Let's improve DRM and cross-platform games

This is, of course, purely a hypothetical topic as I doubt any of us here are industry big wigs that can really push anything.

That being said, Dynamite has arranged for Xenctuary to be our coffee girl, so let's get to the drawing board. If you were responsible for coming up with a new DRM scheme that also supported being able to play a game on your PC if you bought it for your 360, how would you go about it?

Nice network interoperability like what Valve did when they launched Portal 2 on the PS3 and how you got it for the PC when you bought the PS3 copy. Or one key being able to be redeemed in multiple places (kind of like multiPC product codes for Microsoft Office) except tied to an account instead of a system. That one could be similar to GOG's Witcher 2 "monopoly" if you will where it takes keys from almost anywhere and unlocks a DRM free copy for you.

hey, i got one! making a good enough game that is worth dropping 60 bucks on!

seriously, you can get around almost every single type of DRM. why waste time, money, and manpower on trying to come up with ways that only inconvenience the paying customers, when you could be working on your game?

hiigaran, that's not the point here really. The point is getting it to multiple systems like from PC to 360 to PS3 with just one purchase.

Excellent topic guys! Being able to play a game on cross platforms via one single license would be one of the holy grails of empowering gamers with more freedom and choice.

But I think this is something we're not likely to see, because content creators tend to think of each "screen" they hit being an individual "product" or "service". Its actually well known that a content creator would like nothing more than to monetize multiple times for the same content, just via different formats (sites like Neoseeker are not innocent of this). Think for a moment whether buying a movie ticket at the theater should entitle you to get the DVD when it comes out. Or should buying a DVD allow you to get the Blu-Ray version free when it comes out?

As consumers we generally like to think of content as being less a physical product and more a user experience - we paid for an experience on PC, so why should we pay again to have that experience on our console? Publishers want to push the product value of the actual Blu-Ray disc, but we could care less, we're paying for a movie, and we want to watch it anywhere and everywhere.

This question becomes more muddled now that digital distro has entered the picture. Why does Apple want to control which devices we use to listen to our music? Why can't I register all my Blu-Ray movies with studios and qualify to watch digital versions on iTunes or the Google Play store? These are complicated questions to which no side has all the answers. Just consider, sometimes a PC and console version of a game is actually made by 2 different studios - surely companies should be allowed to recoup and profit from taking the risk of building out for multiple platforms?

Actually, this discussion leads to another really interesting topic that I think I'll blog about

I wish Microsoft would get more on board with cross-platform stuff. They at least had the groundwork done with Games for Windows – Live. Shadowrun is the only game I recall having cross-platform play off the top of my head.

quote Redemption

Think for a moment whether buying a movie ticket at the theater should entitle you to get the DVD when it comes out. Or should buying a DVD allow you to get the Blu-Ray version free when it comes out?

I think the main answer to this is simple: You're buying a license to view the movie, not actually owning a copy of it. In a way, it's similar to renting vs. buying games.

quote Redemption

Just consider, sometimes a PC and console version of a game is actually made by 2 different studios - surely companies should be allowed to recoup and profit from taking the risk of building out for multiple platforms?

In cases like this, sure I can see where this topic would fall flat on its face. However, many games these days are already built around one platform, but the goal is to have it released on multiple platforms (think Borderlands 2, Final Fantasy XIII). I'm no game developer, so I don't claim to know this as absolute fact, but once your product is built, I wouldn't imagine it would take a complete rewrite to make it work on a PS3 versus a PC or 360. If the same company is working on a title for multiple platforms, I wouldn't mind paying $70 or even $80 to be able to download a game to my PS3/PC when I already bought it for the other system as well. I think having this as a potential "premium" option would do well. Instead of inflating the cost of games across the board, let people who want to pay that little extra have it for both systems via a CD key on Steam, coupon code for PSN, or what have you.