GoG.com To Carry Newer Indie Titles Soon

The good old site for Good Old Games is getting a bit of a renovation. According to Gamespot, they will now be offering newer titles and will be renaming its site to GOG.com. The two debut indie games are Trine and The Whispered World. CD Projekt are sticking to their no DRM stance which will make getting bigger publisher a tricky task. Sure, the big boys may allow their older IP's to be on GOG.com with no DRM, but what about newer titles? So far, GOG.com has hosted The Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings as the only newly released title. This would make GOG.com a major contender in the digital distribution market(remember, no unnecessary client required to run the game).

GOG.com managing director, Guillaume Rambourg, told Gamespot "Our plan is not to sell past DLC separately, but rather bundle that content with the main game, so that we can offer a massive package at a good price. Again, our aim is to provide value for money to gamers so that they are happy to buy games from us and therefore never fall on the dark side, by which I mean piracy." This is good news for those that want to run their games without any hassle. Just don't expect to buy all the latest games AAA from GOG.com(you can expect indie titles) just yet. Perhaps I'll be forced to eat my hat regarding this.

Source: Gamespot

Serious Sam 3: BFE Kicks Pirate Ass - Red Scorpion DRM

This probably is the coolest most hilarious DRM mechanism I've ever seen implemented in a game. Apparently those that pirate the game will have a giant red scorpion hounding them the entire time they play the game. And it's invulnerable :s Check out the video below lulz...

Assassin's Creed: Revelations Wont Ship With Always Online Ubisoft DRM Confirmed

Rock Paper Shotgun received clarification from Ubisoft regarding the DRM that would be used for the upcoming game. Hopefully, they mean it this time(unlike the case with From Dust when they initially said it wont have the always online DRM only for the game to be released with said DRM). Perhaps they have realised that having such a DRM scheme only discourages those thinking of buying their games. Or maybe not... Assassin's Creed: Revelations releases on the PC on November 29th.

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun

What's This About STALKER 2 Requiring Constant Net Connection?

Those bloodhounds over at RPS spotted that a GSC GameWorld Studio Director, Sergey Grigorovich said in response to a question regarding piracy that STALKER 2 will require an Internet connection as parts of the game will be on a server and players will need to be online so that the game streams to their local machine. SAY WHAT?! "Text information, code and quests will be loaded through that connection.". I know that with Blizzard paving the way for online always games, we can perhaps expect to see other companies trying to tag along Blizzard strategy. But I do not like this trend at all. RPS has inquired GSC GameWorld regarding this for confirmation. Will update this post as more info surfaces.

Source: Rock Paper Shotgun

Ubisoft Says They Will Be Removing From Dust DRM

Ubisoft has stated on the official forums that they will be releasing a patch for From Dust to remove the always online DRM that they said wasn't going to be included with the game. Glad they decided to do this... now can you please add graphics and control customisation to your game? The patch is slated to be out in two weeks time. So yeah... you'll just have to wait.

Source: VG247

From Dust Apparently Has Ubisoft's Always On DRM Despite Pre Release Claims That It Wont

Ubisoft screwed up big time here. Reports are surfacing that Ubisoft's god game lite/puzzle game From Dust which released on Steam yesterday has Ubisoft's dreaded always on DRM. You'll need to play the game connected to the internet(despite it being a single player game). Ubisoft claimed that From Dust would require a one time online activation prior to release... and the product page for From Dust confirmed this. But customers have been reporting that the game boots them out when there is no internet connection. The problem doesn't stop there though. Customers are also complaining that the game is a bad port with anti aliasing not working despite being there in the options. Steam has starting offering refunds for customers who aren't happy with the game. I just bought the game yesterday and haven't finished downloading it. I'll be checking it out today... but if you have a low tolerance for a bad console port, you might want to hold on to your money until they have 'finished' porting the game proper for the PC.

Dragon Age II DRM News - What The Hell Is Going On?

A lot has gone down regarding some DRM watchdog group Reclaim Your Game and EA. Reclaim Your Game claimed that EA didn’t disclose that Dragon Age II was using SecureRom(which is required by them in Europe as dictated by the courts). EA shot back saying it didn’t use SecureRom but instead a release control software that checks if the game is being played on release day. Reclaim Your Game did their own analysis to link the Sony DADC release control mechanism to SecureRom. According to Reclaim Your Game Sony DADC and SecureRom is one and the same. EA has not replied to the latest claims yet. Gosh! Can someone end this once and for all? Regardless of DRM, you can read my review of Dragon Age II here(which by the way, has no disc checks).

Source: Bluesnews

Hotel California DRM: You can check in, but you can't check out.

Hi, this is H@H@ from the Lowyat.net forums and I've just begun my very unprofessional career in games journalism, thanks to frags. If you're familiar with me then you know what to expect, otherwise, I hope this doesn't annoy you to say the least and all feedback is welcome. I'm horrible at introductions and instead I'll just throw up my first article and we'll go from here.

