That made sense when retail store shelf space was so limited that if something didn’t sell well it got tossed after a couple of weeks to make room for the next new thing. But online sales don’t really work that way. Sure, Steam’s front page has limited space, but there’s an entire internet that can link directly to your game. Unlike an old ad in a magazine, someone can click your ad and buy and have the game installed in minutes…for years.
I buy games from GOG that probably haven’t been on a retail shelf in 20 years. But they don’t care about that because they’re not in it to make something of lasting value that will continue to bring in revenue. They’re already over-budget and want to cash out quick.
That’s more likely part of the answer, they’re afraid that people will see that it’s no good.
What’s funny about that is that the dynamic even still exists. Everyone knows that on day one, games will still have breaking bugs and really won’t work until after the first few patches. And if there’s any online component at all, the servers will be overwhelmed for the first week or so, so it won’t work. Given how many disastrous launches there’ve been, I don’t know how they keep people falling for it over and over. But if DRM is aimed at the gullible, I suppose that makes sense; no one will ever go broke selling something shady to the gullible.
