Those of you pondering removing The Witcher install from your PC in order to free up space might want to hold off a little bit longer. Patch 1.5 has been released, bringing with it five new adventures created by the game's player community using the D'jinni creation tools. Deceits, Blight of the Bogs, Wraiths of Quiet Hamlet, The Wedding, and the unseasonal Merry Witchmas are each included in the patch, giving players a small taste of what has been wrought since CD Projekt unleashed free creation tools upon the community.

Perhaps even better news, patch 1.5 also removed the DRM from The Witcher, meaning you can simply install the game and play it, rather than having to worry about making sure the disc is in the drive and such. Of course no-disc hacks generally pop up within minutes of a PC game release if not sooner, but it's nice to get a little official love now and then.

Patch 1.5 now available! [The Witcher]

Community manager Chris Priestly announced that the PC version of the role-playing game will use simpler, less intrusive methods to dissuade piracy when the game ships later this year. No online authentication for offline play. No SecuROM. The only obstacle Dragon Age players will need to overcome is having the disc in their drives.

"We're happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication," Priestly writes on the game's official forums. "In other words, the retail PC version of the game won't require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play. We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare."

Priestly took the opportunity to note that the Dragon Age toolset beta has launched, which "offers developer-grade tools, and we're looking forward to what fans will create with it."

"We'll also be supporting the game with a ton of great downloadable content that will be available for purchase after the game's release," he added.

Dragon Age Copy Protection Announced [Dragon Age Forums]

With the EA De-Authorization Management Tool, you can now do sane things like reformat your hard drive and install new video game hardware without the same level of hassle (or using up one of your handful of permitted activations). Simply de-authorize your installed PC game, then install the game on another machine, without wasting those previous software activations.

This applies to games like Mass Effect, Dead Space and even your copy of The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff expansion—any EA published PC game released after May 2008.

For the full list of applicable games, read on.

• Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
• Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
• Crysis Warhead
• Dead Space
• FiFA Manager 09
• FIFA Soccer 09
• Littlest Pet Shop
• The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
• Mass Effect
• Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
• Mirror's Edge
• MySims
• Need for Speed: Undercover
• NHL 09
• Spore
• Spore Creature Creator
• The Sims 2: Apartment Life
• The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff
• The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff

EA Game Authorization Management [EA via Blues News]

What is Goo? Goo stands for Game Object Obfuscation. What it does is allow game publishers to encapsulate their game's executable file together with Stardock's Impulse Reactor virtual platform in a single encrypted file. When the player starts the game for the first time they enter their email address and serial number and that's it. The game is tied to that person, as opposed to being locked to any one piece of hardware.

How does this help?

For one, it allows players to validate their game on any service that supports that particular title. It also allows players to resell their PC games, as they'll be able to voluntarily deassign the game, allowing someone else to sign up with their email and the serial number. In effect, you actually have a product with real value outside of your computer.

"One of our primary goals for Impulse Reactor is to create a solution that will appeal to game developers while adhering to the Gamers Bill of Rights," said Brad Wardell, president & CEO of Stardock. "Publishers want to be able to sell their games in as many channels as possible but don't want to have to implement a half-dozen ‘copy protection' schemes. Game Object Obfuscation lets the developer have a single game build that can be distributed everywhere while letting gamers potentially be able to re-download their game later from any digital service. Plus, it finally makes possible a way for gamers and publishers to transfer game licenses to players in a secure and reliable fashion."

Stardock will launch Goo on April 7th as part of the phase 3 release of their Impulse digital delivery platform. They expect to announce publishers taking advantage of the Goo technology next month.

After getting into a heap of hot water over the DRM included in the hit life simulation Spore, it's probably a wise decision for EA to back off a bit for their next major wide-audience release. Sims division executive producer Rod Humble posted a message on the Sims 3 website yesterday, putting fans' minds at ease.

The game will have disc-based copy protection – there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed. We feel like this is a good, time-proven solution that makes it easy for you to play the game without DRM methods that feel overly invasive or leave you concerned about authorization server access in the distant future.

While personally I was hoping they'd go back to the old "what's the 7th word in the fourth paragraph on page 26 of the manual?" method of copy protection, I suppose this will have to do.

The Sims 3 Copy Protection [Official Website - Thanks Paradox!]

