Rent PC Games - Is It Possible?

Many have asked the question if it is possible to rent PC games. If you are thinking of renting modern games such as Call of Duty: Black Ops or Fallout: New Vegas then I am afraid you are out of luck. It is not possible to rent PC games that are modern due to the DRM and piracy protection features found on said games. In some cases you can borrow from friends but not in all cases.

The irony of DRM is that it encourages pirating instead of preventing it. Every single game that has been released with DRM or some form of anti-piracy protection has been cracked by crackers who often release the crack a mere day or two after the release of the game. It is said by many that DRM solves nothing and creates more problems.

The BioShock DRM drama is a great case study for this. BioShock installed a RootKit on the gamers PC which frequently caused many virus scanners to go crazy and say 'do not install'. In addition the system only allowed the legal owner of the game to reinstall the game twice. After that period they were no longer allowed to install it ever again, on any PC.

When this was brought to the attention of 2k Games, the people responsible for the game and it's DRM system, the forums erupted in masses of requests for refunds and/or the removal of the system from BioShock. After a significant period of 10 months 2k Games backed down and removed the limit on the times the game can be reinstalled. The RootKit remains however!

When companies attempt to create more problems than they solve it tends to make people turn to piracy to actually play a game they legally own. This is a core reason why DRM is labelled as a catastrophic failure by many.