Stardock, Microsoft Unveil Their Own New Anti-Piracy Methods 232
Island Dog sends news that shortly after Valve showed off their new anti-piracy methods in Steamworks, Microsoft and Stardock were quick to demonstrate their new, similar technologies as well. All three companies are bending over backwards to say that this is not traditional DRM. Stardock (the company behind the Gamer's Bill of Rights) calls their system Game Object Obfuscation (Goo), "a tool that allows developers to encapsulate their game executable into a container that includes the original executable plus Impulse Reactor, Stardock's virtual platform, into a single encrypted file. When a player runs the game for the first time, the Goo'd program lets the user enter in their email address and serial number which associates their game to that person as opposed to a piece of hardware like most activation systems do. Once validated, the game never needs to connect to the Internet again." Microsoft's update to Games for Windows Live has similar protections. "You can sign in and play your game on as many systems as possible, but you have to have a license attached to your account. Of course, this only works for online games."
Re:Meh... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Meh... (Score:5, Informative)
The only flaw I have with Steam is that they dont allow you to tie activation keys to your account.
They do for some games, such as Unreal Tournament 3.
Others such as Crysis, Fallout 3 they do not however.
See here for a list of games you can do it with: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-WUSF-3601 [steampowered.com]
DRM by any other name still smells of stale eggs (Score:3, Informative)
Hopefully people are bright enough to see through this little marketing exercise.
Re:DRM by any other name still smells of stale egg (Score:3, Informative)
I've been saying that for years now. Stardock/Impulse/etc. are DRM. They limit the ability to distribute digital media.
You still need an internet connection to enable it from the wording in the summary. What happens when that server is no longer alive? How am I to play the game? What if I don't have internet when I install it on my laptop on a plane to play when I'm bored?
Re:A weak point? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Keep your crap! (Score:5, Informative)
The PS3 has region free gaming. In fact, I just imported an Asia/Chinese game Demon's Souls and it runs perfect on my US PS3.
Re:DRM by any other name still smells of stale egg (Score:5, Informative)
I've used Stardock's Impulse a little bit and while I can't comment on all games on it, the 3 I have it works quite well. You can tie a license key to an account, however I have installed and played 2 of the 3 offline never connecting to the internet to play or install, simply by entering the license key in the normal installation. Then I can then tie it to Stardock Impulse which will automatically tell me about updates and help me install them. To register it with Impulse I simply entered the license key again with the online component. In fact Impulse recognized that I had the game installed and asked me if I wanted to add it into the system.
Also, I can then log into stardock impulse on any other computer and it will allows me to re-download and install the game on that one as well. Well I've only done it for one so far, Sins of a Solar Empire, so again I can't comment for all games.
In fact, I play offline all the time and only fire up Impulse (I haven't needed to run it to play the games) when I check for updates.
Re:Second hand market? (Score:3, Informative)
Actually GOO enables a second hand market (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Meh... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not traditional DRM? (Score:3, Informative)
If I understand the Stardock system, once you've paid for and activated the download, it's permanently transformed into a usable game, and can be copied as much as you want. There's no registration code to keep straight (IIRC, Stardock keeps it's own database of what your registration codes are, so it you lose everything they can give them to you again).
This sounds like the ideal system to me:
* Download a file from the Game co or FilePlanet or wherever, that needs a key to unlock.
* Game co sells you activation of what you download (no phoning home ever again), and will let you re-activate as often as you please.
* You can copy the activated game as often as you please.
* If you want to play with friends, eveyone needs a different activation key, so piracy is somewhat limited.
* If an activated game shows up on a warez site, the Game co can associate it with the person who bought the key.
The last is incredibly useful to deter piracy for one key reason: without any legal authority, merely contacting the owner of the credit card that paid for the game and telling them that "the game is being illegaly copied and they should probably stop that" will be remarkably effective if it's a parent that paid for the game, and their kid who's sharing it.