AfterDawn: News

DRM killed Gears of War for PC

Digital Rights Management (DRM) has nowadays a widely spread reputation to break things and make things more complicated. Another nail in this coffin was struck when gamers realized that they're copy of the Gears of War for Windows didn't start up after January 27th.

The problem was that the game developer Epic had added a digital certificate that expired Jan 28th. When the system date hit this day the game wouldn't start up anymore. It could be said that Epic and its Games for Windows partner Microsoft unintentionally promoted pirated version of the game which is not affected by the certificate.



The unhappy gamers quickly found out a way around the problem. By setting the Windows date back in time before Jan 28th you'll have a functioning game again.

Epic is currently trying to find out a way to find a solution to the problem. The company hasn't yet told if the certificate was added by accident or if the game should have been updated before the date.

Written by: Matti Robinson @ 30 Jan 2009 7:04

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• 18 comments

• Stu_dent

  Yet another epic fail for game developers and DRM! Microsoft and Epic might as well just emailed the link for a pirated version of the torrent at this rate!

  30.1.2009 07:52 #1

• Buga

  Sad, Sad, Sad. I used to be a hard-core gamer. They have slowly taking all the gamer out of me. With Over-Hyped, Over-Priced games. Adding crud that needs constant updates, because they released a game well before it was ready. I'm back to playing board games as I did as a kid. At least those will work as the are supposed to every time. LMAO
  
  Whats next, my toilet won't flush cause it needs an update. DRM my front door, so Im locked out. My shoes wont tie cause I already wore them x amount of times.

  30.1.2009 08:23 #2

• tatsh

  Quote:Epic is currently trying to find out a way to find a solution to the problem.Looking? Is that the official statement? It is called remove the functions! You have the source code after all! Every one who bought the game should demand a refund. I would be email bombing Epic right now if I bought the game.

  30.1.2009 08:27 #3

• Clownzill

  Like Buga, I'm getting sick of all these "advancements" that the new generation of games gave us. Does anybody remember when a game had ONE chance to get everything right? Once it was burned to the ROM or CD then it better of not been wrong or the game company would have one heck of a game replacement lawsuit. Granted, games are more complex now but that does NOT excuse a company from releasing buggy games. Take some of those R&D dollars and place them into more sophisticated quality assurance processes. This coupled with the standard practice of not releasing a complete game anymore (must buy 15 expansion updates to have a full game)makes me enjoy my board games that much more.

  30.1.2009 11:03 #4

• Hopium

  Originally posted by Buga: Sad, Sad, Sad. I used to be a hard-core gamer. They have slowly taking all the gamer out of me. With Over-Hyped, Over-Priced games. Adding crud that needs constant updates, because they released a game well before it was ready. I'm back to playing board games as I did as a kid. At least those will work as the are supposed to every time. LMAO
  
  Whats next, my toilet won't flush cause it needs an update. DRM my front door, so Im locked out. My shoes wont tie cause I already wore them x amount of times.amen

  30.1.2009 12:15 #5

• gnovak1

  Originally posted by Buga: Sad, Sad, Sad. I used to be a hard-core gamer. They have slowly taking all the gamer out of me. With Over-Hyped, Over-Priced games. Adding crud that needs constant updates, because they released a game well before it was ready. I'm back to playing board games as I did as a kid. At least those will work as the are supposed to every time. LMAO
  
  Whats next, my toilet won't flush cause it needs an update. DRM my front door, so Im locked out. My shoes wont tie cause I already wore them x amount of times.Very well put and my feelings exactly. I'm actually playing those 20.00 games you can get on Yahoo games. No DRM and bug free so far.
  Some are actually very cool.
  
  With DRM in games now, i'm not a gamer like i used to be. I dont care too much for online because i'm sick of hearing 15 year olds yelling curse words at me on my headset. Single player is way too short for the 60.00 you pay.
  
  Gaming is sure changing a lot.

  30.1.2009 14:43 #6

• lamain

  I did not even look in to buying Gears of War 2. It had nothing to do with DRM though. It had to do with the people I normally play games like this with would not wait and played it on the Xbox360. I just did not feel like playing it solo like I did the last one.

  30.1.2009 15:00 #7

• badkrma

  to Buga .... ditto. I agree with everything you said and I think there are more that do too.

