AfterDawn: News

BioWare removes rolling DRM from upcoming games

Last week, PC game Mass Effect's producer Derek French confirmed that the game would have rolling DRM, meaning every 10 days you would need to activate the game again over the internet. If you couldn't, you would not be able to play the game.

According to a new Q&A on the company's official forums however, BioWare will be scrapping that type of DRM and giving gamers back their freedom to not phone home if they do not want to.



"BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them," says BioWare community manager Jay Watamaniuk in the post.

"To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us."

That "feedback" was of course, hostile reactions from every community that posted the news, including here at AfterDawn.

For the time being it seems Mass Effect gamers will only have to authenticate their game once (during original installation) and re-authentication will only be necessary to download extra content or official patches.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 12 May 2008 15:12

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• 18 comments

• iluvendo

  Bioware has seen the light and reason !

  12.5.2008 15:26 #1

• xSModder

  haha, freedom rings!

  12.5.2008 15:49 #2

• nobrainer

  Score one against Sony's anti consumer DRM, screw Ur rom (secuROM) but it still requires on-line activation, and sony's orwellian, malware, secuROM is still being used, when will sony stop being anti-consumer and making malware and propertarian lock-ups ffs?
  
  if i purchase this title i will just w8 until there is a .exe fix to bypass the drm before i even consider it.
  
  pc gaming sony'd by malware!
  

  The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
  The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
  The IFPI Are: The same anti consumer lot as listed above!
  The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX.
  

  12.5.2008 16:08 #3

• DoomLight

  they only caved in. cause those twats at bioware/EA would lose lots of customers with such a nuisance like DRM 10 day activation.
  
  can u imagine how bad it would affect GTA4 sales if they had a PC version and it had that annoying crap on it?
  
  you know even people that never messed with pirated copied games would try to get some kinda crack/fix to avoid that type of DRM.

  12.5.2008 16:18 #4

• windsong

  Um....no?
  
  The SecuROM is STILL in there. Only now it is on the same level as that of Bioshock. And that was cracked in a week by DarkCoder. Yet paying customers were pulling their hair out over trying to connect to 2K's servers. I remember the anguish on their forums last year over it.
  
  This is probably what EA had in mind the entire time. Announce something truly Draconian and then wait for the backlash. Then bring out the real DRM without the 10 day activation.
  
  And some of you sheep bought it hook, line and sinker.
  
  As for me, maybe I will just get Vitality's release and send Bioware a check for 40 bucks, bypassing EA altogether. I'll make the check payable to one of the programmers on the team. :)

  12.5.2008 16:58 #5

• fgamer

  I may actually buy this game now, I must say that I wouldn't have bought it if this DRM would've been used..I would've pirated it and used a crack (which odds are there will be a crack). But now I think I'll support Bioware and buy this game.

  12.5.2008 19:09 #6

• ZippyDSM

  Check out the comments here
  http://www.gamecritics.com/mass-effect-f...people-hate-drm
  ---------------
  ME DRM
  10 day re authentication=remvoed
  install limit=check
  online activation=check
  
  put this crap on console titles and see the industry fall the fck apart!

  12.5.2008 21:05 #7

• thor999

  Thx Zippy great link!

  12.5.2008 22:45 #8

• mspurloc

  Originally posted by windsong: Um....no?
  
  This is probably what EA had in mind the entire time. Announce something truly Draconian and then wait for the backlash. Then bring out the real DRM without the 10 day activation.
  
  And some of you sheep bought it hook, line and sinker.---Although I think they'll wait until the next version, you're definitely right about the stealth plan. Don't forget folks, what became Windows Genuine Advantage started out mandatory, became "voluntary" because there was a huge scatstorm. The first time. Then back it came. And again. Until there was no more resistance.

  12.5.2008 23:51 #9

• clamUp

  I wouldn't have a problem with any sort of DRM if copyrights didn't extend to 100+ years.
  
  15 years is more than enough for computer software. I mean really, you can't even give software older than 15 years away.

  13.5.2008 03:52 #10

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by clamUp: I wouldn't have a problem with any sort of DRM if copyrights didn't extend to 100+ years.
  
  15 years is more than enough for computer software. I mean really, you can't even give software older than 15 years away.anything more than 5 years is ridiculous, the reason I have come to this conclusion most media stops being published however this is more for fair trade than typical CP/IP, when it comes to the for profit aspect 15-25 years is reasonable, as long as they are using the IP/CP, the longer it goes unused the less right they have to shelter it but for a few exspmtions (say Disney can keep Disney brand shows/characters but can not vault a show or series that they bought out and rarely/never used) squatting has its price, that price should be as much as a penny for every 2 dollars.

  13.5.2008 08:39 #11

• locobrown

  That's what I'm talking about.

  13.5.2008 10:18 #12

• oappi

  I wont buy games from game studios that even considers that kind of bs.
  
  @windsong
  
  i wouldn´t count on that the game developers didnt want to have drm..
  
  Ffs are these ppl so nuts they think ppl have time to reactivate their every damn game they bought... My isp even had problems with my connection so that i coundn´t connect to internet in 2weeks and next 2 weeks it was half speed. what a wankers i will never give my money to Bioware.
  
  Just forget that damn drm and make better multiplayer modes to your games. If someone doesnt want to pay for the game they miss multiplayer.
  
  
  Death to Bioware and sony! =)

  13.5.2008 11:49 #13

• shaffaaf

  just because most of AD pir8s, doesn't make it right to do so. there are a lot of hard working folk (read non teens) that actually pay for it, because if it wern't for us, there would be no need to make games, and give them away for free
  
  and you dont even need a CD for play anymore.
  
  and the reason its not done on consoles, is because profits are huge on console games. PC games are not raking in the profits they did due to rampant piracy.

  13.5.2008 12:53 #14

• Hardwyre

  Surprisingly (or maybe not-so) the biggest opponent to this DRM was Microsoft themselves. Microsoft believes that most forms of Digital Rights Management is intrusive and anti-consumer. That's why they don't worry about constantly patching their media protections, because they believe that DRM should only be in place to discourage piracy, but it's not their responsibility.
  
  That's why they have such a beef with iTunes because of Apple's ridiculous protections on their overpriced media.

  13.5.2008 13:23 #15

• JRude

  <best possible experience>
  Anytime I hear this phrase I grab the Vaseline and wait for the body slam...I am not a gamer, but to those who are, my sympathies....wait til Sony Blu-Ray gets it's DRM totally cranked up. Sliding in the DRM in stages is an Industry tactic in any format. Vote with your WALLET at the start of incremental stages, not at the end product of DRM...where we will be totally screwed forever.

  13.5.2008 16:23 #16

• burnin1

  Thank god, that was the biggest load of crap ive heard of yet! Score one of the gamers. :)

  13.5.2008 16:46 #17

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by burnin1: Thank god, that was the biggest load of crap ive heard of yet! Score one of the gamers. :)Not much of a score since they probably used it as a marketing tactic, and the install limits are on it which IMO or far worse.

  13.5.2008 16:53 #18