Just Cause Developer: DRM Sucks

[Royas]

His studio made one of my favorite games, and he seems to understand the reasons many gamers hate DRM. This is a studio I can support in the future. Both for the games that come out of it and for the philosophy guiding their business decisions.

Hats off to Avalanche and Mr. Sundberg.

And thumbs down to Ubisoft and Mr. Edmonson. For you I have no respect.

 

[sneeky033]

That's funny, because Just Cause 2 on PC came with SecuROM, in addition to using SteamWorks

 

[Phishfood]

I would like to buy that man a beer. And buy all his games.

 

[Metalrocks]

finally some one who understands us. way to go man. thumbs up

 

[mariofan1000]

I am going to buy twenty trillion copies of Just Cause 3 or whatever.

 

[screwvalve]

When Ubisoft does it is DRM. When Steam does it is Cloud features. I like how ubisoft gets hammered when they roll out always-on DRM, but Steam's phone home client, sometimes-i-could-phone-home offline mode's the saviour of pc gaming. Such hypocrisy. Best DRM is NO drm.

 

[Reaper195]

Just Cause 2, man. Jesus Christ, I have that on every platform. And now I want to buy their games over and over.

 

[RejjeN]

That's funny, because Just Cause 2 on PC came with SecuROM, in addition to using SteamWorks

If you actually took the time to read the article you'd have seen he was referring to Ubisofts Always On DRM... Neither Securom or Steamworks is that (I've never had any problems running a game in offline mode for years, at least)

 

[Ryhzuo]

Just Cause 2 was one of my favorite games because it was so fun. Now I know why. Avalanche Studios really understand us gamers.

 

[Twilight_guy]

This just in: Console gamers burn effigy of Christofer Sundberg for clearly pandering to PC gamers in recent statement. In other possibly related news, programmers begin mass suicide when told to implement totally positive reinforcement piracy solution. One victim about to throw himself off a building gave the statement: "I may spend 10 hours a day in a dark room coding but I still know that using only positive or only negative reinforcement is not as effective as using both. They just crippled both legs and expected us to run. Why god, oh, why." Fascinating... this and other details at 11!

Meh, I don't put much stock in what the guy says. He could easily just be trying to get support by saying something he knows gamers will like. We'll see if his next game has DRM (somehow, I think it will).

 

[RuralGamer]

Sounds like someone understands; DRM shouldn't be a hinderance/punishment and so unless you can implement it seamlessly, you're better off not using it; to date I've seen very few good examples of DRM. If you can give people incentives to not pirate the game, then that's ultimately better than using DRM. If anything, I wouldn't be surprised if DRM has actually led to an increase in piracy in Ubisoft games; I know for certain though it drives people away from the PC anyway and my circle of friends is a good example of that, as a lot of them don't ever play the PC anymore.

 

[LookingGlass]

I feel like buying his game for that.

In fact, since I can get it for $12.50 on PC, I think I might as well.

 

[steelserenity]

I know this may be a really dumb question but, I have seen the term "always-on DRM" used so often, and I have never once found out what it means! I even tried to google it! :S

Anyways, could someone please help me out and tell me what it means? 'Cause I feel like I'd really agree with this if I knew...

 

[paketep]

Bravo. Someone that understands that you have to work FOR your customers, not AGAINST the pirates.

 

[MetalDooley]

I know this may be a really dumb question but, I have seen the term "always-on DRM" used so often, and I have never once found out what it means! I even tried to google it! :S

Anyways, could someone please help me out and tell me what it means? 'Cause I feel like I'd really agree with this if I knew...

Always on DRM is basically where a game requires you to be constantly connected to the internet while playing.People are opposed to this as it prevents you from playing if you are offline even if the game is a single player only game with no online components at all.Assassin's Creed 2 on PC is probably the best example of this.It was a single player offline game that required you to be constantly online.If your connection dropped for any reason you were booted back to the main menu and unable to continue until the connection was re-established.In the case of AC2 Ubisoft's DRM servers actually went down a couple of days after launch which meant that everyone who bought the game was unable to play it until the servers were back up

 

[Zefar]

Always on DRM is basically where a game requires you to be constantly connected to the internet while playing.People are opposed to this as it prevents you from playing if you are offline even if the game is a single player only game with no online components at all.Assassin's Creed 2 on PC is probably the best example of this.It was a single player offline game that required you to be constantly online.If your connection dropped for any reason you were booted back to the main menu and unable to continue until the connection was re-established.In the case of AC2 Ubisoft's DRM servers actually went down a couple of days after launch which meant that everyone who bought the game was unable to play it until the servers were back up

Except that Ubisoft loosened up the DRM on Assassin Creed 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction which both used it at first.

Also not everyone was unable to play the game. My brother played it just fine on launch so it didn't seem to affect Europe people that much. It only lasted 2 days and only happened because there where some seriously pissed of fans. Since then Assassin Creed 2 could pretty much be played 24/7 without a problem.

Good thing though was that Ubisoft rewarded the users who bought the game a free copy of another game. Not entirely bad scenario there for users.


Also I kinda like how EVERYONE one of you guys blindly praise this guy just because he diss DRM. It's like the quickest and cheapest way to get some extra customers. But lets see if he still has that opinion when their next game is pirated on day 1.

Plenty of companies have said that they couldn't go without a DRM because the day 1 sales where destroyed until they used DRM to protect them from it.


Most DRM are also quite harmless for the majority of people. People are just overreacting as usual.

 

[Norris IV]

Respect + 1000

It takes a lot of balls to stand up against the rest of the gaming world and saying no to DRM and Just Cause 2 is an amazing game, so next one that comes out, i'll be preordering

 

[Kekkles]

Do you remember a day when gaming was for the sake of fun and not for a million bajillion sales? When a company spites it's customers (people have actually bought a hard copy of the game) for the sake of a group of criminals. That is wrong. You wouldn't like having a Police Officer in your house every day, invading your privacy and you have to pay for it, because the government wants to cut down on drug crimes. It's the same thing.

On the flip side Just Cause 2 was THE most fun I have had for a LONG time and seeing that the developing body isn't a total douche, makes me a whole of a lot happier.

+100000 win to whoever chooses their customers over money.

 

[willsham45]

I like what I am hearing from this guy.

With DRM it seems someone came up with an idea and everyone has just taken it that being internet DRM...really it just sounds like a fair amount of people need to get around a table and work it out.

Maybe something like reincarnating the apergy model (I think that is spelt right). first part demo second part pay third forth etc etc.
If used correctly it could make it harder or more annoying for pirates if a single game had 5 or so parts to hack individually and then bring back together into one game.

 

[Kekkles]

EDIT: Too tired to realise I already posted this thread >.<