Game News Dragon Age - No DRM Rape

[Jason]

Tags: BioWare; Dragon Age

Here's a nice bit of <a href="http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/46763/Dragon-Age-Origins-DRM-Announced" target="blank">good news</a> regarding Dragon Age:
<br>
<blockquote>We’re happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. In other words, the retail PC version of the game won’t require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play. We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare. </blockquote>
<br>
<i>Thanks to Szioul for the tip</i>

 

[Shannow]

Hey, might be a bargain bin purchase after all.

 

[BethesdaLove]

It will flop anyway.
At least now they wont pay horrendous sums of money to some russian ex-cracker for "copy protection".

 

[Zeus]

Victory!

 

[Monocause]

So EA has finally come to it's senses after the Spore catastrophe? Good. That means I'll be able to use my try-before-you-buy (tm) privileges a week before scheduled release instead of a week after. And they'll get butthurt by piracy less since they'll save on the copy protection scheme.

I've been wondering recently - how much a license for fe. SecuROM costs, and how many additional copies a game has to sell to make profit. I've found a tidbit (though I can't tell the credibility of the source) that that's a lump sum payment for the license plus some cash for every copy of the game in print. The guy cited figures like 10 pence per cd. Let's say, 50000 cd printed for DA, that's five thousand bucks, plus some other ten thousand bucks for licensing, support and updates etc. I don't know how realistic a figure is that since it's all based on some internet guy's unproven knowledge, but if what he says was true, Bio/EA would pay ~ 10-15 thousand bucks for the DRM. I don't believe that DRM schemes increase sales enough to be worth it.

 

[Thrasher]

That's not very much.
I'd guess it's even more.

 

[Azrael the cat]

It will flop anyway.
At least now they wont pay horrendous sums of money to some russian ex-cracker for "copy protection".

For some reason, that just got me thinking of an alternative means of 'copy protection'.

3 pasty pimpled russian geeks speaking English in feux-cockney cockney accents rock up at Bioware/Bethesda/EA etc's door late night during crunch time and give the old thug's 'You know, you really ought to pay some strong guys like us to give your little enterprise here some...'protection'...We'd hate to see anything horrible happen to it...'


Then when the protection money gets paid they go around personally hacking the fuck out of each and every individual who illegally torrents the game. Hey, it would work better than the current model

 

[Chefe]

Good choice, Bio.

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Though it pains me to say so...

Good choice, Bio.

 

[NiM82]

Though it pains me to say so...

Good choice, EA.

Fixed.

 

[Spectacle]

It will flop anyway.
At least now they wont pay horrendous sums of money to some russian ex-cracker for "copy protection".

For some reason, that just got me thinking of an alternative means of 'copy protection'.

3 pasty pimpled russian geeks speaking English in feux-cockney cockney accents rock up at Bioware/Bethesda/EA etc's door late night during crunch time and give the old thug's 'You know, you really ought to pay some strong guys like us to give your little enterprise here some...'protection'...We'd hate to see anything horrible happen to it...'

This reminds me of the Stardock-Starforce debacle "Pay up, or someone might post a torrent of your game... we wouldn't want that, would we?..."

 

[WalterKinde]

I'll believe it on release day, this is EA we are talking about after all.

 

[Jaesun]

Yea, It makes me wonder how EA caved in. It makes me wonder *cue dark ominous music* if they have some plan that somehow requires some type of authentication for updates/patches.

 

[Monkeyfinger]

It will flop anyway.
At least now they wont pay horrendous sums of money to some russian ex-cracker for "copy protection".

For some reason, that just got me thinking of an alternative means of 'copy protection'.

3 pasty pimpled russian geeks speaking English in feux-cockney cockney accents rock up at Bioware/Bethesda/EA etc's door late night during crunch time and give the old thug's 'You know, you really ought to pay some strong guys like us to give your little enterprise here some...'protection'...We'd hate to see anything horrible happen to it...'


