The DRM is the topic. Just because you don’t care about it doesn’t mean it’s not important 
And going back on topic, will there be a response as to whether this DRM will be included with future PP releases? (Sorry to rehash a question I’ve already asked, but considering the current direction of this thread, and the fact I really would like to know the answer, no point in not asking again in the hopes of an answer.)
Dude. Did you read my post? I said the people viewing the unencrypted portions of military communications, i.e. the intended recipients, aren’t the ones trying to break the encryption. That’s why the encryption still works. All the efforts trying to decrypt military communications is done by people who intercept the encrypted information. They were never meant to view it.
For games, movies and whatever, the user is meant to view the product, which means there is a decryption key on the user’s side. That means there is a way for that key to be obtained since the key has to be passed through the system for the user to use the product. Obviously if I send encrypted information with no means of you ever viewing it, it’ll be near-impossible to decrypt. That’s why I mentioned the HD-DVD/Blu-ray example. The encryption on those is insanely high and probably is military-grade, but they were cracked because the decryption keys had to be somewhere on the client-side for them to work.
Your link is about DRM on CDs. It says nothing about a new DRM system for SC2 or D3. I’m not saying there won’t be DRM on Blizzard’s games, but I don’t believe it’ll be much different from the traditional non-activation ones.
The enforeability of EULAs is still up in the air. And not like companies read their own EULAs.
Mass Effect for PC? I highly doubt it sold well over a million. It’s a console port and arrived late. Most AAA exclusives struggle to get that high. I’d like to see a source for that.
Back on the DRM thing and double-edged swords… when a big company proclaims that their DRM is working perfectly and the tiny fractions of disgruntled people are completely irrelevant and don’t impact their sales, the disgruntled people tend to use this as a justification for pirating the game guilt-free. After all, the company said they don’t care about those customers and don’t want their money. 
Then we’re not even on the same page here. I didn’t say encryption is the answer to software protection: I merely pointed out that there was a time when electronic encryption was not at the level that it is now. For two decades, there was doubt digital encryption could be so efficient: it was only stubborn perseverance and well invested cash, that made it possible.
It was also thinking outside of the box: modern encryption has shifted away from just scrambling of the data, but also masking the transmission of the data so that the other side doesn’t even know it was transmitted. That has proven to be even a greater achievement, than the actual scramble techniques (can’t decipher what you can’t even intercept).
DRM is the same: in that for the moment, DRM itself seems impossible to incorporate. The CONCEPT for it is sound however. It’s not impossible from a program and hardware prospective: it’s merely difficult to standardize with the environment at present. However constant tackling of the problem will inevitably result in something that works. Giving up entirely on it, is the greatest failure of all.
It says: our policy is still that we are strongly attached to DRM, especially for advertising-based models and subscription-based models. This applies to more than just CD’s, its a broad spectrum prospective. If you also check a few of the recent acquirements that Vivendi has done, you’ll note they picked up a New York based DRM firm and invested in some of the DRM patents from Sony.
Vivendi is committed to the future prosperity of DRM ¬ñ not against it. They also use it more than they don’t use it, and were not impressed with the “no DRM” distribution methods. Expect them to enforce it MORE on their subordinates, not less. Blizzard included.
More EULAs have been upheld, than overruled: just do a search for them on a Circuit Court sites. Again 7th because of the states involved, but even more so on the 9th (which is where most software companies involved pull their jurisdiction).
Don’t know the platform breakdown ¬ñ simply the number of units. I can get the breakdown, but will need to do so from the office. I’m in agreement with you that the PC release were gravy sales, but then that renders the DRM factor moot: since they made their money, and were just looking to make more. They weren’t banking on record breaking sales for the PC version, because they already had it on the console. DRM was just put on there to slow piracy. If it did or not… they probably didn’t seriously care after that last bit of milk was squeezed out the cow.
Meh… looks like I pissed off a lot of people with my ranting, so I’ll just drop the topic and let you get the last comments in. If you wanna continue offline, I’d be more than happy to… so long as you add some twincest fanservice in the first PM. 
