DRM is an Epic failure
Just saying.
Oh, yeah, why did I pick today to say that? Well, the story on my brain is the one that arose on the 29th of January, when those who bought Epic’s “Gears of War” for the PC were suddenly unable to play their legally purchased game. As of this writing, 4 days later, the problem is still unsolved. The problem stems from a certificate installed with the game, that expired on the 28th.
Now why in blue hell did they install a certificate? Impossible to tell, but it’s most likely part of a “phone-home” scheme to determine that the copy of the game you’re playing is, in fact, legitimate. If so, though, I wonder: Did Epic believe no one would play the game 3 years later? Did Microsoft? And if not, if you MUST install a certificate, could you not put a 100-year expiration, or something equally ludicrous?
Wanna hear the fun part of all this?
You know those filthy pirates, the ones that this particular DRM is supposed to stop? Yeah, they’re still able to play.
This should be a wake-up call to publishers, developers, and everyone else: Your methods of dealing with piracy are doomed to fail. They ONLY adversely affect your paying customers. The pirates are getting past these mechanisms within days of your software’s release (and often days before your release) and enjoying a problem-free game.
