Dev Decision DRM Free or to Steam

[auStrategyGamer]

As a developer I'm getting pull around by the CRM free craze that's happening. On one hand I love to provide hassle free games but on the other, I dont want to get my games pirated and end up broke and on the street.

I'm thinking of releasing our new game DRM Free as a Kickstarter pre-sell promo. what are your thoughts as to if this is a good idea??

thanks and I look forward to seeing what you all say

 

[KaOTiK]

Why not offer both? Plenty of indie devs offer their game when you buy it from them as DRM free download and also give you a Steam key so you can use that if you want it on Steam as well.

 

[lilrayray69]

I don't know of any game that DRM prevented from being pirated.

 

[auStrategyGamer]

yes I thought of both.. good points guys

 

[auStrategyGamer]

Would you buy DRM free over Steam though?

 

[BrightCandle]

Steam is DRM. There is no non DRM version on steam.

Offering both a DRM free version and steam will give you both the market penetration for those that don't care about DRM and the DRM free version for those that don't want DRM.

If you were only going to do one, I would take the no DRM version every time.

 

[auStrategyGamer]

If you were only going to do one, I would take the no DRM version every time.

this is what im looking for - thanks!

 

[KaOTiK]

I'm the opposite. I have so many games that I don't bother with a game 99% of the time if it isn't on Steam. I do use Origin/Good Old Games as well when I have too but they also at least centralize the games. The only games I don't have on one of those accounts is MMO's simply because. I simply can not keep track of the amount of games I have without using something that gathers them all up and never having to worry about what site I bought the game at.

Basically, if there isn't a Steam version offered (and it isn't a GOG game) then the odds are I am probably not going to bother with the game at all. If they do offer a Steam version, I will buy it from the devs website so they get a bigger cut but I will just copy and paste the Steam key and activate it on my account.

 

[natto fire]

Another vote for both. I pretty much use Steam exclusively myself, but have also bought from gog. If the hassle to launch through many channels is not too much I would focus on the two major distributors in the DRM and non-DRM world. Not sure what the major non-DRM one is, as I have never had access problems with any of my Steam games and never seeked alternatives.

 

[zerogear]

For me, GOG provides DRM free games, and if GOG had the same exact catalog as Steam, I would buy from GOG every. single. time.

 

[cmdrdredd]

steam is better for me because it offers a central location where I can launch all my games. It also keeps the game updated for me so I don't have to keep checking for the latest patch.

 

[DigDog]

ah this issue.

i cant tell you everything, but i can say what i know.

piracy is .. total. you cannot hope your game will not be pirated any more than you can hope to find a gold brick in a mcnuggets.

tbh im not totally against this, there's some ethics issues, but they are beyond the point.

if you feel that you have at hand a product (a game) which will be a market buster, by all means do invest in it; games like minecraft that have implicitly favoured piracy have made the largest amount of sales by being something so good, people *want* to pay for it, it makes them feel good to sponsor the game makers.

if on the other hand you just want a share of the pie.. well, let's just say there's a reason why pirates are so popular.

GOG made their market in another way, by providing games that are good, and that the "scene" will not bother cracking, or that were cracked a long time ago but now do not work on modern machines, and by modifying them for easy compatibility.
Unfortunately, GOG games are pirated quite heavily. The reason they make any money is that again, nostalgic, older gamers are consciously deciding to support them.

However - and i am saying this as someone who has been on both sides of the fence - don't make the game DRM free. It doesnt have to be draconic, but like they say, every little helps. Every sale matters, and the guilt factor matters as well.
There's a thought process when taking a pirated game, which can work *for* you, not just against you. Don't trivialize it by making the game something which looks and feels "completely free".

Another thing which will entice people to pay is providing something which happens *after* the game. online features, leaderboards, unique UserID and forum support, communities, will make it more appealing to the user.

F2P models are the future dont forget it. The one i play (BLR) has many people in it who have spent far more than the cost of a class-A title at launch on it, just for cosmetic content, such as character camos and taunts, because they want to SHOW the COMMUNITY that they BELONG and CARE.

If your game doesn't create the four aforementioned keywwords.. don't bother looking for a publisher.

 

[Stringjam]

Get your game on STEAM. The exposure of just being on there is huge.

 

[sandorski]

Viewing Steam exclusively as DRM is ridiculous. It is first and foremost a Retail Distribution network. Secondly, it is an Auto-Updating system. Thirdly it offers many other features, like Friends lists along with a DRM system.

Personally, whenever I want a game, I go to Steam first to see if I can get it there. If I can't, I go to a BM and buy it there if available. I suppose if I had to, I would purchase from GOG or Origin, but so far I haven't.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It's already been said, but to agree:

You'll get more sales going with Steam, but there is no reason why you can't offer the game on both Steam and DRM-free sites like gog.com.

I'm more likely to buy a game on Steam than anywhere else, unless it's something that I specifically want to be able to play without having an internet connection, like on a laptop while travelling. Then I'll buy from GoG.

 

[cmdrdredd]

ah this issue.

i cant tell you everything, but i can say what i know.

piracy is .. total. you cannot hope your game will not be pirated any more than you can hope to find a gold brick in a mcnuggets.

tbh im not totally against this, there's some ethics issues, but they are beyond the point.

if you feel that you have at hand a product (a game) which will be a market buster, by all means do invest in it; games like minecraft that have implicitly favoured piracy have made the largest amount of sales by being something so good, people *want* to pay for it, it makes them feel good to sponsor the game makers.

if on the other hand you just want a share of the pie.. well, let's just say there's a reason why pirates are so popular.