The bottom line will, and always will be, DRM does not STOP piracy. The people that want to commit a crime and steal the game, will eventually do so.
Customers will be lost if the DRM proves inrtusive, paranoia or not. The end effect is turning away customers to stop behaviour that cannot be targeted.
The only way this is not true, is if the game is so dman good, and the DRM so damn good, that people are not willing to wait the period of time it takes to crack the DRM.
I refuse to PLAY a game that installs SecuROM 7.xx on my system. I had installed Oblivion GOTY Edition without realizing it was there, since the original Oblivion had no such DRM, and after stumbling on a thread about it promptly uninstalled the game and preceded to destroy the remanants of SecuROM (an annoying and painstaking process).
SecuROM has become a very popular DRM as of late, and is used on titles such as Bioshock, Mass Effect, Far Cry 2, and worst of all Fallout 3. I refuse to purchase any of these games only becuase of SecuROM, when I otherwise would have gladly laid down the $50 (or more) to aquire each of them. Money is not a problem for me, so piracy is out of the question UNLESS I decide one day a game that contains intrusive DRM, is worthy of installing a client (which I despise as well).
Hi, sorry for delay in a reply. I actually posted a good reply somewhere and I know the site accepted it, but I can’t find it here or anywhere else.
Anyway, thanks for everyone’s comments. They’re very useful to us. I’ve added language to the product pages now which specifically states in writing (a website is ‘in writing’ right? ^_^) that
a) the requirement for activation on the physical version of the game will be time-limited. After the initial period of sales probably 1 year but maybe slightly longer, we will remove this from the DVD-ROM version of the game. (Probably not the download edition, same as now.) We will then issue the activation free patches to valid customers so they can download them and use the game freely without any activation system.
Some other thoughts, since I’ve got a nice alphabetical list going:
b) I stated it in my vanished post but I’ll state it again now: we’re not trying to interfere with your ability to resell a game if you so choose. We will gladly reset registered computers if you request it and will also completely refresh your code, resetting your installs completely. (We’d deactivate the old codes in this case.)
c) the Software Defender system is not SecureROM and it’s not any kind of suspicious system you need to worry about. It’s just a wrapper that wraps the EXE.
d) someone was asking about it, so I’ll say again you can install it on 5 machines right out of the box. So, main machine, laptop, mother’s computer if you play the game at her house, machine at work, and wife’s laptop. Whatever.
e) we’re not sure if we’ll include this in future titles. We may well decide that it worked out well, especially with our rock-clad promise to release the uncensored versions of game files in question after the initial sales period, which hopefully removes a lot of the “what is Peach Princess goes away, I won’t be able to play my game” worries. We’ll have to decide that based on how this system has worked for us.
f) We obviously hope fans won’t boycott us over this, and we’re bending over backwards to accommodate all your concerns, or we’re trying to. If you boycott us, it will probably be the end of English language bishoujo gaming. Perhaps we could switch to selling Japanese textbooks instead – oh wait, we already do. But seriously, if this system impacts reasonable fans as little as I think it will (remember: one time activation > having the damn DVD in the computer all the time to play), and if it keeps beginning of piracy from starting by oh, let’s say a month (perhaps long enough for the heavy advertising we’re spending on to do some good), and if it lowers the amount of piracy by some small amount over the first year until we release the activation-free codes, well, that will have been pretty good in my book.
Some protection is better than no protection at all? Sounds like my last girlfriend. 
Well for the record, I don’t like DRM anymore than the next guy: however I don’t let DRM impact my decision to get a game or music… so I’m still aboard for Princess Waltz.
It’s one of the best (and perhaps for some will be the best) title from PP: making a small concession for top class eroge is worth it. Rather have a translated PW with minor DRM, than no translated PW at all… which in my opinion is the big picture. You can support uncensored and translated eroge with DRM; or you can choose to not support it and lose the chance of getting uncensored and translated eroge.
