# World of Goo has a 90% piracy rate, was no DRM the right choice? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 27, 2008, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851 "2008-12-27T16:30:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851/41 "2008-12-29T18:28:22Z")
> [@Discordia](#): > > What PC games are you playing that are literally unplayable without patching? It really isn’t a common problem anymore, certainly not for AAA games. While PC games aren’t unplayable without patching anymore, they will almost all need to be patched for something at some point. This is not the case with 99% of console games. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851/42 "2008-12-29T18:47:04Z")
> [@DigitalC](#): > > I’m sorry but this is just not true, my brother owns a 360 and a ps3 and before that he owned a regular xbox and a ps2. Every single game hes ever bought hes been able to pop in the cd and start playing with no patching required. … As is the case with the overwhelming majority of PC games. I ask again, what PC games require release-day patching? [QUOTE=Justin Bailey] While PC games aren’t unplayable without patching anymore, they will almost all need to be patched for something at some point. This is not the case with 99% of console games. [/quote] But many PC game patches provide additional functionality at no extra cost. Valve, makes of Half-Life, provided a masterclass in community support through patching, with TFC, DM Classic, free maps etc. Additional functionality provided by console manufacturers is often charged for. It cost ~£10 for four extra maps for COD:4, for instance, on the XBox 360. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851/43 "2008-12-29T18:59:58Z")
> [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](#): > > But many PC game patches provide additional functionality at no extra cost. Valve, makes of Half-Life, provided a masterclass in community support through patching, with TFC, DM Classic, free maps etc. Additional functionality provided by console manufacturers is often charged for. It cost ~£10 for four extra maps for COD:4, for instance, on the XBox 360. Patches and extra content are not the same thing and it’s a shame they’ve been conflated by a lot of people. ---
**Author:** ![Discordia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Discordia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Discordia)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851/44 "2008-12-29T19:00:07Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > While PC games aren’t unplayable without patching anymore, they will almost all need to be patched for something at some point. > > This is not the case with 99% of console games. Most get patched for problems on a few machines, sure, but most patches add content and balance the game. Surely not a bad thing. Blizzard are of course the gold standard. They patch their games a _lot_, but their games are quite runnable on launch day. > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Patches and extra content are not the same thing and it’s a shame they’ve been conflated by a lot of people. Blame companies releasing things they call “patches” which do very little but add content 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851/45 "2008-12-29T20:01:04Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Patches and extra content are not the same thing and it’s a shame they’ve been conflated by a lot of people. All the examples I mentioned _were_ patches, in that they were bug fixes for various problems. The fact that they also threw in whole new games, mods, levels etc. is surely irrelevant as to whether they should be rightfully called patches, no? ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851/46 "2008-12-29T21:06:43Z")
> [@Discordia](#): > > PCs and consoles are converging rapidly anyway, indeed most consoles pretty much _are_ just computers, so this problem is going nowhere. Where do you see convergence? (The processors are more custom today than in the past so I assume you are referring to some other aspect) ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2008, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851/47 "2008-12-29T22:31:28Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Where do you see convergence? (The processors are more custom today than in the past so I assume you are referring to some other aspect) The PS3 and Xbox 360 use what are essentially PC GPUs. Something around the ATI x1800 gen for the Xbox and the geforce 7800 gen for the PS3. They use standard PC ram or graphics ram types for memory, PC-like motherboard architecture, etc. I get the impression that it’s not hard to port x86 code to the XBox’s PowerPC but that it’s quite a pain in the ass for PS3s, which is why you see more ports between PC and the Xbox 360. Certainly this generation of consoles is closer to being pure PC hardware than any previous gen. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851/48 "2008-12-30T17:34:07Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I get the impression that it’s not hard to port x86 code to the XBox’s PowerPC but that it’s quite a pain in the ass for PS3s, which is why you see more ports between PC and the Xbox 360. Certainly this generation of consoles is closer to being pure PC hardware than any previous gen. Well, it’s not like you’re porting x86 assembly to PPC assembly. That would be hard. Both Windows games and XBox games are designed under a set of Microsoft-developed APIs, so, for the most part, the actual engine of the game can be ported with no extra work at all, because Microsoft’s compiler can take care of it. There’s still work to be done on some other parts, but the _game_ part of the game doesn’t need to be rewritten. The PS3, on the other hand uses a completely different API, developed by Sony. I’ve heard that it is notoriously hard to code for, due to some architectural quirks of the Cell processor, but I don’t know much about it. ---
**Author:** ![Otara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a88e4f/32.png) [@Otara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otara)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2008, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851/49 "2008-12-30T23:22:56Z")
“While PC games aren’t unplayable without patching anymore, they will almost all need to be patched for something at some point.” The games in the comparison were the same however, with only the platform being different. So that argument doesnt explain the disparities found for those particular games. Otara [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/world-of-goo-has-a-90-piracy-rate-was-no-drm-the-right-choice/478851.md?page=2)