressed

 

[Sewblon]

Hooray for valve, I hope this works.

 

[johnman]

Did anybody read the article? It creates UNIQUE copies of the game that can be installed on multiple machines multiple times, and since every game is unqiue, you cant just copy paste them across machines. The copy comes form the original, making it much harder to pirate it.

 

[TheBluesader]

Any form of anti-piracy software will be broken whether it takes 30 seconds or 5 minutes it will be no matter what if someones determined enough. The fact is that the only real way to cut down on piracy is to offer a better service, make your company appeal to gamers making them want to support you and making stuff cheaper/free.

As a gamer, I understand this. But Valve is a business. And I simply find it next to impossible to believe that any business dealing in software is going to be so overtly disinterested in protecting it, even if, in reality, they can't. I know what Gabe is thinking, and it's the same thing Steve Jobs and Bill Gates have said before - people hate DRM, so if you get rid of it, you'll sell to more people. But you'll also be seen as not even trying to stop piracy, and do ancient, curmudgeon share-holders know or care enough about computers to realize that trying to fight it doesn't work? Or will they just think everyone is giving up, and stop investing in easily stolen product?

It's like when Google tried to bill itself as the only not-evil corporation, then signed a search deal with China and tried to explain how enabling Communists was something Jesus would do. I just don't buy corporate lines anymore.

Maybe I'm just cynical. But I can't help but think that, as dead as DRM is because we hate it, we haven't seen the end of attempts to do something similar. Valve is leading the charge? Fine. But let's just hope it doesn't turn around and bite them.

I for one hope it all works out, for us and them. But parades must be rained on, so...

Did anybody read the article? It creates UNIQUE copies of the game that can be installed on multiple machines multiple times, and since every game is unqiue, you cant just copy paste them across machines. The copy comes form the original, making it much harder to pirate it.

I have already broken this in my head, and I am not a hacker.

 

[Keane Ng]

VALVE! I demand you to get of your high horse right now!

Why? If there is one developer/publisher that has the right to sit on a high horse, then that's Valve.

That horse has gotta be pretty tired at this point...