14 DAY TRIAL // Super Meat Boy developer Tommy Refenes has talked about piracy and digital rights management systems after the SimCity fiasco and emphasized that, when talking about digital games, a pirated copy doesn't mean any lost money for the studio that made it.
Super Meat Boy impressed millions of gamers from around the world with its tough mechanics and taught one of its developers, Tommy Refenes, quite a few things about piracy, DRM, and how they correlate to one another.
Speaking in a post on his personal blog, Refenes believes that a pirated copy of a downloadable game doesn't result in a loss for the developer so it's not something that needs to be actively fought.
"As a forward thinking developer who exists in the present, I realize and accept that a pirated copy of a digital game does not equate to money being taken out of my pocket. Team Meat shows no loss in our year end totals due to piracy and neither should any other developer," Refenes said.
As a result, implementing DRM systems that prevent piracy by using certain other services is just a waste of money, as all of them can be cracked by pirates.
"Companies try to combat piracy of their software with DRM but if loss due to pirated software is not calculable to an accurate amount does the implementation of DRM provide a return on investment? It is impossible to say yes to this statement."
Refenes emphasizes that DRM only ends up frustrating paying customers so it's not worth it to spend money and time implementing anti-piracy systems, as developers can easily work to make the game more appealing to lots of people.
"The reality is the fight against piracy equates to spending time and money combating a loss that cannot be quantified. Everyone needs to accept that piracy cannot be stopped and loss prevention is not a concept that can be applied to the digital world," Refenes mentioned.
"Developers should focus on their paying customers and stop wasting time and money on non-paying customers. Respect your customers and they may in turn respect your efforts enough to purchase your game instead of pirating it."
DRM and anti-piracy measures have generated a pretty huge debate in the gaming industry as while small studios and independent publishers are backing away, big corporations are still adamant in using mechanics to prevent illegal downloads.