Patching in new DRM years after launch seems unlikely to impact pirates, but actively harms legitimate users who play on Steam Deck or mod games they paid for.
The problem is that game companies are no long interested in prolonged lifetime they can’t directly monetize. Who cares that mods add a decade of additional sales if people are modding costumes instead of buying them from the cash shop.
And this sort of attitude is making me wonder if it’s still worth buying from these companies.
If the skins they sell are higher quality than the ones available with mods, then people will buy them anyway.
If the mods are making those skins available for free then that’s probably a copyright infringement issue (assuming the assets are only made available once purchased, and that they’re not just available but disabled) that should be handled with a DMCA takedown.
If the mods are making their own content available for free but the mod content is lower quality than the paid skins, then the people who don’t purchase paid skins as a result will be far more limited. The bigger the quality divide, the lower the impact.
If they can’t compete with free cosmetics then that speaks to a lack of quality on their part.
The games that I love the most more than any other are games that have a good modding community. Factorio, skyrim, minecraft, hoi4. It just creates content that the developing company doesn’t have to do and the consumer gets to experience.
Which is incredibly stupid since mods prolong the lifetime of a game’s value
The problem is that game companies are no long interested in prolonged lifetime they can’t directly monetize. Who cares that mods add a decade of additional sales if people are modding costumes instead of buying them from the cash shop.
And this sort of attitude is making me wonder if it’s still worth buying from these companies.
Indeed, people seem to forget but modern monster hunter sells cosmetics, they have a financial interest to not let you mod the game to change skins.
If the skins they sell are higher quality than the ones available with mods, then people will buy them anyway.
If the mods are making those skins available for free then that’s probably a copyright infringement issue (assuming the assets are only made available once purchased, and that they’re not just available but disabled) that should be handled with a DMCA takedown.
If the mods are making their own content available for free but the mod content is lower quality than the paid skins, then the people who don’t purchase paid skins as a result will be far more limited. The bigger the quality divide, the lower the impact.
If they can’t compete with free cosmetics then that speaks to a lack of quality on their part.
The games that I love the most more than any other are games that have a good modding community. Factorio, skyrim, minecraft, hoi4. It just creates content that the developing company doesn’t have to do and the consumer gets to experience.