Then when the protection money gets paid they go around personally hacking the fuck out of each and every individual who illegally torrents the game. Hey, it would work better than the current model

And then the torrenters post on a bunch of forums going "BAWWWWW I INSTALLED THIS GAME AND IT GAVE ME A VIRUS WHICH FUCKED WITH MY COMPUTER". And then the game flops and the developer and publisher both go out of business.

 

[lefthandblack]

I've been deliberately avoiding all information about this game thinking that there was no point in getting interested in something that I would end up boycotting because of drm.
I hope this is true, but considering this is EA we are talking about, I won't believe it until it is released.

 

[Chefe]

It will flop anyway.
At least now they wont pay horrendous sums of money to some russian ex-cracker for "copy protection".

For some reason, that just got me thinking of an alternative means of 'copy protection'.

3 pasty pimpled russian geeks speaking English in feux-cockney cockney accents rock up at Bioware/Bethesda/EA etc's door late night during crunch time and give the old thug's 'You know, you really ought to pay some strong guys like us to give your little enterprise here some...'protection'...We'd hate to see anything horrible happen to it...'


Then when the protection money gets paid they go around personally hacking the fuck out of each and every individual who illegally torrents the game. Hey, it would work better than the current model

And then the torrenters post on a bunch of forums going "BAWWWWW I INSTALLED THIS GAME AND IT GAVE ME A VIRUS WHICH FUCKED WITH MY COMPUTER". And then the game flops and the developer and publisher both go out of business.

Hey, just like Titan Quest!

 

[DemonKing]

What?!? You mean I have to have the disc in the drive to play!!!!

This is outrageous BIO, and a step backwards from the ME release.












:wink:

 

[Arcanoix]

Now when everyone pirates the fuck out of it, BioWhore/EA will make games strictly console-exclusive, not even bothering to port to the PC. R.I.P.

 

[Black]

I foresee that the game will flop and EA will bame it on the pirates and put even MORE DRM into their next games.
You read it here first.

Now when everyone pirates the fuck out of it, BioWhore/EA will make games strictly console-exclusive, not even bothering to port to the PC. R.I.P.

Suggesting that EA is the only publisher on the PC? And that it publishes worthwhile games? Good going.

 

[Monocause]

Now when everyone pirates the fuck out of it, BioWhore/EA will make games strictly console-exclusive, not even bothering to port to the PC. R.I.P.

You think that DRM hinders piracy? Heard about Spore? DRM hinders piracy practically only in the first few weeks after release, and that's the aim of publishers - so that people will buy a legit copy instead of waiting for a cracked release to appear.

Every single game that got any popularity at all was, is and will be pirated back and forth. My opinion is that the publishers should try to think of a way to use that to their advantage instead of lobbying for foolish legislation and spending money on absurdly restrictive DRM schemes that hurt legit customers and actually turn many to piracy (Spore again).

Piracy is an excellent way to garner publicity for a title - if it's good. In game non-intrusive ads are a great way to make money from the pirates too. Pirates can enrich the community by making mods. A lot of them wouldn't buy the game anyway even if they couldn't pirate it, so it's good business sense to try and squeeze at least some money or other profits from this demographic.

 

[Solaris]

It seems to be the new policy for EA, getting rid of DRM on their games, I guess the Spore fiasco and probably ME as well gave them a lot of butthurt. I think they mentioned Sims 3 will be the same, just serial and disc check.

Well, not getting too excited about DA anymore but this helps I guess, since I hate DRM with a passion.

 

[MetalCraze]

Looks like it was yet another classic "You think our games are shitty, eh? Well how 'bout we add some DRM? How do you like it now bitch, huh? And now we will make it like it was before. "Good choice EA! You're improving" "

 

[Twinfalls]

And skyway bitches about it.

Still, it's one less excuse for that substantial group of retards on this site who will nonetheless download this, play and enjoy the fuck out of it, then either pretend they didn't play it - or post about how fucking bad it was.*

edit: *as an excuse for their piracy, in case that wasn't clear.

 

[FeelTheRads]

retards

I liek FAllout3!

 

[Darth Roxor]

retards

I liek FAllout3, cuz VD sayd he lieks it!

fixed