DRM: Something’s gotta give
Where do you draw the line on DRM? What Valve did with Half-Life 2 is a widely accepted practise today, even though at the time online activation was met with an unprecedented community backlash. Proper notification
in the system requirements box would have softened the blow for many, especially those that lugged PCs to work or school. But in hindsight this concept proved instrumental in introducing PC gamers to the juggernaut of digitial distribution that is Steam, which is the one positive thing I can take away from that whole debacle.
We’ve been weaned onto DRM in recent years and personally, I can accept limited activations as a part of my PC purchase. Does it bother me that my copy of Bioshock 2 can only be installed 15 times before I have to phone customer services for reactivation? Don’t be so soft. That barely counts, especially in the light of Ubisoft’s all-new, singing and goose-stepping, über-führer DRM, which forces Assassin’s Creed II PC customers to stay online while they’re playing (despite it being a single-player game) and will actually kick you out of the game if your connection drops for any reason. Talk about breaking the fourth wall – I wasn’t a big fan of leaving twelfth century Jerusalem for the world outside the Animus in the first place, but I’d rather be there than get punished for Internet death and hang around in limbo while I wait to reconnect.
So the pirates will become more prolific because of DRM, the publishing execs will continue to implement increasingly draconian measures because of it, everyone will blame eachother and this vicious circle is threatening to spiral out of control. Someone’s going to have to sidestep soon or big-budget PC gaming is heading for a crash.
DRM: Something’s gotta give
Where do you draw the line on DRM? What Valve did with Half-Life 2 is a widely accepted practise today, even though at the time online activation was met with an unprecedented community backlash. Proper notification
in the system requirements box would have softened the blow for many, especially those that lugged PCs to work or school. But in hindsight this concept proved instrumental in introducing PC gamers to the juggernaut of digitial distribution that is Steam, which is the one positive thing I can take away from that whole debacle.
We’ve been weaned onto DRM in recent years and personally, I can accept limited activations as a part of my PC purchase. Does it bother me that my copy of Bioshock 2 can only be installed 15 times before I have to phone customer services for reactivation? Don’t be so soft. That barely counts, especially in the light of Ubisoft’s all-new, singing and goose-stepping, über-führer DRM, which forces Assassin’s Creed II PC customers to stay online while they’re playing (despite it being a single-player game) and will actually kick you out of the game if your connection drops for any reason. Talk about breaking the fourth wall – I wasn’t a big fan of leaving twelfth century Jerusalem for the world outside the Animus in the first place, but I’d rather be there than get punished for Internet death and hang around in limbo while I wait to reconnect.
So the pirates will become more prolific because of DRM, the publishing execs will continue to implement increasingly draconian measures because of it, everyone will blame eachother and this vicious circle is threatening to spiral out of control. Someone’s going to have to sidestep soon or big-budget PC gaming is heading for a crash.
DRM: Something’s gotta give
Where do you draw the line on DRM? What Valve did with Half-Life 2 is a widely accepted practise today, even though at the time online activation was met with an unprecedented community backlash. Proper notification
in the system requirements box would have softened the blow for many, especially those that lugged PCs to work or school. But in hindsight this concept proved instrumental in introducing PC gamers to the juggernaut of digitial distribution that is Steam, which is the one positive thing I can take away from that whole debacle.
We’ve been weaned onto DRM in recent years and personally, I can accept limited activations as a part of my PC purchase. Does it bother me that my copy of Bioshock 2 can only be installed 15 times before I have to phone customer services for reactivation? Don’t be so soft. That barely counts, especially in the light of Ubisoft’s all-new, singing and goose-stepping, über-führer DRM, which forces Assassin’s Creed II PC customers to stay online while they’re playing (despite it being a single-player game) and will actually kick you out of the game if your connection drops for any reason. Talk about breaking the fourth wall – I wasn’t a big fan of leaving twelfth century Jerusalem for the world outside the Animus in the first place, but I’d rather be there than get punished for Internet death and hang around in limbo while I wait to reconnect.
So the pirates will become more prolific because of DRM, the publishing execs will continue to implement increasingly draconian measures because of it, everyone will blame eachother and this vicious circle is threatening to spiral out of control. Someone’s going to have to sidestep soon or big-budget PC gaming is heading for a crash.
More Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 content in 2011
It seems that Bio Ware fans can rejoice, as they can look forward to even more content for their favourite RPG’s next year. As part of their annual earnings report EA have announced that Dragon: Age Origins will be getting yet another big PC expansion at the beginning of 2011. The game is currently only imaginatively titled “Dragon Age Title TBA” but it’s definitively on the EA PC release schedule for January-March period of 2011.
But the more recently released Mass Effect 2 won’t be left out in the cold. According to a report by Gamespot EA executives also talked about delivering “something far-reaching for Mass Effect (2),” in the same three month time period in 2011 during a post earnings report conference call.
All in all it sounds like EA have some serious long term plans for both Bio Ware’s RPG’s – hardly surprising when you look at the success of both brands. Mass Effect 2 is currently dominating the games charts following it’s release on the 29th of January.
Closer to the present Dragon Age: Origins will be getting its first major expansion, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, on March 16th
More Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 content in 2011
It seems that Bio Ware fans can rejoice, as they can look forward to even more content for their favourite RPG’s next year. As part of their annual earnings report EA have announced that Dragon: Age Origins will be getting yet another big PC expansion at the beginning of 2011. The game is currently only imaginatively titled “Dragon Age Title TBA” but it’s definitively on the EA PC release schedule for January-March period of 2011.
But the more recently released Mass Effect 2 won’t be left out in the cold. According to a report by Gamespot EA executives also talked about delivering “something far-reaching for Mass Effect (2),” in the same three month time period in 2011 during a post earnings report conference call.
All in all it sounds like EA have some serious long term plans for both Bio Ware’s RPG’s – hardly surprising when you look at the success of both brands. Mass Effect 2 is currently dominating the games charts following it’s release on the 29th of January.
Closer to the present Dragon Age: Origins will be getting its first major expansion, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, on March 16th
More Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 content in 2011
It seems that Bio Ware fans can rejoice, as they can look forward to even more content for their favourite RPG’s next year. As part of their annual earnings report EA have announced that Dragon: Age Origins will be getting yet another big PC expansion at the beginning of 2011. The game is currently only imaginatively titled “Dragon Age Title TBA” but it’s definitively on the EA PC release schedule for January-March period of 2011.
But the more recently released Mass Effect 2 won’t be left out in the cold. According to a report by Gamespot EA executives also talked about delivering “something far-reaching for Mass Effect (2),” in the same three month time period in 2011 during a post earnings report conference call.
All in all it sounds like EA have some serious long term plans for both Bio Ware’s RPG’s – hardly surprising when you look at the success of both brands. Mass Effect 2 is currently dominating the games charts following it’s release on the 29th of January.
Closer to the present Dragon Age: Origins will be getting its first major expansion, Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, on March 16th
Report to the Bridge- Star Trek Online calls out fans
As part of the campaign efforts for Star Trek Online (you can read our current thoughts on the game here), Star Trek fans are being invited to be part of an attempt to beat the world record for the ‘largest gathering of people dressed as Star Trek characters’ on February 14th at 1.00pm on London’s Millenium Bridge.
Star Trek fans can dress as anything Star Trek related and representatives from the Guinness Book of records will be on hand to adjudicate. (So no comedy Jedi please!) The best dressed fans on the day will win exclusive Star Trek Online prizes including lifetime subscriptions worth over £150 and copies of the recently released digital version of the Star Trek movie.
“This should be an absolutely fantastic fun filled day and definitely one all fans of Star Trek should get involved in,” said Lee Kirton, Head of UK PR for Namco Bandai Partners, the distributors of Star Trek Online who are organising the day. “This is the chance to become part of history with a ‘World Record’ for the largest group of dressed up Star Trek characters in one place. Namco Bandai will also have a bunch of fantastic prizes up for grabs on the day for the best dressed ‘Trekkers, and some prizes for just being part of the day should make it a trip worthwhile!”
And it’s on Valantines day, so what better day to declare your love for all things Trek?
Star Trek Online officially launches on February 5th, but the ‘Head Start’ (allowing early access for players who pre-ordered) kicked off last Saturday. Due to large numbers of players, there were some issues of overcrowding and queues to get into the game over the weekend. The STO team at Cryptic are promising increased server capacity for the new MMO this week.
For more information regarding the record attempt, you can visit www.namcobandaigames.eu and www.startrekonline.com
Report to the Bridge- Star Trek Online calls out fans
As part of the campaign efforts for Star Trek Online (you can read our current thoughts on the game here), Star Trek fans are being invited to be part of an attempt to beat the world record for the ‘largest gathering of people dressed as Star Trek characters’ on February 14th at 1.00pm on London’s Millenium Bridge.
