So how else are they to prevent hundreds of thousands of people downloading it and installing it without buying it on release day???
How???
Those people are STILL downloading and installing it without buying. The fact the game has SecuROM doesn't mean shit. It's already cracked.
And how to prevent it? I dunno. Make a great game that people will want to play, and stop worrying about the piracy? Oblivion had no copy protection whatsoever, just a simple disc check. It sold... what? Four million + copies?
Stardock has put no copy protection on their Galciv 2 game (nor its expansions). All they asked was that if you install it on multiple PCs, that you please don't play it on those PCs at the same time. There's no check for that. They just asked, and NICELY, I might add.
Galciv2 has sold enough that they've already released several patches that includes tons of new features, they've released a patch that implemented a whole new GRAPHICS ENGINE, and they're working on their second expansion pack.
Much as the publishers would like for you to believe it, it's definitely possible, and FEASIBLE, to release a game without copy protection and still make plenty of money. Bethesda and Stardock have done so, and made out like bandits.
Egosoft, to quote another example, chose to go with Starforce, and found their sales to be very low for X3, partially because of it.
(and partially, I think, because X3 = X2 + better graphics, but okay.)
If I buy a game I expect to be able to install it 75,000 times if I want to, without having to call Pradip in India who doesn't speak english, and having to try to explain to him that if my fucking harddisk dies, it means I have to reinstall shit.
Creston
Where is a working crack and download for the game? I am not aware a real working version is out there to bypass the online authentication yet. As for the securom disk check, yeah that does nothing and is easy to bypass.
Starforce sucked hard and needed to die, I don't really put securom into the same bag yet.
Stardock just had great timing with so much starforce hate. They announced no copy protection, were applauded for it. I even applauded them for it. But not every game can do that today, they had great timing because people were at the apex of starforce hatrid.
I still think the solution is remove the ease of piracy, something few fighting against copy protection really want to see happen. Remove the actual cause, then devs don't have to fearful of putting their business and lives on the line in trusting people not to download it for free. I couldn't trust my patrons to buy things and not steal. I wouldn't do it in a retail store by leaving it up to peoples ethics (some people don't have them), nor can you really do it online.
Overall, copy protection is crap and is worthless and penalizes the buyer. I understand this quite well. An online authentication is what I have been asking for for years and is far better, but seems to have it's drawbacks with this implementation. I Ghost too so I won't be immune, but I am not going to attack the game or devs for these decisions. I still think it makes perfect sense that 2k can have Securom pull the 2 install limit in a few months when the game sales severely decline.