GDC 2010: Gabe Newell Bashes DRM

[Zer_]

Hey guys, if you buy and register your game with us, you get to download and install it as many times on as many computers as you want


I think it's dangerous to start calling this a perk. Allowing people to continue installing games the way they have for decades isn't adding value, it's just declining to take away that value.

Well, don't be too sure. My old StarCraft CDs are so worn out that they are barely usable. Same goes for many of my old games. Digital Distribution doesn't have that risk. Before you say anything, yes I do take care of my games, but 10-15 years of swapping CDs DVDs in and out of drives does in fact have an effect on your CDs. Furthermore, CD/DVD media has a limited lifespan.

Keep in mind this is also the reason why many countries legally enshrine making backups of physical media as a protected consumer right. This was only crippled by the same people who are now pushing the alternative as a perk, since the DMCA made breaking the DRM to access that protected right illegal, making backups de facto illegal.

This is sort of like a protection racket. Buy into their DRM schemes and as a perk they won't break your face in with a bat. Hyperbolic? Yes, but there is a minor similarity in place, where the only advantages they're offering are alternatives to things you used to have free to you until the same people took them away prior.

Giving people back things that were stolen from them, in this case basic consumer rights, is not a perk nor a gift... and people have to be aware enough not to take it as such.

Personally I'm not willing to pay extra, or suffer extra inconvenience, and then be thankful to people who presume to tell me that deigning to return to me a fraction of the consumer rights and privileges I had enjoyed, until they had removed them from me, is a generous thing to do. I'm not thankful to be given these things back, I'm pissed that they took them away in the first place.

This all feels like publishers have stolen my bicycle and expect me to be thankful when they throw a ribbon on it and give it to me as a birthday present. It's nice to give me my bike back, dear publishers, but I'd prefer never having it stolen over being given it back.

Except... Steam doesn't take anything away from you. In fact you can Back-Up Valve games onto CD from Steam, or did you completely miss that part? Shit you can even back the game up on a thumb drive which is an incontrovertible PERK! See, 'cause USB thumb drives don't degrade over time.

Proof: (FYI, my D drive is a DVD burner. I can backup games onto my blackberry in fact.)

[http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v358/SuperFriendBFG/?action=view&current=SteamBack-UptoCDDVD.jpg]


And yes, the Offline Mode works. If you can't run Steam in Offline mode, then there's something wrong with your Steam installation, or network settings. One likely candidate is having a your modem disconnected from the internet, while your PC is still connected to the router.

Proof:

[http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v358/SuperFriendBFG/?action=view&current=offlinemode1.jpg]

[http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v358/SuperFriendBFG/?action=view&current=offlinemode2.jpg]

So what next?

 

[(LK)]

Well, this begins to boil down to: are we discussing steam or Ubisoft's model?

Steam is a lot less restrictive and, for what it's worth, they're in completely different leagues in terms of technology as well as the customer experience.

Steam has done a lot to turn their platform into a useful service that I use every day and am thankful for. Ubisoft has just said to customers: you will use this or we will take the game away from you.

Marginal utility is the entire point, here. Steam's success is in adding marginal utility to the product. It has drawbacks but is of net benefit. Ubisoft can claim no such things. They claim that simply not removing things people are used to already having they are adding utility, when in fact they're just atrociously bad at lying.

 

[Axolotl]

When steam servers go down, you are fucked.

Steam doesnt sounds so good now, right?

Except Valve have said that if they're ever in a position where they're going to become bankrupt the last thing they'll do will be to release an update allowing you to run the games you've bought without needing Steam.

 

[Zer_]

When steam servers go down, you are fucked.

Steam doesnt sounds so good now, right?

Except Valve have said that if they're ever in a position where they're going to become bankrupt the last thing they'll do will be to release an update allowing you to run the games you've bought without needing Steam.

Saying and doing...

There is a great gap between promise and the fulfillment of a promise, and until the former becomes the latter, it is just empty words given worth based on the perceived honesty of the promising party. Even too, the most sincere promise from an honest man may still not pan out, so to say what they will do when Valve closes shop is not any assurance.

Still doesn't stop you from backing the game up yourself, though. So your argument is moot.

