Email: Why I don't bother with DRM anymore

Hello Master Malstrom, I bet wrong with the Zune and lost a fair bit of my music due to a combination of it having a limited number of downloads, availability and unexpectedly yanked licensed music (like Weird Al’s music disappearing overnight, even tunes that I paid for but didn’t have downloaded).

 

I bet wrong with Capcom and Dark Void Zero. Bought the game directly from their store, it never activated. Technical support could not help me, we went over it for months before I gave up.

 

I once splurged a lot on my PSN account for PSP, PS1 and PSN games and comics. At least I’m being warned this time but due to the drm and licensing agreements I can only view these comics on a PSP. I can’t unlock them and take them with me. Who’s to say that the same won’t happen to my digital titles in the future? I don’t buy EA games but let’s say that I did. I’m pretty sure that they would take away Madden and many other of their games after a set amount of time. Your earlier email had it right, drm is just leasing without any true expectation of ownership.

 

I think your idea about the Nintendo account with virtual console games attached to it is brilliant but I think I’ll just stick with owning the actual games and dumping them (I really do dump my own games, it’s really easy to do for most systems). Emulators are getting more accurate by the day. Today Dolphin is the de facto Gamecube and Wii emulator, tomorrow it could be another emulator or they could have a much stronger focus on accuracy once the commercial/hardcore attention starts to desert it. Amazon sells decent retro controllers already made for use with pcs. Some companies like Retron have made more modern versions and Google/Lifehacker have plenty of guides on converting your real controllers to the pc.

 

What is a console if not a legacy-free pc? It’s the library and direction of the manufacturer that gives it any more context than Walmart or any other retailer could do. If Nintendo and other companies won’t provide the type of gaming that we want then we have to either provide it for ourselves. Whether that means emulation, developing ourselves, searching out unknown/ignored developers for our fixes or showing that we’re an interested market by supporting great stores like Gog. You know this better than anyone, Nintendo abandoned the gaming revolution. Why remain dependent upon them if we, the market, are the kingmakers of desires? I love Mario as much as anyone but I would happily support a strong competitor to it if one emerged today.DRM appears to become a defining issue in the Eighth Generation. Whoever is on the correct side is going to have iPod like success. Seeing how Microsoft and Sony were on the wrong side of DRM with music in their war with Apple, it is up to Nintendo to do it right.

And what we mean by DRM isn’t really Digital Rights Management but ownership. Ownership means the consumer is in control. If Nintendo wishes to prosper in a digital only format, it needs to allow the consumer to be in control.

I never expect Nintendo download games to ever be playable on non-Nintendo hardware. Nintendo games have never been playable on non-Nintendo hardware so why should this start now?

What I DO expect is Nintendo downloads to be able to be moved around from any Nintendo hardware. If a Nintendo console dies, I can buy a new one and redownload the games. If a new console comes out, say the Wii V, then I can just download all my download games onto the Wii V.

It would be very cool if I could play home console Virtual Console games like Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo handheld. Instead of having two separate Virtual Consoles with the handhelds and home consoles, just have one.

The problem is that Nintendo wants to have a unique emulator for each game and for each console. I have no problem with that. But the problem is that Nintendo is not giving us a choice. If I buy Super Mario Brothers for the 3DS, I can run it on Wii U with a generalized emulator knowing it won’t be the ‘optimized’ experience. Not every game needs its own emulator.

Most games can be emulated fairly easy with one general program. This is what we’re looking for. Digital games is all about the user being in control. Companies think digital means they get to be in control, but they are wrong. With the Virtual Console, so long as the games don’t leave the Nintendo platform, what does it matter how we play it and on what Nintendo console?

What I find ridiculous is that, like the emailer said, anyone can emulator (and easily pirate) old Nintendo games. Even the Gamecube and Wii are easily becoming emulated. Nintendo won’t be losing money if they let allow our digital games to have infinite mobility on the roadway of Nintendo hardware since they are competing against free.

It’s been my dream to be able to buy a new Nintendo console, plug it in, and have my entire Nintendo library available to me. Infinite backwards compatibility. I would buy every Nintendo console then. But I don’t like buying game consoles because after a few years, the hardware platform gets old, and my game library becomes obsolete. Yes, the Nintendo console has ‘backwards compatibility’ which only adds a year or two to my Nintendo game library. I want to have access to my Nintendo game library forever. Nintendo loses nothing if I’m always able to play Ice Climbers on any Nintendo platform, present or future. This allows Nintendo to be more creative and different since people can just buy the old games if they want that experience.

If I could have played all my NES gams on the SNES, that would have been amazing. And just imagine if the N64 could play all the NES and SNES games, OMG. PlayStation wouldn’t have a chance because the N64 game library would already be too big. And then the Gamecube could play the NES, SNES, N64, games as well as the Gameboy, Gameboy Color, and Gameboy Advance games. Its library would be INSANE and Microsoft and Sony would be dead in the water. Nintendo’s new consoles would be more interesting because their ‘newness’ can be contrasted with older games. Since Nintendo’s hardware only contrasts against the previous generation, Nintendo’s hardware never feels novel.

What we want is a Nintendo platform. Not a hardware platform.

It is ridiculous that our Nintendo game libraries keep being broken up and destroyed by Nintendo’s hardware. This should not be the case. Our game libraries need to remain whole.

Does old music become lost because new music comes out? Does old movies become lost because of new movies? So why is it that new games means the loss of the old games? Why should we allow console hardware to come in and hurl a wrecking ball into our game libraries?

Consumers don’t buy console hardware. Consumers buy game libraries. A true Nintendo platform would put in full effect Yamauchi’s saying that the console is ‘just a box you buy to get to Mario’. Yamauchi knew the hardware was irrelevant.

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