Dragon Age II PC DRM has online check

By Robert Purchese Published 1 February, 2011

BioWare unsure of days offline allowance.

All non-Steam versions of Dragon Age II on PC will require an online check "after a select period of days".

But how many days you'll be allowed to play offline before being locked out, BioWare hasn't decided.

"We'll have more info on this closer to release," posted BioWare producer Fernando Melo on the official forums.

"Not trying to avoid the question, we honestly have not settled on this yet - but also did not want to further delay getting the rest of the information out to you."

These bespoke anti-piracy measures don't do a game-disc check and there's no limit on total game installations. You won't be able to start and play Dragon Age II on more than five PCs during 24 hours, though - as if you possibly could.

Each time you install Dragon Age II you'll need to log into your EA account to verify game ownership. BioWare forum members are automatically EA account holders.

"The login checks are light," Melo added. "It would not be a problem on dial-up, and should not hog up bandwidth or create a noticeable impact on an connection that has a limit imposed by your ISP. You are likely using more bandwidth currently just by surfing on this site."

In other words, gaming laptops should cope just fine on the move.

The non-Steam PC version of Dragon Age II will also include Release Control: software that stops anyone playing the game before street-date release in their region. Release Control does not install anything to the PC; checks only whether the game's territorial release date has passed; unlocks the game when that date hits and removes itself afterwards, BioWare community manager Chris Priestly explained.

Steam versions of Dragon Age II use only Steam DRM. Console versions of Dragon Age II use console-specific DRM.

BioWare talks us through Dragon Age 2 combat.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (55) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Hunam #1 1 year ago

    2008 called. We hated it back then. Still do now.

    Down with this sort of thing.
    Edited by Hunam at 01/02/11 @ 12:14

  • Vitor #2 1 year ago

    No disc check? Seems pretty unobtrusive to me.

    Hate DRM but this seems pretty light all things considered. And, if you really can't stand it, there's always the Steam version. Could be worse, they could have pulled a Ubisoft after all...

  • Der_tolle_Emil #3 1 year ago

    For those who have an internet connection it sounds fairly reasonable.

    Those who do not have internet, well, it sucks. But at least it is not as impactful as the draconic DRM from Ubisoft for example.

  • Spekingur #4 1 year ago

    So, it's kind of like battle.net then?

  • SuperFanBoy #5 1 year ago

    I think it's fine, actually. Steam version has no extra DRM and other version come with a simple online check. Assuming that the "select number of days" will be a reasonable amount (15-30 days seems about right) then I don't have a problem with it.

  • makememoo #6 1 year ago

    For those who have an internet connection it sounds fairly reasonable.

    yes, those hordes of mythical people who spend £800 plus on a gaming computer yet haven't considered it worthwhile to get on the internet.

  • Shikasama #7 1 year ago

    How many days I'll be 'allowed' to play offline?

    Why thankyou, O great Bioware overlords, for deigning to allow me to play thine product which I did verily purchase! Surely the gifts from your bounty knoweth no earthly bounds! Praise be to you, that I may still be able to purchase your overpriced and under quality DLC alongside such benevolent anti piracy measures!

    This game has had 'Fuck Off' written all over it since it was announced
    Edited by Shikasama at 01/02/11 @ 12:31

  • mkreku #8 1 year ago

    I don't like that Release Control thingie. It usually means that the publishers sets an arbitrary date for when I am allowed to play the game in Sweden.. two months after the exact same game has launched in the US. Now, that's a huuuge step back (to the eighties), incidentally to the days before piracy scared/forced movie corporations into worldwide simultaneous releases..

  • SClaw #9 1 year ago

    Haven't played it for a while, but didn't DAO have the same thing? I seem to recall not being able to play any game with DLC content in it if I hadn't logged in. So simple I don't even recall it. So this is fine by me. Just hurry up and release it.

  • bulldosage #10 1 year ago

    Alright. Not buying then. What was wrong with the non-idiotic method in the first game?
    And the main point: WHY? Does that stop/limit piracy? Hell no. Does it bother paying customers? Some of them, certainly. So, WHY?
    Even one-time internet activation is too much for me, especially in a single player title. I must be ALLOWED to play by a server somewhere in the internet? I bought the game in a box, put it in my PC and then have to get a PERMISSION to play? This really ticks me off.
    I'm not gonna support this with my money, even if it works fine technically and I have a good connection over cable. It's a matter of principle.

  • actionfitz #11 1 year ago

    "Steam versions of Dragon Age II use only Steam DRM."

