Topic: Gabe Newell from Valve on piracy and DRM

[refuse_orders]

Great interview, worth a watch if you get time.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87pevh2Q0hg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87pevh2Q0hg</a>

[omegagrayknight]

more people in the industry should watch that video. if all developers fallowed his ideas it would take gaming to a totally new level.

[refuse_orders]

I think the only reason he can say that is because Valve develop and publish their own games. Most developers have a 3rd party publisher and it's those guys who have the say on DRM and the like.

[omegagrayknight]

yes, but the truth is the truth. they would make more money if they followed his idea.

[refuse_orders]

Yeah I totally agree, but you have a publishing industry that does not understand what gamers want, they are after one thing and that is your cash. IL2 Sturmovik is a perfect example of this, the devs want a patch but the publisher does not think it is worth the money.

I think we will see big changes in the next few years though, especially where DRM is concerned. I think the next gen consoles will be mainly sell games via download rather than actual shop sales. Hopefully we should get more for our money if that is the case, no packaging or disk costs and bandwidth is cheap.

[omegagrayknight]

the only problem i find with that is i can't take my game over to my friends house or let him barrow it for a while. i do like how the ps3 have there downloaded content works. if you download a game for one gamer tag it works for all gamer tags. with the 360 only the files can be shared by the gamer tags and not the game. until i can share my games on all gamer tags on my system i will by the disk for that fact. because my friend and me share games and trade each other games all of the time. then i don't like how the microsofts points work. you don't know exactly how much you are spending unlike with the ps3 were they give you a dollar amount. which to me is easier to understand. and give the playstation network one more year and it will be just as good if not better then the 360 network. about the only thing that the playstation network is missing is the ability to talk to each other on different games. once they add that feature it will  most likely be better. because while you are on your playstation dashboard in a chat room you can share pictures and some files while in the chat room. and you can send anytype of picture to your friend as a attachment to message you send them. unlike with the 360 where you can't send any type of picture to your friend. but it is limited to only one attachment per message.

[JetMech72]

Actually download only might not be a bad idea from a publisher side...

They would prevent people from lending games out which would force you to buy your own copy if you wanted one.

It wold eliminate the love-hate relationship with used games stores. No more buying used games means if you want it, you pay the publisher. Of course prices would decrease as the game aged, but even so, the publisher would get the money instead of a used game store.

No more rentals. Unless they have a 30 day activation program, if you want it, you buy it.

Yeah download-only would have a lot of side effects, both good and bad, depending on where you are.

[refuse_orders]

Your talking about publishers here, they would keep the game at max price for as long as possible. I mean look at DLC with XBOX, even games out years ago still have full price DLC. I would expect for two payment levels to appear if download only is what they want, probably £20 ad £40.

I would hate to see no more pre-owned games anymore, there are some games I just won't pay full price for. Piracy is not that much of a big issue for xbox anyway, when he is talking about DRM he means PC games. Saying that even with piracy not being that much of a big issue Microsoft will do anything to force you to pay for their crap.

[omegagrayknight]

even though i have more 360 games then my ps3 games. i will always be a sony fan. because they always try to do what is best for there client. unlike with microsoft. microsoft is only there to take you money. sony try to deliver the best product available. that is why you see the difference in quality of games between the 2 consuls.   

[JetMech72]

True, I got sidetracked on the download only and thought of all the LDC on the Xbox I have.

You're right, piracy isn't as much of a factor on the Xbox as it is on PC. I think mostly because Microsoft holds all the cards by being able to ban a specific console from their service; they can't do that with an individual PC...its too easy to workaround. I also don't think (or want) that they will ever go download-only. Too many middlemen will miss their slice of the pie. I've got a good pile of games going, about half of them used, and that would severely cripple my game intake if they were to cut off used and rental games.

[JetMech72]

Thinking about it, Valve has had a good reputation for a while now. They seem to really get it when it comes to being there for the fans.