While some game makers are trying out new DRM that only targets the pirates, it's still very much the norm these days to find DRM that does more to hurt legitimate buyers than actual pirates. EA and Bioware's Dragon Age: Origins is the latest example.
When EA/Bioware's DRM authentication servers went down over the last weekend, legitimate buyers of the offline, single player game found that they would not have their usual DA:O weekend session. When they tried to play the game that they have already paid for, they were met with an "unauthorized" error message.
Ironically, the pirated version of the game, which had the DRM stripped out, worked fine, allowing pirates to enjoy the game, while buyers of the game were locked out.
And so, DRM once again does what it does best - hurt legitimate customers and give people more reason to get the pirated, cracked version, even if they had already paid for the game.
In the end, it took 4 days for EA/Bioware to fix the DRM authentication server and allow paying customers to play the game again.
So why then, does companies like EA think that piracy actually helps to reduce piracy, and not encourage it?
Have you ever removed DRM from games you've purchased legally? Post your answer in this news article's comments section, or in this forum thread:
http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?t=94748
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