    Well this would be a no-brainer purchase... if not for the 'pants on head retarded' price EA are likely to set the Digital Copy at on steam and other places.
    It comes down to:
    Expensive Steam Version with DRM near universally accepted as unobtrusive by the greater PC gaming community.
    or
    Cheap hard-copy of the PC version sold from your favourite online retailer - with slightly more 'Dickish' DRM.

    I got my PC copy of DA Origins from Amazon for between £17 - £25 i think - my memory is hazey tbh.
    the Steam version of DA 2 will likely be in the £30 - £40 mark.

    /sigh

  • CaptainKid #12 1 year ago

    So?
    Torrents wont have this silly restriction.

  • Murton #13 1 year ago

    As DRM goes this doesn't sound too bad, we've seen a lot worse. All that being said though, it's been proven that DRM does sweet FA against piracy as the pirated versions generally have the DRM measures removed, which means that those who pirate the game end up with a better experience than those who bought it at full price. Assassin's Creed 2 for example had online verification, except on launch weekend the servers were down so nobody could play it, unless of course they had the pirated version that would run without the check.

    It's time that publishers realised that dwindling pc game sales and increasing console game sales might not be solely down to piracy and look at things like release strategy, namely draconian DRM and a lack of marketing on the PC side.

  • Crembo #14 1 year ago

    Pft, why even bother, I don't understand.
    Will be hacked like absolutely everything that was done before.

    Paying customers will have some shitty DRM while pirates will have none of that. (As always)

  • Dizzy #15 1 year ago

    Indeed... this doesn't stop piracy. Pirated versions have all restriction removed anyway.

  • Stratix #16 1 year ago

    They are trying to make the DRM sound less of a pain, but to be honest, I would bet a considerable sum of money that pirates will break the system anyway; the whole point of the DRM will be useless and the only people it will hinder are the people who actually paid for the game. It's been the same way for years.

    This sort of thing puts people off PC gaming.

  • ChthonicEcho #17 1 year ago

    @Stratix
    Not really. It puts people off buying games. Then all the self-righteous developers and self-righteous Internet celebrities will claim that it's piracy endorsing bad DRM, not the other way around. Funny how that works.

  • JoeGBallad #18 1 year ago

    We're all criminals.

  • Ryboy #19 1 year ago

    Who doesn't have Internet?

  • uknortherner2000 #20 1 year ago

    So, basically every few days I need to beg for permission from Bioware to play a game I've fucking purchased?

    Fuck off!

  • arcam #21 1 year ago

    The other big RPG on its way, The Witcher 2, has no DRM whatsoever. It can be played wherever and whenever you like. Completely the opposite of this release.

    Basically, we are all guineau pigs. Each game comes with it's own brand new DRM scheme - it's released into the wild, and publishers sit back and see what happens and how the market reacts.

    I wouldn't mind this so much if we actually had a clue about the results. Did Ubi's method secure them more sales? Did removing DRM from Bioshock increase piracy? Has project $10 slowed second-hand sales?

    If publishers don't want to tell us, then it's up to sites like EG to ask the questions. Surely these are important and interesting questions for the industry?

  • kingmong #22 1 year ago

    @Ryboy:

    I wouldn't expect an answer from them on an online forum!

  • Der_tolle_Emil #23 1 year ago

    You can always do what everyone did back then: Buy the game and download/crack it anyway. Support the developers, screw the DRM.

  • Wendelius #24 1 year ago

    You guys are never pleased. This is lightweight DRM. No disc check, no installation count limit, ability to play offline with a quick server check every few days. I much prefer the latter to having to keep the disc in my drive to start the game.

    Wendelius

  • bad09 #25 1 year ago

    Well at least it's not Ubi DRM and someone there seems to have a single brain cell there so are not piling DRM on top of DRM when selling through Steam, but either way it's still internet DRM on the retail version having to sign in every few days like some crook on probation so I guess that's why the DRM free Witcher 2 from the excellent CD Projekt will be a day one purchase without fail and this won't even be considered.

    I'm a gamers of nearly thirty years and supported them with my money but on PC I'm so fed up with their fucking DRM, the companies who force this kind of thing on paying gamers are utters cocks who deserve all the piracy and cracking (and lost sales) they will most certainly get.

  • uknortherner2000 #26 1 year ago

    @Der_Tolle_Emil: "You can always do what everyone did back then: Buy the game and download/crack it anyway. Support the developers, screw the DRM."

    The problem with that approach is the publisher gets a sale and sees it as further approval for their draconian DRM. It would only serve to encourage them to crush our consumer rights even further.

    Give the fuckers an inch and they'll steal a mile.

  • Red-Moose #27 1 year ago

    This is quite a good compromise, and doesn't put me off a game entirely as the Ubisoft methods have done.

