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Comment by Adverblessly | Hacker News Reader

> The other perennial question, of course, is piracy.

What research have you done to show that it is an actual concern?

The one I always come back to is covered here in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15319476 where the data shows that video game piracy actually generates more sales than it costs.

Or is it not based on actual data, just a requirement you've seen from the developers or publishers?

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It is both a requirement from the devs/publishers, but also for ourselves. Without DRM, someone could make a free trial, pirate all our games, cancel their sub and play them out without paying. That's a pretty interesting article though, I guess it shows the power of word of mouth negating piracy? As even those who pirate it will talk to their friends about games they are currently playing.

So make them pay up front? Or limit the free trial to a selection of games? Or limit the games to demos of existing games? There are so many options here to limit your exposure.

Those are all valid points, but I think the trade off might not favor them. Although piracy mighttt in some situations help games, I don't see how it could help us. No free trial would mean we miss out on users too. Plus, from what we've been talking with devs, they don't seem to like the idea of being DRM-free.

I’m just an anecdote and probably only represent a small population, but the DRM makes it an instant pass for me. This kind of thing is up my alley, too — I was an O.G. subscriber to Humble Monthly.

Most of my gaming these days is done on Linux with Steam + Proton and, unless y’all plan to support Proton (or some other variation of Wine) I don’t hold high confidence that this will work. Even if it does I’m on my own, trying to run a slightly different version of the game from everybody else.

(I guess this is relevant in the wider market — your games won’t be playable on Steam Deck.)

But you’re playing games on steam which has its own drm!

Haha, reminds me of when people exploded over the Xbone's phone-home DRM and rushed to Steam over it, not realizing that Steam always had much more draconian DRM from the start

DRM is optional on Steam. There are no convenient installers, but the actual DRM is opt-in from the dev/publisher side.

I’m not worried about DRM exactly, I’m worried about being able to play the games on Linux. I don’t love DRM but I’m pragmatic about it.

The problem is specifically this DRM. Bespoke DRM that injects assembly seems like another layer of stuff that will break Proton and, when it does, there will be no one to support it.

> Without DRM, someone could make a free trial, pirate all our games, cancel their sub and play them out without paying.

Some people will do this, sure. But just because they can doesn't mean they will.

I could torrent Netflix's entire catalogue today. Yet I have a subscription to them and they're still a multi-billion dollar company with millions of paying subscribers. Hmm... that's odd isn't it?

These people are not your target demographic. $8/mo is too expensive for 95% of VN/CN/IN/ID/MY/RU/$I_COULD_GO_ON gamers.

I'm not saying "don't do DRM", but your argument does not stand up to scrutiny.

I wish you the best of luck with the project!

People can always pay for stuff, download it and then refund it, or even request chargeback on the credit card, and then still be able to play for free.

Any sort of DRM protection doesn't really stop piracy, if someone really wants to pirate a digital product, there are always way to do it, unless the product is entire server-dependent.

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