Atari defends Riddick PC DRM

By Robert Purchese Published 16 April, 2009

But wants to eventually remove it.

Atari has defended the decision to use DRM to protect the PC version of The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena, claiming only 10 per cent of owners have used one of their three installations, and only four people have been unable to play because of the anti-piracy measures.

"There has been a lot of talk lately about DRM and how it was implemented in Riddick and there is a lot of misinformation being tossed around," writes administrator MajorHavoc on the official Riddick forum. "DRM is not designed to keep you from playing the game, nor is it designed to combat any after-market sales."

"I want to make it clear that there are people who are monitoring activations so if and when we get into an issue with people not being able to play that issue will be addressed. Should the case get so severe it affects a large portion of the gamers, more activations will be set in place as needed. Further down the line the DRM will be removed and a new unprotected .exe will be released.

"So to summarise: if you buy Riddick legally on the PC we are going to do our best to make sure you can play it for as long as you want," says the post.

MajorHavoc reveals that one serial number had over 50,000 activation attempts, and that the four unlucky customers had first tried to illegally activate their games before being manually sorted out.

The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena launches for PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 here on 24th April. The game is already out in the US, though, where it has picked up solid critical acclaim - Metacritic averages each version out at around 80 per cent.

Developer Starbreeze is also on top of early problems, and has released a PC patch addressing various ailments.

Head over to our Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena gamepage for our thoughts and look out for our review soon.

Thanks, Voodoo Extreme.

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.

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

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Comments (32) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    "nor is it designed to combat any after-market sales."

    Yes it is. That's not the only reason, and not the one MajorHavoc would agree with, but I'd bet the publisher does it for that reason.

    I bet those 4 people who couldn't activate it were 4 who wouldn't take it back to the store, as I would - it's not fit for the purpose it's sold for (playing) if it won't work. I usually hate taking stuff back.

  • seasidebaz #2 3 years ago

    Those 4 people were the ones who used the key that had been installed 50,000 times though. They deserve to have been caught.

    edit: or they had tried to bypass copy protection. Either way, they deserved it.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/09 @ 09:51

  • seasidebaz #3 3 years ago

    Forgot to add, Dawn of War II prevents after-market sales. You get ONE activation on Steam and that's it, it's yours forever. The guy in GAME even told me you can't take it back if it doesn't work as the first thing you need to do before installing is activate it. At least with Riddick you get 3 installs.

  • paketep #4 3 years ago

    @seasidebaz: If they had tried to bypass the copy protection, they could have (even with no idea how to do it) done it using google in 5 minutes tops. That's what is so sad about DRM: fucking your customers for nothing.

    I agree with you about DoW2. But 1 install or 3 installs is the same: BS. If I buy the game, I want to install it as many times as I wish.

  • wonton #5 3 years ago

    I think there's a mistake, it should be only 10% have used more than one installation.

    A bit silly if only 10% of buyers have actually played the game :)

  • Darren #6 3 years ago

    Silly EG, don't they bother reading what they've posted!!! I, for one, do not believe that 9 in 10 PC gamers have bought games and never bothered to install them! :o

  • ZuluHero #7 3 years ago

    i once used up my number of allowed installs on a game. But i just phoned the company's support line and they reset it for me. A bit inconvienent but nothing too bad really.

    They seem ready to deal with those 4 legitimate users that might go over the install limit...
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/09 @ 10:30

  • Red-Moose #8 3 years ago

    DRM for this game was implemented on my computer by me not buying it at all.

  • actionfitz #9 3 years ago

    /PC facepalm
    /DRM fail

    /xbox win

  • Rirekon #10 3 years ago

    DRM is the real reason the PC market is dying, if it's available on a console I'll get that over the PC version 9 times out of 10

  • [TR] #11 3 years ago

    @paketep: Forget about installing and playing when and however you want. Seasidebaz's point is actually a lot more worse than that. You buy the game, install it, find out you don't like it so much or it doesn't run so well on our PC and you can't even return it. That's some serious "fucking costumers for nothing". Even the demo needs Steam.
    BTW, kudos for using costumer and not consumer.

