|
|
GTA IV PC to use SecuROM
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 1st December 2008
Rockstar has announced that the PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV will include SecuROM copy-protection.
“We invest a considerable amount of time and effort to release each title, and employ a large number of people in the process. Having copy protection allows us to protect the integrity or our titles and future investments,” Rockstar told IGN. “But at the same time we have worked very hard to ensure that our solutions do not persecute the legitimate players of our games.”
The SecuROM DRM will be present in both the Games For Windows branded retail release and the various online releases, such as the one on Steam. It's also worth pointing out that the online releases will still use the Games For Windows Live system to run the multiplayer.
The disc will not be required for versions of the game bought digitally, obviously, but retail versions of the game will require the disc to be in the drive in order to run the game.
Detailing the way that the DRM is used, Rockstar said that the game will need to be activated before it can be used, promising that while online activation is the quickest option there is an offline route as well.
There is apparently no limit on the number of installs that players can have from the retail version however, though digital version may vary according to Rockstar. With a retail copy you can install as many times as you might care to activate and setup the game.
How do you feel about SecuROM being used in Grand Theft Auto IV? Let us know in the forums.
Recent articles on bit-tech.net
Comments (47)
I always thought more of Rockstar than this tbh...
Why do they insist on this crap DRM that doesn't work??
i dont think it'll be that bad.
Not sure if ive missed something but are you saying sercum kills dvd drives? Its been along time since used my pc for gaming.
AFAIK Only Starforce is killing DVD drives. Securom7(latest version) has been around for ... since Unreal 2? How long is that? And no-one complained - until new Securom *DRM* arrived. Securom7 vs. Securom DRM is like heaven & hell.
Never the less, I will sadly not be buying GTA:IV. Or Mirror's Edge. :'( Not entirely because of SecuROM (GTA's version is almost benign like any ol'disk check method...apart from the hissy fits it'll throw with mounting software), but because of any possible third party advertizing software bundled with it, like Massive in Far Cry 2. Dynamic adverts in-game aren't necessarily a bad thing (didn't see any in FC2), but I'm more worried about invasive harvesting of personnal details/habits. You have to opt in if you want to play, but what exactly will you be giving up in return?
The only small joy this game will give me is watching all the rabid, brainless anti-SecuROM sheep bleating "SecuROM, NOT WANT!!!" out of their frothing mouths as they spam Amazon to death with one star reviews.
Funny how all the privacy/rights advocates are sitting on their Windows installations thinking that somehow not installing a SecuROM game makes things better for them.. Get Linux, or stop crying.
I'll settle for GTA4 via Steam
NO, copy protection does NOT allow you to protect the integrity or our titles and future investments, it will be cracked and pirated before it gets to the shops, ALL the cash that you poured into securom will be as useful as buying chocolate knife when you are trying to cut a hot peace of titanium covered with a layer of diamonds! You have paid more money to securom than the money you will get in return due to a FICTIONAL reduction in piracy.
People will pirate the damn thing and will be able to play it with less problems than legit users... am i missing anything here?
I thought better of you, rockstar, but you are another of those companies that don't see a palm beyond your nose.... thanks for all your previous games but this one i will skip, at least until i see a genuine copy without crap.
ps: at least they don't limit the amount of installations...
edit: does anyone know the amount of money they give securom per game?
Ah b*llocks... :P Why dyu need securom on a Steam install? I thought one of the points of Steam was to help prevent multi-installs/dupes without a valid key? Anyone knows you can copy the src files downloaded -- you just cant [read: legally] use them without a Steam account.
Sigh.. oh well. Newsgroups it is....
Now i have to choose:
1) Get a steam account, use my CreditCard for games shopping (not intended for that), download, install, install Securom, validate, register with Rockstar Social Club, register with Games For Windows Live, play
2) download, install, copy crack, play, forget about the multiplayer
f*ck you Rockstar, i dont wanna do either! :(
I just want to play the damn game. I dont want to be mucking about on sites that collect endless piles of my personal data that is then sold to the highest bidder at the next bankrupcy of either one of the 65 companies involved, that i dont trust in the first place.
AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGHH
+1 ... though i already use steam, so i can skip that step.
SecuROM makes NO DIFFERENCE. There are a trillion background services running on your 3GHz, quad core, 4GB machines and you NEVER notice them. Companies collect data about you all the time but it rarely makes an impact on you personally and they CAN'T have your personal details without your consent. If EA were stealing credit card numbers it would be more than just you lot angry about it.
DRM is **** but this is just the way it is. Stop bloody whining and get over it.
I'm not going to buy the game to make my quadcore happy, i'm doing it to make me happy. Regardless of real world difference and all pros and cons, i do not like this stuff. And it hardly feels like i'm alone.
