New SimCity To Require Constant Internet Connection 418
eldavojohn writes "According to Lead designer Stone Librande, it has been confirmed that the next installment of SimCity will require a constant internet connection. Perhaps as a form of DRM, the 2013 edition looks like it will be the first to include online play but will also require you to constantly be connected to Origin to play — even if that wasn't your point of purchase. Add SimCity to the growing list."
Update: 03/29 02:09 GMT by S : An online connection will be needed to start the game, but you won't be kicked out if your connection dies.
Yep, and not hard to do either (Score:5, Informative)
There are tons and tons of games out there with new ones coming out all the time. So long as you are willing to be pragmatic and meet publishers half way and accept DRM that doesn't interfere, you can find a shitload of games. None of my games do always-connected DRM except for maybe the multiplayer ones in which case I'd never know since I have to be connected to play them (actually they don't bother, just saying) and I have a bunch of them. Many do have DRM, but it is DRM that isn't a big deal.
Steam would be an example. I do have to be online to get the game, of course, since it is a download. However I can run it offline just fine. So my net goes down, no problem I can play my game. Another would be some of the activation based systems. I install game, it activates, and then never checks again.
Companies are testing the waters with this and the easy way to put a stop to it is to not buy. If they sell Title X with always on DRM and they do 20,000 sales and sell Title Y with regular DRM and do 2,000,000 sales they'll learn quick enough.
Even Ubisoft who has talked shit like this up and was the first big on to do it is highly schizophrenic about it. They have done releases without it, even from the same series (AC2 has always on DRM, AC Brotherhood does not).
Just don't buy, or pirate, shit that has it, stick to the many, many other titles and there you go.
Re:Console games to follow (Score:2, Informative)
I'm an indie, my game has a demo, and my piracy rate for a $5 game is literally 99%. I know the number of people that buy it, I compare that to installs reporting high scores, so the error rate would increase the piracy rate (if pirates didn't submit scores I wouldn't know they pirated it). I've quite literally received email images from people showing they beat the game (showing their score/time) asking when the sequal would come out, I know quite well they didn't buy it.
Yes, piracy is rampant, and its not only pc, piracy on the nds and psp were quite rampant as well. This is why sony flipped out over the ps vita homebrew access, if the vita gets pirate press nobody will develop for it, and it'll die.
Stop kidding yourself that people are making up piracy as some sort of "scare".
And no, I don't consider each piracy case a lost sale. I consider piracy a continuation of the welfare entitlement and generally degenerate mentality of the current generation.
PS, caption for this was "unpaid".
Re:Don't like it, don't play it (Score:4, Informative)
A risk? It's practically guaranteed. The only thing that isn't guaranteed is the timeframe. It's like buying a computer knowing that it has a timebomb inside that will destroy the CPU after a random period of time. It might go off after a week, or it might go off after three or four years, but it will go off.
Let's look at the history [opensource.com] of DRM for a moment.
These are just a few of the types of content that have become inaccessible or are expected to soon become inaccessible because of the shutdown of DRM-related servers. In some cases, the content still functions on the original devices, but for most of the above list, it does not.
Buying games that will stop working if they can't contact a server isn't taking a risk. It's throwing money away. Taking a risk is buying products that require activation on new machines; at least the continued operation of your own equipment is, to an extent, under your control.
Re:Console games to follow (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Yep, and not hard to do either (Score:4, Informative)
Valve has said that they would like to be able to resell games, but their license agreements generally prohibit it, so they've not implemented it. They have talked about it, though, in such a way as Steam, the publisher, and the original buyer all get a cut (with the largest going to the original buyer). It's not perfect, but the idea does open up the possibility of resale.
My alternative to DRM frustration (Score:5, Informative)
After leaving the tabletop gaming market for the electronics game market, I find myself slowly returning to the tabletop gaming. Sure, there aren't as many good solo games (Lord of the Rings "living card game", Arkham Horror, etc). Sure, the cost is about the same - $50 to $100 plus $25 to $60 per expansion - and many of them are designed to only work in multiplayer mode. However, I don't have to activate over the internet each time I start the game, I never have to worry about a service going down for a month and preventing me from even opening my game, and I never have to worry about servers shutting down and causing my game to become non-functional. True, sometimes when I buy a used game there are components that are missing that can render it non-functional, so I have to be careful and check that the game is complete. Still, the best part is being able to play my game when my power is out. (Wish I had gotten back into the tabletop gaming before Heroscape got cancelled - that one looked fun, but its pricey to buy it used.)
Seriously, I was looking forward to a real sequel to SimCity, but this DRM scheme is something I want to avoid. At this point I think I'd rather head down to my local game shop during game night and have several hours of fun that way. With game companies also churning out the boardgames with great visuals (plastic figures, sometimes painted figures, colorful map tiles, tons of chipboard markers, higher quality art work, etc), the lack of DRM in tabletop games is a welcome relief from the electronic game lockdown. Heck, as fun as video games are, nothing beats a nice tense game of Pandemic + Over the Brink with my wife - best coop play I've ever seen in tabletop or electronic gaming!
Re:Console games to follow (Score:5, Informative)
Imagine that they release the game without any protection: the very first purchaser will make an image and post it on Pirate Bay. Thus all the others that want a copy of the game will have a free alternative to get it within minutes of the game release. Why would they pay money (There is VERY little appreciatioin or loyalty to the game developers/publishers in the real world) when they can get the perfect copy for free? Thus DRM is there just to make the initial amazing-cracker buyer spend this precious intitial release time cracking the system rather than making the game available.
Sins of a Solar Empire and Galactic Civilizations 2 both sold very well with zero DRM, not to mention GOG appears to be doing pretty well. As for loyalty, Tim Schafer raised over 3 million dollars with just the promise of a new game. Gamers are disloyal to companies that don't respect us.
Re:Console games to follow (Score:4, Informative)
Concern is that the mass public aren't even aware of this and won't be UNTIL they go to try it in few years and realise they cannot play.
Then, eventually there will just by simply acceptance that this is normal.
Oh they're aware. Steam gamers are very aware.
Currently, the only way to access Steam games offline is to go into "Offline Mode" while you're online, which caches your auth token or something. If you don't do this, your games are inaccessible when offline.
This is the third time I've posted this, but it's important. If your connection goes down, Steam servers are on the fritz, your network card / router / modem dies etc. your Steam games are inaccessible. This applies to any and all online authentication DRM (some Games for Windows, Origin, many EA titles, to name some of them). After being burned by this issue for 3 days when BT "upgraded" my home connection, I don't buy any games on Steam, not even on sale, and I've told Valve as much. I'm also creating an archive of downloaded installation images and cracks for the games I've bought through Steam. I thoroughly encourage anyone else who values the products they've bought to do the same.
Re:Console games to follow (Score:5, Informative)
Brian Fargo also got a million and a half dollars in less than two days from fans in order to make a sequel to Wasteland [kickstarter.com] (the predecessor to the first two Fallout games).
There is *far* more developer loyalty and appreciation among fans than the OP thinks. The publishers made the same mistake in their thinking. For a decade they refused to help Brian Fargo get a Wasteland 2 game made, thinking it would not make money. Then someone gave Fargo the idea of raising money via Kickstarter and *boom*.
The *publishers* deserve the little to no appreciation or loyalty they get. They only get in the way of the gamers and game makers who want to make each other happy. They are the ones who insist on ridiculous DRM schemes, DLC scams, and such.