 

[Axolotl]

When steam servers go down, you are fucked.

Steam doesnt sounds so good now, right?

Except Valve have said that if they're ever in a position where they're going to become bankrupt the last thing they'll do will be to release an update allowing you to run the games you've bought without needing Steam.

Saying and doing...

There is a great gap between promise and the fulfillment of a promise, and until the former becomes the latter, it is just empty words given worth based on the perceived honesty of the promising party. Even too, the most sincere promise from an honest man may still not pan out, so to say what they will do when Valve closes shop is not any assurance.

He brought up a concern based on a hypothetical situation. I merely pointed out that Valve have adressed that concern.

Sure it's possible that Valve is trying to mislead us all for some nefarious plan but they have a history of very good customer service and I see no valid reason to assume they're lieing.

 

[GamingAwesome1]

Wow, I never thought Gabe would be the one to say this. Just when you're like "Damnit Gabe wheres the L4D2 DLC?" or "Damnit Gabe wheres the HL2: Episode 3?" he comes out with stuff like this. Damn you Gabe, why can't you just let people hate on you? You always gotta be the bastard with a heart of gold.

I know how you feel! You just can't hate him!

 

[RicoADF]

What most of the DRM haters don't understand is that digital distribution will become the norm quite soon. There's nothing you can do about it, kicking and screaming about it won't get you anywhere.

Of all the online distribution/drm platforms, I think Steam is the best iteration of a possible future. Instead of being all *sneer sneer sneer* about it, learn to accept change, and enjoy Steam for its many advantages.

Actually it wont be the norm as much as you think, since most people still prefer a hard copy. Companies wont drop all the sales they could get just to go completly digital.
I'm not saying digital wont grow, but I see it as being another medium to buy ur games, both will exist and people will purchase their games how they like.

 

[soliduck]

He said virtually the same thing a year ago at DICE in his keynote, so this isn't anything new and isn't inspired by Ubisoft.

Videos of his talk from DICE 2009:
http://video.ign.com/dor/articles/958583/dice-2009-panels/videos/_dice09_gabenewell_p1.html
http://video.ign.com/dor/articles/958583/dice-2009-panels/videos/_dice09_gabenewell_p2.html

 

[cakeweek]

Steam is still DRM no matter how you cut it. The chains rest lightly on you but they are still chains.

The point of DRM has never been to stop piracy because you would think that at about 10 years of abject failure they would have given up by now. The point of DRM is to kill the second hand market which costs publishers much more money than piracy ever could. And Steam, along with other digital download services, kills the 2nd hand market.

I disagree. When a game "ages over time" on steam, it gets cheaper, much cheaper. I bought the Orange box on steam, for example, for far less than i would have found it anywhere on the second hand market. I saw Mirrors Edge second hand for 20?, on steam it only cost me 2.35?...
I don't care for a second hand software market/shops, they are far more expensive.

I can only applaud what Valve has done with Steam. I don't see why people complain about it. I guess people just like to complain. Games on DVD and CDROM's are dead, distribution of games software/service is done via internet and services like Steam. This is how it is, get over it.

 

[Godhead]

Well, don't be too sure. My old StarCraft CDs are so worn out that they are barely usable. Same goes for many of my old games. Digital Distribution doesn't have that risk. Before you say anything, yes I do take care of my games, but 10-15 years of swapping CDs DVDs in and out of drives does in fact have an effect on your CDs. Furthermore, CD/DVD media has a limited lifespan.

To be fair, 15 years is a long time. Steam came out in '03, making it less than half that age. When Steam surpasses 15 years, and every game you ever purchased via or linked to it is still available, we can talk about it being equal or superior. Thus in 2018 this thread will be necro'ed and we can see who was right.

I got 5 bucks on Zer

 

[ninjajoeman]

hey gabe nice job with the trophy but can you get BACK IN THE GAME DESIGNING ROOM please thanks...seriously ep 3 is shiny and you keep toying us with it.

please make the game...

please...

 

[Flying Dagger]

Gabe Newell, the one who gives me an offline mode that requires the internet? yeah. Shut up Gabe.

Though I only really noticed it when my pc broke and can only run one or two applications at a time (can't run enough system programs to kick off a network connection)
It usually isn't too much of a bother... Though it is irritating.

