Valve’s famous DRM was surprisingly sparked by a teenager using school funds to buy a CD duplicator. Monica Harrington, Valve’s former marketing chief, recalls the incident that pushed the company to innovate digital authentication.
At this year’s GDC, Monica Harrington, an original member and the first chief marketing officer of Valve, shared a captivating insight into the company’s early days and the development of groundbreaking products like Half-Life and Steam.
Among numerous anecdotes, one stood out prominently: how Harrington’s nephew inspired Valve’s DRM. In Valve’s formative years, Harrington had sent her nephew a $500 check intended for school expenses. Instead, the young man purchased a CD-ROM replicator and proudly informed her that he could now easily copy and distribute games among his friends.
“Consumer-level piracy was becoming a major issue at the time,” Harrington said. “My nephew’s actions made it clear our business model was at serious risk.”
Unlike console platforms such as PlayStation, which incorporated built-in copy protection, PC games like Half-Life had no similar safeguards. This vulnerability led Valve to implement an authentication system requiring users to validate their games directly through the company.
“Players soon flooded forums complaining their games didn’t work,” Harrington explained. “When co-founder Mike Harrington personally reached out, he discovered none of these complainants had legitimately bought the game. The DRM was doing exactly what it was designed for.”
Speaking with PC Gamer afterward, Harrington acknowledged differing memories between herself and Mike Harrington about whether the DRM was already planned. Monica, however, strongly associates the DRM’s conception with her nephew’s piracy venture. “Initially, I asked him incredulously, ‘What were you thinking?’ But then I realized he genuinely didn’t see anything wrong with it.”
“He was just 19, not considering businesses or intellectual property,” Harrington said. Her nephew later deeply apologized, and she told him, “You have no idea how valuable your action turned out to be.”
Though memories differ, the nephew’s action undeniably influenced Valve’s approach to digital distribution, ultimately shaping the gaming landscape through the creation of Steam.
Harrington also discussed Valve’s early contractual struggles with publisher Sierra, revealing that the company was prepared to quit the gaming business entirely if they couldn’t regain control of Half-Life‘s rights. “It wasn’t an idle threat,” she concluded. “We refused to shoulder all the risks just to enrich someone else.”
Source: PC Gamer
