Farcry 2 uses Securom DRM. limited to five installs

[The Wooster]

After finding out how convenient Steam can be when I purchased portal (Again) earlier this week I was dead set on prebuying FaryCry2 at the lovely price of $44. Sadly because we've once again been saddled with an install limit which severely limits the life expectancy of the product I should own, I'll be picking up a store copy instead. Why? So I can download a crack. This certainly isn't Valve's fault and I feel bad that I have to cut them out of the loop on this one as Steam has always been an excellent service as far as I'm concerned but one of the main appeals of Steam is the ability to re download a game should anything to happen to your computer/hard drive. This securom bullshit makes that impossible. What a shame.

Source: Steam product page
Farcry will be coming out on the 22nd of October.

 

[fluffylandmine]

DAMN YOU DRM! DAMN YOU! And while I'm at it, DAMN YOU KHAN!

I agree, it is a shame to see such a thing happen to a nice game...

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I seem to recall that the limit is to five installs at once and an unistallation allows for an additional install.

Doesn't actually matter much to me as I'll be getting the 360 version if at all but I thought you'd want to know.

 

[Raven28256]

...Now everyone understands why I have pretty much given up on PC gaming. I'm getting the 360 version of Far Cry 2. Sure, I won't have access to mods or anything like that, and it is $10 more, but that is a price to pay to ensure that I don't need to deal with the SecuROM bullshit.

 

[BishopOfBattle]

Dumb, isn't one of the points of Steam that it also serves as a source of Anti-Piracy protection? Doesn't that make using Steam and SecureROM a little excessive?

 

[The Wooster]

I seem to recall that the limit is to five installs at once and an unistallation allows for an additional install.

Doesn't actually matter much to me as I'll be getting the 360 version if at all but I thought you'd want to know.

Makes sense but it's still aggrivating. What happens should you lose a computer/hard drive? Can we deauthorize installs as with bioshock?

 

[searanox]

Meh, I'll probably crack it anyway, assuming there's a disc check.

 

[Raven28256]

Dumb, isn't one of the points of Steam that it also serves as a source of Anti-Piracy protection? Doesn't that make using Steam and SecureROM a little excessive?

Yes, it is basically like using two condoms when your girlfriend or wife is also on the pill...

But in all seriousness, Bishop has a point. Why? Why does the Steam version also have SecuROM?

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Makes sense but it's still aggrivating. What happens should you lose a computer/hard drive? Can we deauthorize installs as with bioshock?

Well, you'd lose that install as well. Maybe customer service can clear it up.

And no, not with BioShock. If I remember right Far Cry 2 has a slightly modified version of SecuROM to allow for deauthorizing.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

One reason I use Steam is it is a convenient place to keep my games. Instead of keeping them on the shelf where they can be damaged or lost, I keep them on the Steam database, safe and secure for whenever I need them. It's highly redundant for a game on Steam to use SecuRom, and it means that Steam is that much less safe a place to keep my games.

 

[searanox]

But in all seriousness, Bishop has a point. Why? Why does the Steam version also have SecuROM?

Because the developers are too lazy to remove it. Although generally the DRM in Steam games is included in the final release, it goes inactive and unused.

 

[Mistah Kurtz]

God I hate these people - didn't they learn a lesson from Spore? Not only did the pirates have no problems running the game, they had the game running BEFORE anyone else did. All they're doing is pissing off the people willing to follow the honor system and actually pay for their shit.

They're digging their own graves...

 

[searanox]

God I hate these people - didn't they learn a lesson from Spore? Not only did the pirates have no problems running the game, they had the game running BEFORE anyone else did. All they're doing is pissing off the people willing to follow the honor system and actually pay for their shit.

They're digging their own graves...

It's meant to stop reselling of games. They just use piracy as an excuse to justify it.

Also, SPORE sold a half-million copies in its first month. For a new IP, on the PC, that's excellent. I doubt EA cares too much about their "lost" sales.

 

[Altorin]

It says EA, it will have SecureRom. It has SecureRom, I won't buy it. Limits what games I'll be buying, but I can just as easily spend my money on table-top games, DVDs, or plushies. I will not buy from a company that treats me like a criminal.

...plushies?

 

[Mistah Kurtz]

God I hate these people - didn't they learn a lesson from Spore? Not only did the pirates have no problems running the game, they had the game running BEFORE anyone else did. All they're doing is pissing off the people willing to follow the honor system and actually pay for their shit.

They're digging their own graves...

It's meant to stop reselling of games. They just use piracy as an excuse to justify it.

Also, SPORE sold a half-million copies in its first month. For a new IP, on the PC, that's excellent. I doubt EA cares too much about their "lost" sales.

Christ, I'm a moron - I hadn't even thought of that. If they want to do that, though, it seems going digital with releases would be the best option. I'm a game reseller - I buy and sell used video games independently to bring in extra cash, and I was shooting myself in the balls 30 seconds after I bought call of duty 4 on steam when I realized I wouldn't be able to resell it when I got bored with it.

 

[Alydr]

5 installs? Egads, what to do, what to do. Oh yeah, I'll crack it like every other game. DRM is such a joke. You can't "protect" something that's installed to a person's hard drive, it's totally futile. It's like telling Americans not to be fat. I can't remember a game that I wasn't able to find a crack for the day I bought it (usually Canadian release day, so one or two days behind US release day at most). No, wait, Bioshock took 4 days... in that case though it didn't affect me since I got the Steam version.

Regarding Spore selling a half million copies, the hype machine behind that game was so overwhelming it could've been crappy and it would've still sold like beer at an AA convention. Oh wait, it was.

 

[axia777]

PS3 version for me then. DRM and SecuROM kills ANY and ALL purchases for the PC for me. They are just trying to force people to buy new instead of used games.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

Agreed, if a game comes with SecuROM i'll just get a console version. If thats not availible, I just won't buy it. My PC's tend to be buggy enough as it is.

 

[Flour]

It's meant to stop reselling of games. They just use piracy as an excuse to justify it.

Also, SPORE sold a half-million copies in its first month. For a new IP, on the PC, that's excellent. I doubt EA cares too much about their "lost" sales.

Spore got at least 500,000 downloads in 2 weeks, from multiple torrent sites.

I'm unable to find Far Cry 2 in the steam store, while other unreleased games have early downloads available that will activate after release. Would that mean that it's not going to be available on steam?

PS3 version for me then. DRM and SecuROM kills ANY and ALL purchases for the PC for me. They are just trying to force people to buy new instead of used games.

SecuRom doesn't do anything to prevent games from installing on other computers, it's the SecuRom DRM that does this.
But SecuRom is best removed, I reduce the start up speed of every game by 20 seconds when SecuRom is removed =/