Valve: We've Made DRM Obsolete

The newest version of Valve's suite of development and publishing tools, Steamworks, adds new anti-piracy features that the studio boasts will make DRM "obsolete."

DRM's joining the company of cassette tapes and telephone booths in the wastebasket of obsolete technologies, or at least Gabe Newell would tell you so.

Valve's latest version of Steamworks, a free suite of tools for developers to make and publish games, expands on its anti-piracy features with a new technology that Valve is saying will make DRM a thing of the past.

Complimenting the anti-piracy features already built into Steamworks, Customer Executable Generation takes the anti-SecuROM approach by making multiple installs of PC games easy as pie, according to 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 on their PC," Valve said.

"Delivering this extension of services on Steamworks first anniversary, demonstrates our commitment to continually develop the platform to better serve the community working with these tools," Newell said. "As we roll out these features, we continue to look for new ways make PC games easier to create and better for customers to experience."

Newell has had plenty of disparaging words in regards to DRM in the past, saying that "most DRM strategies are just dumb." For Newell, the goal "should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I'll be able to play my game and maybe I won't)." He talked the talk and now it seems that he's walking the walk with Steamworks.

The new Steamworks also includes previously announced support for in-game downloadable content and the new matchmaking and lobby system that Valve introduced in Left 4 Dead.