Fans Plead With Sony: "Stay Away From DRM"

[Nikolaz72]

This coupled with Minecraft news... Heh.

What I'd like to see was during the PS4 reveal, the executives would confirm that there was gonna be no DRM, and the PS4 now featured 'full' Modding Integration through their now completely integrated Digital Distribution program 'Steam' and Gabe Newell would walk on stage and shake his hand, and people would cheer. And for a milisecond we could swear that his eyes flashed red, as money fell from the sky. But we didn't mind, we didn't mind.

God of War 3 disappeared from the world the next day, and it was the first to fall. Sacrifices had to be made to appease the gods of Customer Satisfaction.

 

[Strazdas]

Sony will see the facn reaction and act accordingly. this is great for them as MS gets to test out the ideas for them and they wotn get any backlash. also a feature like No always online DRM, something that should be taken for granted, will become a selling plus for the console. Sony is rolling in massive luck now.

how many PC guys are worried that they don't have the ability to play a modern used game at all?

but we do can play a modern used game. Consoles wont. so......

 

[BrotherRool]

but we do can play a modern used game. Consoles wont. so......

Oh that's interesting. Have you ever tried to play a used copy of Total War? Or Half Life? Or Portal? Or any game which comes with a mandatory Steam connection? I guess you didn't know, because if you have the disk, you still can't play any of those games unless you have the Steam account it was originally installed on. In fact I had Empire: Total War installed on a shared family computer and I still couldn't play it because I didn't have my brother's Steam password.

Have you ever tried to play a used version of Diablo 3 or Starcraft 2? You can't do it. Account locked.


Have you ever tried to walk into a shop and buy a used PC game? You can't do it, retailers don't sell used PC games because every game that comes with Steam, every game that comes with Battlenet, etc, is account locked. I think Origin games don't do it (I'm not 100% sure of that either), but everyone hates Origin.


It's surprising, I didn't know that you can't play modern PC games used either, until I tried to play my brothers copy of Empire Total War. And since then I've learned there are almost no games that work used on a PC past the point where Steam became dominant. If you've ever wondered why games not created by Valve require a mandatory steam login, now you know.

 

[J Tyran]

I hope they listen, Sony have been working pretty hard to make it up to the fans for the arrogance and prices and the other blunders early in the PS3s cycle. Its not just money though they seem to be genuinely please the consumer too, money is a big part of it obviously with the financial problems but it seems that its tied with a real desire to increase consumer satisfaction too.

 

[crepesack]

I have a feeling the fans will fuck it up.

I have heard they are begging the president of Sony, who is Japanese. Going up to a Japanese president and lecturing him on his own company and what he should do is a big no no in Japanese culture. Its an authority-based environment.

The only thing begging would do is make Sony hate you out of cultural friction. I am more worried the fans would botch this more than Sony is. Whenever something even remotely irritating happens, gamers pull out "fuck you ***** I hope you get raped" card. I'd hate to be Sony's twitter right now.

It doesn't really work like this....The authority system only applies if you're an actual underling or employee. And it's not like they aren't aware of reprecussions if anyone botches this. PR teams exist for a reason and you don't get to being president of a company without enduring some form of public criticism.

You're just being pessimistic for the sake of pessimism...

 

[Arawn]

As everyone has stated there are two possible scenarios;

1)Sony releases their system without DRM or "always on". Yes they did release statements saying they wouldn't, but you do recall the "we are unable to do rumble and Sixaxis" statement as well. Things change and people do lie. Neither are wise, but it could happen. Still let's just say it's doesn't have either feature when they release it later. At this point they get to sit and watch as Microsoft deals with all the fallout over Xbox One. When E3 comes out they'll be sure to point out how the PS4 lacks the aforementioned system's traits.

While this is a very strong possibility, there are some snags. Some games have their own DRM or can be online only despite the system. I'm surprised that Diablo III console version is actually not going that route.

2)Sony has done exactly as Microsoft has done. Yes it's possible and somewhat probable.But it gives Sony further choices.

A)Wait and see how Microsoft handles the situation and copy it.

B)Quietly undo said system before the big release. Goto #1

C)Do something totally unexpected. Anything can happen, they might pull a rabbit out of their hat who knows. I'm not expecting everything to go all perfect for either system when they actually release. E3 should be interesting shame I won't be there to see it all unfold.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

I love my Xbox 360 and the PS4 reveal left me mildly unimpressed, but what Microsoft is doing is unsupportable from my point of view. They done fvcked it up and I'm now in line to board the good ship PS4.

 

[badgersprite]

Well they know what not to do.
The question is: Do they care?

Well, the PS3 was a massive disappointment for Sony. I think Sony has more at stake than any other console developer this generation. They don't want to have to experience that kind of immense disappointment again, so I think that's on their minds this time around. I think that they're smart enough to realise that they can't afford to not care about the consumer if they want any kind of success.

But we'll find out soon enough if I'm giving them too much credit.

 

[Strazdas]

but we do can play a modern used game. Consoles wont. so......

Oh that's interesting. Have you ever tried to play a used copy of Total War? Or Half Life? Or Portal? Or any game which comes with a mandatory Steam connection? I guess you didn't know, because if you have the disk, you still can't play any of those games unless you have the Steam account it was originally installed on. In fact I had Empire: Total War installed on a shared family computer and I still couldn't play it because I didn't have my brother's Steam password.

