DRM Revisited
Digital Rights Management, or DRM for short, has been the subject of much debate. I've discussed this issue before ( link to post), but there has been a lot of activity in recent weeks. Three different companies are gearing up for new schemes that aim to change the way computer software is managed for the benefit of consumers and publishers alike.
I have already mentioned Steam as a more acceptable form of DRM than much of the competition. Although it still requires an internet connection to activate and play (most) games, it does so in a manner that seems beneficial to the user. There is access to the Steam community where they can find which friends of theirs are online and even join in their game, the Steam store that features frequent sales and exclusive titles, and the ability to redownload any title registered to your Steam account, even if the original CD or DVD is lost, without needing to reactivate it. That one downside may soon be a thing of the past as Steam is readying the debut of Custom Executable Generation, or CEG. CEG, as the name implies, generates the game's executable specific for one user. What does this mean then? Well, for starters you can now play games offline without needing to connect to the Steam servers. Remember that Steam games can only be played online with the Steam client. If you try to go online with it, your Steam account has to match the account for which the executable was created. How does this prevent piracy? In two words, it doesn't. It does, however, provide a deterrent in that whoever releases the game for piracy will have their unique executable floating around on other people's computers. When they try to go online with, Steam servers will recognize the file as belonging to someone else. That pirated version won't run (perhaps even get disabled remotely) and the orignal owner will likely get penalized by Steam. For those unfamiliar with their policies, cheating and misusing their products can result in account termination and, here's the foot to the groin, forfeiture of purchased content. They will likely lose every Steam game they've purchased. And the pirate themselves may also face a similar fate. Not all games have to be CEG-enabled, but a lot of the multi-player titles will certainly try it out.
Microsoft is trying a different approach to combat a different aspect of piracy: early release. A large portion of software piracy occurs during the time that a game is ready for release and the actual launch date. What Microsoft is hoping to do is have the game files encrypted so that they are unusable until activated. Activation produces the decryption code to unlock the game and make it playable. That code comes from a server that will check to see if the release date has arrived; if it hasn't, no code therefore no game. As for the rest of the program's life cycle, user account licensing, where a license is tied to a user account instead of a machine, much like Steam, will still prevail.
The final entrant into the new wave of DRM is Stardock, the company that coauthored the Gamer Bill of Rights referenced in my previous DRM post. Their mechanism is called Game Object Obfuscation, or GOO. In a GOO-enabled game, the game itself contains the DRM as opposed to client-based options like much-loathed SecuROM. Initial activation validates the game license to your email address/serial number combination after which there is no need for an internet connection. This doesn't sound completely different until you start looking at its integration to the Impulse Marketplace. Impulse Marketplace a game license distribution agent (akin to Steam) where publishers can sell their licenses to consumers less a small portion of the sale as a fee. The user can play the game, Stardock gets money, and the publisher gets their sale. But why can't the publisher release it themselves? This is the interesting part, so listen up. Because of the way GOO functions, the user can resell the license back through the Impulse Marketplace to the publisher for some amount of money, obviously not a full refund but at least something. That publisher can then sell the "used" PC game to someone else at a reduced cost. Not only does this reintroduce the pre-owned PC games market, but it also allows the publisher to profit out of the deal, a step currently missing from the used console games market. The big question remains how exactly it will take back the license. Presumably, the game won't work online anymore, but will it strip the license straight from the installed copy. What if it is on a second computer (allowable under GOO) that isn't currently online? The game is still playable in whatever applicable single-player modes, if any, it has. This would be one hell of a hassle for the (now-illegal) user so it seems like they are just going to rely on a small portion of users taking that path.
All three methods are formed around a similar ideology that current DRM is too restrictive and carries to much risk of discouraging gamers to buy their product legally. Offline use is now a must-have to compete with console games. Combine that with the prevalence of digital downloads (Impulse and Steam's method of choice), the antiquated requirement of having the DVD or CD in your drive to run an installed game may be history. What is really interesting here is the way that each method tries to combat piracy. Much of Microsoft's strategy is to prevent early release, the window where most piracy actually occurs. Meanwhile, Steam's CEG doesn't do much to prevent swapping of files, but it allows them to trace the file back to a specific user and take swift action. GOO's system is to simply provide extra value to the consumer by allowing them to buy slightly cheaper licenses and even sell the game back to the publisher and recover some of their cost, all while ensuring that the publisher sees resale revenue. How well they actually work is something we'll have to wait and see. The important part is that publishers are taking honest consumers into consideration for their next generation of DRM and working for a friendlier experience.
