Mass Effect PC requires net connection News
PC News by Robert Purchese
BioWare has said you will not be able to play the PC version of Mass Effect without an Internet connection.
This is due to SecuROM copy protection features that try to revalidate your CD key online every 10 days after installation. Miss it and you will not be able to play the game until a successful check is made.
SecuROM, you may remember, was at the heart of authentication problems in the PC version of BioShock.
However, BioWare assures us that EA is "ready and confident there will be no server problems". And if there is, then all the necessary customer support is in place to answer your calls.
Priestly was also keen to point out that previous PC titles Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic and Jade Empire all used SecuROM in one form or another, and that this wasn't a product of the recent acquisition by EA.
Pop over to the official Mass Effect PC forum for a full FAQ and the recently released system requirements.
For those wondering, Mass Effect PC will be a conversion rather than a rushed port, featuring improvements such as plenty of hot-key slots, individual squad commands, faster loading times, less texture pop-ups, speedier elevators, and free Bring Down the Sky content.
Head to our Mass Effect PC interview for plenty more on that game and others BioWare is working on, or digest our Mass Effect Xbox 360 review for an idea of what to expect.
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GamesConnoisseur
07/05/08 @ 11:07
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This may drive more people to piracy to bypass the protection hassle, it is simply piracy itself that caused the protection to be featured in such PC games!
Chicken and Egg? /Daydreaming of playing Chuckie Egg on BBC Micro at school |
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It's about time that software companies woke up to the fact that adding these kind of security checks does essentially nothing to deter piracy but does really annoy their paying customers. Not only that, but they're paying security companies to make their products worse - hard to think of a better example of throwing good money after bad.
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DyingAtheist
07/05/08 @ 11:11
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I raise my hand with the legions of others before me to say 'I was going to buy it, but now I won't. Good strategy Bioware.'
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Britesparc
07/05/08 @ 11:11
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If it's noticable in any way that'd be a real pain, but if it's just chugging away in the background and you can't tell I don't really see the problem. On a practical level, that is, there's certainly something to be said for loss of liberties and ethics and whatnot...
Like DVDs that have unskippable ads against piracy that the nefarious pirates edit out when copying the DVDs... I completed ME on Xbox last week and seriously wanna go back. It ain't perfect but I love it to bits. |
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I'm still failing to see how anti piracy measures are doing anything to stop piracy, the only thing I can see is that they cause more piracy as people get more fed up with intrusive copy protection schemes. Any game with securom I will not buy so I guess that means I'll be getting the pirated copy of mass effect and spore since they've decided to put securom on that as well. Great decision EA you just lost 2 sales.
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monkie_king
07/05/08 @ 11:28
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Perjoss, I think the complaint is that EA is treating genuine owners of the game like criminals. Having to submit to surveillance in order to use something you've already paid for really isn't very consumer-friendly.
The thing publishers need to realise is that the people who pirate a game were never going to pay for it anyway. They'd either copy it, or just not own it. A pirate copy doesn't represent a lost sale, and you're certainly not going to increase sales by adding draconian security measures. |
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QPRHOOPS81
07/05/08 @ 11:40
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Damn it this is the reason ive not picked up bioshock. I really want it but no way in hell im filling my PC with this crappy spyware. Really wanted this too, shame.
I agree this sort of behaviour makes people who would never nomally pirate a game very very tempted. I really dont see what it solves as pirate copies remove it anyway so it does nothing to stop pirating, infact boosts it. |
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To all the people who are saying, "what's the problem with rolling online activation?", what happens if the company goes out of business? No more activation means no more playing the game.
The company doesn't even need to go out of business. Look at Microsoft: they're switching off their servers for their old "plays for sure" music DRM. Come August you won't be able to re-activate your music if you re-install Windows or buy a new PC. My immediate reaction is they can go fuck themselves. Onerous DRM will lead to lower sales and more pirating. They'll then say that the PC is dead for games because of this. Doh! Do these businesses not see the irony in the pirate version offering a better experience to the consumer than the purchased one?
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 07/05/08 @ 12:49
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Fallen_Angel
07/05/08 @ 11:47
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Overzealous Piracy protection is a problem, like Bioshocks, whereby you could only have it on a certain number of systems etc, or Starforce. This on the other hand seems like a decent halfway point. Yes not everyone has always on internet, but of that demographic, how many are going to have a system that can run Mass Effect? As long as this isn't overbearing and is simply a case of "Your game is still official - ok done", then there is no reason it should be a problem.
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@Perjoss -
1) Not everyone has internet at home 2) Many people still have non-continuous connection where they have to pay for the time they are logged on (like dial up or pay as you go connections) 3) Even people with broadband experience problems and the internet can go down - why should I be unable to play my single player game just because my router is having a fit? I got more. This is the dumbest idea ever. At least with steam, you download the game and then activate it ONCE immedietely. If you donwloaded it from steam, your internet is obviously working and activating it at the end of the download is not annoying at all. Very, very, very unwise move... |
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Fullvacation
07/05/08 @ 11:52
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I was holding up on this one (the 360 version), waiting for the pc version of the game. Now, I'm not buying it of course. It's not that it's hard to be online every ten 10 days, It's just that I hate the idea of being forced to do it. Are we on probation now?
It doesn't really matter how good a game is, I just don't like this kind of crap. The orange box, for example, is the kind of game I don't think twice about buying, great games, great value. But I skipped it due to steam. EA sucks |
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All the problems with this on grounds of principle I agree with. Like the war on terror the war on piracy is filled with measures that have no impact on the problem, only antagonise and criminalise the innocent.
Also there are practical issues. As someone who is sent to other places now and then for a time with no guaranteed internet connection I need two things: 1. My laptop with the games I want to play on it. It's that or madness (and having to talk to the sweaty guy from projects as he eyes up women he can never have in the hotel bar. I know my limits, learn yours big boy!). 2. Preferably games that don't require me to lug all my CDs round with me but DEFINITELY don't require the internet to run. This is why Steam works for me and this game, which I was considering, and sadly Spore will not be bought. |
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tigerdazzle
07/05/08 @ 12:14
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@ perjoss
I'm assuming that there are plenty of people who would of installed this game onto a laptop and played while on the move. So authentication every 10 days prevents this. Another stupid EA idea and another lost sale!! |
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Once again we have a publisher assuming their customer base are a bunch of low life thieves with no concept of copyright ownership. By making this assumption they lay down draconian rules to alienate them further. What bothers me most is how Bioware, a long standing supporter of PC gaming has agreed to these measures? Didn't any of these people see how the people behind Sins of a Solar Empire didn't have any copy protection yet still sold shed loads of copies? To quote from that game's developer 'We don't like treating our customers like criminals'. Instead they release updates exclusively to those that have bought the game and lock out online multiplayer modes to those that have copied the game.
This cannot go on. I was going to buy the game but now I'm not so sure. In fact I'd rather get an illegal copy now as at least it saves me the hassle of having spyware on my PC. See what you did there EA? You made me consider getting a pirated copy of the game because youb are morons. Good job. |
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Well, i'm still gonna get it. I just aint gonna pay for it.
This is retarded for multiple reasons. Firstly: It wont stop piracy. Steam uses virtually the same method. Did it stop piracy? Nah. Secondly: The whole time that companies like this treat their customers like shit, their customers just wont care about pirating their software. If these software companies released decent games at a reasonable price and didn't arbitrarily mess about with your computer in the name of copyright protection, it'd be a lot harder to justify ripping them off through piracy. As it stands, they treat their customers like crap, so you know - why should anyone care if they're costing them money by downloading copied games? |
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