Blizzard: DRM is a 'losing battle'

[Terminator02]

Fighting PC game piracy with restrictive copy protection is "a losing battle", Blizzard has said.

In recent months some publishers have begun using digital rights management (DRM) that requires players have an active internet connection at all times.

Ubisoft's new DRM system forces PCs to be connected to the internet in order for games to work - even single-player games.

Earlier this year gamers reacted angrily to the strict DRM used by Ubisoft in the PC version of Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5. Attacks on verification servers made it impossible for some gamers to play their new purchases.

StarCraft II developer Blizzard is taking a different approach.

StarCraft II, due out on July 27, requires a one-off activation and a registered Battle.net account. Once completed, players will be able to get started with the game's single-player campaign in offline mode.

Blizzard hopes the new and improved Battle.net service, which connects players from across Blizzard's stable of games, will be attractive enough to convince would-be pirates to buy the game.

"If we've done our job right and implemented Battle.net in a great way people will want to be connected while they're playing the single player campaign so they can stay connected to their friends on Battle.net and earn the achievements on Battle.net," Frank Pearce, Blizzard co-founder and executive producer on StarCraft II told VideoGamer.com.

"The best approach from our perspective is to make sure that you've got a full-featured platform that people want to play on, where their friends are, where the community is," he added.

"That's a battle that we have a chance in. If you start talking about DRM and different technologies to try to manage it, it's really a losing battle for us, because the community is always so much larger, and the number of people out there that want to try to counteract that technology, whether it's because they want to pirate the game or just because it's a curiosity for them, is much larger than our development teams."

"We need our development teams focused on content and cool features, not anti-piracy technology."

Last year it emerged that StarCraft II will lack LAN support, a move that angered some veteran fans of the series.

Blizzard said the decision was taken to "safeguard" against piracy.

Head over to our hands-on preview of the game's single-player campaign to get the skinny on StarCraft II.QUOTE

For the rest of our interview with Frank Pearce, head here.

Source

kind of ironic... don't you think?

 

[tk_saturn]

I've still got my StarCraft T-Shirt somewhere from the Limited Edition, sad.

The biggest draw for SC2 will be online play, so should ease back on the DRM.

Single player mode will be pirated no matter what they do.

 

[Terminator02]

I've still got my StarCraft T-Shirt somewhere from the Limited Edition, sad.

The biggest draw for SC2 will be online play, so should ease back on the DRM.

Single player mode will be pirated no matter what they do.
you can play it offline... just bolded another part of the story for people:
QUOTEStarCraft II, due out on July 27, requires a one-off activation and a registered Battle.net account. Once completed, players will be able to get started with the game's single-player campaign in offline mode.

that's unless you were talking about pirating it... yeah

Edit: I reread it... you were

 

[MelodieOctavia]

I know you havn't released a game since WoW, but DRM is a losing battle for everyone Blizz. Welcome to 2010.

 

[Canonbeat234]

Blizzard the once iron titan of MMORPGs like WoW has now gone bankrupt, news at 11.

 

[SylvWolf]

I think it takes some balls to say this. Huzzah Blizzard, focus on making good games and forget about the DRM nonsense. Just makes people want to pirate it more.

 

[Maikel Steneker]

I couldn't agree more with them. What developers need to do is take the id approach.

1. Release the game with two security mechanisms: the serial number to prevent pirates from playing online and some kind of CD protection.
2. When the game has been out for a couple of weeks and the protection has done its work (it convinced some gamers to buy the game, but now has been cracked) release an update so legitimate gamers don't have the hassle of inserting the CD when pirates don't.

 

[geminisama]

I think it takes some balls to say this. Huzzah Blizzard, focus on making good games and forget about the DRM nonsense. Just makes people want to pirate it more.

Huzzah my ass, they're no better than Ubisoft. "LOL, WE REELIZE DRM IS DUMB. SO WE PUT DRM IN OAR GAEM, BUT SAI ITZ DIFFRNT CUZ U ONLI HAZ 2 DO IT ONCE, LOL", which is utter bullshit. Not everyone has web, even today; and not everyones gaming computers are hooked up, even if they have it. I personally lost my internet due to financial issues, so they're pretty much telling all of us without it to fuck off, so hey Blizzard, fuck off, you lost some more sales, including mine.

 

[Deleted member 35947]

No LAN in Starcraft 2..

I think Blizzard is shooting itself in the foot with this attitude.

 

[tk_saturn]

No LAN in Starcraft 2..

I think Blizzard is shooting itself in the foot with this attitude.

How many games now include LAN play?

This isn't 1998, StarCraft was a long time ago.

 

[Deleted member 35947]

No LAN in Starcraft 2..

I think Blizzard is shooting itself in the foot with this attitude.

How many games now include LAN play?

This isn't 1998, StarCraft was a long time ago.

There is still a large majority of pc games that do have this feature. Many people still enjoy, and prefer LAN gaming than playing online with a faceless person. LAN parties etc.

 

[tk_saturn]

Many people still enjoy, and prefer LAN gaming than playing online with a faceless person. LAN parties etc.

