'Steamworks Makes DRM Obsolete,' Claims Valve

By Chris Faylor, Mar 24, 2009 8:50am PDT In a press release celebrating its free development and publishing toolset, Half-Life creator and Steam operator Valve declared that "Steamworks makes DRM obsolete."

The studio trumpeted recent additions to the toolset, including "Custom Executable Generation (CEG) technology" and support for in-game downloadable content.

"[CEG] compliments the already existing anti-piracy solution offered in Steamworks," explained Valve. "A customer friendly approach to anti-piracy, CEG makes unique copies of games for each user allowing them to access the application on multiple machines without install limits and without having to install root kits."

"As we roll out these features, we continue to look for new ways make PC games easier to create and better for customers to experiences," said Valve co-founder Gabe Newell.

The Steamworks toolset allows PC developers to integrate the various aspects of Valve's Steam platform into their games, including achievements, Steam community support, automatic updating, shared settings across multiple computers, and more.

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18 Threads | 89 Comments

  • I think that best DRM is releasing good game which will last more than one year.
    Games like starcraft, warcraft3, TF2, L4D, WorldInConflict, diablo2, Wow, ut2k4, ut3, q3 etc etc.
    Even better game without good multiplayer or replayability just isnt good enough for me(for my money). I dont mind paying 50euro/$ for good game with good support. Or paying more for games pack with some single/multiplayer games like orange box/valve complete pack/unreal pack.

    Im looking forward to try Demigod, then i will maybe check out SoSE via stardock.

  • Wouldn't it be nice if we all lived in such a cushy world where people who steal games actually were justified in doing it and not just selfish bastards who don't give a rats ass about the people who bring them those games?

    Steam, by nature is very user unfriendly because it permanent;y links your CD key to an account meaning :
    1) If you can't login (forgotten login info, or busy servers) you can't play the games you paid for
    2) In the event of the above, you can't reinstall to a different account.

    I know. Password recovery, captain obvious. Steams recovery service sucks htough. It assumes that you get everything correct until the last step and if it turns out you did something wrong, it makes you go back to the beginning. It actually makes you go through the whole thing again, sending you another damn email validation code (the same one.)

    All steam wants is a cd which can be keygened. Nothing is perfect, but this doesn't inspire confidence or bring anything new to the table.

    Instead, we need more secure methods for disk verification. We need to take the power of star force and create a system which doesn't damage your computer or leave you susceptible to malware. The PC needs to become more like the consoles in that physical disk checks are done on a hardware level for games. Windows needs to facilitate these checks and blacklist any software that could be used to circumvent protections. In other words, the solution lies in game developers working with Microsoft.. and new hardware standards.

    CD keys can be spoofed easily.. How about something more complicated, like physical disk signatures which are built into the disk?