We've already heard about the new downloadable content support for Steam, and the matchmaking is the same we've seen in the PC version of Left 4 Dead, now available to publishers and developers worldwide. The most interesting new feature is Steamworks new anti-piracy technology, Customer Executable Generation, or CEG. CEG basically creates a unique copy of a game for each customer, which can then be played on any compatible PC without install limits or root kits. You buy a copy, and that is your copy, completely unique to you. A simple and elegant solution to PC game piracy that manages to benefit both publishers and the consumer at the same time.

With new publishers flocking to the service every day and innovative new features like these regularly added, it's hard to imagine anyone toppling Steam from the top of the digital delivery heap anytime soon.

Speaking in an interview with VideoGamer.com, Bhopti revealed that Creative Assembly had no plans for additional copy protection for the upcoming PC release of their new real-time strategy game Stormrise, explaining that pirates will be pirates, and them's just the breaks.

That's not that much of an issue. There's no additional thing that we're going for with that sort of stuff. That's pointless. If people are going to pirate a game they're going to pirate a game. All you can do is delay the piracy, really. But that's just the nature of the beast. We are a PC developer, that's where we started, so you do what you gotta do.

Hell, I'd even take things a step further here and say that the tougher the digital rights management include with your game, the more likely it is that people will pirate it, just to show that they can. Game pirates are almost like muggers. Just hand over the goods, and nobody gets hurt.

Creative Assembly: Piracy 'nature of the beast' [VideoGamer.com]

“All timely and responsive public comments, whether filed in paper or electronic form, will be considered by the Commission, and will be placed on the public record of this proceeding,” says the posted FTC notice.

This matters to you, dear gamer, because DRM is a pain for gamers and hardly an obstacle for PC game pirates. Games for Windows Community Manager Ryan Miller backs this up on his blog. Take the time to tell the FTC this and Microsoft might actually have to start playing nice.

The actual Town Hall meeting will take place in Seattle, WA on March 25, 2009.

Check out the form here.

Kidding! We are just kidding! No, the news that Ubisoft has decided to avoid Digital Rights Management (DRM) for the PC release has to be good news. Based on what has happened with every single DRM-locked game ever made any anti-copying countermeasures would have been cracked within nanoseconds of release and the resulting warez plastered all over the intertubes in bittorrent form before you can say 0-day.

Meanwhile legitimate users would have to suffer tedious 'protection' measures that are only a hair's breadth away from being malware.

So, nice one Ubisoft. Hope it works out for you.

Prince of Persia Retail Copies DRM-free, Says Ubisoft [Shacknews]

Leigh Alexander has spoken with the ESA and PC Gaming Alliance about the piracy issue and how people are attempting to combat it. The two part article looks at tackling physical pirating, as well as the online variety, and how companies are attempting to prevent piracy from happening. Of course, there's been a lot of talk and considerable irritation when gamers are faced with poorly implemented DRM. Industry types who are intimately involved with decisions that gamers grouse about note that they don't like DRM any more than you do:

"I don't like locks on my door, and I don't like to use keys in my car... I'd like to live in a world where there are no passports. Unfortunately, we don't," [EA CEO John Riccitiello] said ....

"I think that was spot on," says [senior director of strategic planning and research at Capcom Christian Svensson]. "People rail against DRM and feel that it treats them like criminals - unfortunately, we live in a world where some people are criminals, and sometimes we have to take steps to mitigate as best we can. We live with some slight inconveniences, and obviously, we try to keep inconveniences to a minimum."

"I think people who put it out there that publishers are just trying to be evil — I assure you. We don't make money by making your lives difficult. If we didn't feel it was absolutely, positively imperative that we have this for our business, we wouldn't do it."

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I doubt the piracy issues will ever really be worked out to everyone's satisfaction, since if you make it, someone in the world will figure out how to pirate it. On the other hand, it does seem like there should be options that at least placate both sides — protecting IP and keeping consumers happy.

Inside Game Piracy, Part 1: Crushing Discs, Pushing Education & Inside Game Piracy, Part 2: The Countermeasures [GameSetWatch]

In an email to a fan who had contacted Valve about fears that they would be using SecuROM to lock down Left 4 Dead, Newell replied,

"As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value [...] not by decreasing the value of a product. We really really discourage other developers and publishes from using the broken DRM offerings, and in general there is a groundswell to abandon those approaches."

Report: Valve's Gabe Newell Disses DRM [GamePolitics]

Lame kerfuffles about copy protection schemes just seem a bit off-message, somehow. C'mon chaps, you'll not get many tabloid headlines with this nonsense! Get back to the prostitute murder and leave the customer-punishing DRM nonsense to your competitors.

