Games and DRM: Introversion's Thoughts

In case you didn't spot Introversion Software's Chris Delay kindly popping in on one of our stories to share his own feelings on copy protection and the retail versus online distribution dilemma, you should head over to Introversion's site and read the full version of his post. Detailed insight straight from the horse's mouth, taking a remarkably honest middleground between the Piracy Is Killing Games and DRM Is Killing Games camps, and offering up some potential solutions to the pirate problem:

Developers need to shift their view of piracy and digital distribution, as much with games as with film, music, tv, or any form of content. We can't complain that people copy our games, then go home and comfort ourselves by watching series 2 of the West Wing on DivX. Any stance that criminalises the majority of our customer base (10 out of every 11 Uplink players, for example) should be ringing alarm bells in our ears. We need to rename "pirate users" to "customers who've yet to be convinced", and consider the pirate copies that will INEVITABLY appear as extended demos of our games. Then we need to offer something more when they upgrade to the full legitimate game.

Again, read the rest here. Cheers for your thoughts, Chris.

And here's a picture of Darwinia (or rather its upcoming multiplayer semi-sequel Multiwinia - which has recently picked up the endearing tagline 'Survival of the flattest'), because frankly I never get tired of pictures of Darwinia: