Sometimes, the tech news just hands you the most amazing coincidences. On the one hand, take the news that Microsoft may be using the release of Halo 2 to crack down on mod-chipped X-Boxes: people who tried to log in to Microsoft's X-Box Live service to play Halo 2 with hacked X-Boxes have found their accounts suspended.
And on the other hand, copies of Half-Life 2 have started hitting retail shelves in advance of the "official" release date of November 16. Gamers who rush out to buy (sometimes extortionately priced) copies early, however, are finding themselves stymied: the game won't install without verification from Steam, the online platform Valve (Half-Life 2's creator) uses to deliver its games and coordinate online play. But Steam won't turn the game on until the 16th, per instructions from Vivendi (Half-Life 2's distributor).
Let's call these schemes by their right name: these are both examples of digital rights management working as intended. This is the future of digital media, here today: your copy of the product checks in with home base to determine what you can and can't do with it. And when the company that runs home base decides that it doesn't like what you're doing (be it tampering with your device's hardware or trying--oh the temerity!--to play a game a few days early), it can cut you off at the knees and disable your access to the game. That's what DRM does. Hey, gamers: you're getting a taste of the treatment the music industry has planned for us all. Do you like it?
Now, not all DRM is created equal. Microsoft's choice here was reasonably fair, I think. You can do whatever you want to your 'Box, but don't expect to be able to use a modded 'Box to compete against people who are playing by the rules. I look at X-Box Live as a kind of virtual world; it's not unreasonable for Microsoft to act as a referee by insisting that everyone who enters that world enter it on the same terms. I'm happier playing online when I know that my opponents aren't using wallhacks and aimbots. Microsoft might have done slightly better simply to flag players using hacked 'Boxes than to ban them outright, but the basic deal is okay. No one who bought Halo 2 is being deprived of the ability to play its campaign mode or in multiplayer at a LAN party.
The Steam lockout is more frightening, though. First off, note why it is that Valve won't turn the key: a contractual dispute with Vivendi. In fact, Valve and Vivendi are locked in a fierce legal struggle over distribution terms, with Vivendi furious that Steam might undercut its revenues from store-based sales. That's right: your ability to play Half-Life 2 is being held hostage to a licensing fight between two corporations. You can bet your bottom dollar that if Vivendi thought it could get more leverage by getting a court order telling Valve to turn off Steam permanently, it would ask for one. Similarly, Valve could threaten to pull the plug and leave Vivendi holding millions of $54.99 boxes full of useless bits. Whose permission do you want to ask to play Half-Life 2?
There's all sorts of trouble just waiting to happen here. Somewhere, a class action lawyer is gearing up to sue Vivendi and Valve for not warning consumers properly that online activation would be required. Somewhere else, another class action lawyer is gearing up to sue the retailers who sold the game early, for selling a box that was useless until the 16th. And a special note to those retailers who sold it early at a steep markup: You're hosed. Settle quick.
UPDATE 14 November 2004 10:50 PM: I changed "boned" to "hosed" in the last paragraph. Out with the Futurama reference and in with something arguably less vulgar.