Monica Harrington, Valve's former chief marketing officer, shared an anecdote at GDC about her nephew's CD-ROM replicator prompting Valve to adopt DRM. With rising concerns over piracy, Harrington recounted how her nephew, using a gift check, purchased a device to copy games, which led to a realization that easier game sharing was threatening their business model. Although there are differing accounts of DRM's development at Valve, Harrington emphasizes the impact of her nephew's actions, framing them as a catalyst for implementing an authentication system to counter piracy.
"At the time, consumer-level piracy was just becoming a real issue. My own nephew had just used a $500 check I'd sent him for school expenses and bought himself a CD-ROM replicator…"
"Because of gamers like my nephew, we implemented an authentication scheme. Customers had to validate and register their copy with Valve directly…"
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