Dragon Age II DRM Explained [Jan 31, 2011, 9:40 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
A forum thread on the BioWare Social Network goes into detail about plans for digital rights management in Dragon Age II, BioWare's upcoming RPG sequel (thanks Strategy Informer). The Steam versions will rely on Steam DRM, while other versions, both boxed and digital will need to authenticate themselves "after a select period of days," which is not yet specified. There will also be a Release Control system which does not install anything, but prevents the game from being played before its release date. The game will not require the disc in the drive, and it can be installed on an unlimited number of PCs, though one copy can only be played on five different PCs in a 24 hour period. In addition to current DRM plans, there is also a follow-up post outlining how there are plans in place to "sunset" their authentication system down the road. Here's word:
Recently there has been some concern over the DRM (Digital Rights Management) included with Dragon Age 2. Hopefully this post will help clarify what the DRM is for all versions of Dragon Age 2.
Steam versions use Steam DRM, no other DRM is added.
Non-Steam versions (digital or retail disc) are as follows:
- No disc check, you do not need the disc in drive to play.
- No limit on the total number of PCs you can install and play the game on.
- There is a limit to the number of unique/different PCs that can start/play the game within a time window [5 PCs in 24hrs].
- Each install requires logging in to your EA account to verify game ownership and if you are a member of these forums, you have an EA account.
- You can play offline but the game will require a login check after a select period of days.
Release Control (does not use securom)
. It does not install anything to the PC.
. Sole purpose is to check with a server to validate whether the game release date has passed or not.
. It completely removes itself after the game release date has passed.
. You will not be able to play until that date has passed.
. Dates & times are set to the retail street date per country.
Hopefully this explains the DRM included in Dragon Age 2.
Beamer wrote on Feb 1, 2011, 09:49:So if you want an answer to your question, I'd like to see your answer on why its ok to cause problems for your customers when you aren't even dealing with the problem.
Because it actually does work to an extent (making it more difficult does stop the most casual pirates, who tend to be the ones they care most about as they're the ones that can be actual customers) and it sends the message that pirating is wrong and publishers aren't ok with it (which stops more pirates that would be actual customers.)
Incorrect, piracy is easier than ever and so are peoples options for it. You don't even need optical media anymore removing yet another piece of the equation for casual users and most are already educated on flash drives to pass things around. Things have become consistently easier over time, not more difficult. The process for piracy remains the same or easier in just about every case I can think. In fact the only exception would be AC2, out of hundreds of titles.
BitTorrent, cheap hard drives, flash storage and so on made pretty much all piracy casual nowadays. The only form of "protection" that's ever proven to be an effective deterrent to piracy is multiplayer functionality.
I'm not even addressing the "pirating is wrong" message stuff as it's absurd, other industries tried the guilt card and it does not work. Simply put there is no reason for DRM anymore, especially if we're to believe that the PC is such a small platform according to it's detractors and several posters from this board.
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