Dragon Age won't use SecuROM DRM

By Robert Purchese Published 5 May, 2009

But will use 144 voice actors.

Dragon Age: Origins will use a simple disc check instead of SecuROM digital rights management, BioWare has said.

"We're happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication," writes community manager Chris Priestly on the official forum.

"In other words, the retail PC version of the game won't require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play. We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare."

BioWare used SecuROM to protect the PC version of Mass Effect from pirates, but soon watered down the authentication measures because of negative feedback. EA has used SecuROM often, but also came under fire from the Spore community for limiting how many times a person could install their paid-for copy of the game.

Meanwhile, BioWare's Twitter reveals that the dark fantasy RPG is using 144 voice actors to bring the script to life.

The company released a beta version of the Dragon Age toolset for fans to test out recently, and assures us this is merely one of the ways Dragon Age in which will expand once it's on the market this autumn.

"We'll also be supporting the game with a ton of great downloadable content that will be available for purchase after the game's release. Together these features will provide some very cool reasons to go online with Dragon Age: Origins."

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 (22) 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

    I hate SecuROM. This is good news to me :)

  • videogangs #2 3 years ago

    It's good to know the voice acting won't have Oblivion syndrome.

  • jim1975 #3 3 years ago

    i'l bet a fiver that this game takes the record for the most pirated game ever.

  • Emortal #4 3 years ago

    Any pirate with some decency will buy this :)






    hmm...

    I think you're right Jim1975..

  • dsmx #5 3 years ago

    The amount a game is pirated can't be measured accurately and there is no proof that any form of DRM cuts piracy as a result.

  • Plewt #6 3 years ago

    I for one is more likely to buy it without DRM than with.

  • DFawkes #7 3 years ago

    It's specifically SecuROM I despise, it's screwed up no less than 3 of my computers, and I've only had 3! All for different reasons, but badly implemented DRM like that shouldn't be dignified with being used at all.

  • jim1975 #8 3 years ago

    @ DFawkes

    How did DRM screw your 3 PC's.

  • Evolution #9 3 years ago

    So that's 140 more voice actors than Bethesda use?

  • DFawkes #10 3 years ago

    Not irrepairably, you understand. My current one the shell extension stopped me bring able to right-click things without crashing Explorer, but I shut the extension off and it's totally fine now. My last one it would crash after a predetermined period of time, but uninstalling all SecuROM games and then SecuROM fixed that - I think that was a bug with older versions of SecuROM though. And the first computer wouldn't read CD-Rs anymore.

    Sorry if I used any of the wrong terminology, fixing stuff is easy enough but knwing what it's called isn't :)

  • skillian #11 3 years ago

    Still not sure about this game - liking RPGs a lot more recently, but something about what I've seen is making me apprehensive.

    Still, this is one more entry in the pros column I guess.

  • hiddenranbir #12 3 years ago

    Only 144? Terrible.

    Make it 145 and maybe I'll accept the epicness of Generic Age.

    Nice to know about no SecuROM.

    @evolution - lol too right!


    @jim I'll take that bet.
    Edited by 1 at 05/05/09 @ 15:46

  • smelly #13 3 years ago

    DRM killed my hamster.. it did.. honestly... or at least i know someone where it did.. or some other kind of bullshit...

    >The amount a game is pirated can't be measured accurately

    A few weeks ago there was a story that GTA on the DS had sold just 88,000 copies.. A quick look around the torrent sites at the time, i found over 250,000 people seeding it.

  • Nithron #14 3 years ago

    I don't see how removing DRM would cause an increase in piracy, when pirated copies don't have DRM in them.

    I'm glad to see that more companies just aren't bothering with DRM at all now, but... it never seems to be on games I actually want anyway. Except Fallout 3.

  • AphoticCosmos #15 3 years ago

    Meh, don't care about DRM either way, but 144 Voice Actors? Mass Effect didn't have that many and I didn't get a single instance of deja vu on any of my playthroughs of that with anyone's voice . . .

    Impressive, though.

  • metalangel #16 3 years ago

    144 actors? Wow. Will they have the same 'eyes slam to the right, head turns to the right and slides off screen in two seconds' 'exit' move of NPCs in Mass Effect too?

  • DarthMorbus #17 3 years ago

    I'm glad to hear it doesn't have SecuROM. That was pushing me towards a console purchase of the game (due to the fact that for some reason my optical drive regularly decides that it cannot even detect any discs with SecuROM on them). The non-inclusion of SecuROM means that I don't have to wonder if the game won't be detected.

    Now I just have to hope I meet whatever spec is needed to run it nicely and then it will definitely be a PC purchase.

  • smelly #18 3 years ago

    "I don't see how removing DRM would cause an increase in piracy, when pirated copies don't have DRM in them"

    Because having DRM makes there an extra step to pirating something.

    Without DRM, when i were a lad at school, the mums at my school used to swap game cassettes for us to play. Piracy was so easy, even my mum could do it. If all it takes to burn a game, is to copy the cd, my mum could do that too! My mum would struggle to mess about with torrents, download a crack, get infected by a virus because the keygen was dodgy, etc etc...

    See?

    Or maybe not.. maybe i should just try to "fit in" on interweb forums and join the crowd and just do what everyone else does. Hmmm.. Okay.. DRM is evil... DRM KILLED my computer, and all my friends (it went in and murdered them).. and stuff.. honest.. i read it on a forum somewhere.. etc etc.. SecuRom is evil too, lets forget that it's been used in games for over a decade now, and just jump on the latest internet bandwagon of hate which says it's evil (and it being evil is NOTHING to do with the pirates struggling to remove newer versions of it.. just like that had nothing to do with "starforce" being labelled as evil, etc etc).

  • Nithron #19 3 years ago

    It's got a disk check still? A securom disk check. So... You've gotta crack it anyway before you copy it?

    So y'know, casual piracy is still prevented.

    Or aren't you finished ranting against everyone who doesn't agree with you yet?

  • Gastrian #20 3 years ago

    Glad its not got SecureROM. Its because of DRM I can't install my legit copy of Sacred (it thinks because I have a DVD burner I'm pirating the game).

    And Smelly there have been a lot of people with a lot of DRM problems, some of it is more invasive than a virus and reconfigures your OS without your consent and in some cases has actually broken machines by interfering with temperature controls and overclock settings.

  • Spekingur #21 3 years ago

    DRM only affects you because it already knows that you have pirated stuff. It is sentient, it is. *taps finger on nose in a knowing manner*

    Many props up for the guys not falling under the usual piracy/DRM panic. If it gets published over Steam and/or similar then that should be enough to make it an easier access for the ready-and-able buyers.

    Plus, there are no established facts DRM enabled applications are pirated any more or less than non-DRM enabled applications. That's just the DRM making companies creating 'the fear of god(s)' in you so you'll be more likely to buy their 'solutions'.

  • litote #22 3 years ago

    DRM killed my grandma, honest.... she was just sitting there, drinking orange juice, and it sprang from my hard disk to stab her in the chest, leaving an EA sign carved into her....awful.... since then i don't buy any game with drm anymore, poor grandma...