Valve's Gabe Newell Doesn't Like DRM

As far as piracy goes, the phenomenon is apparently unavoidable, especially when you consider the software and games alone. Although companies are always complaining about the fact that their profits are low because of people who modify and then release their products for free on the Internet, their measures of preventing this, like DRM (Digital Rights Management) systems, serve only to make gamers angry.

These products impose limitations on the honest user, who finds that his legally-purchased copy of a game prevents him from installing it on more than one computer or his family from playing online using different accounts. These DRM programs, like SecuROM, have gained quite a terrible reputation, and users are beginning to boycott games that use the software, although a lot of companies motivate their use of the systems by the fact that they don't have any other choice.

Gabe Newell, one of the top executives at the gaming developer and publisher Valve, has recently talked about the use of DRM systems. He went on to say that most of them were dumb or broken, and that companies should focus on offering a better online experience so that people would be motivated to buy original copies of their games.

"As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I'll be able to play my game and maybe I won't). We really really discourage other developers and publishers from using the broken DRM offerings, and, in general, there is a groundswell to abandon those approaches."

Quite an interesting statement coming from the Valve executive, as his company has always relied on great online experiences and a fantastic system of digital distribution, Steam, to make gamers buy legitimate copies of its games. This great service and all of the things the company has offered its fans has made it one of the most profitable game developers and publishers out there, although it doesn't release that many games.

Let's just hope that other executives read this statement and make more reasonable choices before resorting to DRM systems in order to protect their products.