They want to sell their product? Good, make it appealing to me. This is not the way. :(
RA3 being the worst. Pay full price to rent a game THANKS!
So thats two lost sales just from me due to this SecureROM rubbish.
(Do a search online. Loads of cracked RA3 torrents being seeded. Yes SecureROM is SO GOOD*)
*At losing customers.
1. I joined steam so i WOULDNT be bothered with DRM and **** like it.
If your online distribution method isn't safe, fix it, don't ask us all to patch our machines so you don't have to.
2. What happens in 20 years when I want to play this game again? Will the DRM be removed before its impossible to reactivate the game ?
I will not be renting the game, but purchasing it. When I have bought it, it should last a lifetime.
It should not be up to the publisher to ALLOW me to play what I have purchased.
I guess I will not be buying this game just like RA3...
Too bad steam was not like, uhm we are not going to sell the game on our system if you do not take the extra drm crap off. Our system is plenty safe and we do not want to be part of a system that is more about punishing customers rather than delivering them hi-quality entertainment.
And I really trust huge companies like Rockstar and EA than I trust a random cracker.
And some cracker will invest some considerable amount of time cracking it. Like 1 or 2 hours.
whose work will be tested by thousands of people and you will know first hand if it has something bad you should know about...
DRM does ZERO difference in piracy numbers (it may even increase piracy numbers), so why put such elaborate and expensive schemes in place? why not a simple home grown "is disk in drive" verification before playing the game?
i was thinking of mailing them a request, in that request i will ask them to allow me to get the game without DRM by another method (read: torrents and others) and i will pay them the full price of the game, so that they can get the totality of the money, in return they send me a certificate that allows me to do so.
I don't want to feed parasites like securom...
Especially if the people stealing the cars can defuse the bomb in like 4 seconds....
i would, if it actually protected their product. but it doesn't, all the securom protected games are available on torrents. all they are doing is inconveniencing the paying customer, which i will not be for as long as they are doing this. they've got a perfectly good protection system in steam, but they feel the need to throw extra crap on there which only pisses people off.
@xtrafresh, dxr, count me in.
Count me in :)
"Some starforce boss said that they advise publishers to release patch to remove copy protection after 6 months or so - because game will be cracked by that time, rendering any copy protection useless."
Mate, if you're going to try and make a valid point, counter to the overwhelming opinion on this thread, at least try and do it properly and don't start with silly statements like "a trillion" background services running on your pc. If that were true, then you're an idiot as you no doubt have the most malware infected machine I've ever heard of.
Bullsh*t. I seem to get more and more spam mail and even spam snail mail addressed to the silly user account names I use online being sent to my home address. So yes, it does have an impact on me, personally.
And yes, SecurROM does make a difference -- it turns otherwise legit purchases of software like me into pirating thieves. As soon as it's out, I'll hop onto the alt.binaries.* groups and snag my malware free, DRM free copy.
I don't buy that. Then why would they go through the expensive process of licensing the copy protection software in the first place if they know it's useless? No, they license it because most publishers of major software want the (false) sense of security copy protection offers. To release a patch to then remove it X months down the road is just throwing money away -- money used to license the copy protection software, and money gone to create the patch.
- get the DRM/hacked version of the software from whichever dubious sources at your disposal.
- send a cheque or bank draft to the developer for the cost of the game.
Job done!
Did they not do that with Bioshock?
It boggles me, i can go out buy a game and only get to install it 5 times. I can go out buy a game and have to keep the DVD in teh drive at all times. Or i can download the game and have neither of these problems.
is it in the stores allready?
*searches in stores*
Publishers are sometimes more wicked than copy-protection developers. As I said - BI patched out starforce from ArmA(present on 1.07, removed in 1.14) - I admit I don't know what's the real reason behind this - customer's complaints or someone's advice - but still it means that they are not deaf like slavemasters.
But some publishers are living in a dream - riding their ferrari thinking that their products are safe from pirates as long as they keep it pestered with DRM, and all those thieves have no option but to buy their game for whatever price they ask. Of course they're wrong but they don't want to see it. And if it doesn't work - then they'll come up with piracy charts without metioning how useless is DRM they used. And yet they'll use it on another game they release - despite all complaints customers had about it.
Still there are developers and publishers who care about requests of their customers and remove copy-protection later(BI) or even release game without (wasting money on) DRM(Bethesda).
Concerning Bioshock's terrible DRM - I hope they removed it. I'm looking forward to buy this game once it's DRM is gone. It would be nice from 2K if they listened to customers complaints. I hope 2K won't join EA and Ubisoft slavemasters union.
+1
I bought it but haven't installed it yet.
(mostly due to not having the time though)
As I don't play online anyway I'll probably install a cracked version anyhow (keeping the original disk in it's box)
Xir