GOG made their market in another way, by providing games that are good, and that the "scene" will not bother cracking, or that were cracked a long time ago but now do not work on modern machines, and by modifying them for easy compatibility.
Unfortunately, GOG games are pirated quite heavily. The reason they make any money is that again, nostalgic, older gamers are consciously deciding to support them.

However - and i am saying this as someone who has been on both sides of the fence - don't make the game DRM free. It doesnt have to be draconic, but like they say, every little helps. Every sale matters, and the guilt factor matters as well.
There's a thought process when taking a pirated game, which can work *for* you, not just against you. Don't trivialize it by making the game something which looks and feels "completely free".

Another thing which will entice people to pay is providing something which happens *after* the game. online features, leaderboards, unique UserID and forum support, communities, will make it more appealing to the user.

F2P models are the future dont forget it. The one i play (BLR) has many people in it who have spent far more than the cost of a class-A title at launch on it, just for cosmetic content, such as character camos and taunts, because they want to SHOW the COMMUNITY that they BELONG and CARE.

If your game doesn't create the four aforementioned keywwords.. don't bother looking for a publisher.

I do not agree with the bolded part. F2P might sound enticing and some people end up making money from a few people who buy trivial stuff. This idea of getting the base game free and making add on content the paid for stuff is a slippery slope. If we accept this now, it will only get worse as you begin to get developers finding things to strip out of the game to sell later. Especially when it will inevitably begin to be content that is integral to the game like the next chapter, or items that you either spend a million hours farming or you buy it for a couple bux. Then we have the Pay to Win model which there is no doubt what Free to Play will become if we allow developers to shove it down. There is a reason companies like EA want this. I have defended some of EA's games but as a business they are dangerous to the industry. They want to monetize everything. It won't be long until you get a game for free but only have a chapter or two of the story or only a couple of bad maps for an MP game and to get the rest of the story or the good maps you need to buy packs. You'd end up paying several hundreds of dollars for what used to be $60 all together.

Don't let it happen and by supporting F2P all the way this is what we will get in the end.

 

[energee]

Steam is DRM. There is no non DRM version on steam.

Offering both a DRM free version and steam will give you both the market penetration for those that don't care about DRM and the DRM free version for those that don't want DRM.

If you were only going to do one, I would take the no DRM version every time.

What he said.

 

[ThinClient]

As a developer I'm getting pull around by the CRM free craze that's happening. On one hand I love to provide hassle free games but on the other, I dont want to get my games pirated and end up broke and on the street.

I'm thinking of releasing our new game DRM Free as a Kickstarter pre-sell promo. what are your thoughts as to if this is a good idea??

thanks and I look forward to seeing what you all say

Your games will be pirated. Period. Deal with it. Don't fuck your legitimate, paying customers just to spite those who are going to pirate your games anyway.

DRM never works.

It isn't possible to stop someone from reverse engineering your shit to remove the DRM anyway.

 

[futurefields]

I say this -

If your game is meant to mostly be played ONLINE, then sell it through Steam.

If the game is meant to be played mostly OFFLINE, then sell it through your own system so people can play it offline.

The thing with Steam is sometimes Offline mode does not work. Sometimes you need an active internet connection just to get onto Steam.




So, For example, take a game like Torchlight II. With its much hyped up OFFLINE mode, but you have to play the game through STEAM, which requires an internet connection *face palm*

If any game needs its own client, its Torchlight, because of the Offline mode.

Kind of backward thinking on the part of the Torchlight devs there. "Heres our offline game, but you gotta play it on Steam!"

 

[ThinClient]

Steam has an offline mode. You need to connect once every two weeks or something to re-verify your credentials, but you can play offline all you want.

 

[lamedude]

DRM isn't required for Steam.

 

[Craig234]

this is what im looking for - thanks!

He SAYS that he'd take the non-DRM version over steam, and if they were side by side, I'm sure he would.

But what's much more likely to happen is that he'd only get the game by seeing it on Steam, and never see it DRM-free on your site.

There's a reason indies sell games on Steam for a fraction of the price.

 

[BrightCandle]

But what's much more likely to happen is that he'd only get the game by seeing it on Steam, and never see it DRM-free on your site.

On the contrary I will look everywhere else before I go to Steam. I have always favoured the less well known digital retailers, I'll even take a physical product if I can get it since it affords me better rights. Its got to be cheaper for me to accept DRM, because its an anti feature that has a cost.

 

[Genx87]

I only buy games if they on steam or have a native updating client like World of Tanks\Warthunder.

I suggest having a basic form of DRM to dissuade casual pirates. You cant stop the hardcore pirates. And the hardcore wouldn't buy your game anyways.

 

[ThinClient]

I only buy games if they on steam or have a native updating client like World of Tanks\Warthunder.

I suggest having a basic form of DRM to dissuade casual pirates. You cant stop the hardcore pirates. And the hardcore wouldn't buy your game anyways.

The hardcore pirates will rip it apart, remove the DRM, and host it to be taken by the casual pirates.

DRM is a complete failure.