Event like the Gears of War DRM debacle perfectly illustrate why Digital Rights Management is such a bad idea for the PC platform.
As a software developer myself, I can guarantee that there is no such thing as bug-free code. Any piece of software that has more than 50 lines of code in it is going to have bugs, and any bug fix can introduce additional problems. So anytime a developer adds functionality (like say DRM) to a product they are adding new possible problems.
When new functionality improves the game experience, this increased risk of problems is worthwhile to a gamer, but the addition of DRM usually provides no experience improvements. This is why Valve’s Steam has so much customer buy in. Games are digitally distributed so there’s no CD/DVD required in the drive and I can buy and play a game without having to leave my house, and Steam allows me to download my purchases again if I need to.
With the exception of MMO’s, I’ve stopped buying PC games except through Valve’s Steam or Stardock’s Impulse.
Game publishers (and movie studios) need to look at what happened with the music industry. Record studios pushed DRM in different forms for years without success, and now both iTunes and Amazon are doing great business without any DRM at all. Customer’s pay for convenience and quality, not hassles. Pirates won’t pay no matter what kind of protection is included.