DarrkPhoenix: All the things you mentioned aren't things I'd consider relevant when pricing a game. Basically the only thing I'd consider relevant (outside of special cases such as loss leaders) is the margins and the number of people willing to buy the game at different price points. In short, I think games should be priced based on what the market will bear in order to maximize profits (naturally, although I state it like it's a simply thing to do, figuring out what that price actually is is rather tricky). What I see happening at the moment, though, is many companies not even trying to figure out what the optimal price is, just setting the game at $50 ($60 for console games), then in the cases where this price ends up being too high acting surprised that they aren't seeing the kind of sales they wanted. On the bright side, though, I'm seeing a fair number of developers/publishers moving the price point more quickly with digitally distributed copies following the game's launch, basically using a trial-an-error approach to find the sweet spot for pricing (I was actually watching the price on King's Bounty: Armored Princess for a couple of months, and it was rather interesting watching the price jump around in $5-10 increments over several weeks before settling into more fixed prices, although interestingly different prices on the various distribution services)

jungletoad: Penny Arcade summed it up pretty well:
http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/791728635_VJ8Qa-L.jpg

Tantrix: While I find Penny Arcade sometimes funny, they work for Ubisoft. I remember they were hired to do some preview comics for some games during 2005

jungletoad: The best thing to do for combatting DRM is not to download cracked versions, but to buy DRM free games.

Tantrix: I'd suggest we should start a thread to for listing all DRM-free PC-games and spread it across the internet. I know we have GoG, but still there sould be other options.
I'd rebuy the new PoP anytime if it's still DRM free.

Tantrix: I'd suggest we should start a thread to for listing all DRM-free PC-games and spread it across the internet. I know we have GoG, but still there sould be other options.
I'd rebuy the new PoP anytime if it's still DRM free.

jungletoad: Penny Arcade summed it up pretty well:
http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/791728635_VJ8Qa-L.jpg

OmegaX: They have made promotional comics for [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_Arcade_(webcomic)#Other_works]lots of games[/url] so I wouldn't say that they are biased towards Ubisoft on this one. It would be naive to think that everybody that dislikes the game will not play it because a lot of people are hypocrites and try to justify their acts by saying "if they treat me like a criminal then I may just as well be one".
If you really dislike the DRM then don't play the game at all. There are plenty of games that I can be playing instead and they won't get any of my money.

jungletoad: The best thing to do for combatting DRM is not to download cracked versions, but to buy DRM free games. Money talks. There are people here on the GoG forums that have bought every single game in the catalogue simply because they are DRM free. I'm always amused by that. That's how much people hate DRM- they will buy products they don't even want simply out of spite.
And companies are beginning to listen. This month, Activision struck a deal with GoG to release some of their classic games DRM-free. Activision! You know, that huge game company run by Bobby Kotick that so many gamers hate because of his reputation for only caring about money? Ubisoft and Interplay also release DRM-free games on GoG. With big names like these jumping on board, it's only a matter of time before others will follow... at least with their old and already heavily pirated games.
You still don't have much of an option with new games, but hopefully that will change too. I believe I overhead that laws will be changing so that PC games have to include notification on their packaging that it will install DRM software on your machine. Once you can consistently see on the product description whether a game has DRM or not, support the ones that don't have DRM at release and hold off for sales on the ones that do (or simply don't buy them). If everyone does this, game companies will get the message.
People are pissed about this stuff. Just look at some amazon reviews. A PC game like Mass Effect, that may have an awesome metacritic score, will just get trashed on Amazon with tons of 1 star customer ratings simply because of obnoxious DRM. Trust me, these companies don't like being trashed on huge distributor's website like Amazon. So go trash them. It tarnishes their image.
Also, sites like Direct2Drive have realized that the absence of DRM is a selling point. Though they sell DRM as well as DRM-free games, they now make a point to highlight when a game doesn't have it. Buy those games.
Not supporting DRM will only get you so far though. You actually have to support DRM-free material before they will take heed. I do think things can change.

de99ial: BZZt WRONG!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management
Quote:
The term generally doesn't refer to other forms of copy protection which can be circumvented without modifying the file or device, such as serial numbers or keyfiles. It can also refer to restrictions associated with specific instances of digital works or devices.

cogadh: If one-time activations were all that were required, I don't think too many people would complain. The problem is, its never just a one-time activation, its an activation every time you try to install and usually only a limited number of them.