  • makeamazing #12 3 years ago

    No the real reason the PC market is dying because of muppet Pirates, seriously if you cant see that 50,000 pirate activations is bad, then theres nothing i can say to convince you.

    I do some work for a small software company, and every pirate is a headache, all these idiots do is soak up support time trying to get "their" copy working, and guess what... support takes time and money.. Once they are found out, then they usually use the lame excuse that their brother or friend gave them the serial code. I really dislike pirates because they dont even care about the damage they are doing, but still want to use the software. So I for one dont have alot of problems with DRM.

  • skillian #13 3 years ago

    @seasidebaz:

    I have installed Dawn of War 2 twice already so not sure what your point is there - you certainly don't get limited to very few installs like seems to be the case with Riddick. No, you can't sell it on, but we all know that about Steam games.

    And regarding the article, saying only 10% of customers have installed it more than once doesn't really mean anything when the game isn't even out in half the world and has only been out a week in the US. It actually seems like quite a high number to me for such a short period of time.

  • seasidebaz #14 3 years ago

    @skillian: I meant that you can sell Riddick on with 2 installs left if need be. You can't do that at all with Dawn of War II, which gives you infinite installs but only on your own Steam account.

    edit: I should also add, I purchased the boxed copy of DoW. The disc is now useless.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/09 @ 11:54

  • ZuluHero #15 3 years ago

    "edit: I should also add, I purchased the boxed copy of DoW. The disc is now useless."

    Nonsense - it still has loads of uses. Youtube some Blue Peter episodes! :p

  • Ryuken #16 3 years ago

    Well, the DVD/CD should only be used for installing, no-one likes DVD/CD checks (hi there, console people). But yeah, Steam is a more effective second-hand sales prevention technique than the install limit idd.

    That being said, in the case of DoW II people have a chance to try it out now with the singleplayer demo and if they bothered to notice the game before they could have tested the multiplayer for a month in the beta.

  • AbyssUK #17 3 years ago

    I used to think DRM and high prices caused pirates, but then 2dboy released world of goo which was awesome in so many ways, had no DRM and was only 9.99.... it was a torrent on the day of release and downloaded like crazy. It deserved better and I stupidly thought that the general pc games playing people would stand up and be counted and world of goo would prove that DRM is hurting the industry more than aiding it.. but no they couldn't part with 9.99 for one of the best games in years and after 2dboy released figures on piracy rates I cannot really see how games companies cannot use DRM.

  • skillian #18 3 years ago

    I purchased the boxed copy of DoW. The disc is now useless.

    Me too, and I never even took the disc out of the box. All that packaging, manufacturing, transportation, picking and packing, delivery, all a complete waste of money, time and carbon dioxide because I just typed the number into Steam.

    It is such a terrible waste of resources it is almost criminal. That's the worst thing about DoW2 and other Steam games I reckon.

  • Gormless #19 3 years ago

    The laughable thing is DRM hurts the people that buy the game not the ones that don't. Its like paying a tenner in to the cinema and having to sit though the adverts telling you piracy is wrong, what are you telling me for, i have paid for the bastard!

  • Unknown27 #20 3 years ago

    @AbyssUK

    I see your point re World of Goo but sad as it is it would have been pirated just as much even if it was filled with all the DRM under the sun, because it can be beaten. That's the big issue with DRM is that pirates can get around it seemingly incredibly easy! There's probably not a game out just now, DRM or not, that you can't get from the likes of torrents or usenet. I used to buy all my games for my PC cos i'd spent alot of moeny upgrading it but after GTAIV and DoWII i'm not buying anymore because i'm sick of having to install software I don't want or need just to play a damn game, it's ridiculous. So now I buy all my games for my 360, disc in, game on, no mucking around.

    So yeah I share your view with regards to World of Goo but unfortunately DRM would not have made a blind bit of difference.

