Side note this, a lot of the DRM systems being introduced into games now (and in the last three-ish years) have more to do with introducing infinite payment models than they do combating piracy.Timmibal said:
The success of MMOs has led to publishers trying to apply elements of that business model to all genres, except that the nature of othre genres leads to this method seeming more obnoxious than it does in MMOs. As well as online passes, map packs and microtransactions have become prevalents, often for content that is either on the disc at release or could be knocked out by a modding team ina week or so.
Halo 2 was the first to do it with any kind of success, before then if you'd told the average publisher that a player would pay $15 every three months for three multiplayer maps you'd probably have been laughed at. Yet here we are.
I find it quite insidious and also dishonest that as the amounts of money publishers make steadily increases they are turning to more and more methods of squeezing money by witholding content, whilst at the same time claiming phantom losses from unverifiable sources. If the film industry sold BluRays that wanted another twenty bucks to see the end of the movie they'd be in court by now.