Ubisoft's copy protection cop-out causes anger

Opinion: Why adding value will always add sales.

An announcement from Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot has caused a collective sigh of despair from the joystick-joggling community. The Large Fromage of the French gaming house announced during a recent financial conference (whoa, fifty per cent down on profits? Ouch) call that his boffins were working on yet another fiendish tool to prevent the unwashed masses from stealing the company's software.

Guillemot would not be pressed further on the nature of the the new tool, but it is safe to say that it will not make the playing experience more pleasurable, and is certain to be met with howls of derision by the bedroom-dwelling denizens of Gamerworld.

But there is one solid fact about the battle against software piracy, much like the fight against drugs, or the war on terror, or the skirmish against people dropping their chewing gum on the pavement. It can never be won.
No matter how smart your DRM people are, no matter how much money you throw at the problem and no matter how many layers of protection you add... there is an army of people out there working in basements and bedrooms and bunkers, fueled by Red Bull and pizza, just waiting for you to announce that you have released an uncrackable game.

And with a network of underground undesirables assisting each other in some kind of freaky hive-mind cooperation, most games are cracked within days, if not hours. The biggest irony is that the people who do the hardcore cracking are almost certainly not the kind of people who would even think of wasting their time doing anything as mundane as playing games for hours on end. For them it's not about getting free stuff. It's about sticking it to The Man.

So what should Monsieur Guillemot do to stop the P2P crowd from dipping its sticky fingers into his pension fund? There is no simple answer. But there are a number of new models which reward honest software purchasers rather than punishing them with irritating, nagging, overbearing DRM schemes.

Adding value to retail boxed products seems to be having a positive effect on sales, according to Nintendo. Adding limited edition figurines, for example, means that gamers are more likely to stump up cash for a game rather than stealing it.

Exclusive online content - whether it be in the form of multiplayer gaming modes or downloadable content like additional levels, items or weapons - can also boost sales of genuine software.

Titles like the online-only RPG World of Warcraft, by far the most popular title in the history of gaming, have proved that content is king. Developer Blizzard offers free trials of the massive communal online experience, sells the initial software package at a knockdown price, then charges a hefty monthly subscription once users are hooked.
But the key here is that the online experience is constantly updated. New areas to explore, items and quests are regularly introduced in free point releases, which keeps the punters happy. And major new upgrades are sold as paid-for packages which keeps the cash registers ringing, and the shareholders happy.