If you’re a PC gamer by any means, you probably know about Steam and how it works. For the rest, Steam is a system that provides an Xbox Live-like experience for PCs, with groups, profiles, stat tracking, achievements, and oh yes… DRM! Most Steam games need to “phone home” to the service before they can run, ensuring that you have a legit copy. Those who implement DRM are faced with a PR nightmare, and those who don’t are faced with rampant piracy. Read on for Gabe’s solution to this whole mess.
Valve’s president, Gabe Newell, responded to a blogger who had emailed him about DRM. Here’s what Gabe said:
“As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb, the goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I’ll be able to play my game and maybe I won’t).”
“We really, really discourage other developers and publishes from using the broken DRM offerings, and in general there is a groundswell to abandon those approaches.”
So to completely sum up what Gabe was saying:
Steam Rocks. All other DRM methods suck. Hyeah!
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2 Comments on “Valve’s Gabe Newell Says Everyone Else’s DRM Sucks”
And to think, I used to HATE Steam when it first hit the scene. I actually installed it to C:/suck. I shit you not.
Same. I don’t even remember my original Steam directory, though. I’ve moved and reformatted so many times, lol
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