What's stopping them from playing via battle.net? They just need an internet connection. They can all still be in the same physical room together.

 

[Deleted member 35947]

Many people still enjoy, and prefer LAN gaming than playing online with a faceless person. LAN parties etc.

What's stopping them from playing via battle.net? They just need an internet connection. They can all still be in the same physical room together.

Nothing. Apart from increased ping times to a remote server, on a LAN you'd get virtually 0. Everyone sharing the same connection, with a poor upload speed this would be very bad. Or the fact not everyone has internet access.

I'm just in the mind frame that companies shouldn't be forcing their own versions of DRM on paying customers. There's little excuse not to include LAN apart from discouraging pirates from using it, which in turn is harming legitimate customers. Most of the coding would be done if they have internet play in there.

 

[Terminator02]

I think it takes some balls to say this. Huzzah Blizzard, focus on making good games and forget about the DRM nonsense. Just makes people want to pirate it more.

Huzzah my ass, they're no better than Ubisoft. "LOL, WE REELIZE DRM IS DUMB. SO WE PUT DRM IN OAR GAEM, BUT SAI ITZ DIFFRNT CUZ U ONLI HAZ 2 DO IT ONCE, LOL", which is utter bullshit. Not everyone has web, even today; and not everyones gaming computers are hooked up, even if they have it. I personally lost my internet due to financial issues, so they're pretty much telling all of us without it to fuck off, so hey Blizzard, fuck off, you lost some more sales, including mine.

then how did you post this? you in an internet café or something?

 

[geminisama]

I think it takes some balls to say this. Huzzah Blizzard, focus on making good games and forget about the DRM nonsense. Just makes people want to pirate it more.

Huzzah my ass, they're no better than Ubisoft. "LOL, WE REELIZE DRM IS DUMB. SO WE PUT DRM IN OAR GAEM, BUT SAI ITZ DIFFRNT CUZ U ONLI HAZ 2 DO IT ONCE, LOL", which is utter bullshit. Not everyone has web, even today; and not everyones gaming computers are hooked up, even if they have it. I personally lost my internet due to financial issues, so they're pretty much telling all of us without it to fuck off, so hey Blizzard, fuck off, you lost some more sales, including mine.

then how did you post this? you in an internet café or something?

A friends house. The only way I can get online anymore is at my girlfriends, or a friends house.

 

[GundamXXX]

I think it takes some balls to say this. Huzzah Blizzard, focus on making good games and forget about the DRM nonsense. Just makes people want to pirate it more.

Huzzah my ass, they're no better than Ubisoft. "LOL, WE REELIZE DRM IS DUMB. SO WE PUT DRM IN OAR GAEM, BUT SAI ITZ DIFFRNT CUZ U ONLI HAZ 2 DO IT ONCE, LOL", which is utter bullshit. Not everyone has web, even today; and not everyones gaming computers are hooked up, even if they have it. I personally lost my internet due to financial issues, so they're pretty much telling all of us without it to fuck off, so hey Blizzard, fuck off, you lost some more sales, including mine.

then how did you post this? you in an internet café or something?

A friends house. The only way I can get online anymore is at my girlfriends, or a friends house.

That. Many countries dont even have internet available everywhere. If Id still be living in Australia id be shitting myself with a 5GB datalimit. Online the whole time? Updates and shit when I dont want em? Its just bullsh*t and they know it

 

[pitman]

Lets hope someone will create some sort of hack for LAN, although I don't play RTS much (like at all

) I used to have some fun doing LAN gaming with starcraft (it was popular with the russians at our school

) and I want the new generation to experience the same as I did.

 

[DeMoN]

I don't see why they would bother with DRM and all that other crap. All you need is CD-key protection and a strong multiplayer mode. Look at Warcraft 3 for example. Because it had DotA (which is Multiplayer only), they are still selling Warcraft 3 like hotcakes.

 

[BakuFunn]

I don't see why they would bother with DRM and all that other crap. All you need is CD-key protection and a strong multiplayer mode. Look at Warcraft 3 for example. Because it had DotA (which is Multiplayer only), they are still selling Warcraft 3 like hotcakes.

I agree. Just make DRM go away. When pirates have a better time skipping all the crap to gameplay than paying customers, you know it's not going right. CD-key protection is great. Multiplayer dependent on CD-keys was easy, and you couldn't pirate to play online. I think the best DRM is to make the CD un-ripable. If that's a word. Then, we're golden. Although, that is pretty much impossible.

 

[DSGamer64]

I've still got my StarCraft T-Shirt somewhere from the Limited Edition, sad.

The biggest draw for SC2 will be online play, so should ease back on the DRM.

Single player mode will be pirated no matter what they do.

Have you even been in on the beta? You still need to have an active Battle.net account with the game authenticated through their system in order to play at all, online or offline. You have to have a real game key which must be registered on their website in order to play any part of the game. You won't be able to pirate the game at all.

And there should be no need to pirate at all if the game is worth buying. Blizzard still makes quality games, there won't be any reason to pirate SC2, and from what I have played of the beta it is going to be awesome, it looks as nice as it plays.