I already own the Japanese version and can understand it fine, but I like to support PP for the principal of it all… and the constant wish that Peter gets me more identical twincest sooner or later. :lol:
Do i hear someone sees a mahou shoujo game coming? 'cause i just have this kind of fetish recently :lol:
I think the idea of the DRM being patched out after a year or so makes it a lot easier to swallow. Furthermore if it does lead to an increase in sales and allows PP to license more high quality games like Princess Waltz, the DRM may actually prove to be worthwhile … dear god I never thought I would say that.
As far as people’s opinion of DRM goes I think that everyone tends to have a gut reaction to it, and once this opinion has been formed it is nigh impossible to change, I know it will take quite a bit for me to accept its general use.
I’m not fond of DRMs myself, but that’s not going to stop my purchase of PW. Truth be told, if PW was being put out by EA, I’d probably cancel. But it’s not. This is PP we’re talking about. They care. How do I know?
I got this nice email from them BEFORE the game came out telling me about the DRM. In time for me to cancel if I wanted because they hadn’t told me this before when I pre-ordered (because they didn’t know). When I pre-ordered Spore and got it, I had to open the package and install it before I ever knew that there was a DRM issue. (Opened packages from gaming stores aren’t refundable )
PP also provided a place for us to discuss it (here).
PP is also bending over backwards to try to make this DRM as painless as possible. It’s clear it’s a requirement from the Japanese publisher, so they are required to do it. But they’ve basically done everything within their power to make it palatable, as palatable as a DRM can possibly be. I don’t think there’s much else they can do, given the latest news that a patch will be coming in the future to disable the DRM.
And hey, while I’m here… Thanks, Peter, for doing the best you can and keeping us in the loop.
I feel the same exact way, and it’s the same reason I’ll still be getting Princess Waltz as well as Family Project(with or without DRM.)
My opinion on DRM will never change, though I can certainly appreciate how friendly PP is trying to make it for their customers.
(And thanks for the answers Peter.)
I just want o make it clear, I have no problem with the DRM system for this game. I was speaking of SecuROM as the negative type of DRM that drives away customers, and only for the purposes of discussion not to advocate a boycott of anything. I have prepaid for PW and eagerly await shipment, this type of DRM is completely fine in my book, since no software is covertly installed on my system.
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yeah i will buy or borrow the next few peach princess game if they have drm as well
I guess I’ll reiterate as well: Despite how much I dislike DRM, I’m still getting Princess Waltz and other yet to be released titles like Family Project. At least in this instance, I know that the person in charge is someone who listens to us and does what he can for us within the parameters set forth by the companies he licenses from. It’s many times better than trying to get some suit who isn’t passionate about his own products (except for the money) to pay attention to you.
LOL! Something interesting for you anti-DRM fellows. Many of you feel that companies like EA aren’t doing anything that benefits the paying gamers, and only please the money hungry investors. Well it would appear that those money hungry investors don’t think EA is doing enough for them either. Honestly though… it probably has a lot to do with EA executives doing what the want, without advising investors more often.
every DRM is fated to go away silently. I got BioShock, 2 weeks ago, through Steampowered and it didn’t ask for an activation (requirement removed by 2k sometime ago). And it does seem like PP will do the same thing (although future customers will notes it).
A good point that was raised in an article in PC Gamer UK was*, that gamers are not happy with the pre-set number of installations they can have with the product they buy. Gamers are not upset of the activations itself nor are they going to consume those activations in one month (by formatting or upgrading their computer). Gamers are simply upset on the principle that they are told how many times they can install a game. Which, by the way, is what I am unhappy about with the activation process, although giving me the option to un-activate a PC does make the whole thing easier to tolerate.
- will be, I am a subscriber so I have next month issue with me
I think gamers don’t mind when the DRM works with them rather than against them. For example, Steam has DRM, but the system is designed to be as friendly as possible to the user. It actually encourages multiple installations (especially with Steam Cloud launching). Having only one copy active at a time is a reasonable restriction since it’s just like buying one console game – only one person can play it at a given time. It’s so transparent and beneficial that some people don’t even consider Steam as DRM. :lol:
When does pre-orders close? I wanna know how much time I have left. (need to get my accounts in order).