http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2011/05..._revision/
... Yeah, that's a lot of money... they blame poor sales and the continued lack of income from FFXIV (because they still haven't instituted monthly fees, given how many problems it has and the not-so-big userbase). Some games in development have been cancelled apparently, but who knows which.
I'm surprised they didn't blame piracy.
Kinda hard to blame piracy when the loss is almost solely the fault of the biggest MMO flop of all time.
Blaming software piracy for revenue loss is, in most cases, hard to do if one has any concept of how the economics function, but we still have media conglomerates blaming the end user for the financial inviability of their outmoded business model (or, in this case, an utter garbage product) year after year. Software companies don't have an RIAA or MPAA gorilla with which to terrorize the consumer base in their favor, but they'll DRM you to death without a second thought if they think it will earn them ten extra bucks.
I don't mind DRM too much as long as it's smart, unobtrusive DRM [like with Steam]. In that case, all you need to do is authenticate the game via the internet at least once and then you can play it offline as much as you want [although, for online you, obviously, have to authenticate each time]. Long CD keys, DRM programs that monitor your activity, install limits, and constant online authentication is, however, not very fun to deal with.
CD keys are nothing like those other things you mentioned, something you just have to enter once is not a big deal. Those other things, though, are indeed big issues. But a CD key? No, I'd call that one of the most unproblematic forms of copy protection.
Also, yeah, Square mostly has FFXIV to blame, so they can't blame piracy. :)
Doesn't change the fact that CD keys are annoying.
My Microsoft software I got via my school is awesome. Every user gets a customized install cd with there CD key as part of the installer. Plus a web site with ISO images of all your install CD's. The CD Key box is grayed out and the key is entered in automatically when the installer attempts to ask for it. And there is no online activation for allot of it, and the stuff where there is you only have to activate once.
The worst is when the stuff acts like an OS and makes your system hardware part of the authorization, so if you try to just move your hard disk to a new computer, right after convincing the OS you didn't steal it, now you have to convince 5 different games you didn't steal them.
It's no wonder so many people get legitimate games hacked just to have the superior version to the official release. GOG's model is great, they seem very successful, and they don't use any DRM at all.
Hackers hack every single DRM method they've come up with within days of release. Why do they even bother? At best they're stopping casual gaming friends from sharing disks with each other. How much does that cut into their profits?
The number 1 rule of computer security is: If they have physical access to the computer, it is no longer secure.
This is all coming from someone who doesn't pirate games. However, it affects me because a lot of modern DRM is SO system specific that it will make it really tough for collectors in the future. How exactly are they going to activate a lot of these DLC packages when the service you get them from is down? Where will they get them? Buying used games is already hard enough, but in 20 years time? It'll be harder than ever...