Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon announced for PC and iOS
Demon Hunter is most popular Diablo 3 class, and other infographic stats
Metro: Last Light DLC and season pass detailed
Microsoft considering 1 vs. 100-style game for Xbox One
Hands up, down, and around with Kinect for Xbox One
The Chronicles of Riddick DRM Sparks Outcry
by Chris Faylor, Apr 09, 2009 10:22am PDTReports that the PC version of The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena can only be installed three times have sparked another round of outcry from the extremely vocal PC community, though publisher Atari says these reports aren't entirely accurate.
The PC version of Starbreeze's stealthy first-person shooter does indeed have a three-machine install limit, Atari told Shacknews in a statment, but customers can acquire more activations, assuming "it's a legitimate request," by calling the Atari hotline.
"We implement this protection in an effort to avoid early piracy," explained Atari. "The [initial] activation code lets you install the game on up to 3 machines, with an unlimited number of installs on each assuming that you don't change any major hardware in your PC or re-install your operating system."
Concerns arose earlier in the month after an Atari Forums post, citing PC Gamer, claimed that the DRM was non-revocable. This led many to believe that a copy of the PC game could only ever be installed three times, with no chance of recovery after that.
In response, Amazon.com was flooded with negative reviews and one-star ratings for the game. One review claimed that "DRM restrictions have left this game unplayable," adding "it isn't even any good." Another was titled "3 Installs: Piracy wins again".
Machine-based activation limits are nothing new in the land of PC DRM. Far Cry 2, Spore, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, Crysis Warhead, Dead Space and many other titles have used this particular technique in an attempt to restrict piracy.
Typically, legitimate owners can either revoke past installs or call customer support for assistance if they find themselves hampered by the limit.
An enhanced remake of The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (PC, Xbox) with an entirely new campaign and the addition of multiplayer, Dark Athena (PC, PS3, X360) launched in North America this week, and arrives in Europe on April 24.
Thanks to everyone that sent this in.
Comments
This kind of DRM works to prevent a small amount of physical sharing, without going too far I might add. Like your friend borrowing the game at school then passing it on to 4 other people to load onto their PC's. A small portion of people might actually buy games from word of mouth but also might have borrowed the actual game before they would think of downloading illegally. Lets just say this is .5% of the RiddickPC sales.
If I was running a business and knew I could increase profit by 0.5 or 1% on a product by eliminating a certain small element of software "sharing" with mild DRM, I would take the measures. Some people don't understand how much that .5% adds up to. I wouldn't put some insane starforce malware bullshit on it, but I'd try to work out something.
Reactivation of the key after the 3rd install is only mildly annoying for this purpose. Sure doean't prevent cracking, but just for 1 second, think the people who actually run large companys have a plan you may not fully understand from behind your pile of mountain dew cans.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
I was going to have a link to piratebay.org with the search command "dark athena" but I'm sure anyone that knows ANYTHING already knows that if they want to get a PC game for free DRM means NOTHING.
Convincing the publisher that it's impossible.
What is the problem with DRM? I have added a new Video card and sound card many times and it has never locked any of my games? I personally would rather loged on to a server that unlocks my game once and never have to worry about it again then have a program that has admin access to your computer. I will never understand why people prefer Steam? That program has god rights and is needed to run your games online or off, it can crawl and do anything it wants to your computer. Is not just hand shacking with an authentication server once not a better solution?
Ya of course if you need to re install you computer you have to manually uninstall all your games to get the credit back so what?
There is nothing wrong with DRM, those bitching list your issues, and prove to me why a full Admin application connected to the internet is not worse than a onetime DRM check (not to slash Steam).
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 34 replies.
The only reason I ask is that I played the previous version on the xbox and was excited this game was coming out. I want the best experience but I'm not gonna mess with DRM.
p.s. I don't buy PC games with DRM anymore
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 10 replies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGYx35ypus
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 22 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
This is exactly like Mass Effect all over again for me, I was looking forward to the PC release of that for so long, but ended up not buying it due to the DRM, I waited for it to hit steam. I can wait for this to have a patch/tool released before I buy it as well, though this is also something I've been really really looking forward for a long time. Steams has found a good balance of DRM I and most people can live with, I'll buy it in a heartbeat if it's put on there without the additional activation limit.
It's the poinlessness of it that bothers me the most; It's going to be cracked, widely distributed and enjoyed by pirates long before legitimate (in terms of actually wanting to pay for it) fans get around to buying it, and by that point it'll be discounted and dev will make even less, and that's on top of what they're paying the DRM supplier. I'm almost tempted to buy it on PS3 instead, but then that's another datapoint in the "PC gaming isn't profitable" reports. Only one being screwed by this is the dev themselves. :(
What are PC gaming fans supposed to do? If we don't buy it we're over-reacting paranoid faggots and might be screwing the devs, if we do buy it as-is we're letting them know they can get away with pointless DRM, if we pirate it we're legitimizing their need for the DRM and other scare tactics in the first place :(
GOD DAMNIT.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Seeing the patten here? In this day and age, the anonymity of the internet has lead to an "I don't give a shit about developers, they just owe me games" mindset. Piracy is exactly what DRM is addressing.. People buying one copy and foregoing payment by distributing installing on many machines. As someone else mentioned, DRM is way less invasive than most copy protection schemes and doesn't require a client to be running all the time.. Funny thing is that steam requires internet all the time, yet people are opposed to copyprotection/DRM on the grounds that it OCCASIONALLY requires internet.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 10 replies.
I dont think I'm alone when I say "Fuck you and go bankrupt."
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
and I wanted to buy it! damn... EA is slowly coming to their senses and "experimenting" with games without intrusive DRM (i.e. sometimes they do nasty DRM, sometimes they don't)).
People are finally realizing that DRM doesn't work. So why this?
Maybe Atari thought they did good with Alone in the Dark. Maybe they didn't realize that piracy was low because the game was crap and no one bothered...
sigh...
Solution: make the retail version lower quality in addition to the $50 vs $0 price tag.
/facepalm
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
I have no idea if DRM stops 'extra' piracy or not, but the money spent on DRM is wasted money IMO and could be spent developing the game to be even better. I think a simple copy protection would be enough to stop common piracy much like your average DVD movie. The hardcore crackers will always find away around any DRM and seed it about the net so why waste the money? I like many other average joe's just buy the game and play it. I do not waste my time finding a pirate copy, installing all kinds of crap to get it working and chance getting a nasty virus.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 9 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 7 replies.
Why do publishers do this?
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Ok then make a contractual obligation that you will release an update to remove this on all your DRM games in two years from launch date. After all, the concern is only early piracy right?
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 7 replies.
Except the time you are wasting? Time = money
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
The up side is, this is $50 I can put towards a new hard drive instead. Hey, maybe with an added terabyte of space I'll even consider taking up piracy. Thanks Atari!
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 2 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 7 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 5 replies.
You must be logged in to post.