3 ms·

The only conclusion I can come to is that DRM does work (for some definition of "work"). This isn't a poorly-studied field. Piracy rates have been carefully tr

The only conclusion I can come to is that DRM does work (for some definition of "work"). This isn't a poorly-studied field. Piracy rates have been carefully tracked by every major publisher for years but the information is rarely made public. Ubisoft has experimented with several DRM methods in the past, including having no DRM at all on 2008's Prince of Persia. I figure that someone's come to the conclusion that using DRM makes more profit than not using it. And also those at every other major publishing house after studying their own figures.

anupj 17y ago
No, it doesn't. What if I buy this game to play on my laptop. And then I am out of the country in a place where there is no internet connection. Will I be able to play this game? The fact is that I paid my hard earned money on this game, and I own the game. I don't want to jump through hoops to actually play the game. I agree that it prevents piracy to some extent, but are they (Ubisoft) so naive to believe that this additional layer of security is hard to crack. Seriously, Ubisoft needs to rethink it's strategy before it alienates its customers.
- teamonkey 17y ago
  I'm just saying that the publishers balance potential lost sales due to DRM against potential gained sales because of DRM and see a net sales gain. It's a publicly traded company - they have an obligation to shareholders to address this. Say that 5m copies have been downloaded illegally (I think that's pretty conservative in the case of AC2). Assume that a small percentage, maybe as low as 1%, of those that pirate it would actually buy it if they couldn't pirate it. That's 50000 copies. Realistically, how many people are put off from buying by this DRM. If that figure is less than 50000 and covers the development cost of the DRM then you have your net profit and DRM "works". Adjust the figures to whatever you think is realistic, but publishers have a lot of research data that they don't make public so they're probably in a good position to make predictions. It doesn't mean that their numbers are correct though.

anupj 17y ago

No, it doesn't. What if I buy this game to play on my laptop. And then I am out of the country in a place where there is no internet connection. Will I be able to play this game? The fact is that I paid my hard earned money on this game, and I own the game. I don't want to jump through hoops to actually play the game. I agree that it prevents piracy to some extent, but are they (Ubisoft) so naive to believe that this additional layer of security is hard to crack. Seriously, Ubisoft needs to rethink it's strategy before it alienates its customers.

teamonkey 17y ago
I'm just saying that the publishers balance potential lost sales due to DRM against potential gained sales because of DRM and see a net sales gain. It's a publicly traded company - they have an obligation to shareholders to address this. Say that 5m copies have been downloaded illegally (I think that's pretty conservative in the case of AC2). Assume that a small percentage, maybe as low as 1%, of those that pirate it would actually buy it if they couldn't pirate it. That's 50000 copies. Realistically, how many people are put off from buying by this DRM. If that figure is less than 50000 and covers the development cost of the DRM then you have your net profit and DRM "works". Adjust the figures to whatever you think is realistic, but publishers have a lot of research data that they don't make public so they're probably in a good position to make predictions. It doesn't mean that their numbers are correct though.