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Capcom on PSN DRM: "It neither helped nor hindered us"

snap0212

Member
Eurogamer said:
Whether Capcom will continue to use DRM on PSN games hasn't been decided, Christian Svensson informed Eurogamer.

The PSN DRM requires a constant internet connection in order to play a game. Final Fight: Double Impact and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 both opted for the anti-game-sharing protection. But Street Fighter 3: Third Strike was DRM-free.

"Sony has a form of network DRM that we have chosen to use on a couple of titles, really as much as an experiment as anything else, to see what the impact was," Capcom's US vice president Christian Svensson told Eurogamer.

"Inconclusive, frankly," he said of the results. "As far as we can tell, it neither helped nor hindered us.

"We continue to look at it on a case by case basis."

That's that solved, then.

Source: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-30-capcom-undecided-about-psn-drm
It hasn't helped us and is bad for people who buy the game so we may continue to use it. Not a fan...
 

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
It's ludicrous. I actually bought Rearmed 2 without knowing that it had this DRM. Annoying people who are interested in the game isn't going to help Capcom, but I wonder why Sony had this DRM in the first place. They're the ones (Tretton specifically) that said game sharing is cool.
 
I'm reminded of Inafune saying Capcom is run by suits with no understanding at all of video games.

Crewnh said:
EVERYONE HATES IT, WHY WOULD YOU EVEN STILL CONSIDER IT.

Argh.

Shareholders tend to like it. "They're stealing our product. Why aren't you doing something?" DRM is the company "doing something."

Unfortunately, that something is "alienating paying customers," since pirates don't have to deal with DRM.
 

Mileena

Banned
Meisadragon said:
It's ludicrous. I actually bought Rearmed 2 without knowing that it had this DRM. Annoying people who are interested in the game isn't going to help Capcom, but I wonder why Sony had this DRM in the first place. They're the ones (Tretton specifically) that said game sharing is cool.
what games other than Crapcom games have used the DRM?
 

qq more

Member
"As far as we can tell, it neither helped "

Wow, you don't say?

"nor hindered us."

Except ...There's possibly people who refuse to buy DRM'd games because of the fucking DRM in the first place. Even if it didn't hinder the game sales, it's still fucking stupid to even think those kind of DRMs are a good idea in the first place.


God damn it, Crapcum.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
But this is a "no duh". Everyone knew the evidence was going to be inconclusive. That's what made the "tests" so ridiculous to begin with.

The problem it was designed to solve was not a problem, so the tests were not going to be successful. On the other hand, the games they used it on were not particularly good or successful and the DRM was never adequately enough publicized for people to need to make a decision based on it before purchase, so it was never going to wildly backfire.

I mean, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 didn't sell anywhere near as well as the first one, but was that because it was a sequel to a game many finished, because it came out in a crowded time, because it was a pile of shit, because of the DRM, the higher price, less pre-release advertising, or other factors? And if it had sold as well, you'd have to ask yourself would it be a result of the overall growth in the userbase, growing awareness of DD, or the DRM. There was never a credible way for them to de-tangle the factors to analyze whether the DRM was a causal factor in less or more success for the games that used it.

I also think it's embarrassing that they're measuring success or failure strictly by number of sales, not by reception or brand equity. Remember when Capcom quoted a NeoGAF poster circa-2007 who said "When it comes to digital distribution, Capcom gets it where other publishers don't" (or something along those lines, forgive my loose paraphrasing). No one on earth thinks that anymore.
 

snap0212

Member
corkscrewblow said:
what games other than Crapcom games have used the DRM?
None. There were other games that had other kinds of DRM but none have use the one Capcom is using.
Stumpokapow said:
Remember when Capcom quoted a NeoGAF poster circa-2007 who said "When it comes to digital distribution, Capcom gets it where other publishers don't" (or something along those lines, forgive my loose paraphrasing). No one on earth thinks that anymore.
"Capcom are in my opinion, destined to become the leader this generation. This is simply because unlike other publishers, they seem to have really thought about using their suitable IP to make compelling content which ideally fits the concept of downloadable games. Street Fighter HD / Puzzle Fighter HD are early examples of this, but with rumours of Megaman and Bionic Commando getting HD remakes, along with other games like Rocketmen, I think Capcom are going to make a real early dent in the market before the end of 2007."

That was the quote. Here's the Thread about it and here's where it was posted.
 

Brobzoid

how do I slip unnoticed out of a gloryhole booth?
I would have bought Final Fight + Magic Sword off of nostalgia alone on release if not for this. VOTAN WITH MA DOLLAR
 
heh, it was a joy to play these games when PSN was down for a long period.

or when you sit down and want to play some final fight by yourself, boot the game up and get an error message because there is scheduled PSN maintenance.
 

snap0212

Member
Augemitbutter said:
heh, it was a joy to play these games when PSN was down for a long period.

or when you sit down and want to play some final fight by yourself, boot the game up and get an error message because there is scheduled PSN maintenance.
It's surprising to me that Capcom doesn't even acknowledged the problem after PSN was down for at least 76 days. During that time no one could play the game. One could argue that most people have a constant internet connection, which is true, but the fact that there's a possibility that you might not be able to play the game at all simply because someone else made a mistake is what's really sad.
 
I dunno man, I really don't dig Christian Svensson ...then again, I think Capcom's PR deparment is pretty poo-poo period.

Maybe they just don't get love from Capcom Japan? I don't know, but everything comes as being run with a huuuge disconnect.

