BioWare's spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series, Dragon Age: Origins, will ship without the unpopular SecuROM digital rights management and copy protection software that has been attached to previous Electronic Arts games.
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]