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EA removes DRM from Steam titles

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  • 27-12-2008 11:53am
    #1
    PogMoThoin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,874 ✭✭✭✭


    I can't believe this, supposedly plans same for retail
    One of the biggest stories in gaming this year was the ugly DRM enforcement that accompanied the release of EA's Spore. Will Wright's long-awaited life simulation was marred by a disgraceful DRM debacle that led to one of the most significant online protest campaigns ever started by gamers. The message was clear: gamers did not like SecuROM and, more generally, DRM. Perhaps in an effort to win back PC gamers, EA has now made its big 2008 titles available on Steam without third-party DRM.

    As of today, Spore (and its first expansion), Warhammer Online, Need for Speed Undercover, Mass Effect, and FIFA Manager 09 have joined Crysis, Crysis: Warhead, and SiN Episodes: Emergence as part of the collection of EA-branded titles available through Valve's digital distribution platform. Prices are comparable to retail, but the bonus here is that none of the games are packaged with any third-party DRM. The product pages for each game reveal that all traces of the much-loathed SecuROM have been eradicated.

    More EA releases will follow this first batch. It has already been confirmed that Mirror's Edge, Dead Space, and Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 are coming to the platform, and it seems as though EA intends to release its future titles on Steam as they launch.

    "We are pleased to extend our holiday titles to gamers worldwide via Steam—a revolutionary technology that is one of the game industry's most successful digital distribution services," said John Pleasants, President of Global Publishing and COO of EA. "EA is one of the industry's largest publishers," Valve's Gabe Newell continued. "The EA titles coming to Steam this holiday include some of this year's top PC titles."

    For a company struggling with the poor consumer response to DRM, and for gamers who boycotted EA games they would have otherwise wanted to play, this is good news. Hints that EA was considering making the transition to Steam first popped up when Crytek's Crysis, an EA Partners title, came to the service, but now it seems that EA's own in-house titles will be fair game for Steam release in the future.

    This move follows other, less successful attempts to respond to complaints about EA's use of DRM. The company first tried to save face after the Spore backlash by reducing the abrasiveness of the SecuROM implementations in its other software. Shortly after the release of Spore, EA released Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 will a slightly toned down form of SecuROM. Instead of 3 installs, players would be given 5. A number of gamers, however, were not placated.

    EA's presence on Steam seemed like an impossibility at one time, as the company maintains its own digital distribution system through its website. The EA Download Manager allows gamers to purchase EA games directly from the company and download them through EA's servers. However, the thought of having EA software on their systems has proven unattractive to most hardcore PC gamers. The move to Steam gave EA the opportunity to change its approach, and the new offerings have, for the most part, received praise from gamers and critics alike thanks to its relatively non-intrusive DRM scheme and strong community features.

    With EA on board, Steam has added a large notch in its belt. EA joins a long list of huge third-party publishers to be on the platform, including its foremost rival, Ubisoft, and it seems likely that others will follow suit. For EA, though, this decision to drop DRM on its Steam options should go a long way towards helping it recover ground lost in the wake of the bad DRM decisions it made during the year gone by.


    From here


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    #2
    Azza
    Moderators Posts: 5,558 ✭✭✭Azza


    Thats good news overall, but by buying through Steam your still have one of the same issues that SecuROM DRM had, what if one day the Steam severs go offline for what ever reason, if that happened I would suddenly find I had 60+ games that are useless to me.

    EA had released tools that allowed unlimited activations for Spore and Red Alert 3 and though under no legal obligation to do so would probably have done so for the rest of their games that used this form SecuROM. This in some way went to assuring me that this was not really an issue, but with Valve and Steam I still have that concern.

    While I'm happy that the outcry has got rid of this DRM, alot of information posted about was incorrect. Again the vast number of people complaining about games using this system where claiming it had limited installs not limited activations. SecuROM is also not rootkit and does not slow your games or your system down. Even taking GTA IV (which had lots of other issues) alot of the negative user comments about it assumed as it using SecuROM it has limited installs which is does not, it does not even have limited activations.

    I'm happy the system is gone, even though it was only a minor issue for me. Still I'll wonder what developers will do next in attempt to slove the piracy problem.


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    #3
    Sierra Oscar
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 8,500 CMod ✭✭✭✭Sierra Oscar


    Azza wrote: »
    I'm happy the system is gone, even though it was only a minor issue for me. Still I'll wonder what developers will do next in attempt to slove the piracy problem.

    Steam itself does the same job as SecuROM, so SecuROM is not needed on Steam games. Any publisher who does include it are just too lazy to remove it from the games when they add the games to Steam.

    DRM will live on for retail games - it has to for the survival of the industry to be honest.


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    #4
    Genghiz Cohen
    Registered Users Posts: 7,182 ✭✭✭Genghiz Cohen


    Azza wrote: »
    Thats good news overall, but by buying through Steam your still have one of the same issues that SecuROM DRM had, what if one day the Steam severs go offline for what ever reason, if that happened I would suddenly find I had 60+ games that are useless to me.

    What do you mean?
    You can play steam games offline.


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    #5
    Azza
    Moderators Posts: 5,558 ✭✭✭Azza


    True you can play Steam games in offline mode.

    However say for example your not logged into Steam and you don't have it set to offline mode and the Steam severs go down you may find yourself locked out of all your Steam Games. Offline can occasional stop working as well. Happened two to me once or twice when I had no internet connection.

    My ex housemate had this problem about two months back and he wasn't able to relog into steam for over a day. It was one of those random Steam issues.

    Or say Valve go out of business and shut there servers down as they have no legal obligation to keep them up, its theoretically possible that all Steam users would be permanently locked out of their games. The chance of such happening is remote but all the same I'd like reassurances from Valve


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    #6
    Fnz
    Registered Users Posts: 2,848 ✭✭✭Fnz


    Don't have a link to official statement but have heard on gaming podcast that Valve said if they ever go out of business they will release a patch that will make all their games work without steam.


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    #7
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 83,278 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    Azza wrote: »
    True you can play Steam games in offline mode.

    However say for example your not logged into Steam and you don't have it set to offline mode and the Steam severs go down you may find yourself locked out of all your Steam Games. Offline can occasional stop working as well. Happened two to me once or twice when I had no internet connection.

    My ex housemate had this problem about two months back and he wasn't able to relog into steam for over a day. It was one of those random Steam issues.

    Or say Valve go out of business and shut there servers down as they have no legal obligation to keep them up, its theoretically possible that all Steam users would be permanently locked out of their games. The chance of such happening is remote but all the same I'd like reassurances from Valve
    From my own experience you only need to enter offline mode once for Steam to save a cookie of your account information. I found myself on the train last week forgetting to enter offline mode beforehand - still worked after a steam reboot.
    Fnz wrote: »
    Don't have a link to official statement but have heard on gaming podcast that Valve said if they ever go out of business they will release a patch that will make all their games work without steam.

    Yeah they should really leave that guarantee on their FAQ

    In the event of steam collapse though you will have millions of outraged customers and valve will still have our account information on backup tapes somewhere. It would all be a matter of class action lawsuit and distributing serial keys or otherwise, for our software.


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