The Only Game In Town: The Shape of Rights Management In Modern Video Games

Luke Lancaster

Piracy has forever changed the digital landscape, and the innovations and practices adopted by video game developers reflect how producers have responded to this new culture. Control of content has become paramount. New business, distribution and consumption models have been introduced with an online focus and the marked change that has occurred in the industry has been realized as a shift from the single and the local to the many and the global, in concept and execution of design. This article will focus on how and why game developers have incorporated online functionality in the current digital media climate. Specific examples of Digital Rights Management models will be addressed to justify and illustrate the shift towards digital distribution and online content at large. There is new value interplay in effect, in both how games are played and how content is provided. What consumers pay for is radically changed, as is how they pay for it. This article will show that there is a system of covert policing at work - an innovation that protects game developers and a practice that has already taken deep root in the industry.