GOG: Publishers should resist the urge to “slap a mechanical fix onto a game” with DRM

By Stephany Nunneley

GOG has said it thinks Ubisoft is moving in the right direction with its stance on DRM, however, it doesn’t think the “tides are turning” on the industry’s insistence to include the security measure.

Speaking in an interview with RPS, the firm was responding to comments Ubisoft’s Chris Early made in March, when he said the need for DRM will “eventually disappear” when game releases contained enough added value.

“I would love it if DRM [were] dying out,” said GOG managing director Guillaume Rambourg and marketing PR head Trevor Longino. “I think GOG.com has blazed a bit of a trail in that respect, because we’ve spent the last three and half years showing the industry that not only can it work, but it can work very well–we’ve been growing at a phenomenal pace since we launched.

“If we ever reach the point where our core value of DRM-free gaming needs to be removed from our website because everyone simply assumes that games aren’t burdened with such short-sighted “features” as DRM, I’m pretty sure we’ll have a celebration at the office. It would be a great day for gaming.

“I don’t think the tides are quite turning yet, though. It’s a promising move, but I don’t think this particular debate in gaming culture is anywhere near over.”

Admitting that it’s “hard from a business perspective” to see so many games being pirated, GOG said publishers need to resist the urge to “slap a mechanical fix onto a game” because, simply, “DRM doesn’t work.”

“But when you’re managing your business via a spreadsheet, it is much easier to check a box that says, “DRM added” than it is to come up with a comprehensive plan to make the offer you present gamers more attractive than the one that pirates do while at the same time realizing that some gamers will pirate your game no matter what,” said the firm.

“I definitely think that Ubisoft is moving the right direction, but we’ll need to see if other industry giants are willing to do the same. I’m sure everyone’s watching Ubisoft to see what happens with their experiment before making up their minds.”