So, yesterday, I received a copy of Bulletstorm, Epic's new fancy FPS with arcadish gameplay and rape-inducing skillshots. I knew it was going to come with Games for Windows Live (GfWL for short, which unfortunately doesn't actually sound shorter when spoken) but since I've never had much issue with it in the past and I'm not that into multiplayer, I figured it wouldn't really be a problem for me.

I was wrong, but not in the way I expected.

UPDATE Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Wont Have Ubisoft’s Always Online DRM

UPDATE: Ubisoft has clarified that Assassin's Creed Brotherhood will only require an online connection during installation. The game can then be played offline in single player. Good. This is better. Welcome back to PC gaming Ubisoft.

VG247 has gotten word from Ubisoft that the PC version of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood will not feature Ubisoft’s always connected DRM. “The PC version of Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, after an initial login, will be playable offline in single player mode,” said the Ubisoft rep. Sounds like you’ll still be required to login on to their servers but it wont make any checks while you are playing single player. Still not great but much better.

Source: VG247

Bulletstorm In A Tea Cup - ’DRMsode’

Earlier today(yesterday for me), Destructoid caused a bit of a stir when they posted a news write up that pointed out that EA’s EULA on Bulletstorm implied that an always on internet connection was necessary. A People Can Fly developer, Adrian Chmielarz, later tweeted ‘F**king Internets... No, Bulletstorm PC does not require any constant connection, only for install and for online play (duh!)’, confirming that this whole always on DRM was false and merely a mistake on EA’s part(he later tweeted that ‘the internets’ had a right to complain). So what was this hullabaloo all about? Absolutely nothing! It would have been better if Destructoid asked Epic for clarification on this matter. Bulletstorm will still use Games For Windows LIVE and require an online connection for installation and online play.

Ubisoft Always Connected DRM Loosened

Ubisoft has confirmed with Shacknews that the always on DRM on Assasins’s Creed II and Splinter Cell Conviction has been patched out. Previously you had to have a constant internet connection to play the game. These games will boot you out of them if you lost internet connection. Now it’ll only check online when you launch the game(and wont require a constant internet connection). Still not good enough. If you have no internet connection, you can’t launch the game. Ubisoft says this is however on a case by case basis.

Source: Shacknews

Crysis Warhead Deauthorisation Tool Released

Crytek has released a deauthorisation tools for Crysis Warhead. Crysis Warhead uses Securom DRM to impose install limits(5 installs on separate machines) on users. This deauthorisation tool will deactivate one install and free up an install slot for the user.

Download the deauthorisation tool here

Next Version Of Impulse Reactor Releasing This Spring

Impulse is Stardock's digital distribution platform that competes with Steam. In a phone interview with bigdownload.com, Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock revealed info on the next phase of their platform.

Impulse Reactor API will be released for free to all developers to incorporate things like achievements, multiplayer online options and other features into their games.

The next version of Impulse Reactor will have a mechanism for developers to protect their IP. From bigdownload.com:

As Wardell explained to us, developers who use the next version of Impulse Reactor can include a small DLL that will allow developers to use Stardock servers for registration and updates. For example people who install a game with Impulse Reactor for the first time might be asked for a CD Key and an email address. Once that's done the game is registered with Impulse Reactor servers.

There are no limitations to how many times a user can install a game. All they have to do is sign in to Impulse to install the game on another machine. The next version of Impulse will release alongside Demigod(Gas Powered Games next major title). Impulse Reactor is planned to be released this spring.

Read the entire article here

Witcher Developer Believes Adding More Value To Your Games More Effective Than DRM

CD Projekt's Tom Ohle said in an interview with softpedia that they don't believe in punishing their legitimate customer and would prefer to add value to their games than implementing punitive DRM. And I quote:


“Piracy happens. Our goal is to provide as much value to paying customers as possible; the Enhanced Edition was basically like a Collector’s Edition of a game at a standard price point. Rather than spending all our time and effort punishing people who get the game illegally, we want to reward those who legitimately buy the games. Piracy hurts a lot of companies, and there are a few companies that have embraced a progressive stance on the issue… make loyal fans out of your customers and they’ll pay for your games.”


His stance on DRM is admirable however it has to be noted that CD Projekt is now publishing games themselves and run GOG(Good Old Games). They profit from the negative press that publisher like EA and Ubisoft gets for employing Securom.

It also has to be said the CD Projekt may have the advantage of relatively cheaper cost of developing games since the cost of hiring programmers in eastern European countries is very low considered to North America or Central Europe hence their strategy of just putting more content for the price of a regular game may be viable for them.

Source : http://news.softpedia.com/news/Witcher-Developer-Talks-About-Piracy-100921.shtml