I've worked out what SecuROM is really about...

Ok so bear with me here, I'm in a bit of a, how shall I put, annoyed consumer mood...

So I just bought GTA IV and I was thinking about the fact that it requires online activation and is infected with SecuROM and I had a "eureka" moment...

Basically, from the way I'm looking at it the games companies aren't attempting to stop direct piracy, making an ISO or RIP and upping it to the web, they know full well they won't stop it and they know but won't admit that it really doesn't have as much of an impact on profits as they would like us to think.

So what are they trying to stop?

The second hand games market.

Think about it, you buy a game second hand, one person has already installed the game, made a backup ISO and is running it via a no-dvd patch and has sold it on, you now can do the same thing as well.

So by employing the measures they are, online activation, SecuROM etc. the games companies are hoping to kill off the second hand games market.

Why? Because they lose the most money through second hand games trading I would suspect.

So what are other peoples views on this theory? Discuss.

 

I agree as well. There's no other way. It's either pirate or copy and sell. Obviously it doesn't stop piracy so second-hand market is the only reason why securom is implemented.

 

you've got a point (although you're not the first to point it out). game publishers definitely want to cut down on the number of games being sold second-hand, and therefore implement "features" like SecuROM. imho, it just drives people towards illegal downloads.

 

They would rather sell two copies, than have one person buy the game then sell it after a year or so when they are bored with it. And you are all right, it just increases piracy.

Of course a poorly coded game like GTA4 would also make people pirate.

 

@millermagic - Correction it also makes people irate. What's the point in pirating a badly coded PC version of game, you'll still end up with the same game...

 

I'm sure SecureROM stops a fair number of copies from being made too. Remember, everyone has an effort level at which they give up. SecureROM is just above that effort level for most people. They know full well that they can't stop everyone. The same is true of console games.

 

You are on to something.


http://kotaku.com/5097068/gamestop-to-take-up-resale-issue-with-industry-after-holidays
http://kotaku.com/5096731/editorial...ervention-in-growing-games-industry-[updated]
http://kotaku.com/5089459/spore-programmer-writes-in-defense-of-secondary-market
http://kotaku.com/378056/49-million-us-gamers-buy-used-games-to-the-tune-of-13-billion
http://kotaku.com/344807/used-game-sales-are-parasitic-hurting-industry

 

I thought of this before too since I luv buying 2nd hand games. And the fact that rows and rows of "Far Cry 2 360" and "Dead Space 360" lined the pages of torrent sights when those games just came out. So if pirating is so PC focused, what's the deal with 360 torrents? Now they are implementing DLC to keep people from selling off their games. Piracy is a sham, always has been. It's a crutch for the industry to fall back on when a game doesn't do well (Epic, Crytek, shame on you) and a reason to infect PCs with BS install control schemes.

 

GTA4's anti piracy protection was cracked on the first day, and hundreds of thousands of people already pirated thier copies, so I guess this was another Securom FAILURE.

 

haha, im surprised no one else pointed that out...

The thing is...
like said above (kinda) people will always pirate, even if the game was $20, granted alot less people would not pirate if games were $20... but that being said...
Game makers put effort in the game based on their knowledge of piration...
games liek GTA4, the producers knew it would be pirated alot, and had enough console sales any way, it does not matter to them if it sells alot or not... the game manufactures real problem is buying the game for $50, deciding it sucks, and selling it to a friend, where as the friend may have shelled out $50...
regardless though, the manufacturer usually has contracts to the stores, where there is usually a, close to, set number of total games going to be sold.



Long story short, DRM is so you can't resell, not to protect piracy... only an idiot (no offense) would think it protects piracy, because every game is usually available same day, and usually has hacked online play as well.


Any one ever play Battle for middle earth (original)?

in that game, there was NO way to play online/lan without the real disc and serial code... i was at a lan and me and my friends wanted to play, but i was the only owner, so we installed it and tried to play lan, sure enough, it did not let them (they used my serial code and put in my cd, started the game, then ejected it).... and it ended the game fo them 5 mins in...


on the other hand, we tried my friends red alert 3...
i installed it, and i diddnt need the cd even, i installed it, passed it on and launched o problems (for single player or lan)... unfortunatly, it sucked and i diddnt want to play it and uninstalled it for the sake of HDD space


Long story shot (again)... old methods are usually better to stop pirates than new stuff (DRM) and what not.....


