The whole issue of DRM is rooted in backwards thinking and an intense desire to preserve a world that is already long gone. It is like trying to build a wall to protect your city from air strikes and ballistic missiles. The solution to the problem is not to keep building a taller and taller wall--eventually, you will reach the limit of what is architecturally possible, and it will still not be enough, and long before then you will have blocked out the sun or crushed your city under megatons of rock. Planes can always fly higher, and pirates can always be sneakier and more tenacious. The solution is to change the situation so that you don't have to defend yourself anymore. The solution is to make it pointless to attack you in the first place.
The problem that game companies are now facing is the same problem that the music industry faced not that long ago, and I believe it is the same problem that the car companies and probably lots of other industries are grappling with, even though they don't realize it. The solution to this problem is very counter-intuitive, and I can't imagine anyone would have the guts to risk their millions of dollars trying it. But here it is:
The problem is that companies still think that product sales are how they make money.
Look at how something like Steam works. It is a program, sure, but its value comes from convenience and service. Even if every single game offered on it is pirated and given out for free, people will still use Steam because it is convenient in a way that pirates cannot duplicate, unless they band together and form a competing company--and even that would be great, because the competition would result in even better services for the customers. Valve can still make great games, but the games are just an attraction. They don't have to charge tons of money for them. They don't even have to make them, if they don't want, because there are thousands of people willing to do that for them. They can make their money by providing access to them in a highly convenient format.
Therefore, the solution is to stop trying to stop pirates. Stop putting crud in your product that pirates can remove to make their version better. Don't try to make a better game than the pirates--make the exact same game. And then provide superior access to it. People muck about with torrents and all that because it is easier, or at least no less difficult, than bothering with online registration and all that. But a game company could, if they wanted, make a superior way of accessing these games. They could make it way easier than screwing with torrents or dealing with shady and anonymous ripoff artists. They could offer a simple, quick, and guaranteed SAFE version of the product, and make their money charging modest amounts for that service. The less they charge, the more people they're likely to get, and therefore the more money they're likely to make!
Valve understands this, and I think they will do fine. But the big companies who still cling to the past will soon become as antiquated and ineffectual as the record companies and bands who still think that the best way to make money off of music is to sell whole CDs for $15.99 at FYE.