Have you ever tried to play a used version of Diablo 3 or Starcraft 2? You can't do it. Account locked.


Have you ever tried to walk into a shop and buy a used PC game? You can't do it, retailers don't sell used PC games because every game that comes with Steam, every game that comes with Battlenet, etc, is account locked. I think Origin games don't do it (I'm not 100% sure of that either), but everyone hates Origin.


It's surprising, I didn't know that you can't play modern PC games used either, until I tried to play my brothers copy of Empire Total War. And since then I've learned there are almost no games that work used on a PC past the point where Steam became dominant. If you've ever wondered why games not created by Valve require a mandatory steam login, now you know.

Didnt knew about Total war bit. I dont use steam, and make my version work without steam. Not that i played either of the two you mentioned, does not attract me.
Diablo 3 is a MMO. and a bad one (akss you to pay for install, all other gives you free client installs, almost as bad as wow extorting money for free expansions (all subscription based mmos have free expansions. Wow is the only one to ask money for it, so basically you pay bothy subscription and expansion payments- doubleprofits).
Starcraft 2 is account locked? guess im not getting that after all. Bad blizzard, bad.

Retailers shouldnt be selling used games to begin with. used games are brought from people that own them, not from corporations, thats the whole point of buying used.
I play mostly non-steam games and they all work fine used, just becuase there is a huge draconian DRM that is Steam does not mean all pc games are locked there.
I often get games used not due to pricing but due to that i usually play games that are 2-3 years old. and i rarely ran into troubles. of course there is thwe whole avoid steam thing which may have helped.

 

[BrotherRool]

Didnt knew about Total war bit. I dont use steam, and make my version work without steam. Not that i played either of the two you mentioned, does not attract me.
Diablo 3 is a MMO. and a bad one (akss you to pay for install, all other gives you free client installs, almost as bad as wow extorting money for free expansions (all subscription based mmos have free expansions. Wow is the only one to ask money for it, so basically you pay bothy subscription and expansion payments- doubleprofits).
Starcraft 2 is account locked? guess im not getting that after all. Bad blizzard, bad.

Retailers shouldnt be selling used games to begin with. used games are brought from people that own them, not from corporations, thats the whole point of buying used.
I play mostly non-steam games and they all work fine used, just becuase there is a huge draconian DRM that is Steam does not mean all pc games are locked there.
I often get games used not due to pricing but due to that i usually play games that are 2-3 years old. and i rarely ran into troubles. of course there is thwe whole avoid steam thing which may have helped.

I think you're probably doing okay because 2-3 years is still skirting around steam dominance. You#re going to find it harder and harder as time goes on. I'm pretty sure every EA game is account locked now, and more and more third party's are using Steam DRM.

This is a list of all the PC games that you can't play used thanks to Steam authentication:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_using_Steam_authentication

I believe Bioshock Infinite has it, Borderlands 2, Skyrim, Tomb Raider etc. And it's only going to be used more and more, because most people aren't even aware that you can't buy these games used

EDIT: To make things clear, I'm not talking about games that you buy on Steam. These are games that you buy in a shop and when you install it they force you to download Steam and activate the game on an account. You get no choice in the matter and there is nothing about the games that will tell you that they're connected with Steam (unless you look hard) until you buy the disc and find you can't play the game. I'd recommend you google whether the game has steamworks every time you buy an old game nowadays

 

[Strazdas]

I think you're probably doing okay because 2-3 years is still skirting around steam dominance. You#re going to find it harder and harder as time goes on. I'm pretty sure every EA game is account locked now, and more and more third party's are using Steam DRM.

This is a list of all the PC games that you can't play used thanks to Steam authentication:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_games_using_Steam_authentication

I believe Bioshock Infinite has it, Borderlands 2, Skyrim, Tomb Raider etc. And it's only going to be used more and more, because most people aren't even aware that you can't buy these games used

EDIT: To make things clear, I'm not talking about games that you buy on Steam. These are games that you buy in a shop and when you install it they force you to download Steam and activate the game on an account. You get no choice in the matter and there is nothing about the games that will tell you that they're connected with Steam (unless you look hard) until you buy the disc and find you can't play the game. I'd recommend you google whether the game has steamworks every time you buy an old game nowadays

Yeah, indeed i find less and less games where i dont need to weed out the virus called "Steam" from before playing, so i guess point taken.
I see your point and i concerned, indeed the used games on PC is being severely hampered for people who arent capable of making things run without steam engines.

 

[BrotherRool]

Yeah, indeed i find less and less games where i dont need to weed out the virus called "Steam" from before playing, so i guess point taken.
I see your point and i concerned, indeed the used games on PC is being severely hampered for people who arent capable of making things run without steam engines.

It's very deliberate too They're not using Steam to run the game or anything and they aren't actually interested in cloud saves, it's purely for the DRM. The good thing about PCs though is it's an open market so at least there's still GoG as a bastion of no-DRM games

 

[unstabLized]

Sony is just a tiny tiny bit from bringing home the gold. They're so close to success that they're practically touching it. Now if only they don't mess it up... If only...