Yes, another high profile PC release - GTA IV this time - will be shipping with SecuROM. The usual arguments are being trotted out - on the one hand it is the publisher's best defence against piracy (the copyright infringement kind, not the Somali kidnappy variety) while on the other it is a horrible mess of code that will taint the PCs of legitimate consumers like digital scar tissue.

C'est la vie.

GTA IV jumps on SecuROM bandwagon

These two suits, reported today by GamePolitics, seek class action status and join a third filed in September over the use of DRM in Spore.

The first suit, lodged by a Pennsylvania man who installed the Spore trial, says that the installation of DRM on a freely distributed program "constitutes a major violation of computer owners' absolute right to control what does and what does not get loaded onto their computers, and how their computers shall be used." The suit says the EULA for the trial made "utterly no mention of any Technical Protection Measures, DRM technology, or SecuROM whatsoever."

The second, filed by a Missouri woman, says that after installing DRM-protected The Sims 2: Bon Voyage, she began experiencing problems with her PC. Backup CDs with Sims 2 game content were no longer recognized by her competer; neither were files saved on her USB flash drive or iPod. She rid herself of the DRM and the problems only by reformatting her PC. She accuses EA of engaging in "unfair business practices" as well as conduct that is "immoral, unethical, oppressive [and] unscrupulous ..."

No, we have not contacted EA for comment. I'm sure they'd either say they haven't read the suit and can't comment on it, or they have and don't comment on pending litigation. Either way, it's out there. Someone's accusing EA of bad business practices in more than just a Reddit thread.

New Class-Action Suits Target EA, SecuROM, The Sims & Spore Creature Creator [Gamepolitics]

"We feel that consumers should have a right to choose, and this innovative system offers the perfect purchasing option for gamers," said Heiko tom Felde, Managing Director of ASCARON. "It's a great system for family and friends, allowing everyone the opportunity to try out the game and play together, then making a purchase decision."

Nifty, isn't it? Even if you're short on cash, you can always just stay up playing it for the full 24 hours. Sharing is caring, ladies and gentlemen. Makes me wanna hug somebody.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Introduces a Unique New "Try Before You Buy" Option

Innovative option allows consumers to share copies of the game with friends and family

November 7, 2008, Cary, NC – Looking to give consumers the most flexibility with their purchases of the Windows PC version of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, cdv Software Entertainment USA and Ascaron Entertainment are pleased to announce the inclusion of an innovative "Try Before You Buy" system for their upcoming RPG game.

Using this innovative new feature, downloaded or purchased copies of the full game can be shared with friends and family, with these shared copies acting as full-featured demos for the duration of one calendar day. During the demo period the game is completely unlocked for single-player and LAN multiplayer modes. After the demo install expires the consumer has the option of purchasing the full game online, or simply uninstalling it. This, for example, allows consumers who purchased the full game in stores or via digital distribution channels, to share their game with friends, with those subsequent installs acting as time-limited “try before you buy” versions that allow gamers to enjoy almost all features found in the full game.

"We feel that consumers should have a right to choose, and this innovative system offers the perfect purchasing option for gamers," said Heiko tom Felde, Managing Director of ASCARON. "It's a great system for family and friends, allowing everyone the opportunity to try out the game and play together, then making a purchase decision."

“This innovative digital rights management solution raises the bar on how consumers can sample games before they buy them,” added Mario Kroll, Director of Marketing and PR for cdv Software Entertainment USA. “Rather than showcasing only a limited character or content selection, as most traditional demos do, gamers can share and enjoy the full game experience, trying out the features that most appeal to them, and getting a true sense of the full game.”

For more information about Sacred 2: Fallen Angel, please visit http://www.cdvus.com

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is an Action-RPG with a rich story that takes place in a giant, open-ended and seamless world. This world contains hundreds of dungeons, treacherous opponents and a variety of challenging quests. Intelligent enemies, steadily adapting in number and difficulty based on player progress, challenge players in heroic single- and multiplayer battles.

Sacred 2: Fallen Angel provides numerous unique items that can be gathered in this mystical world. A deep reward system further enables advancements in character, individual attributes and character-specific fighting styles, each designed to keep players returning to the world of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel to discover what is around the next bend. Drop-in styled cooperative multiplayer gameplay ensures players will enjoy the game alone or seamlessly with friends at any time. Five unique multiplayer modes round out the experience and offer a refreshing, first-class gaming experience in Sacred 2: Fallen Angel.