  30.1.2009 17:35 #8

• ZippyDSM

  Oh? DRM? I thought ti was bad coding lackluster porting that killed the game....

  31.1.2009 00:30 #9

• blueroad

  Originally posted by Buga:
  Whats next, my toilet won't flush cause it needs an update. DRM my front door, so Im locked out. My shoes wont tie cause I already wore them x amount of times.
  liked the one with the shoes lol
  ive actually stopped playing franchised games..more of an online player now..and if i get bored of that i just DL the newest PSP game out that looks the most intresting and hav a few fun hours with a cup o coffee..hmm reminds me ...i think star ocean 2 will be out soon ^^

  31.1.2009 08:53 #10

• plutonash

  This game had some massive problems when it came out. People were losing saves bc of Windows Live, played like shat on computers that crushed the recommended specs including mine, game ending bugs. What a piece of sh1t. Couldnt even imagine this.

  31.1.2009 15:05 #11

• windsong

  Yet one more reason to hate on CliffyB and everyone else in the universe with his name. Guy should be executed firing squad style for his seeming ability to f*ck up even the simplest coding jobs and then cry havoc when people warez his lame attempt at a competent pc game.

  31.1.2009 18:04 #12

• gamecheif

  This is why PIRATING has increased over the last 3 years Lol the industry i think needs one more loss such as the magnitude of Spore then i think they will get their acts together.
  
  This DRM shit that they think is Stopping pirates from using their games is complete bullshit i think theres a bigger scheme with the black box "addon". If you asked me its meant to be Break your system after a certain time. You guys already seen what starforce can do to hardware is it so far fecthed to believe it can get worse. Hell, DRM already embeds itself in your registry i wouldnt put it past them thats its doing much more then that.

  1.2.2009 01:39 #13

• lxhotboy

  Originally posted by lamain: I did not even look in to buying Gears of War 2. It had nothing to do with DRM though. It had to do with the people I normally play games like this with would not wait and played it on the Xbox360. I just did not feel like playing it solo like I did the last one.
  
  That would be a lot of endless looking. I dont think Gears of War 2 will be released for the PC. I heard it is an exclusive as devs are tired of the higher piracy rates on PC. Xbox360 exclusive.

  1.2.2009 19:27 #14

• wazzat

  After MS came out with newer versions of Directx and my game controllers stopped working correctly, that really threw a blanket on game playing. That was also before game copying. Then it was a search for new controllers. And then faster, bigger computers. Different functions to control games for every game. Then high prices. Copy protection. Sony Securom. I'm installing Win95/98 and going back to the old games. No new Directx. On this old AMD1300 I got for free. Screw the new games.

  2.2.2009 08:26 #15

• Oner

  Originally posted by lxhotboy: Originally posted by lamain: I did not even look in to buying Gears of War 2. It had nothing to do with DRM though. It had to do with the people I normally play games like this with would not wait and played it on the Xbox360. I just did not feel like playing it solo like I did the last one.
  
  That would be a lot of endless looking. I dont think Gears of War 2 will be released for the PC. I heard it is an exclusive as devs are tired of the higher piracy rates on PC. Xbox360 exclusive.I would hope so as the 360 really needs to keep it's "exclusives"...um, well, exclusive.
  

  
  
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  2.2.2009 08:31 #16

• ZippyDSM

  Quote:Originally posted by lxhotboy: Originally posted by lamain: I did not even look in to buying Gears of War 2. It had nothing to do with DRM though. It had to do with the people I normally play games like this with would not wait and played it on the Xbox360. I just did not feel like playing it solo like I did the last one.
  
  That would be a lot of endless looking. I dont think Gears of War 2 will be released for the PC. I heard it is an exclusive as devs are tired of the higher piracy rates on PC. Xbox360 exclusive.I would hope so as the 360 really needs to keep it's "exclusives"...um, well, exclusive.Not really since bad ports equal exclusiveity as well..why else would GOW PC be so bad?
  
  :P
  
  Also FF13 is going on PC as well :X

  2.2.2009 14:17 #17

• maxikaz

  Does this game need DirectX 10 to be played?
  

  
  

  2.2.2009 16:11 #18