So, DRM (Again)

Ubisoft's new DRM (which requires you to be constantly connected to their servers to continue playing the game) is a guarantee I will not purchase their games. Let's start with that.

Here's the argument as I understand it:

"Pirates have succeeded in cracking every single type of copy protection we have come up with. Therefore, the only thing we can do is continue to come up with more and more draconic and restrictive DRM, even though we are publically admitting we know it won't actually work for very long, in the hopes it will improve our sales while it lasts."

Here's the problem with it (and yes, I've said this before*):

The dedicated pirates are not choosing between buying your game and pirating it. They're really not. The people who don't want to pay for your software aren't going to, whether they can crack it in an hour because you used a known method of copy protection or they have to wait a few weeks for one of the smarter hackers to circumvent it or they just choose another game entirely. Because, really, your game is just not that special that they can't find something else interesting to do.

And that goes for the potential paying customers, too. And when you add the pirating to the lost sales from those potential customers who are sick of the current models of DRM (and the way game companies treat their entire audience as potential pirates), and then add in the people who have baldly stated they will pirate your game because of your DRM... well, do you suppose that number will end up with higher sales than before? Or lower?

I'm going with lower, myself.

ETA: Although this image has to do with DVD DRM instead of game DRM, I think it is relatively applicable here.

[*My Sims blog has several posts on the topic.]