Gamers may soon have to deal with an implementation that has already seen widespread controversy in only its early stages. As always-on Digital Rights Management and other anti-piracy measures are introduced, the way consumers respond may ultimately shape the future of gaming.

Piracy, the crime of illegally acquiring software by means other than purchasing it, is a threat for nearly everything that can be uploaded to the Internet or accessed on a computer.

According to an article on PC Gamer, the video game Crysis 2 was the most-pirated title of 2011 with nearly four million downloads. Last year, PC Mag reported that Adobe’s Photoshop editing software and Microsoft’s Office programs were among the most-seeded items on the piracy sites.

PC Mag said even programs that require a CD key to be fully activated could be exploited, due to pirates’ ability to supply cracked product keys that they generate themselves. Sometimes, all it takes is a Google search of “[insert product name here] key generator” to find an illegal copy of the software.

Jacob Cramer, junior in software engineering at Iowa State, said he has been a gamer all his life.

“I don’t think piracy is an issue. Yes, it’s illegal, but I don’t think that piracy has a truly measurable effect on any developer. I have heard some developers say that piracy is free advertising rather than lost sales,” Cramer said.

“That said, I generally think that if a person has the money to buy a product rather than pirate it, they should.”

Cramer went on to say that the fact that some people consider certain software to be less wrong to pirate than others (an old video game or a $600 program for example) is “a matter of people trying to justify their own actions or the actions of people they know. Piracy is piracy.”

Another ISU student, Alex Kratz, senior in computer engineering, said he sees both sides to the piracy issue and where gamers are coming from.

“The only thing these extreme methods of [Digital Rights Management] accomplish is driving people away from their game. I don’t condone piracy but when it is easier to pirate the game to get around the DRM than to actually pay and deal with the [Digital Rights Management], something has gone wrong,” Kratz said.

Just like other software companies, video game developers are aware of how much their products are being illegally acquired. In the last few years, the industry has seen some companies’ responses to the threat of piracy in a controversial move called “always-on Digital Rights Management.”

This method has been used in popular games like Diablo 3 and Sim City, both of which had launch and stability issues that made some gamers question if always-on was the right route of anti-piracy.

On the eve of May 15, 2012, when millions of gamers raced home to play their new copy of Diablo 3, a game they waited more than a decade for, they were greeted by an error message that is now a famous part of gaming history: “Error 37.”

This error, which appeared for up to a few days after launch, was the result of Diablo 3’s inability to handle so many players online at once. Though the game can be played solo (without anybody helping the player), Blizzard Entertainment designed Diablo 3 to be an always-on title.

On that day, gamers saw one of the first instances where always-on can be an issue. When the servers for an always-on game like Diablo 3 shut down, there is no single player because there is no playable game.

Having a piece of software always connected to the Internet allows companies like Blizzard to have constant control of their products, but every gamer is affected when that control is lost due to a malfunction.

Both Cramer and Kratz encountered the issues with Diablo 3’s launch last year.

Like many gamers, Cramer said, “Diablo 3 was a nightmare for me.”

Kratz said, “I was not too put off by it because I was expecting problems on Blizzard’s end. When you have that many people trying to log in and play the game, of course there are going to be issues, and for me the problems did not last for more than a couple of days.”

A year later, the same disastrous launch happened with EA’s reboot of Sim City. In the first days of its March release, the game was overridden with server issues that made the launch “go down in PC gaming history as one of the worst ever,” according to IGN.com.

Continuous server shutdowns and maintenance had gamers who paid for their game not being able to play.

In wake of both of these events, a rumor has been circulating the Internet that says the next Xbox (expected to be announced this year) will be an always-on console that will not work unless it has an active Internet connection, according to IGN.

The rumor suggests that the console will terminate any running processes if the connection is interrupted for a set amount of time. While this is only a rumor, it has caused always-on DRM articles on sites like IGN to be some of the most-commented of the year.

Cramer said he does not think an always-on console will work, at least not in this stage of gaming.

“I think they are rumors, nothing more,” Cramer said. “It’s definitely not a smart move, even though most of us have access to relatively fast internet, that doesn’t mean everyone does.”

Kratz said he is waiting to hear more about the next Xbox before he makes any judgements, but he does not think the idea of an always-on console is a good one.

“If it does turn out the new Xbox will require a constant connection, then I would definitely get a PS4 over the new Xbox,” Kratz said.