Sources: Joystiq, Kotaku, Ars Technica, Tom's Hardware, Steam, Stardock, and SecuROM
I have already mentioned Steam as a more acceptable form of DRM than much of the competition. Although it still requires an internet connection to activate and play (most) games, it does so in a manner that seems beneficial to the user. There is access to the Steam community where they can find which friends of theirs are online and even join in their game, the Steam store that features frequent sales and exclusive titles, and the ability to redownload any title registered to your Steam account, even if the original CD or DVD is lost, without needing to reactivate it. That one downside may soon be a thing of the past as Steam is readying the debut of Custom Executable Generation, or CEG. CEG, as the name implies, generates the game's executable specific for one user. What does this mean then? Well, for starters you can now play games offline without needing to connect to the Steam servers. Remember that Steam games can only be played online with the Steam client. If you try to go online with it, your Steam account has to match the account for which the executable was created. How does this prevent piracy? In two words, it doesn't. It does, however, provide a deterrent in that whoever releases the game for piracy will have their unique executable floating around on other people's computers. When they try to go online with, Steam servers will recognize the file as belonging to someone else. That pirated version won't run (perhaps even get disabled remotely) and the orignal owner will likely get penalized by Steam. For those unfamiliar with their policies, cheating and misusing their products can result in account termination and, here's the foot to the groin, forfeiture of purchased content. They will likely lose every Steam game they've purchased. And the pirate themselves may also face a similar fate. Not all games have to be CEG-enabled, but a lot of the multi-player titles will certainly try it out.
Microsoft is trying a different approach to combat a different aspect of piracy: early release. A large portion of software piracy occurs during the time that a game is ready for release and the actual launch date. What Microsoft is hoping to do is have the game files encrypted so that they are unusable until activated. Activation produces the decryption code to unlock the game and make it playable. That code comes from a server that will check to see if the release date has arrived; if it hasn't, no code therefore no game. As for the rest of the program's life cycle, user account licensing, where a license is tied to a user account instead of a machine, much like Steam, will still prevail.
The final entrant into the new wave of DRM is Stardock, the company that coauthored the Gamer Bill of Rights referenced in my previous DRM post. Their mechanism is called Game Object Obfuscation, or GOO. In a GOO-enabled game, the game itself contains the DRM as opposed to client-based options like much-loathed SecuROM. Initial activation validates the game license to your email address/serial number combination after which there is no need for an internet connection. This doesn't sound completely different until you start looking at its integration to the Impulse Marketplace. Impulse Marketplace a game license distribution agent (akin to Steam) where publishers can sell their licenses to consumers less a small portion of the sale as a fee. The user can play the game, Stardock gets money, and the publisher gets their sale. But why can't the publisher release it themselves? This is the interesting part, so listen up. Because of the way GOO functions, the user can resell the license back through the Impulse Marketplace to the publisher for some amount of money, obviously not a full refund but at least something. That publisher can then sell the "used" PC game to someone else at a reduced cost. Not only does this reintroduce the pre-owned PC games market, but it also allows the publisher to profit out of the deal, a step currently missing from the used console games market. The big question remains how exactly it will take back the license. Presumably, the game won't work online anymore, but will it strip the license straight from the installed copy. What if it is on a second computer (allowable under GOO) that isn't currently online? The game is still playable in whatever applicable single-player modes, if any, it has. This would be one hell of a hassle for the (now-illegal) user so it seems like they are just going to rely on a small portion of users taking that path.
All three methods are formed around a similar ideology that current DRM is too restrictive and carries to much risk of discouraging gamers to buy their product legally. Offline use is now a must-have to compete with console games. Combine that with the prevalence of digital downloads (Impulse and Steam's method of choice), the antiquated requirement of having the DVD or CD in your drive to run an installed game may be history. What is really interesting here is the way that each method tries to combat piracy. Much of Microsoft's strategy is to prevent early release, the window where most piracy actually occurs. Meanwhile, Steam's CEG doesn't do much to prevent swapping of files, but it allows them to trace the file back to a specific user and take swift action. GOO's system is to simply provide extra value to the consumer by allowing them to buy slightly cheaper licenses and even sell the game back to the publisher and recover some of their cost, all while ensuring that the publisher sees resale revenue. How well they actually work is something we'll have to wait and see. The important part is that publishers are taking honest consumers into consideration for their next generation of DRM and working for a friendlier experience.
Sources: Joystiq, Kotaku, Ars Technica, Tom's Hardware, Steam, Stardock, and SecuROM