DRM on the rise?
With the pre-release of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown started, Ubisoft has chosen this week to rebrand its Ubisoft+ subscription services, and introduce a PC version of the “Classics” tier at a lower price. And a big part of this, says the publisher’s director of subscriptions, Philippe Tremblay, is getting players “comfortable” with not owning their games.
He claims the company’s subscription service had its biggest ever month October 2023, and that the service has had “millions” of subscribers, and “over half a billion hours” played. Of course, a lot of this could be a result of Ubisoft’s various moments of refusing to release games to Steam, forcing PC players to use its services, and likely opting for a month’s subscription rather than the full price of the game they were looking to buy. But still, clearly people are opting to use it. --techdirt
Digital Rights Managment or "DRM" is short for "take away whatever we want when we want, regardless if you paid." And, it extends beyond paying points. How about when a server is shutdown by a company, or a game becomes unmaintained by its original developers? What are people to do?
I say ditch DRM in general, and let people vote with their wallet and attention. ...also, let's try to divert back to physical media and digital.