The Dilemma of Digital Downloading
With Steam, I have a couple friends that exclusively buy their PC games through it now rather than getting a boxed copy. With the infinite redownloads that Valve offers, that’s actually a decent platform. With EA, on the other hand, their download service only lets you get it for six months unless you pay for an “extended service” fee which will let you download it for two years. That said, I think I’ll stick with my hard copy of Spore that I can install whenever I want (DRM activations issue permitting).
This of course led me onto another one of my DRM thoughts and what the best way to handle it is so that the consumer doesn’t get royally screwed over like they do with SecuROM. I don’t believe no copy protection is necessarily the best way to go, but SecuROM needs to go die a horrible death. It is a Sony product, so I guess that conclusion shouldn’t be too shocking.