That means players don’t even own their own games.
In fact, players are dependent on Steam as a company since they own everyone’s accounts. Plus, if Steam is down, players can’t access, download, or play their games. While it provides an Offline-Mode, players still need to login every two weeks or so to update and reauthenticate. Or is it? Players who purchase their games cannot use the account on more than one computer at a time, cannot rent any games if they are Steam-activated, nor lend them to others, nor sell them if they are unimpressed with the game. Overall, it’s a seamless system, like DRM should be. It offers unlimited copies of games on unlimited machines, but only one user can play on an account at a time. Surprisingly, despite the slack it gets, Steam is one of the most elegant and integrated DRM solutions available. Valve’s Steam is one of the primary examples discussed when mentioning DRM, especially online, where the words “digital rights management” are so controversial.
And with a total estimated revenue loss of $74 billion due to pirated games in 2014 alone, it makes sense why DRM is so prevalent. There are, approximately, 10,742,489 kinds of DRM and copy protection out there, with almost every company or format having their own take on it. Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a corporate attempt at fighting piracy by controlling exactly how and when you use media.
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