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Kotaku has reported that Capcom included DRM in the PS3 release of Final Fight: Double Impact. The DRM, which was similar to the DRM that Ubisoft had adopted for PC games, required the player have an always on internet connection while playing the game. If the PS3's internet connection is lost - either in single or multiplayer, the game quits to the dashboard. Additionally, the game could only be played on the PSN account on which the game was purchased. I bring that last bit up, because that, apparently, is the point of the DRM. To prevent a user of the PS3 from playing a game another user purchased.
 
Now, home console gamers are no stranger to DRM. The NES required cartridges to send a string of ASCII characters to the main board reading "Copyright Nintendo of America" in order for games to work. The Genesis had similar restrictions, as did the TurboGraphics. With the introduction of disk based games on the Sega CD and the TurboGrafx-CD, games began to be region coded to keep people from burning bootlegs of games and running them on their systems (this also prevented imports - though I suspect that manufacturers were focused more on blocking bootleggers from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, than US importers.) However, none of this DRM was based on the assumption that the player was a criminal. It was based on the assumption someone else - a manufacturer was a criminal.
 
However, what makes this absolutely absurd is that it's practically impossible to bootleg a game being sold on PlayStation Network anyway. You cannot download the game in the first place without connecting to PSN on the account that purchased the game. Once you've bought and downloaded the game to your system, you can't upload the game to another system unless you backup your entire hard drive on one system, and then re-format and install over that system's hard drive. From prior experience upgrading my own system's hard drive, the entire backup, format, and re-installation process is a very drawn out process, that can take up to 5-7 hours, depending on the size of the hard drive, and the amount of space in use. Nobody does it for purposes of piracy. So, the only people who this would really be hurting would be a group of people in the same house or apartment, sharing a PS3, with different PSN accounts, either because of their PSP go, or because they had or have their own PS3(s) and are sharing the PS3 on the primary TV for purposes of Trophies.
 
The fact that Capcom USA has taken the "assume the customer is a criminal" tack for the DRM on their PSN game, in a fashion that is far more draconian than Ubisoft's DRM scheme is absurd and insulting. Fortunately, Capcom has said in the article that this is being done to put out feelers to see if the gaming community is willing to accept similar DRM restrictions on other games. If the game does well with the DRM, it will be used on other games - despite the fact that the DRM was not disclosed on the game's listing on PlayStation Network until someone complained about the DRM. I urge gamers to refrain from purchasing the PS3 version of the game while it has the DRM. If you have a Xbox 360 and you want to play Final Fight: Double Impact, purchase the game on that system (your achievements will sync with Giant Bomb and other sites anyway). If you don't have a 360 and have no intentions of getting one, then for now I would recommend holding off from getting the game on this system until the DRM is removed, which leads me to my next point. Inform Capcom that you will not purchase Final Fight: Double Impact because of the DRM, nor will you purchase any additional PSN releases that are similarly protected. As a way of following up on this, buy Capcom games that don't have DRM - get Commando: Wolf of the Battlefield. Get Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. Get Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo HD Remix. I'm not calling for a blanket boycott. That's impractical - especially with Super Street Fighter IV coming up . All I'm asking is that we, as gamers vote with our dollars, and show to Capcom that games without DRM sell better than games with DRM. Because that's the only way we can change things.

I posted this on another web page, but I wanted to post this here as well. I'm interested in what you in the Giant Bomb community have to think on this topic.
 
So, Carl Macek, the guy who helped found Streamline Pictures, and who took Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, Super Dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeda and wrapped it all up into a big package called Robotech, is dead. So, I kinda got to thinking about how he effected the video game industry, by popularizing anime in the US.

First things first. Before anime got started getting mainstream visibility in the US, Video Game Publishers here weren't willing to take a chance on an anime art style either in their games or on their box art. Just take a look at all the Sega games which had an anime art style on their boxes in Japan, that got changed to more traditional western fantasy art in the US. The Shining Force series for example, as well as the core Phantasy Star series, or even the US Box art for Breath of Fire and Valis. Anime becoming popular allowed video games to retain a more anime inspired art style. This is particularly notable with changes in the box art for the Street Fighter II series, and the Street Fighter Alpha/Zero series.

Additionally, because Macek was able to expose new audiences to anime in a less altered form than Speed Racer or Star Blazers (which had some significant edits), and help lay the ground work for anime to grow in popularity, then we were able to get games that were more directly related to anime, such as the Ranma 1/2 games, Earnest Evans, and even the Valis series (though, as I mentioned in the prior paragraph, the box art was altered to a more "Western" style). Certainly, if Anime hadn't gotten popular, the Shin Megami Tensei series (particularly the Persona games) would have never officially come to the United States.

What do you think? Am I over-stating his influence, or do I have it more or less correct?

Now it's working. I had to remove and re-sync my Steam account for it to work.

My Achievements for Beat Hazard aren't syncing correctly. Instead they're showing up as achievements for "Madballs in: Babo Invasion". I don't know if there's anything you can do about this, but if you can that would be awesome.

Lower failure rate, built-in Wi-Fi, and the ability to replace my hard drive with any laptop sized hard drive without voiding the warranty or making it so I can't use Xbox Live.
 
Though two out of three wouldn't be bad.

On the one hand, while I'm ecstatic at the possibility of getting lots of fun inter-site content amongst the Whiskey Media sites, on the other hand, well, this is a basement, and while San Francisco is known for its hills, on occasion they do get some flooding.  While it's probably not often, as an Oregonian, I'm wary of such things.