Crewnh said:
EVERYONE HATES IT, WHY WOULD YOU EVEN STILL CONSIDER IT.

Argh.

Cause they don't give a shit.
 
PaulLFC said:
"... it hasn't helped..." - so why the possibility of continuing to use it then?

hence for me personally, i'm pretty damn jaded/fusterated.

Some of my all time favorite IPs are tied to this fucking company =(
 

qq more

Member
snap0212 said:
It's surprising to me that Capcom doesn't even acknowledged the problem after PSN was down for at least 76 days. During that time no one could play the game. One could argue that most people have a constant internet connection, which is true, but the fact that there's a possibility that you might not be able to play the game at all simply because someone else made a mistake is what's really sad.
Wow, I forgot about the PSN downtime. The fact Capcom is still thinking about adding more DRM to their PSN games is just downright stupid. What the hell is going on with that company lately????
 
They would of caught hell if it was on 3SO, it's against the nature of the audience that made the game. I still don't quite understand the purpose of that DRM for those two games in particular. Is pirating widespread on consoles anyway this gen?
I think some of SEGA's XBLA Genesis titles have some weird DRM also. I forget the specifics of it, but I think to play offline you have to download it fresh everytime you play it, even when you switch the console serial for the acct.
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
akilshohen said:
They would of caught hell if it was on 3SO, it's against the nature of the audience that made the game. I still don't quite understand the purpose of that DRM for those two games in particular. Is pirating widespread on consoles anyway this gen?
I think some of SEGA's XBLA Genesis titles have some weird DRM also. I forget the specifics of it, but I think to play offline you have to download it fresh everytime you play it, even when you switch the console serial for the acct.

This DRM was not intended to prevent piracy, edit: (as far as i know) /edit it was intended to prevent game sharing on PS3 and had the unintended side effect of screwing everyone over when PSN was down.
 
Stumpokapow said:
This DRM was not intended to prevent piracy, it was intended to prevent game sharing on PS3 and had the unintended side effect of screwing everyone over when PSN was down.

Doesn't Sony allow publishers to block game sharing without including this sort of DRM?
 

test_account

XP-39C²
SolidSnakex said:
Doesn't Sony allow publishers to block game sharing without including this sort of DRM?
I think so. I belive it was not possible to share i.e WipeOut HD, but it didnt require people to be online.
 

Rolf NB

Member
Night_Trekker said:
I'm reminded of Inafune saying Capcom is run by suits with no understanding at all of video games.



Shareholders tend to like it. "They're stealing our product. Why aren't you doing something?" DRM is the company "doing something."

Unfortunately, that something is "alienating paying customers," since pirates don't have to deal with DRM.
On PS3?
 

Brobzoid

how do I slip unnoticed out of a gloryhole booth?
akilshohen said:
They would of caught hell if it was on 3SO, it's against the nature of the audience that made the game. I still don't quite understand the purpose of that DRM for those two games in particular. Is pirating widespread on consoles anyway this gen?
I think some of SEGA's XBLA Genesis titles have some weird DRM also. I forget the specifics of it, but I think to play offline you have to download it fresh everytime you play it, even when you switch the console serial for the acct.
Didn't they say they were gonna put it in 3SO, but everyone nerd-raged so hard they didn't?
 

Coxy

Member
Stumpokapow said:
This DRM was not intended to prevent piracy, edit: (as far as i know) /edit it was intended to prevent game sharing on PS3 and had the unintended side effect of screwing everyone over when PSN was down.

that's even more of a dick move in my books
 

alstein

Member
Brobzoid said:
Didn't they say they were gonna put it in 3SO, but everyone nerd-raged so hard they didn't?

Yeah, I kinda remember that.

This is half the reason I am no longer buying Capcom games. The other half is the decline in game quality this year.
 
Meisadragon said:
It's ludicrous. I actually bought Rearmed 2 without knowing that it had this DRM. Annoying people who are interested in the game isn't going to help Capcom, but I wonder why Sony had this DRM in the first place. They're the ones (Tretton specifically) that said game sharing is cool.
They originally used it so you couldn't share retail/PSN games like Warhawk, SOCOM Confrontation and GT5 Prologue. The former 2 were online-only anyway, so the DRM didn't really matter that much. It was still kinda dumb but at least you had the retail versions to fall back on.

Anyway, go ahead and keep using it Capcom, you're only saving me money.
 
test_account said:
I think so. I belive it was not possible to share i.e WipeOut HD, but it didnt require people to be online.


no, you can gameshare WipEout.

This DRM is basically the option offered by Sony to disable gamesharing. But there are different mechanics, you can bind it to one account, you can have a 24h lock on it (many betas do this, I think it also requires PSN+pw of the account holder saved on PS3) and you can demand to be logged into PSN to start up.

Capcom bind it to one account AND require the online-check. Never made sense, no PSN check needed unless there are many people who play with the same account on multiple PS3s.

Though I don't like the one-account-only thing either, because I buy many games with my "fake" accounts. But I would just need to know this in advance to buy it with the right account, then it's just a bit annoying.
 

pelican

Member
Go fuck yourself Capcom.

Tell you what has hindered you this generation. Releasing a lot of shit and average games. And it looks like this Christmas' blinder called Operation Racoon City will quite happily continue that trend.
 
So they admitt is has no benefit to them at all, but they are still going to dick over the customer regardless? ...well it's certainley ballsy to admitt it I suppose O-o.
 
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