Yes, devs should focus on people that will buy the game, but they would be dumb to not try to have some protection against piracy these days.
How does modern DRM accomplish any of that?
It certainly isen't there for the paying customer, we don't want the hassle, we don't like beeing treated as criminals, and we are not benifited in any way by this software that clogs up our systems, and can often make the games run unstable.
Nor does it protect anyone, because it'll get cracked and removed from the pirate distro's, which actually hurts the industry, because it makes the pirate version the superior version, the version that isen't bogged down by bloatware and DRM, the version that wont crash as often, the version that will never tell you you can't play the game because the DRM server is down.
No really, how does DRM accomplish anything usefull? All i can see is that it drives away paying customers who refuse to buy games with rubbish DRM, it degrades the product by making it annoying to deal with or even prone to crashing, whilst doing nothing to stop pirates, nothing at all, the pirates will find a way, and worse, they can offer us a superior product just because they remove the DRM!
How is that, in any way, shape or form, usefull?
Even if the DRM can delay the pirates for a short period of time, usually 1 or 2 weeks at most, and get some impatient pirates to buy the game in that time period, is it really worth that? Because how many other pirates will just wait it out? And how many paying custmers will boycott the product because of the DRM (and yes, we will, just look at UBI's recent PC sales, they have been so bad UBI has had to tone down their DRM in response)?
And is it really worth kicking out paying customers, to replace them with some pirates? Which one of thouse two do you think will purchase the DLC for the game at a later date?
Look, i am no pirate, if you where to look through my HDD's you would not find a single pirated game on there, they are all legit, and i am no fan of piracy, because it gives the industry an excuse to snub us PC players (even though piracy and the second hand market is probably a much bigger market and threat on the Consoles! But that hardle ever gets mentioned..).
But DRM is no solution to the problem, it doesen't work and it scares away paying customers, it is pretty much the exact opposite of what they should be doing.
If you want people to buy your games, you cannot punish them for buying it with crappy DRM, instead you must reward them for it, give people with valid CD keys great support and benifits, make it worthwhile to have a legit copy, that is the direction they must go if they want to convert pirates, and keep their paying customers.
**** the pirates, and instead focus on rewarding your real customers.
It's true, I do. What was wrong with a CD key that was validated when you tried to play online? Or a simple (i.e. not retarded and broken) CD check?
