Hello! I'm a journalist for a national newspaper in my country and I'm writing an article on (the futility of) DRM for our gaming-page. I'm looking for examples of recent DRM controversies. Examples would be Spore and Assassin's Creed II but those are from a while ago. Any input would be really appreciated, thanks!
Recent DRM scandles?
- Thread starter Reynaerdinjo
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Is the whole rumour that PlayStation 3 games may soon use disc codes good enough for "news"? Pretty certain it's just a rumour, but that the idea was even mentioned shows how futile these things are, right? Y'know, the idea that Sony would consider it, considerably punishing paying customers and basically ripping a hole through the used games trade...
What can I say? Without sounding like a pro-piracy advocate, I can't really bring up any of these issues.
DRM is becoming a commonplace "scandal", with firms such as Ubisoft being among the most eager to use strong anti-piracy measures. Gamers have become more or less resigned to spending up to several hours trying to get a game to recognise them as a legitimate owner and player or are flocking to the easier, cheaper and DRM-free pirated versions - even when it clashes with their morals.
I find the strong DRM measures used by Ubisoft and Blizzard, among others, quite insulting. Rather than being made to feel like a valued customer and supporter, the DRM has the effect of making me feel like a criminal. Instead of assuming the customer is innocent and wants to support their product, developers are increasingly making gamers jump through hoops, proving they are not guilty.
I could write heaps about this, but I'm sure that's not what you're after. Best of luck.
DRM is becoming a commonplace "scandal", with firms such as Ubisoft being among the most eager to use strong anti-piracy measures. Gamers have become more or less resigned to spending up to several hours trying to get a game to recognise them as a legitimate owner and player or are flocking to the easier, cheaper and DRM-free pirated versions - even when it clashes with their morals.
I find the strong DRM measures used by Ubisoft and Blizzard, among others, quite insulting. Rather than being made to feel like a valued customer and supporter, the DRM has the effect of making me feel like a criminal. Instead of assuming the customer is innocent and wants to support their product, developers are increasingly making gamers jump through hoops, proving they are not guilty.
I could write heaps about this, but I'm sure that's not what you're after. Best of luck.
Ubisoft is one of the big ones. Also the fact that Nintendo just said that the 3DS will be "immune to piracy" is pretty hilarious. The PS3 Root Key debacle is also big news.
Settlers 7 is the most recent I can think of. ...Which oddly is published by Ubisoft. Just look at Ubisoft, you'll have your whole article if you want recent.
If you forgo recent, I would also suggest looking at early StarForce. It was terrible.
Google could probably tell you much more.
If you forgo recent, I would also suggest looking at early StarForce. It was terrible.
Google could probably tell you much more.
Thank you all. One point to make is that I'm writing for a very broad public, so I can't use too many technical details. That's why I'm looking for scandles that are easy to understand for everyone. I'm also possibly interviewing Valve about their stance on DRM.
Didn't this all start with Half-Life 2? People had register the game online for an offline game, and on launch day the servers were flooded so people didn't get to play an OFFLINE game the first day it was launched. This is just me going off the top of my head so you should probably look it up. SecuROM is used on a few games (Spore, Mass Effect, Bioshock, to name a few) and that is a DRM people went in uproar about, altho I think people only really complained about Spore and not the other games.
Also are you just limiting it to video games? Because audio and film companies have issues as well.
Also are you just limiting it to video games? Because audio and film companies have issues as well.