In the gaming community, however, DRM has created more controversy among consumers than any other content protection strategy. While in many ways it has made life easier for distributors – as releasing and selling a game can be done immediately – it’s also presented the same challenges it has to film studios, music studios and any other digital content provider. The internet has fundamentally changed the way that content is distributed across the board.

With this precedent set, combined with the frustration it induces in players, is DRM really worth it? Released on 8th March, the game was cracked and pirated within hours. Typically this takes a little while but, as Capcom recently discovered, the hackers are getting faster. It’s also like a red flag to a bull and, once a game is released with DRM, hackers quickly get to work to crack it. For game studios, it’s a very quick way to alienate your target market. DRM is accused of being anti-consumer, and are perceived as being to the detriment of player experience. Regardless of the truth about performance, software bloat, and connectivity issues – the strength of feeling in the gaming community is huge. Additionally, DRM also depends upon regularly “verifying” legal ownership of the content which typically requires online connectivity, and means that, in some severe cases, players aren’t able to play without a constant connection. When a game studio reveals its use of DRM as a strategy for anti-piracy, the community’s reaction is one of concern.ĭRM reportedly increases the file size required by a game, and in some scenarios, has been accused of reducing gameplay frame-rate and limiting performance. As Capcom’s Devil May Cry 5 is cracked and pirated on its first day of release, we must question whether preventative Digital Rights Management (DRM) is the right approach to the problem of game piracy, says Adam Hitchen, Technical Services Executive at MUSO.ĭigital Rights Management (DRM) has been a controversial topic in gaming for some time.

Drm cracking software