News Mass Effect and Spore DRM detailed

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/05/07/mass-effect-and-spore-drm-detailed/1

The PC versions of Mass Effect and Spore will feature some pretty invasive copy protection - find the details here.

 

please tell me this is some sort of really late, sick april fools joke? Please..... :'( I mean come on every 10 days...

 

Well, that's put me off from purchasing those games now. Instead, I'll wait for a pirate copy to hit the alt.binaries.* groups and get it from there. <shrug>

EDIT: it's in cases like these I'd prefer to donate to CORE or PhrozenCrew for their efforts...

 

What a load of rubbish. It'll take a few days and some warez team will remove the protection entirely, or find a way round it, leaving legitimate customers frustrated and irritated.

They'd be far better off just releasing it on Steam...it's easy to use and non-invasive, unlike this nonsense.

 

Agree on Steam, but I think turning to a pirated version because of this is just shooting yourself in the foot really.

 

Do companies enjoy kicking PC users these days?

God, and I was looking forward to Spore.

 

totally agree with reflux, just release it on steam or make use of steams authentication.......just give valve a lil cash for the service and they'd save a whole bunch on the cost/time of developing this securom krub

what happens if my genuine key gets into the wild...do I have to purchase the game again? what happens if I want spore on my laptop and home pc WHICH I WILL? any idea what percentage valve charges to have a game distributed on steam?

 

What the hell!!?? I was really looking forward to getting Spore, but there's no way I'll buy it if it dials in every 10 days. I don't agree with the principle.

 

Are they really this out of touch?

This whole super-invasive copy protection lark simply encourages people to pirate the game. Crackers will invariably see these kind of implementations a "challenge" to be met and it surely won't be long (maybe 1-2 days or a week max) before you can grab the game (illegitimately, granted) for free without any such restrictions.

Do devs not see this? Do they not realise that the ones who really suffer are the ones who purchased their software, legitimately, in the first place? Do they not see that many people will avoid titles that incorporate such invasive copy protection systems?

Maybe PC gaming has hit a terrbile point. Here's to Valve and Steam for providing the final great bastion of PC gaming.

 

As much as Bioshock's Copy Protection system irritated me... something that needs to be continually authenticated, and then stops the game from working if someone has KeyGenned your CD Key... that's a frickin' joke.

I was looking forward to this, I really was. Oh well, Bioware just lost a sale - and I hope they lose a lot more sales because of people choosing to boycott the game.

...

I give it two weeks after it's official release before the copy protection is broken and the pirates can start playing without all this nonsense. Honesty, why is it that the fight against piracy equals 'try as hard as possible to alienate the paying customers'?

 

its just to easy to pirate pc games now, just look at the stats on COD4, the amount of users playing online with a crack copy was crazy.

consoles are the only safe bet now, useless the user doesn't want to play online at all.

 

Meh, I was going to buy spore, and I still will.

As long as SecuROM doesn't bugger my PC up, everything will be fine - my Machine's online all the time anyway.

It's not a great move, and I totally agree with putting it on Steam. It won't be though, as it's an EA release I think, and they have their own Digital Distribution Model.

Mass Effect I have zero interest in anyway.

 

Oh, I know it's easy to pirate games these days. Heaven knows, most people know how to steal a copy of a game.

Consoles are easier to govern, ala XBL banning modded consoles, but that doesn't stop people doing it. Forcing people to a cheaper platform (No one can deny that PC gaming is expensive these days), with pretty easy to install mod chips, and just as easy to come by copies (Often easier and faster released than PC copies) is just going to bring in a new collection of piracy, for consoles..

 

Ahahah[...]ahaha. A friend of mine has bought a full HD beamer and is just in the process of buying a new PC to play games on the projector. Guess which games he was especially looking forward to play.

He does not have internet connection at his house. He will certainly NOT be playing those games.

 

Will that not send a message to Bioware that we condone these measures? I call for a boycott! (perhaps a poll?)

 

Boo, I couldn't give two stuffs about Mass Effect, but Spore I was looking forward to buying... but I shan't now, just on the principle that buying it will make me feel like a criminal every ten days.

 

Possibly, but they're not going to listen anyway, are they?

These kind of over-the-top copy-protection measures are definitely counter intuitive - they even persuade people who would have bought the game to pirate it.

 

I want official confirmation from Maxis and EA before I believe this. My reasoning, WW has repeatedly said that the game will be playable offline as it will ship with premade content. Now how is this possible when the game will break after 10days? And if they use a phone activation system that provides you with a special key that deactivates the 10day check there's your weakness for the crackers and they shouldn't have even bothered putting in the security.

Why is it that DRM only affects legitimate consumers? I mean i only watch DVDs on my PC atm and the anti piracy warnings have gotten so annoying that i've taken to ripping my collection to HDD just so i dont have to wait 5 min before my film starts.

 

Is it just me that doesn't get the big deal that seems to be being made here?

So every 10 days when you open your game it will take like what, a minute to check its self online and then you can play. Seems like everyone is whining for the sake of it. I agree it seems a bit much, but only compared to what we are used to now. I know this system will fail for a few people and get them really annoyed but thats the same with everything in life. Really this whole process will go unnoticed by most people.

 

If people are driven to pirate by this, and I think they will be, then publishers will make it even more invasive and declare PC gaming dead or dying.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.