14 DAY TRIAL // Anti-piracy measures, such as various digital rights management (DRM) programs, shouldn't be used as they make gamers feel like criminals and developers look greedy doing so, at least according to Avalanche Studios, the company behind the Just Cause series.
Piracy is an ongoing debate in the games industry and, while some companies are against it, others continue using different DRM programs.
Avalanche Studios boss Cristofer Sundberg doesn't approve of using restrictive programs, as they end up punishing legal gamers and make them feel like criminals for wanting to play a title they bought.
"DRM solutions which limit the game experience should not exist. That’s my honest opinion," Sundberg told GamingBolt.
"They make us look greedy, which we are not. It treats our fans like criminals, which they are not. With that said, I think that we deserve getting paid for years of hard work and I think piracy is hurting our ability to make great games."
What's more, Sundberg also mentioned that developers shouldn't try to add things like a multiplayer mode to a game in order to prevent it from piracy or from being traded in and then bought as a used copy.
"I think piracy won’t be as big on the next generation hardware," the Avalanche boss said.
"I’m actually really happy to see Just Cause 2 on the used-games shelves as it’s a rarity – hard to come by! Games are often returned to the stores, not because they are bad, but because they are too short, offer very little or no player autonomy and does not encourage exploration."
"That’s what we’re trying to change. I mean, still to this day, three years after release, we still have hundreds of thousands of Just Cause 2 players every month. So that pretty much squashes the common publisher argument that every game needs multiplayer to "combat" second hand sales, without even looking at what the game really is."
Avalanche is currently working on Just Cause 3, alongside other projects and is expected to reveal it later this year at E3 2013 in June.