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05.02.2007

Last week a good game ended because it didn’t make out. Sounds absurd, doesn’t it? We think that good games sell quickly and live for years… This statement used to be true. Some of the biggest IT scandals of the last couple of years had to do with copy protection. Different countries, different issues but the result was the same: copy protection was announced guilty on all accusations.

Some people call for the death of DRM in all shapes and forms. Some do not even try to disguise their intentions. Game fans agree – free of charge sounds much better than $49. There was one thing they forgot to factor in. There is a price for everything. And the price for free games seems to be too high for everybody.

The new weird smell around copy protection made many publishers cautious. Some decided to improve compatibility by reducing resistance to hacking and emulation. Others refused copy protection all together. Both methods seemed rather questionable. Obviously the result was the same for everyone. Sales dropped and publishers lost $ millions of revenue.

Meanwhile gamers quickly changed their shopping habits and exchanged store shelves and e-shops for torrent systems. The torrents had a major advantage, they got rid of the price tag!

New games appeared on regular basis. Gamers were happy and publishers were amazed at the number of registered licenses. But the revenues were as low as never. Such was the situation in the second quarter of 2006 and it had very little to do with normal business practices.

The wave came in the first quarter of 2007. Eastside Hockey Manager became the first victim. SI Managing Director Miles Jacobson announced that the game would not continue.

This is a sad story for everybody from any angle. The fans will not see a new release and the developers’ team will be scattered. Something good that used to make a lot of people happy and employed was destroyed.

How can something be as popular as Eastside Hockey Manager and not sell at the same time? The project died because the copy protection was compromised. Sad but true, we will never see Eastside Hockey Manager 2. And now is a time to stop and double check those conclusions that were made last year. Imagine today’s gaming industry without sequels?

Therefore the question remains: if we decide against copy protection, then who will pay for the new games - salaries, promotion and all the expenditures that come together with the process of development?

Do you still think that copy protection must die? Think about your future without games…

Useful Articles

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About StarForce Technologies

StarForce Technologies (www.star-force.com) is a leading vendor of information protection, copy protection and code obfuscation solutions for software, electronic content and audio/video files. Since 2000, StarForce has been successfully developing and implementing its state-of-the-art security solutions, providing copyright and intellectual property protection worldwide. Two of these solutions were transformed into StarForce cloud services: sfcontent.com protects e-Documents against illegal copying and distribution and sfletter.com secures emails.

StarForce is a reliable and responsible Technological Partner for enterprises potentially incurring losses due to cyber-gangs, hackers, software piracy, unauthorized data access and information leaks. StarForce’s customers are Russian Railways, Corel, 1C, Mail.ru, Aeroflot, SUN InBev Russia, AMD Labs, ATC International, MediaHouse, Russobit M, New Disc, Buka, Snowball, 2Play, GFI, CENEGA, Akella, etc.

Press contacts:
pr@star-force.com

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