 

[Flying Dagger]

I can only applaud what Valve has done with Steam. I don't see why people complain about it. I guess people just like to complain. Games on DVD and CDROM's are dead, distribution of games software/service is done via internet and services like Steam. This is how it is, get over it.

For quite a lot of working adults (you know, those weirdos who have jobs and therefore money to buy games, yeah the ones who outnumber us hardcore guys by a large amount) Find it much more time efficient, easier and better to go into a store, buy a real product and then put it on their pc like that.
I know because I posed the exact same point to an industry analyst whilst doing some work for a major bank.

 

[Therumancer]

Steam is mostly tolerable because of the sale prices. I still vastly prefer to buy a physical copy of games given the option, though admittedly things like Dawn Of War II and the Ubisoft DRM are making this difficult since nowadays buying a physical disc might just lead to you downloading something digitally anyway.

That said, I'm not going to criticize Gabe too heavily for the moment. Other than to repete that I am disappointed that he did not go toe to toe with the aussies over the L4D2 thing.

Also I can't help but wonder why if he can afford that absolutly ginormous monitor, he's sitting on what seems to be a packing crate or cardboard box.

 

[theultimateend]

This is why I need a company.

I say this months ago in a much more eloquent fashion and I don't see any dramatic escapist entry.

Time to start saving up my paychecks .

Steam is still DRM no matter how you cut it. The chains rest lightly on you but they are still chains.

The point of DRM has never been to stop piracy because you would think that at about 10 years of abject failure they would have given up by now. The point of DRM is to kill the second hand market which costs publishers much more money than piracy ever could. And Steam, along with other digital download services, kills the 2nd hand market.

I disagree. When a game "ages over time" on steam, it gets cheaper, much cheaper. I bought the Orange box on steam, for example, for far less than i would have found it anywhere on the second hand market. I saw Mirrors Edge second hand for 20?, on steam it only cost me 2.35?...
I don't care for a second hand software market/shops, they are far more expensive.

I can only applaud what Valve has done with Steam. I don't see why people complain about it. I guess people just like to complain. Games on DVD and CDROM's are dead, distribution of games software/service is done via internet and services like Steam. This is how it is, get over it.

Not to stomp on steams balls but it is rarely cheaper than Amazon unless the item can't be found by anyone but users.

I like steam but I've gotten physical copies of almost every valve game for cheaper than valve had them on steam for years (not counting 5 hour holiday sale stuff).

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

The main reasons I put up with Steam are:
1) Valve releases amazing games on the platform, and provides awesome support for those games - often in the form of free content. Look at the love Team Fortress 2's gotten.
2) The sales, man. The sales. During Christmas season, I spent $25 (Canadian!) and got Audiosurf, Indigo Propechy, Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, Ben There Dan That & Time Gentlemen, GrandTheft Auto 4, and STALKER. Ridiculous deals like that more than make up for the used games I've bought at EBGames, at a $5 discount, missing the instruction booklets.

I don't feel the least bit bad about EBGames losing my business. I buy my retro games from local businesses and my PC games off Steam.

 

[SimuLord]

"Hey guys, if you buy and register your game with us, you get to install it as many times on as many computers as you want, and you have the option of storing your games in our cloud so you can pick up where you left off no matter the machine!" If Ubisoft had just stuck with that, wouldn't it have encouraged people to buy their games for the goodies?

You can do that without DRM, and there are things on the web that let you store files on a cloud service anyway - there's one to do with a box but the name escapes me.

Hardly an incentive.

Anyway, although Steam is a form of DRM it is pretty unrestrictive (bar a one-time activation) and exceptionally well thought out: constant updates, a great great GREAT store, a good community (a f*cking big one at that), etc. etc.

Oh, and it works (as in, it doesn't stop you from playing the games after that single activation). That's something that GfWL might want to take note of - because it fucks me over every single time.

Indeed. Steam is a prime example of balancing the conflicting needs of customer and business without screwing either party in the process. As a customer, their service gives me everything I could ask for, and as a direct result I spend 90% of my game-buying budget on digital distribution.

Imagine that! Provide value to the customer and make money! What are the odds?