Dont know if this is the right place for it, my appologies if its way wrong. Here goes.

Do any of you folks know how much something like Tagés or SecuROM cost per manufactured CD?

Got into an argument today with a techsupport rep because I used a noCD pacth for a game I bought. Me pointing out that as a customer Im not interested in paying for something that limits my use of the product etc (you know the drill). Didnt hit home... Anyways so I got thinking, how much are we forced to pay for these *curseword* systems?

Why don't you email them?

That would be easiest if they botherd to answer but that hasnt happend yeat.

Tell 'em you're EA

as they are going to believe that. lol

Ok guys..

Here goes 15 euro cents (10ish pence in UK) per disc for Tages and about the same for SecuRom and SafeDisc...

There are other costs, but they are the price per unit as you requested...

This is my first time on this board - but I know quite a lot about the industry - so jus' ask...

I normally spend my life in mIRC - but getting bored of the horrible text now! - Forums look much nica!

MuzChap

do you know something about starforce costs?

I think it also depends on the amount of manufactured CDs. I can imagine that if you buy a million pieces licence, the cost per cd are lower than when you want a thousand....or is all this taken care of by the fixed costs? (curious myself too...just curious)

Yes indeed, economies of scale do exist! The more you produce the cheaper per unit it becomes.

There are also other costs to consider £5-£10k worth of SDK and other licencing issues that are paid up-front.

I'll try and get a price for you on StarForce - but would expect them to be similarly priced.

These are the only costs you pay, obviously you also have the replication costs of the plant and CD/DVD - the main cost in a game is the actual development cost per unit - 12 months'ish to make a game - this is why the games manufacturers aren't happy with piracy!

But, as EULA says - in most countries a legitimate backup is allowed - recent case with PS2 and ModChips is cited.

In answer to the orginal question - the main cost is not the protection and whilst some manufactuers (SafeDisc/SecuRom) are concentrating their efforts in making CD's pretty much unreadable - and less likely to sell more - the games companies are actually becoming penalised for using these protections - should be an interesting debate when everybody catches up with it!

Cheers

MC

People who doesn't want to get its games hijacked are publisers, not game studios.
If you speak with lot of studios ( will not say that for obviosly reasons) they are worried when its game does not appears on emule after release.
By my knowledge, a game studio earns from 3 to 5 euro per sold copy, so think where the rest is.

Good luck!

Not entirely true... not entirely I said!

It depends on the deal initially.. and how well the publisher expects the game to sell.

Also depends on what bonus scheme the individual developers for the Game Studio are on, if they are on product sale related bonuses then I should imagine they want the game to sell loads and not be pirated?

The problem lies firmly and squarely with the EULA - its not consistent in its approach!

Either you are allowed to make a back-up or you are not - they cannot possibly entertain the idea of certain geographic locations being allowed to make backups, whereas other regions cannot - that is ludicrous and is an infringement upon civil liberties.

It was also 'HILARIOUS' to see that SONY screwed themselves over with MODCHIPS...!!!

They claimed to the EU Courts that the PS2 was a PC, thus avoiding paying extra TAXES on the product, they must have thought they were very clever here!

Only for an Italian court to rule against them, as they claimed it was a PC, and only allowed PS2 games to be played on it - it was therefore monopolistic and contravened Italian law - The judge said it was like making a FIAT and only allowing Italians to drive it!

So, classic case of a big corporation making itself look pretty stupid...

I don't know where the debate goes from here -!

But have to say, love this forum - there are some very, very switched on people on here!

MC