Posts Tagged ‘EA’

EA releases more classic Command & Conquer games for free

February 15th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough

c&c tibsun redalert

Yay! A chance to write something that isn’t depressing news about more DRM and stupid media corporations!

Electronic Arts has followed up last year’s release of Command & Conquer and the original Red Alert with releasing Tiberian Sun and the Firestorm expansion free. All of the games will cost you absolutely nothing, and have had whatever DRM protection they had back in the day removed. Tiberian Sun has been re-released in an ISO format, so you’ll need a virtual drive program to get them going.

All of the freeware re-releases can be found here.

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EA plans more systems like Mass Effect 2′s Cerberus Network

February 8th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough

Along with the quarterly financial information and upcoming release slate announced by EA today, they also made some comments on the DLC system used in Mass Effect 2. As reported by G4tv, they’ve seen positive reception and sales from the DLC systems used in Mass Effect 2, as well as Dragon Age and The Saboteur, and plan to use things like the Cerberus Network from this point forward.

“In every case,” said EA CEO John Riccitiello, “what we’ve seen is a very positive response from the consumer and each case, particularly starting with Dragon Age, a strong pick-up in revenue per user. By and large, they like the extra content and we think it’s a strong positive move.”

“We’ve got similar strong PDLC [paid downloadable content] with each and every one of our titles this year,” continued Riccitiello.

Along with providing a regular stream of fresh content to released titles, a system such as Mass Effect 2’s Cerberus Network also adds incentive to consumers to purchase a new copy of the game. Any used copy is still fully playable, but access to the Cerberus Network must be purchased for $15 for any DLC to be accessible to the used buyer.

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DRM for PC Battlefield : Bad Company 2 detailed

January 27th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough

As reported on the Battlefield Blog, the DRM information for the game has been detailed. The basic system being used is SecuROM. The details are :

-The Closed Beta will use SecuROM. However, this sentence is interesting as it could indicate a change in how SecuROM operates.

When the Closed Beta is uninstalled, all traces of the game and SecuROM will be removed from your machine.

Previously, SecuROM remained on the system after the associated game was uninstalled.

-The final game will use SecuROM. The game’s executable will be ‘wrapped’ with the DRM, and some support files will also be installed in the game directory. The game will need authentication the first time it’s run, which can be done one of two ways :

1. Offline mode will function as a disc check. There won’t be a need for any online authentication from SecuROM, but you will need the disc in the drive every time you wish to play.

2. Online authentication will function as it normally does. SecuROM will check with the Master DRM server to see how many computers the game is activated on (it can be activated on 10 systems at one time). Once the initial authentication is done, SecuROM will not go online to perform server checks for 10,000 days after activation on that system.

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Mass Effect 2 DRM/DLC Program

January 23rd, 2010 Cliff Riseborough

Seeing as the game releases in a few days, it seems like time to talk about what DRM the game is going to use.

As shared by Chris Priestly (BioWare Community Coordinator) on their forums :

Digital Rights Management (DRM) – The boxed/retail PC version of Mass Effect 2 will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. This is the same method as Dragon Age: Origins. Digital versions will use the retailers protection system.

Now, in order for buyers to access the DLC (some will be available at launch), they’ll also need to access the Cerberus Network. That network will be the portal for all DLC for the game. It will be free to any purchasers of a new copy of the game, but any buying it used will need to spend $15 to get on board.

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SecuROM : Examining ‘The Beast’

January 19th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough

Mention its name on your average gaming or computer forum, and you’re likely to be greeted with a somewhat emotional response from most people. Let’s try it.

SecuROM.

Yep, that’s pretty much par for the course. It’s insidious, it’s evil, and it’s completely dead set against you. It’s out to ruin your day, ruin your fun, ruin your life.

It may sound like I’m just spewing hyperboles (always a fun game), but if you really believe that’s what I’m doing now, please perform the following experiment. Go to your favourite gaming or computer forum and make an innocent post asking what SecuROM is. Now, give it a day or two to percolate, brace yourself, and check back in to read the replies. And don’t be surprised if you see claims that SecuROM caused a user’s computer to spring to life and sexually assault their pet cat.

Is SecuROM perfect? No. There are legitimate compatibility errors for some people relating directly to the DRM. It has, in the past, used software blacklisting as part of its protection system. It installs itself along with a game, then stays behind long after that game has been removed from your hard drive. However, it also isn’t the demonic force or infection it is too often described as, either. So where does that perception come from?

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EA Settles SecuROM Cases

January 13th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough

“We find Spore GUILTY…of completely and utterly failing to live up to its premise!”

Errr…okay, not so much, though I am correct about that game.

Actually, it seems that EA has settled the numerous class action lawsuits being brought against it regarding its use of SecuROM on games with no disclosure of that fact.

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In Defense of DRM Vendors

January 13th, 2010 Brad McGraw

This is actually a revisit to an earlier article I wrote for a different web site. After I wrote that one there was a very large fuss made by some of the staff. Basically, the site was not able to do any work for a few weeks because of this. And this brings up a very important point; some people simply hate DRM, or at least specific DRM companies, because the big complaint about my prior article was that I used SecuROM as an example.

The article I originally wrote is below:

Everybody hates the DRM vendor. They are the ones putting ‘evil stuff’ onto our computers and being mean to us gamers with their restrictions. So gamers generally take a dim view of the DRM vendors and blame them for everything. However, is it really all their fault? Or are they just providing a service?

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