  • Spooke #28 1 year ago

    All this will do is encourage people to not buy it in the shops and download a DRM free version from Bit Torrent. They surely are idiots.

  • Andeus #29 1 year ago

    It is kinda funny though, 'cause this isn't really such a big deal. If anything at least they tried to make it as little noticeable as they could.

    Isn't Steam pretty much a big DRM with Friend chat functions? Haven't you all be using it endlessly all this time? Don't you know that the Steam API checks the validity of the game every once in a while, while you are playing? In fact I think that's how Steam cracking works: they find all these checks and then make them return as "true" so the game can keep going.
    Yes, you can play some games in offline mode but how many of you, and for how long, have you been doing that? Admit it, everyone just stays online thus allowing Steam to work as a big online DRM solution.

    Really, it's not different from what you have been doing the past 3+ years and it wont be more noticeable than how it is now. Boycotting this out of principle is one thing (and its fine too, I'm with you here), being ignorant and acting like it hasn't been like that all this time and that this is something new, is another.
    Edited by Andeus at 01/02/11 @ 14:14

  • Darren #30 1 year ago

    It seems that more and more retail PC games are allowing you to install from the DVD but doesn't require you to leave it in the drive in order to play the game; Two Worlds II and EA's Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Dead Space 2 do this. I like this as it is unintrusive and saves me having to hunt out a NoDVD crack like I used to do. Steam users take it for granted but until their prices are comparable to what I pay online from GAME etc, rather than £5 to £15 more, then I shall continue to buy all my games on disc.

    UbiSoft take note - this is how to do DRM right. ;)

  • Turrican #31 1 year ago

    Not too bothered about the online check as the DLC is usually linked in to that anyway, but annoyed that anyone getting the game a day early from places like Gameplay or Play won't be able to play the game they have in their hands until the Friday. Thats a bit mean.

  • uknortherner2000 #32 1 year ago

    Oh, and what happens when EA switches off the authentication servers? Because, it's not like they haven't switched off multiplayer servers a year after they went up, is it?

    I honestly wonder why I even bother paying for my games anymore.

  • azix2 #33 1 year ago

    Betting the pirate version will be less hassle. Might even work before release date. so fail

  • Grayvern #34 1 year ago

    If they wanted some sort of DRM, why the hell not just steam link the retail copy. For which steam makes a loss to distribute your company's game patches and you can add cloud saves, value added DRM; even if like all DRM it has no hope in hell of working.

  • arcam #35 1 year ago

    why the hell not just steam link the retail copy

    Because it's an EA-distributed title, and EA don't want Steam to get any more successful than it is already.

  • orangpelupa #36 1 year ago

    how about after buy the original game, install. Then just put a crack for the game.

    this way we buy original game, and whatever inconvenience copy protection the developer made, we dont care, and can play whenever we want.

    cracks is very usefull for those like me that often go to small-remote village.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #37 1 year ago

    The problem with that approach is the publisher gets a sale and sees it as further approval for their draconian DRM.

    In this case it's really no draconian DRM at all - it is what Steam has been doing for years and everyone accepts. Of course it's everyone's own choice whether to accept this type of DRM or not. What I was trying to say is that if such lightweight DRM is still bothering you then you will probably be able to play the game without the DRM but without actually pirating it.

  • arcam #38 1 year ago

    In this case it's really no draconian DRM at all - it is what Steam has been doing for years and everyone accepts.

    It's not the same as Steam at all. Using Steam, you have to activate and download the games with an internet connection, but once you've done that can -play offline and never have to connect to the internet again if you don't mind missing out on automatic game updates.

  • Tyranix #39 1 year ago

    The Witcher 2 looks far better than Dragon Age 2 (and yes, I loved Dragon Age 1) and is completely DRM free, so I know where my money is going.

  • 5h1nj1 #40 1 year ago

    Won't buy then. Simple as that.
    Neither the Steam version, of course, since it's basically the same, as someone already mentioned.

  • FortysixterUK #41 1 year ago

    That's why pirated versions of PC games are so popular.
    I assume if you get it on console you wont need to go online to pass the games DRM before you can play.
    I suppose Battlenet isn't that intrusive ( which this may be like ), as long as you can play your game singleplayer with no internet connection.

  • xsoulbrothax #42 1 year ago

    @spekingur

    Yeah, agreed - isn't this almost exactly what Blizzard did with Starcraft 2, depending on how many 'offline' days it allows?

  • djed #43 1 year ago

    You are correct, SClaw.

