Here we go again.
Despite fielding
plenty of negative feedback over
Final Fight: Double Impact needing to have an active internet connection to function on PlayStation 3 units, Capcom has enacted the same nasty DRM with the PS3 version of
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2. This means that unless you have an active internet connection and are logged into your PSN account before playing the game, your $15 "purchase" will not work.
The big difference this time around is that potential buyers are told about the DRM in advance, as long as they read the game's description before buying it. This changes little, however; if your internet goes down or your router goes on the fritz, your game won't work even though you spent money on it.
There really isn't a way to put a nice face on this. It's no secret that Capcom (and many other publishers) don't like the idea of sharing purchases between multiple PlayStation 3 units as sharing takes away from potential revenue. Punishing legitimate consumers isn't the way to solve the problem, however. In fact, this kind of DRM goes a long way towards ensuring that many more of a publisher's games are ignored and just advertising that a game does this prevents more than a few purchases.
Inevitably, we seem to be hurtling towards a time of no longer "buying" games. Instead, we'll just be "renting" them with new user restrictions and safeguards that basically set the value of these purchases at just below the cost of a sheet of paper.
Sources:
TheSixthAxis, Joystiq