  • dsmx #21 3 years ago

    never ceases to amaze me that people say pirates are killing the PC market, the PC market is bigger than any other games markket so STFU about it piracy killing it.

    secondly pirates are cheap bastards who funnily enough are never affected by DRM ever so I fail to see what if anything DRM actually does.

    Why do people still insist on thinking DRM effects pirates all it does is annoy people who buy the game, every pirate on the face of the planet never has to worry about it.

  • Zomoniac #22 3 years ago

    The guy in GAME even told me you can't take it back if it doesn't work as the first thing you need to do before installing is activate it.

    I'd put a lot of money on GAME losing if anyone tried to challenge that in court.

  • Maledictus010 #23 3 years ago

    I kinda wish the PC market was dying because people stopped buying these drm nightmares. For a few years now i watch games as they come out and if they have this sort of drm on it, i skip them. Over the years i've skipped dozens of games because of this. I'm most likely not alone in this, so maybe there's something there. Mind you, i don't pirate games at all. If i don't buy them, i don't play them. Even so, i think piracy doesn't affect game sales. People that pirate (i know a few) wouldn't have bought the game either way, they pirate because of the 'coolness' factor (and yes, they're idiots. they have the attention span of a goldfish and play their pirated game until the next big release hits the torrents. hardly people that appreciate games).
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/09 @ 13:00

  • Bitkari #24 3 years ago

    "So to summarise: if you buy Riddick legally on the PC we are going to do our best to make sure you can play it for as long as you want,"

    How about you just don't put in the restrictions in the first place?

    This customer, at least, won't be buying Dark Athena while it has this sort of DRM installed.

    That's 1 lost sale, Atari. Start counting.

  • TheSnotGoblin #25 3 years ago

    Just for the record, whilst this game is available to download everywhere, there still isn't a crack; just leaked serial keys which get shut down pretty quick. So like it or loath it in this case the DRM is (thus far) working.

  • Paper #26 3 years ago

    @paketep

    DoW 2 on steam is unlimited installs. Download it and install it as many times as you want. It's just restricted to your Steam account (which is only more than fair).

  • dingo75 #27 3 years ago

    Ok so I wait for this hitting bargain bin and then the promised patch should be out.
    Win for me. Loss for the publisher. :)

  • dnd #28 3 years ago

    @skillian

    how is it DOW2 (or Relic if you will) or Steam's fault that you decided to go out and buy a physical copy of a game that was available on Steam anyway? If it hadn't been on Steam, how would the environmental impact have been different? You'd still have a physical copy with all its packaging and discs.

    I know it's more expensive on Steam most of the time, but at the end of the day if you're that concerned about the environment, why didn't you just buy it on Steam in the first place?

  • seasidebaz #29 3 years ago

    @dnd:

    £10 difference, 5.something less GB to download. I don't know about skillian but I reckon those are the reasons he bought the disc too. It comes with none of the benefits of a disc-based game though.

    Ah FFS, I just remembered something. You can sell it on. When you install from disc it asks you for the activation code or the license revoke code from the original purchaser. So it is better than buying off Steam by a long way and has better DRM than most other games.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/09 @ 15:51

  • Dynamize #30 3 years ago

    So to summarise: if you buy Riddick legally on the PC we are going to do our best to make sure you can play it for as long as you want,

    No, you're clearly not. To do that, you'd figure out some form of DRM that didn't make me reliant on contacting you if, for whatever reason, I need more activations or whatever.

  • autogunner #31 3 years ago

    since you cant get this game yet in the UK this article is a moot point... AND the pirates still havent cracked it, lazy barstards. looks like i am going to have to wait for the preorder from shopto

  • smelly #32 3 years ago

    yeah yeah.. DRM is evil.. drm ate my hamster.. we all hate drm.. even though it doesnt effect any of you in the slightest (except that this is the latest internet thing to complain about).

    It doesnt stop piracy.. but yet the same serial number had 50,000 activation attempts?

    Whatever - dont know why i bother.. trying to talk common sense to a internet forum of people who've been rhiled up by the "latest thing to get upset about" is like trying to tell a stadium full of robbie william fans they have no taste in music.