A number of people who bought copies of NBA 2K9 in stores were left frantically searching the packaging for Steam activation codes that had somehow not been shipped with the game. The PC version of the game is unplayable until it has been registered via Steam network.

After a somewhat heated debate on the 2K Games user forums (and after some users publicly recommended downloading a crack for the game) 2K issued the following statement via their website.

If you recently purchased the NBA 2K9 PC title in North America, 2K Sports is aware of the issues with the Product Keys and is working hard on a solution.

Check back here for answers by end of day today. We appreciate your patience.

(PC Version) Please respond to this, 2ksports —- What is with the Activation code!!! [2kSports Forums via Gamespot]

"It was something I probably should have tuned into more. It was a corporate decision to go with DRM on Spore. They had a plan and the parameters, but now we’re allowing more authentications and working with players to de-authenticate which makes it more in line like an iTunes. I think one of the most valid concerns about it was you could only install it so many times. For most players it’s not an issue, it’s a pretty small percentage, but some people do like wiping their hard disk and installing it 20 times or they want to play it 10 years later."

I’m not sure if I totally agree it’s a non-issue only involving a smaller percentage, why else would EA care so much to go back and alleviate some of the complaints? Clearly, DRM is not the best way to go to help prevent piracy, so I asked Wright if he thinks the DRM model is here to stay or if it’s only temporary.

"I think it’s an interim solution to an interim problem. You have games like Battlefield Heroes coming out where the idea is you give away the game and sell upgrades, which works more in the Asian markets where you need to monetize it over the Internet. I think we’re in this uncomfortable spot in going from what’s primarily a brick and mortar shrink-wrapped product to what eventually will become more of an online monetization model."

Oh no :(

Blizzard's "solution" is Battle.net, the service it launched in 1997 to handle its online gaming capabilities.

"If you wanna play online on Battle.net with other players you’re going to have to have a legitimate copy," Pardo said in a BlizzCon interview. Battle.net, he says, has "saved us from a lot of the PC piracy that I think hurts a lot of other single-player-only games."

Q&A: Blizzard's Executive Vice President of Game Design Rob Pardo [Game|Life]

But no! They seem to be really going for it! Stardock has just issued an interim revision to the Bill, with changes based on feedback and the "amazing level of support from the publisher and developer community".

Much of the feedback concerned publisher's use of DRM and who exactly 'owns' the game once it has been purchased.

Some of the changes may raise eyebrows - "Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers." becomes "Gamers whose computers meet the posted minimum requirements shall have the right to use their games without being materially inconvenienced due to copy protection or digital rights management." which is more focused, perhaps, but also a lot less dramatic.

The Revised Gamer's Bill Of Rights (interim)

1. Gamers shall have the right to return games that are incompatible or do not function at a reasonable level of performance for a full refund within a reasonable amount of time.
2. Gamers shall have the right that games they purchase shall function as designed without defects that would materially affect the player experience.
3. Gamers shall have the right that games will receive updates that address minor defects as well as improves gameplay based on player feed back within reason.
4. Gamers shall have the right to have their games not require a third - party download manager installed in order for the game to function.
5. Gamers shall have the right to have their games perform adequately if their hardware meets the poste d recommended requirements.
6. Gamers shall have the right not to have any of their games install hidden drivers.
7. Gamers shall have the right to re - download the latest version of the games they purchase.
8. Gamers whose computers meet the posted minimum requirements shall have the right to use their games without being materially inconvenienced due to copy protection or digital rights management.
9. Gamers shall have the right to play single player games without having to have an Internet connection.
10. Gamers shall have the right to sell or transfer the ownership of a physical copy of a game they own to another person.

Stardock Rates DRM Complaints, Revises Gamers Bill of Rights [Shacknews]

We implemented a form of DRM and it's something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn't notice. But for the other .2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them launched a cabal online to protest against it.

John, just because people don't notice it doesn't make it right. But then, I don't really need to be reminding him of that, what with his personal thoughts on the matter.

I personally don't like DRM. It interrupts the user experience. We would like to get around that. But there is this problem called piracy out there.

Kind of cancels out that "99.8 percent of users wouldn't notice" thing, doesn't it? And the sheer number of people who downloaded the game kind of cancels out the piracy thing, doesn't it? And...ah, whatever. We'll be here all day, going around in circles, with that line of questioning.

Media & Money: EA's Riccitiello: Last Year For 'Offline-Only' Games [Yahoo! Finance] [Image]