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Far Cry 2 Uses SecuROM DRM
by Chris Faylor, Oct 15, 2008 7:17am PDTPublisher Ubisoft has confirmed that the PC its open-world shooter Far Cry 2, which hits alongside the PS3 and Xbox 360 editions on October 21, will use a slightly different configuration of the SecuROM DRM technology found in Spore and Crysis Warhead.
Ubisoft forum manager bukowski113 posted the details on the game's official forum:
You have 5 activations on 3 separate PCs. Uninstalling the game "refunds" an activation. This process is called "revoke", so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems. You can upgrade your computer as many time as you want (using our revoke system) Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations can be provided. Ubisoft is committed to the long term support of our games: you'll always be able to play Far Cry 2.
Upon Spore's release, the game's DRM generated a fair amount of controversy, to the point where someone filed a class action lawsuit against publisher EA.
EA CEO John Ricitiello recently spoke out on the subject, admitting that while he doesn't personally like DRM, it is needed to fight piracy and is "something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn't notice."
Comments
It's not just the pirates that are killing PC gaming now. I'm getting ready to give up on PC gaming.
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Plus, who thinks DRM works? Hackers crack the executable and get rid of any protection. Online based protection isn't per se more difficult to remove.
I bought a game. I played the game. Now I want to sell that game to a friend of mine, or craiglist or whatever.
1. This is fair. This is legal. This is the first sale doctrine, and it's the way shit works.
2. Publishers and content developers generally hate it that we can re sell things we own. They wish that everyone who EVER gets enjoyment out of their product has to pay them. This is not the way physical goods work, but that's what they want.
So, by adding DRM they can also restrict resale without directly saying that's what they are doing.
My point here is that a used-goods market increases the market value of a new item. If I can resell a game for $15, I'm willing to pay more for it new. If, thanks to DRM, I can't resell it, then I am willing to pay less for it new. This is fundamental shit here, and the content people don't ever talk about it. Publishers, if you reduce the number of installs, or generally dick around with my ability to transfer a game from computer to computer, or person to person, then you better expect people see a real reduction in the value of your product.
It's not all about pirates, or peoeple who want to give their friends free copies, or people who don't want secuROM on their computers. There's a fundamental economics issue here. DRM actually does reduce the value of the product in an unarguable way.
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Multiplayer:
- Disconnexion issues have been fixed at loading time and ingame
- Invitations are shown in the main online menu and in the lobby
- A few bugs in squad management have been fixed
- Fixed a minor display bug while displaying Overall ranking score at the end of a game session
- Number of particles have been diminished when the corresponding option is set to low.
- No longer display the 'invite' command when the player you want to invite is already in your game session
Singleplayer:
- This patch fixes the infamous 'unlockables' bug.
- The gadgets the player unlocks by completing secondary objectives can be used in the next missions.
Still plenty more bugs left, but Ubisoft can't be bothered to fix those. They're more worried about getting the next game out the door to take your money. If you can't be bothered to release a fully functional game and fix the bugs, then I can't be bothered to pay for your game. It's always a nice excuse now to say "people pirated our game that's why it didn't sell". Instead of the truth that "we released a crappy port, with features removed, and bugs we'll never fix and people didn't buy it".
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I know I'm going to forget to uninstall all these DRMed games and eventually it'll catch up to me and I won't be able to use them anymore.
Hopefully after 4 or 5 years Ubi will issue a patch that removes all the restrictions on their games like Epic would eventually remove the CD check from the Unreal games.
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Was any of the DRM (including...*gasp*...STARFORCE) really THAT bad?
Still gonna buy the HELL out of dis.
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I also realize that they have the right to protect their property, but they need to figure out something that actually works. The only people complaining about the DRM and other protections, are their customers. Pirates don't give a shit.
I didn't realize this, and it negates any negatives I can find in this.
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I won't be buying this game.
The only people this could affect are those who reformat frequently without uninstalling this game or those who get a new computer every few months and again, forget to uninstall Far Cry 2.
It's completely ineffective at preventing piracy, but it's not much of an inconvenience to most consumers either.
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At least Ubisoft was upfront about having SecuROM activation, as opposed to EA and Crysis, who said absolutely nothing regarding Warhead until the early adopters found out by themselves.
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Like what... I can install the game 5 times simultaneously on my 3 PCs? Like, if I wanted to have the game installed 3 times on my desktop and then 2 times on my laptop, that would be it, right?
What possibly could be the advantage of having a game installed MULTIPLE TIMES ON A SAME COMPUTER?
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A. Steam has superior piracy protection already without needing a revoke system.
B. I do NOT want SecuROM and its buggy, invasive, memory hogging process on my machine putting the performance and functionality of my system as a whole at risk.
C. It doesn't really do anything to stop serious pirates.
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Steam has fallen... No more hope :(
At least with Steam it should be easy to deal with "revoking", like it was with Bioshock; delete the game through Steam and you'll have your activation back. This is reasonable. I don't want to micromanage my damn activations separately.
And there should be a counter somewhere saying how many activations do you have and on what PCs you have your games activated (like name + some basic info you can gather).
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I just don't want to think about this stuff, I bought some activation restricted music some years ago and that was the first and last time, even though in that case the activations "regenerate" over time. Too much annoyance whatever rational arguments they ever put into their PR messages.
In that timeframe I bought a new pc, and used two different PCs plus 2 notebooks. Yeah I don't have to install it on everything including my toaster but ffs I don't want to think about if I am ABLE to.
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I canceled my Spore purchase and I'm getting DeadSpace for the 360 due to these decisions on including malware with their games. I know it sucks that PC gamers are smarter than consol'ers and it's harder to sell us bullshit. I think the industry is hating on PC gamers because they're smarter...
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The purpoe of DRM isn't to stop piracy. It's just a holdover unitil the lawsuits do their thing against torrent trackers.
These install limits will be in effect until one year after release date.
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