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| [May 02, 2010, 4:48 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
The SEGA America Blog has details on how Digital Rights Management will work for the upcoming PC edition of Alpha Protocol, Obsidian Entertainment's espionage-themed action/RPG. The post includes a full FAQ on the topic of their DRM, and here's the summary: The system chosen for Alpha Protocol is Uniloc: SoftAnchor. The system will allow the user to activate Alpha Protocol online immediately out of the box and once activated the user never needs to worry about activating again. The activation can be used on a limited amount of PCs, and can be deactivated through our online servers allowing the user full control over their license – should they need to re-install, swap machines or suffer a catastrophic hardware failure on their normal PC.
In the future, SEGA will be releasing an unprotected patch of the game to alleviate any fears of not being able to play the game when the Uniloc servers won’t be around anymore.
We also do not use Steamworks – the Steam released version will use Uniloc DRM.
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| 59. |
Re: No Confidence Vote For Steam |
May 6, 2010, 15:47 |
JD |
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Verno wrote on May 6, 2010, 08:55:
Wow, that is probably the most naive thing I have ever heard uttered around here. Your entire post is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen written around here, and it clearly shows that you don't comprehend what you read (not as if your previous replies to me in this thread weren't an indication).
Sega, the company responsible for some truly awful games in the past five years would suddenly "just make better games"? Read the sentence which precedes that statement of mine again because you obviously misunderstood it. If SEGA simply thought AvP didn't sell well because it was a crappy or mediocre game, it wouldn't be changing its DRM. What that means is not that I personally think that SEGA would in fact make better games, but rather that SEGA itself would see that making better games was the solution to its sales problem if it thought something was wrong with the game. SEGA (not me) clearly does not think that the game's quality is a problem or at least the main problem because it is changing its DRM from Steam in response.
You claim no one cares about Steams benefits but 27 million accounts seem to disagree with you. There you go again not reading. That is not what I claimed at all. I didn't claim that no one cares about the benefits of Steam. What I actually wrote is It can't be rationally claimed that these PC gamers accept Steam's DRM because of Steam's downloading benefits because they bought the game at retail. with "these PC gamers" specifically being "those who purchased CODMW2 at retail". Since I obviously need to simplify it for you what that means and shows is that those consumers accepted the Internet activation and other restrictions of Steam's DRM on the game because they liked the game. Steam's benefits as a game distributor like unlimited downloads weren't the reason because they didn't use Steam as the game distributor. These PC gamers bought the game from retailers not from Steam.
What benefits does Uniloc offer? Zero, zip, nadda, nothing. First, you are confusing Steam as a game distribution service with Steam's DRM. Steam's DRM offers no benefits either only restrictions. Second, from its description Uniloc does offer tangible benefits over Steam's DRM as I mentioned below: simultaneous play on up to 5 PC's and the ability to sell or give away a game.
You can crow about resale but everyone knows thats a joke these days with zero day DLC It's not a joke for those who like to sell, lend, or share their games with family and friends. Steam's restrictiveness in that regard is the real joke on consumers. There is simply no good reason not to allow it as this new Uniloc DRM does allow it. The reason that Valve forbids and prevents it on Steam is greed.
It's more hoops in exchange for......what exactly? the ability to play the game
And, it's no more hoops than Steam's DRM or any other DRM. It can even be argued that it's fewer hoops than Steam since you don't have to deal with extra client software and online accounts and there are fewer restrictions in the DRM.
Steam while not perfect, offers tangible benefits. Yes, but those benefits of Steam as a digital distributor aren't necessitated by its DRM restrictions. It's not a tradeoff required by necessity. It's like saying you can't pat someone on the back unless you also kick them in the balls. Steam doesn't have to be so restrictive in its DRM so that it can offer unlimited downloads, automatic updates, or social networking features. And, despite those features of Steam as a service, Steam's DRM can still prevent consumers from being able to play their purchased games how and when they want or even at all. It does no good to have unlimited downloads of a game you can't play.
This comment was edited on May 6, 2010, 20:48. |
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