As every developer should know, a loyal fanbase is the most important tool you have in your arsenal. They keep the profits rolling in, they give you the benefit of the doubt no matter what you do, and they provide great – and free - word-of-mouth marketing. The most important point though, is one that a lot of devs just don’t get. While staff may come and go, respectful long-term fans know your games inside out and are a consistent source of quality feedback. 

Capcom knows this. Its Unity site is a community which every dev should be envious of. The degree to which it lavishes the fan-service upon its audience and involves players in the design process makes a lot of its output feel co-produced, and as a result, everyone wins. Players get the games they want. Capcom makes games that the players want to buy. Good will builds and a strong relationship is forged. Compare that to Sega, who still can’t get a Sonic game right despite a decade of clear fan instruction, and Konami, who responded to pleas for a Wiimote whip-cracking Castlevania with an ultra camp, waggled-up failure of beat ‘em up. And we won’t mention Nintendo. It’s not even funny any more.

Comparisons to Malware. Invasive disabling of PC hardware. Broken antivirus software. Limited activations which virtually turn a game purchase into a long-term rental. Computers so broken they have to be reformatted. All of these accusations and more have been levelled at the notorious SecuROM copy protection system over the last year or so. Spore has been downloaded to pieces on principle. EA is getting sued several times over. Is there really any way to justify this crap any more?

Yes, PC games are easy to rip off, and yes, we want devs to be paid for their work, but all piracy arguments aside, the simple fact is that SecuROM just doesn’t work. At all. It causes ill will towards publishers, reduces sales and increases piracy, as people download to flick two fingers up at the publishers who use it or simply to get a ‘safe’ copy of the game they want. It defies logic that publishers still think this stuff is a good idea from any perspective. Worried about the health of PC gaming? Consider how many multiformat games have been begrudgingly bought on console to avoid having to deal with this.