    Additionally, Dragon Age required a separate process to be running on your computer if you wanted to play any DLC.
    You know a game that doesn't give you shit like this and is about 3x as good? Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. Just get the wide screen patch and read up on THAC0 (BLARGH)

  • Der_tolle_Emil #44 1 year ago

    I was pretty sure that Steam forces you to go online every once in a while as well. Maybe that was indeed never the case or they changed that.

  • FooAtari #45 1 year ago

    @actionfitz
    "Well this would be a no-brainer purchase... if not for the 'pants on head retarded' price EA are likely to set the Digital Copy at on steam and other places."

    Wait for the sale. I don't buy anything full price on Steam, it all goes on sale at some point.

  • immateriaux #46 1 year ago

    Think having a Steam version, which uses an online validation and then offering an off-line package/disk which, er, uses online validation, is kinda limiting really and a bit stupid but, as others have noted on here, being, as I am, another person that does indeed have a nice stable internet connection it is a trivial matter to exclude those that don't. We can, in fact, point and laugh at them given that, not having an internet connection, they can't even come on here to reply. Stupid anti-nerds, screw them and their inconvenient geographical locations.

    Though fortunately for them, as it is just DA II, they're not really likely to miss much.

  • TheJediWookie #47 1 year ago

    Steam version it is for me then, the lesser of two evils.

    I really do despise all of this DRM stuff though, I NEVER acquire games illegally, yet I have DRM cr@p inflicted on me. It's just plain wrong.

  • lockload #48 1 year ago

    I really need to get round to finishing the first one before this is out

  • lockwoodisbored #49 1 year ago

    Just wondering, I'm on a STRICT budget and cannot afford the net each month (nor do I have a tv licence - but I don't care about tv), what will this mean for me? I suppose I can buy a retail copy but not play it? *sigh*

  • curtlikesmeat #50 1 year ago

    Was on the fence after having mixed feelings about the first. Thanks for the update EA; I'm out. DRAMA!11

    But seriously, I'm out, Dragon's Den styleee. I just don't like showing support for stuff like this. To be honest was more interested in the Witcher 2 anyway, so it's not like I'd bother to download an inevitably cracked version.

  • jimr9999us #51 1 year ago

    Thank you pirates!

    If anyone thought dev's/publishers would tolerate giving even one copy of a $50-100 mil US title away, welcome to the future.

    And for those who decry, "I'm not gonna buy DRM" get a new hobby. It'll be easier to fly trans-atlantic than play your new game soon enough, and we won't have any choice.

  • Gastrian #52 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 17:56:43 13-04-2012

  • djed #53 1 year ago

    @Gastrian

    Yea, but that's a one time thing. After you've downloaded it, you'll never need to connect to the internet again (and be at the mercy of EA/Valve's validation servers). Furthermore, if you uninstall the game, you can reinstall it quickly and hassle-free, not needing to wait for a slow internet download/DVD-ROM.

    EDIT: That is why I usually play the pirated versions of games I've bought.
    Edited by djed at 02/02/11 @ 03:06

  • Shakey_Jake33 #54 1 year ago

    I've long been concerned about how quickly some people will give up their consumer rights, and the problem is becoming worse as concepts such as DRM become more accepted coursdes of action

    They are expecting you to ask them for permission to use the product that you have purchased. It's as simple as that, and the fact that people accept this is disturbing.

  • uknortherner2000 #55 1 year ago

    @shakey_jake33: "I've long been concerned about how quickly some people will give up their consumer rights, and the problem is becoming worse as concepts such as DRM become more accepted coursdes of action"

    Some people will happily surrender their rights out of some misguided loyalty to the developers. At the end of the day, all these developers care about is their "intellectual property" and the bottom line.

    In the case of BioWare, I don't get this "loyalty" or "love" for them at all, especially from PC gamers. When Mass Effect was released, it was released with hidden installation limits (just three of them) and an aggressive form of SecuROM. When gamers complained on the official forum, they were banned.

    BioWare don't give a shit about the fans any more and haven't done since EA bought them out, and the sooner people realise that, the sooner greedy scum like this will fall by the wayside.

    Some people have called for another videogame crash like the one from the early eighties. As far as I'm concerned, with draconian measures like this, the crash cannot come soon enough. Console gamers will balk at "whiny" PC gamers for being treated like paedophiles who have to prove they're not molesting kids every week, but they should be taking note: What happens on the PC today will happen with the next gen consoles tomorrow.

    Some people would argue that I am being self-entitled for wanting companies to respect my consumer rights. As far as I'm concerned, I'll wear my yellow-star "entitled consumer" badge with pride.
    Edited by uknortherner2000 at 02/02/11 @ 11:20