DRM has been a hot button issue of late. It's not like I need to remind you of the shellacking that EA took over their handling of Spore. In an interview with videogaming247, Ubisoft Shanghai creative director Michael de Plater has said that the PC version of the upcoming RTS Endwar could have been released on November 4th with its console brethren if it wasn't for rampant PC piracy. Quoth the Michael:

To be honest, if PC wasn't pirated to hell and back, there'd probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two. But at the moment, if you release the PC version, essentially what you're doing is letting people have a free version that they rip off instead of a purchased version. Piracy's basically killing PC... You know, the level of piracy that you get with the PC just cannibalizes the others, because people just steal that version.

Having spent a fair amount of time on Endwar, both during the beta and at PAX, I can say that if you're a fan of the RTS genre, or of Tom Clancy titles in general, this one will be worth the wait. It does seem, though, that we are reaching a tipping point with piracy and DRM. It's anyone's guess what the future will hold. I will add that it does seem a bit unfair that the people that are most affected by these kinds of delays are the gamers who would have purchased the game in the first place.

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