Star Trek fans can dress as anything Star Trek related and representatives from the Guinness Book of records will be on hand to adjudicate. (So no comedy Jedi please!) The best dressed fans on the day will win exclusive Star Trek Online prizes including lifetime subscriptions worth over £150 and copies of the recently released digital version of the Star Trek movie.
“This should be an absolutely fantastic fun filled day and definitely one all fans of Star Trek should get involved in,” said Lee Kirton, Head of UK PR for Namco Bandai Partners, the distributors of Star Trek Online who are organising the day. “This is the chance to become part of history with a ‘World Record’ for the largest group of dressed up Star Trek characters in one place. Namco Bandai will also have a bunch of fantastic prizes up for grabs on the day for the best dressed ‘Trekkers, and some prizes for just being part of the day should make it a trip worthwhile!”
And it’s on Valantines day, so what better day to declare your love for all things Trek?
Star Trek Online officially launches on February 5th, but the ‘Head Start’ (allowing early access for players who pre-ordered) kicked off last Saturday. Due to large numbers of players, there were some issues of overcrowding and queues to get into the game over the weekend. The STO team at Cryptic are promising increased server capacity for the new MMO this week.
For more information regarding the record attempt, you can visit www.namcobandaigames.eu and www.startrekonline.com
Report to the Bridge- Star Trek Online calls out fans
As part of the campaign efforts for Star Trek Online (you can read our current thoughts on the game here), Star Trek fans are being invited to be part of an attempt to beat the world record for the ‘largest gathering of people dressed as Star Trek characters’ on February 14th at 1.00pm on London’s Millenium Bridge.
Star Trek fans can dress as anything Star Trek related and representatives from the Guinness Book of records will be on hand to adjudicate. (So no comedy Jedi please!) The best dressed fans on the day will win exclusive Star Trek Online prizes including lifetime subscriptions worth over £150 and copies of the recently released digital version of the Star Trek movie.
“This should be an absolutely fantastic fun filled day and definitely one all fans of Star Trek should get involved in,” said Lee Kirton, Head of UK PR for Namco Bandai Partners, the distributors of Star Trek Online who are organising the day. “This is the chance to become part of history with a ‘World Record’ for the largest group of dressed up Star Trek characters in one place. Namco Bandai will also have a bunch of fantastic prizes up for grabs on the day for the best dressed ‘Trekkers, and some prizes for just being part of the day should make it a trip worthwhile!”
And it’s on Valantines day, so what better day to declare your love for all things Trek?
Star Trek Online officially launches on February 5th, but the ‘Head Start’ (allowing early access for players who pre-ordered) kicked off last Saturday. Due to large numbers of players, there were some issues of overcrowding and queues to get into the game over the weekend. The STO team at Cryptic are promising increased server capacity for the new MMO this week.
For more information regarding the record attempt, you can visit www.namcobandaigames.eu and www.startrekonline.com
Steam User Accounts hit 25 Million
We’ve known for some time now that Steam is growing in importance as a means of delivering PC games content, and the latest Steam figures for 2009 seem to bear that out.
Valve announced that over 25 million people have Steam accounts, with 10 million of those users also having Steam Community profiles. Overall the service saw a 25 per cent rise in users from the previous year, and the figures for concurrent users are equally impressive-peaking at 2.5 million. Average monthly player minutes now stand at more than 13 billion. Game sales on the platform saw an even bigger rise last year with a whooping 205 per cent increase, the fifth year running that Steam has seen 100% year by year sales growth.
Steam currently offers over 1,000 games from over 100 developers and publishers around the world, and some of last years biggest hits like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Dawn of War II, and Empire: Total War were all released on the service, with Empire handling all it’s DLC on Steam. Increasing numbers of publishers and developers seem attracted to the features of the service, particularly with regards to anti-piracy. Few would argue the burgeoning importance of the service on the PC landscape and Valve has big plans for the future.
“With the introduction of each new platform feature released over the years — such as the Steam Community, Steam Cloud, and Steamworks — we’ve seen corresponding growth in account numbers, concurrent player numbers and developer support for the platform,” said Gabe Newell, president of Valve.” As such, we plan to continue to expand and grow the platform to better serve the developers supporting the open platform and millions of gamers logging in each day.”
