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May 7th, 2008 @ 08:40
According to this AngryPixel report, the PC version of Mass Effect will only allow you to activate the game three times and will self-check its key every 10 days. From the site:
According to Derek French, Mass Effect, scheduled to arrive on the PC this 28th, will employ the same SecuROM online activation system that was initially put into Bioshock, allowing the buyer to activate his copy of Mass Effect for 3 times before politely asking to him / her to go to hell, that is, contact the customer service “helpline” to get it reactivated. And while the game itself wouldn’t require the DVD to be physically present in the drive, it goes one step further and phones home every 10 days and re-authenticates just to make sure legit customers are not the worst form of criminal scum publishers swear we are.
The authentication, which will be initialized every time you run MassEffect.exe, will send the CD Key and a unique machine identifier to the activation servers, which will be cross-referenced with the data that was sent when the game was initially activated.
Blimey. More through the link.
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May 7th, 2008 at 9:06 am
PC gaming’s great, isn’t it? I can’t remember why I ever gave up on it.
May 7th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Jeez. Next: finger print scans on mouse buttons.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:28 am
Generally, for the average person this will be just fine 99.999% of the time. So what’s the problem. PC users deserve to be treated with a little caution because so many of them can’t be trusted!
If doing this helps a studio to get the reward they deserve, perhaps hinders 20 honest people who will get their problem sorted quickly and hinders 10,000 pirates who never get their problem sorted… well, I would think that’s a positive thing.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Because the pirates will crack the protection within seconds of it hitting the streets anyway and it’s therefore the honest consumer that bears the brunt of any ‘fantastic’ copy protection issues.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Ditto. There will be a hack within a month or two.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:47 am
I wish there was some bulletproof solution to PC games piracy. I fucking hate it. I love PC games, and it really does make me sad when companies like Iron Lore go bust. It’s not like PC games are even that expensive. Like, to an extent I can understand film piracy, because they’re very short and they cost quite a lot by comparison, but I paid a tenner for Dawn of War and the add-on the other day. I’ll be playing if for weeks. It’s not a lot to ask, is it?
May 7th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
It isn’t, but never underestimate the lure of getting something for FREE. I’m sure a lot of people see it as £10 spent when it could be a tenner in your pocket after a little bit of rooting around on bit torrent.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:37 pm
i wasn’t going to buy it and now i’m still not
o/
as for the piracy issue, Steam and it’s ilk are the solution, not an ideal one but the only one i can think of
May 7th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
The “harder” the protection, the worse it will fuck up when it does.
Make a great game and you won’t need protection anyway, just look at Oblivion for example. I cannot remember it selling badly.
May 7th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
bioshock took about 2 weeks but was eventually cracked.
ill be pretty surprised if this isn’t as well.
i really think that if the price of PC games came down to £20 brand new than this would help.
be fun to watch all the various groups slagging each other off as they desperately try to be the first to release a working crack.