What is Rime And How Did DRM Become A Concern?
Rime is a recently released indie adventure game developed by Tequila Works which focuses on immersive environments and story told through sight and sound. The PC version of this game used a DRM solution that is supplied from Denuvo to protect it against piracy.
Tequila Works took notice of the gaming communities concerns about the viability of Denuvo as a DRM solution, given that some well-known Denuvo protected games were hacked within months of being launched, such as Just Cause and Hitman. The Gaming community has mixed opinions of the viability of DRM as a smart direction for PC games, with a history of Denuvo protected games being cracked anyway and it causing performance issues.
What Exactly Is DRM And What Does The Games Industry Think Of It?
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, which essentially involves providing a solution that gets around game piracy. There have been a number of approaches to this problem over the past several years ranging from limited install activations like are offered through SecuROM for use with Mass Effect. Persistent Online Authentication is another option used by such publishers as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft and Valve.
Ubisoft have since gone on to admit that they cannot stop piracy, coming to realise that every lock that they have tried to build for the game has just brought another hacker out of the woodwork who would crack the lock. CD Projekt Red, developers of the hugely popular “The Witcher” take a completely opposing approach by not using any DRM solution at all and even stating that they feel DRM is just not a viable solution to software piracy. The gaming community raise a good point in saying that DRM motivates hackers to crack games as these solutions are seen as challenges.
What Response Was Given To These Concerns By Tequila Works?
Responding to the gaming communities concerns Tequila Works said in a post on Steam “Rime is a very personal experience told through both sight and sound,” and that “when a game is cracked, it runs the risk of creating issues with both of these items, and we want to do everything we can to preserve this quality in Rime.” The importance of these two parts of the game can be seen by the level of immersion in the game, which is achieved by use of both sight and sound.
Tequila Works have communicated that they understand that there is never any 100% guarantee of success when it comes to Digital Rights Management solutions to this problem, and as such, have decided that if at any point in Rime’s future the game gets cracked, the studio will then release a DRM free version of the game and that they would update all existing platforms. This seems to be the general direction of a majority of developers and publishers in recent times among the game industry.
You may also be interested in:
