This isn't evidence that DRM is useless. Quite the contrary, it's evidence that DRM can yield resounding successes. What a lot of people don't understand is th

This isn't evidence that DRM is useless. Quite the contrary, it's evidence that DRM can yield resounding successes. What a lot of people don't understand is that DRM has fulfilled its purpose if unauthorized copies are staved off for a few months. Sales usually follow and exponential decay. While some titles experience unprecedented popularity later in life, most games have the overwhelming majority of sales in their first few months after release. It's unclear exactly how piracy affects sales, but assuming that some percentage of potential buyers would pirate instead of buy if illicit copies are available DRM that only delays cracking for a few months captures most of these otherwise lost sales. Phrased from the opposite perspective, most people who would wait several months after release to pirate probably wouldn't have bought the game even if it went un-cracked forever. Again, the standard for "successful" DRM is on the order of several months. RDR2 going uncracked for close to a year is not just successful, but a resounding success.