Widescreen Gaming Forum

[quote][quote]I said cut down, not eliminate. There will always be piracy, the key is to make it more complicated, more risky and have less features.

Encrypted USB key dongles. Plug in and game!

(Like some of the ultra-high-end CAD/image programs that need a hardware dongle...)

(Seriously, I'd favour a hardware dongle solution over almost any other method of DRM...)
at the end of the day those get pirated too since the software will at some point "call for protection verification"
what's more, historically, dongle based software gets pirated

plus the dongle being hardware can fail ...

Yeah, You could probably dump the USBKey and emulate it as well.

USB dongles. Yeah, once at work I was replacing a printer, going from local to a network printer. Found some kind of weird 'adapter' between the printer port and the cable. Thinking I wouldn't be needing that I removed it. When all was done, the software had stopped working, d'oh! Thankfully I noticed a name I remembered was written on that 'adapter' thingy. Yep, so much for my first experience with hardware DRM :roll:


Anyway, what I'm wondering, why aren't games and other software simply released on USB sticks these days? Wouldn't it be rather efficient? Why are we still messing around with those huge and ridiculously fragile CD type media?
Furthermore, why isn't Windows/Linux/MacOS/Etc. available on PCIe x1 / x4 cards, running straight from the card instead of clogging up harddisk space and memory?
Must be a marketing agreement thing I guess.

dongles

I sort of expect Blu-Ray to get usurped by this and direct downloads before it ever reaches the height of DVD popularity. Why would someone bother with an optical disc when they can just plug in a stick that is faster, more durable, and will eventually have a larger storage capacity?

why aren't games and other software simply released on USB sticks these days?

The capacity is not to the point where it is cost effective for a publisher.

- Special/Collector's Edition exclusive game content unavailable elsewhere.

I hereby amend this with preorder-exclusive content.

- Special/Collector's Edition exclusive game content unavailable elsewhere.

I hereby amend this with preorder-exclusive content.

Yup. I pre-ordered Dragon Age and got two bits of exclusive DLC from Play.com...