Futuremark: PC games "need to be hassle free" in terms of DRM set-ups

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Futuremark: PC games "need to be hassle free" in terms of DRM set-ups

Posted Mar 11th 2010 8:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: FPS, Multiplayer

Ubisoft's new take on putting in an "always on" online connection as their DRM set-up for PC games hasn't really worked well in practice so far as attacks on their DRM servers in the past few have prevented many people from playing the games they have paid for. For Futuremark Games Studio, makers of the recent zero-g based shooter Shattered Horizon, having a set up that keeps players from their own games is not the way to go.

In a chat at Computer and Video Games, Futuremark's CEO Jukka Mäkinen states,"Whatever the DRM used, games need to be hassle free for those who have bought their copy the proper way. Taking good care of the customer is always better than chasing the thieves."

The full interview concentrates more about Shattered Horizon itself including plans to continue to support and add to the game with free downloadable content.

Gallery: Shattered Horizon

Tags: futuremark-games-studio, shattered-horizon-moonrise, ubisoft, ubisoft-drm

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Taking care of their customers huh...like alienating a majority of the gamerbase by making a certain game dx10 only.Posted at 2:16PM on Mar 11th 2010 by archiver

@archiver:

That's not alienating, that's just progress.Posted at 3:22PM on Mar 11th 2010 by Soatari

You aren't a Shattered Horizon customer unless you have a DX10 graphics card. Unless you bought the game without reading the huge warnings on the Steam page that clearly state it requires DX10. Posted at 3:56PM on Mar 11th 2010 by Redmist

If you bothered to look at the OS usage percentages for gamers you'd see there are still quite A LOT of XP users, around 40%; that's alienating a large portion of the userbase. There are a lot of games supporting both DX9 and DX10, heck even DX11 (which is real progress combined with true customer service). I see no reason for DX10 only games other than lazyness or some pressure from Microsoft as a marketing move to force people to buy Vista/Win7.Posted at 5:51PM on Mar 11th 2010 by archiver

Archiver, that is because you have no idea how Direct X works. See, DX 10 isn't backwards compat with 9, and 11 is a subset of 10.

Meaning anyone who has a DX10 card can play DX 11 games without the DX11 specific features.

I.E.

DX11 is to DX10 as DX9.0c is to DX 9.0.

So, In order to allow people with DX 9 rigs to play DX 10/11 games, they have to build the entirety of the game to function on the outdated tech of DX9. So any game that supports DX9 is really truely a DX 9 game, with DX10/11 eye candies mixed in, instead of being a truely next generation game, built upon the latest tech.

This is the reason there isn't any leaps and bounds made with DX10/11, even though they are clearly leaps and bounds to be made using it.

I.E.
Shattered Horizon. Yes, I bought it.

P.S.
O.S. has little to do with it, as DX 10 has been "cracked" to work on XP for years now.

Furthermore, I don't know anyone using Vista OR XP anymore, that's how sweet 7 is.

So yes, it's progress. Just Cause 2 is exclusively DX10/11 too, so understand, that if you are on XP using DX10 tech(vid card) you are holding yourself back.

Get with the times homeboy, it's people like you that are afraid of change that stifle innovation.Posted at 3:39AM on Mar 20th 2010 by Laokin