P.S. I do not endorse piracy, we were 4 duds in a basement desperate to play a game, and it never worked out any way, cause BFME did not work, and we uninstalled redalert cause it sucked

 

Please keep on-topic and don't talk about pirating software here - it is our policy. Thank you.

 

i remember the days when you can give friend games

 

I remember the days when game companies cared more about thier players, and were happy that people liked thier game rather than thier stock prices. Back when all of these companies first started with only a few people, 40,000 sales would have made thier day, now game companies are unhappy with even 1.5mil sales..

 

You dont see console games coming with these types of protections and they have been sold and resold second hand for years by people as well as major buisnesses... Piracy is the only reason they are adding these protections to PC games..

The market for PC games versus the market for console games is WAY smaller except for games such as WoW and PC only releases such as Crysis.

I would have no problems at all if you had to buy PC games for say $10 for the cost of the DVD and packaging from your local computer store and then paid the other $40 via online credit card/papypal transaction and the game was only playable if you logged in with your created account with that particular game manufacturer...

Piracy is a problem always has been and always will be, don't blame the PC game manufacturers for trying to put a stop to problems that cut into their profits. On the other hand if they push an unfinished broken game out ahead of time we should get our money back plus extra for the waste of our time.

IMO

 

That's why a few years ago the games companies tried to put a stop on the second hand trade of console games then...

I can't remember exactly what they tried, it affected some stores such as GAME.co.uk here in the UK and it boiled down to something like the shops being instructed not to have a second hand games range, didn't last long though...

So they would be doing that and stuff like SecuROM because they aren't trying to stop the second hand trade of games...

And on the point of a game being broken I'm assuming your referring to GTA IV. I've been playing it the last couple of nights and it is not as broken as many people make it out to be. Granted the performance on lower end machines could have been better but the game works ok if you have the rig to run it. Ok I haven't seen the console version so I've nothing to compare it to but it's a hell of a lot better than GTA SA and it looks great imo, bit of a "shimmering" problem here and there but I think that's because I'm running it in 1024x640 and it needs some AA...

And I'm sorry but just exactly how does SecuROM target the pirates, the game has practically been cracked by the pirates (sorry Chaz I'm not trying to discuss piracy, just pointing out that SecuROM hasn't worked, yet again).

Explain that one anderj235?

And console games are probably pirated far more than PC games because more people own a console than a PC they would use for gaming and many people are willing to look into getting their console modded so they can play imported and illegal copies of games, I was asked by a local bar landlord the other week if I knew how to mod a Wii, he assumed because I work for an IT company I would know, fool...

Don't get me wrong, I in no way advocate piracy, but the games companies need to be straight with it's consumer base and explain to everyone who buys their games exactly what everything does and the reasons behind it. And currently that doesn't happen, the games companies hide behind the age old excuse of "omg pirates! Theyz takez our gamez and we looz moneyz!." And I call BS on that everytime I hear it as an excuse for putting invasive and often problem causing software into games that the average user who has no clue about piracy will be buying.

 

You got it dude. It's pretty obvious that those who rip games cannot be stopped by securom or any other anti piracy software. If it is software it can be reversed engineered if you know how it ticks. So if I'm a smart game publisher I would know that battling piracy is talking to a brick wall, therfore I'd think of different avenues on what other things affects my sales. After some brain storming TADA! second hand game resellers affects my sales and it is way more easier to battle this than piracy. Another thing is that this limits the number of installation per product so consumers cannot go running around sharing their games to all their friends and use the same license for the game. This works well for PC games however for consoles it is a different thing. Second hand games are an issue to console games as well and some publishers are complaining about second hand resellers hurting their sales (go to gamepolitics.com). Some xbox 360 games have these one time use codes to download addtional online content, which I think are baby steps to kill second hand resellers.

 

It is because you can write commander keen or the old Doom game using C++ in your backyard. Today you cannot get away without, motion capture, voice overs, 3d art rendering, and other promotional activites. It's just expensive to create good games these days.

 

i believe u are talking about this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7772962.stm

"Spore's original DRM (Digital Rights Management) limited customers to only three activations after the game was installed, preventing legitimate customers from having free use of the game and effectively killing the second-hand market. "


2nd hand market was probably prioity one cos they cant stop piracy, and in the off chance drm did help in slowing piracy then 2 birds one stone.
maybe they didnt expect rise on piracy due to it lol