Analysis: Digital Rights Management in PC gaming

• by Alex Wawro
• February 25, 2010 10:42 AM PST

A controversial Assassin's Creed II digital rights management (DRM) measure has PC gamers in a rage over anti-piracy measures that punish the gamer more than they prevent piracy. GamePro investigates DRM and asks publishers and pirates what works, what needs work, and how creators can protect their IP without pissing off paying customers.

Illegal software distribution has plagued developers since the days of the floppy disk, and even now PC game publishers are still struggling to prevent piracy. Contemporary copy protection schemes can be as complicated as online verification checks or as simple as entering a 16-digit product key while installing a game; but the one thing all DRM systems have in common is a limited shelf life.

"Every copy protection scheme gets cracked, it's just a matter of time," Stardock CEO Brad Wardell tells GamePro. Through Stardock’s online games distribution service, Impulse, the company has spearheaded new DRM measures that respect the rights of the player.

"It makes me very angry to see our stuff pirated, but that's an emotional reaction," Wardell continues. "The logical reaction is to reward the customers who do buy your product when they could get it elsewhere for free."

Rewarding paying customers with added content is a popular piracy deterrent (e.g. the PC releases of Mass Effect 2 and Left 4 Dead 2), however, Ubisoft doesn't plan on taking that route with their new DRM system. The company announced that starting with Assassin's Creed II, all of its PC games would use a new online-only system that stores user data and saved games on Ubisoft’s servers rather than on the player's computer.

Press outlets previewing the game on PC were the first to get a look at the system, which requires constant access to the internet in order to play the game. As reported by PC Gamer UK, losing your internet connection in Assassin’s Creed II immediately halts gameplay while the system tries to reconnect. If it fails, all progress is lost up to the previous checkpoint.

The new system is controversial, drawing outrage from users on several different news outlets. GamePro user Falen1138 sounds off, "I will NEVER AGAIN buy a UbiSoft [sic] game if they do this," citing how unfair it was of Ubisoft to assume all users would have constant internet access.

Ubisoft responded to the outcry with conciliatory remarks and frustration over the state of the PC software market in a follow-up phone interview with PC Gamer UK. "Piracy is a big, huge, hairy problem," an unidentified Ubisoft representative tells them. "It's a [PC] market that suffered a lot because of piracy, and we're all just trying to figure out what we think is the best way to deal with it."

Though Ubisoft could not be reached for comment on this article, we were able to contact people directly affected by the new DRM. ManCat, a 25-year-old software pirate, agreed to speak with us on the condition that we not use his real name:

"I'd buy more shit if the system wasn't so stupid," he says. ManCat has been illegally downloading movies, music and games for more than 10 years, claiming restrictive DRM policies are his primary motivation for theft. "If I download something legally from iTunes or Steam, I don't have full control over my own purchase; I'm not allowed to transfer my music between machines or loan my game to a friend. Perversely, if I pirate a game or a movie I can do whatever I want with that file."

Like many consumers, ManCat feels his complaints are falling on deaf ears. Companies like Stardock Entertainment and Good Old Games say they're listening, however, and they believe abandoning the arms race entirely is a better business decision than trying to stay ahead of software criminals. Wardell claims sales have actually improved since the company relaxed their DRM policies.

"Requiring players to constantly check in with Ubisoft servers is just bad business because it inconveniences honest customers while rewarding successful pirates with a less invasive experience," says Wardell. "Plus Ubisoft is stuck paying the server overhead of an MMORPG, without the monthly revenue."

Many thieves hide behind moral outrage, however, as an easy excuse to avoid paying for games. Big publishers like Ubisoft are justifiably concerned about losing millions of potential sales to illegal distribution; Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 managed to become the most pirated game of 2009 despite not hitting shelves until November. Even if less than one percent of the estimated 4 million downloads equated to a lost sale, that still means Activision and Infinity Ward lost more than 25,000 customers in just two months.

So why aren't smaller companies like Stardock more concerned? "Small publishers need audience exposure, so protecting their content from being pirated actually has a negative effect," Bill Rosenblatt responds. As a digital rights expert and founder of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies, Rosenblatt spends a great deal of time analyzing copy protection schemes.

Rosenblatt tells GamePro that despite vocal oppposition, DRM software like StarForce and SecuROM aren't going away. "Big names like EA and Ubisoft, they don't need exposure anymore," he says. "What they need now is to protect their intellectual property from theft."

It's not clear, however, that copy protection ever effectively deterred software criminals. When illegal distribution first became a serious issue during the 1980s, PC software developers like Infocom and Sierra attempted to maintain control of their products by bundling games with gratuitous goodies that doubled as DRM. Players were usually required to consult a game's manual for fictional codes or recipes in order to play; The Secret of Monkey Island included an infamous "Dial-A-Pirate" spinning toy that doubled as a copy protection code wheel.

These "feelie" extras were effective at deterring pirates. But then the internet came along and made subverting static copy protection -- literally -- child's play. In response, developers began including unique serial keys to verify software, a practice that continues even now (e.g. The Sims 3).

"Activation codes have consistently proven to be effective in combating illegal distribution," says Rosenblatt. "Software vendors are focused on the bottom line; they wouldn't use DRM that doesn't work."

Yet publishers sometimes push copy protection past the point of reasonable return, and players have to fight back. In 2008 Electronic Arts listened to public outrage (and a class action lawsuit) over Spore's invasive SecuRom copy protection software, relaxing the maximum install limit and backpedaling on early claims that the game would demand online license verification at regular intervals. EA did the same for Mass Effect on PC later that year, and in 2010 Mass Effect 2 was released with no DRM strategy beyond a simple disc check (and the promise of bonus content via the Cerberus Network.)

"Effective DRM demands consumer activism and community standards for what is acceptable," says Rosenblatt. "We need organizations like Reclaim Your Game to publicly endorse consumer-friendly DRM strategies and the games that include them."

Reclaim Your Game (RYG) is a consumer advocacy group formed in the wake of EA's announcement that the original Mass Effect would require online verification every ten days. The group has quickly become the premiere DRM testing community and works with DRM vendors like StarForce and ByteShield to evaluate various copy protection schemes.

"The plan right now is to continue to provide clear and precise updates on DRM and DRM systems provided within the gaming industry," RYG representative Ulysses Mockett tells GamePro. "We believe in the need for the industry to provide fair and end-user friendly DRM schemes which strikes a balance between protecting [publisher's] games and providing gamers with a stress-free and enjoyable experience, and we invite Ubisoft to have their product independently evaluated by RYG."

The DRM debate has always been a tug of war between consumers and creators, so perhaps the solution is to put a neutral third party in the middle. While RYG is strictly a volunteer endeavor, there's nothing stopping a non-profit DRM rating board from informing consumers about their buying decisions.

"It's a smart idea, and I hope game companies listen," ManCat says after hearing about RYG from GamePro. "I like buying games to play with friends and earn Achievements, so I only download cracked versions of single-player games with ridiculous DRM. The sooner they [game publishers] start respecting their fans, the sooner I'll pay for Assassin's Creed II."

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