05.08.08

EA Adopts Blu-Ray’s Old "Security" Measure

Posted in Xbox 360 News at 12:31 pm by UNSCleric

Remember back when Blu-ray was about to come out, and the news broke that you would have to be connected to the Internet to even play your Blu-ray movies, among many other anti-consumer features, like attaching a movie to one player only so that you can’t ever rent or borrow movies to your friends?  Well Sony and its main BR friends like Fox (who were one of the main corporations who pushed for these kind of measures) ended up dropping the “feature” (for now) once HD DVD started giving it a run for its money and they had to engage in a PR war that they eventually won when they bought out nearly everyone.

Anyway, it seems the ever-looming EA saw this plan, and was a fan of it.

BioWare technical producer Derek French has said that the PC versions of both Mass Effect and Spore will make use of copy protection that will require online validation every ten days in order for the games to continue working.

“After the first activation, SecuROM requires that [Mass Effect PC] re-check with the server within ten days (in case the CD Key has become public/warez’d and gets banned),” said French in a post on the BioWare forums.

If customers do not come online after ten days, the game will cease to function.
“After 10 days a re-check is required before the game can run,” added French. “..An Internet connection is not required to install, just to activate the first time, and every 10 days after.”
- Shacknews.com

This policy will not stop pirates for more than a couple minutes, and will only hurt the casual gamer who bought the game, and wants to simply play it, whether they have Internet or not.  The Internet is not guaranteed to always be there for us to use, and should be not a requirement to run a game you’ve always paid full price for.

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