BFBC2 SecuROM to be erased

By Robert Purchese Published 17 March, 2010

Valve's Steam authentication favoured.

The Steam edition of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will ditch SecuROM in an upcoming game patch. Valve's own authentication service will be used instead.

The update, version 522175, is imminent. Apparently there's a bit of extra QA on Steam to bypass.

All non-Steam users can download the patch now. Unfortunately, a few problems appear to have cropped up; members of the BFBC2 forum report crashes to desktop after installing the update, and some are having account login issues.

There's a full list of changes on the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 forum.

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 (21) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • Der_tolle_Emil #1 2 years ago

    Nice move. I'd much rather use Steam Authentication than installing those aggressive copy protection systems. Although I'm not quite sure if SecuRom has to be installed to work.
    Edited by 1 at 17/03/10 @ 09:47

  • Rirekon #2 2 years ago

    @Der_tolle_Emil ; Oh SecuRom installs, it just doesn't tell you it's installing which is why it's so hated

  • Der_tolle_Emil #3 2 years ago

    I wasn't sure at first. Probably confused it with SafeDisc; Or whatever it's called. I do remember though that I ran into some problems with my burning software once due to a copy protection but it was a long time ago.

  • tiny_Eggy #4 2 years ago

    BF BC2 has a fairly mild version of securom in it.

    Btw. it's possible to play BF BC2 without a disc in the tray.
    Edited by 1 at 17/03/10 @ 10:03

  • tossetaz #5 2 years ago

    #1 Look for the paul.dll file in a games install directory, that file means it's using SecureRom, and yes BFBC2 on Steam currently has it :)

    OT: Wonderful news - this probably means that those nasty deauthorize menu options in steam will disappear.
    Edited by 3 at 17/03/10 @ 10:09

  • Segnit #6 2 years ago

    I don't have BFBC2 yet thank you EA and DICE. Definitely a future purchase on steam. First I gotta finish Silent Hill Shattered Memories though.

  • KayTannee #7 2 years ago

    Yeh hope the deauthorise buggers off, I just know I'm going to forget to do it before I reformat next time.

  • cianchristopher #8 2 years ago

    Nice going EA, now please do exactly the same for Crysis ans Crysis Warhead on Steam and your Steam catalogue will be 100% DRM-free - thereby making you the best, most consumer-friendly external publisher on the Steam platform...

    Pretty please? With sugar on top?

  • Sunyavadin #9 2 years ago

    EA have a bad history with Securom. Amazed they still used it.
    It was convinced my copy of C&C3 was a pirate one. Ironically I had to GET the pirate version to play.

  • thesombrerokid #10 2 years ago

    very well done EA! this rectifies my only gripe with EA in over a year!

  • bad09 #11 2 years ago

    TBH SecureRom has never actually given me any problems (yet) and I'd rather that than the Ubisoft crap any day of the week, but good on EA as when sold through Steam I don't really see the need for other forms of DRM.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #12 2 years ago

    It just wouldn't be a Battlefield game if it wasn't godawfully unstable.

  • brod #13 2 years ago

    I don't understand why they thought putting additional DRM in the Steam version of a game was a good idea in the first place. It's not like it prevents piracy.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #14 2 years ago

    I'm sure it wasn't supposed to be in the game at all and that's why it gets removed by an early patch. They probably did not have enough time during the beta and were busy fixing other things.

    Edit: Ranked down for the above post? Interesting.
    Edited by 1 at 17/03/10 @ 15:44

  • lunnytoon #15 2 years ago

    For those of us who bought the retail version i wish i could link it to my Steam account so i can join my friends games like Epic did with UT3

  • tossetaz #16 2 years ago

    @lunnytoon: actually the steam integration in bfbc2 is quite bad at the moment, you can't join the game through the usual friend system, you have to use the ingame friend system like everyone else

    also no steam achivements :)

  • lunnytoon #17 2 years ago

    @tossetaz Well thanks for that, i was unaware that Steam users were having issues with their friends, hope they sort that out. Also very surprised that there are no achievements, i would have thought they would just bring the 360 and PS3 achievements/trophys across.


    Also i don't know about anyone else, but when i have recieved and accepted friends using the in-game system. Sometimes when i have logged off and then back on again the game tells me that i have to accept the request all over again. It's done this a few times now and it's annoying, why can't it just remember lol.

  • Bitkari #18 2 years ago

    *puts EA back on Xmas card list.

  • bad09 #19 2 years ago

    "*puts EA back on Xmas card list. "

    Still I bet they are off all the C&C fans lists (well except their enemy lists!). Ubifail EA, Ubifail...

  • smelly #20 2 years ago

    So DRM is bad? Unless it's steam DRM (which the pirates dont seem to have an issue with yet) which is good?

    Personally i've always found steam to be cumbersome.

  • sneetch #21 2 years ago

    Steam as DRM is fine, especially as Steam itself provides useful services (friends list and voice especially). Personally I don't care much about DRM one way or the other, apart from the "always online" DRM that Ubisoft are using now and EA used in C&C.