Fallout 3 is going to be a big game. Coming from Bethesda, the developers behind one of the biggest RPGs out there, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, it promises to bring the action packed game as the other two titles. Set 200 years after a devastating nuclear war, the game puts the player in search of his father who ventured into the wasteland between the remaining cities. Coming to the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it will eventually offer a DLC (Downloadable Content pack) only for the first two systems. Speaking with Shacknews, Pete Hines from Bethesda revealed some pieces of information about the PC version of the game, especially the DRM (Digital Rights Management) it would have, or more specifically, wouldn't have.

When asked about the copy protection the game would have, Hines replied that, “Pretty similar to what we did for Oblivion, which was--we basically don't do any--we do the mildest form possible. I actually don't know if I even want to get into what it is that we exactly do, but we try to be really noninvasive when it comes to that stuff”. But he stressed that these systems are necessary to protect the investment made by the developer, “When you spend tens of millions of dollars, we don't think it's right to just put something out there and let everybody do whatever they want and pass it around.”

This is definitely good news, I don't really think that DRM systems are all that bad, in the end, it's just a way of making sure that the developer and publisher make a decent profit out of the game and use it to make other great ones. Although Electronic Arts got a lot of negative feedback with the SecuROM system which was employed for the hit game Spore, it did modify it afterwards to give players a few more rights.

Pete Hines also approached the eventual anti-piracy measures they would possibly employ down the line, after the launch of the title, “We are looking at some of the stuff that folks do.. I think Valve has a good solution. They certainly took their lumps when Steam first came out, but it does seem to be a pretty widely accepted method”. Regarding a possible appearance of Fallout 3 on Steam, Hines replied that they are considering a lot of digital content distribution networks, but only time would tell when they get to launch their game on them.