DRM the right way - Scorpions and gliding. - Nerd Age

While DRM isn’t really an issue for smaller developers, it’s good to learn the best ways to handle it from others.

Several people are covering DRM topics, but we wanted to go a bit more in-depth.

Example #1: Croteam and Serious Sam 3: BFE

The developers of the Serious Sam series have the right idea. In Serious Sam 3: BFE if you boot up a pirated copy, something great happens. An unkillable scorpion chases you around forever. I mean this is just fun for people who actually bought the game to see.

Rating: Awesome or 5/5

Example #2: Ubisoft and From Dust

What happens when you create a great single-player game called From Dust and put DRM that makes you play online? First everyone tells you that it is stupid. Or they would if you had actually listened to any of your marketing.

Second, pirates break out their hex editors and have a patch in no time. As a result your paying customers get to deal with your DRM and pirates get to have fun.

They reconsidered their stance after the outcry. It doesn’t look like they’ll try the same thing again.

Rating: Our ratings only go to 1/5.

Example #3: Arkham Asylum published by Rocksteady

So basically if you pirate this game Batman forgets how to be Batman. He summarily dies horribly due to his lack of gliding. Of course normal customers had no such problems with the game.

Rating: Batman or 5/5

Example #4: No DRM, done the wrong way?

This is what most people do, but they also brag about it. Basically bragging about it has become so common that it doesn’t really merit any praise. It’s kind of like saying “Hey, we didn’t do something that would enrage a bunch of people. Thank us.” which just doesn’t fly.

On that note Nerd Age doesn’t install spyware on your computer, so you should thank us. Go ahead. Yeah, that doesn’t work.

Rating: 2/5

Example #5: Not making a big deal of it like Alpha Protocol

Alpha Protocol had a minimum of DRM that wasn’t a big deal. You activate it once and you’re done. Boom. And you can get an easy patch if you don’t want to do that. This is the textbook example of how to do it. Does it stop all piracy? No. Does it make everyone mad? Also no. A good compromise.

If you’re a smaller developer, you may be thinking “This doesn’t matter to me.” Well, not right now but if you ever make it big you’d do well to learn from previous good work and mistakes.

Rating: 5/5 in a different way.