DRM is BAD

DRM (Digital Rights Management) is bad. Very bad.

For those of you who don't know, DRM is basically copy protection. DRM is used in a lot of applications, but as this is a gaming blog, I'm only going to talk about DRM in a game context. More specifically, in the context of Bioshock.

Bioshock came out for the PC and X360 recently. Based on the reviews, this is one hell of a kickass game! And I feel very comfortable saying that as I have also played the demo on the X360. In fact, after playing the demo, I had resolved to buy the game!

And then this happened. It turns out that Bioshock uses SecuRom copy protection which means that you only get to install the game twice (you can install more if you uninstall properly thereby getting an installation key - however, lots of users reported problems uninstalling the game properly). SecuRom also has other problems (eg other users have reported that they had to remove all virtual drives on their machine before allowing them to install the game). And this really really annoys me.

You see, I am hugely against DRM in games. In my opinion, having DRM in games is worthless. No matter how good your DRM is, within a couple of weeks, a pirated version of the game usually becomes available. In other words, people who don't intend to buy the original can very easily get a pirate copy.

It seems that the biggest argument in favour of DRM is piracy and the resulting lost sales revenue. However, in my opinion, this is a hugely overstated loss. In most cases, people who download pirate copies of the game probably would never have bought your game in the first place. In other words, you really aren't losing out that much. Having said that, I am also a realist and I know that most games will have some form of copy protection. So in most cases, I ignore the copy protection and get on with life.

However, I draw the line when people who do buy the original get screwed up the ass (as beautifully illustrated in the link above). If you are going to implement copy protection in your game, at least make it unobtrusive and ensure it doesn't contain any malware. Bioshock was unable to do this.

I doubt any of the developers of Bioshock or anyone at 2K Games is reading this. However, if there are, I just want you to know that I will not be buying Bioshock even though it wouldn't have effected me on the X360.

It is your prerogative to screw your customers. It is my prerogative to not become your customer.