EA & Always Online DRM... (Need for Speed Reboot)

[kail]

Yes you can, if you think DRM is some all mighty piracy stopper you are delusional.
inb4 you respond with NO U DUNT CAENT

Stopping piracy entirely is nigh impossible. DRM and always online games do however provide a deterrence against piracy and cheating. That alone is pretty much a fact. May deter a little or a lot but its a deterrence none the less.

I simply have issues when a game is not designed around multiplayer yet hinders consumers with unnecessary DRM. It may reduce loss for the pirates but the cost against players simply outweigh it. Single player requiring online connection is practically an oxymoron.

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If it wasn't for steam i wouldn't have known witcher I & II (havent gotten to witcher 3 mainly due to my lil pocket and it'll prolly burn down my ole pc) nor saints row, nor darksiders, nor rift... and pretty much a looooot of games.

Steam is also a form of DRM.

[zephid]

Witcher 2 was pirated 4.5million times by the end of 2011 compared to 980k copies were sold...

4 times as many people played a pirated copy as bought a legit copy, pirates are disgusting and ruin everything for the rest of us by forcing companies to adopt highly intrusive DRM.

Just because a lot of people played a pirated version does not mean that they would have bought the game if they couldn't download it for free. I've played a lot of games, watched a lot of movies etc for free that I would never have paid for. But I have also played pirated games that I later bought because I really liked them (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Skyrim, Fallout, a lot of indie games etc. ). I wouldn't have bought those games if I hadn't tried them out first.

[Strangebrew]

Stopping piracy entirely is nigh impossible. DRM and always online games do however provide a deterrence against piracy and cheating. That alone is pretty much a fact. May deter a little or a lot but its a deterrence none the less.

Maybe so, i don`t argue against it being a hinder, but it`s not something that stops piracy completely, that`ll never happen.
If anything, DRM pushes me towards pirating a game even harder.

[barackopala]

Stopping piracy entirely is nigh impossible. DRM and always online games do however provide a deterrence against piracy and cheating. That alone is pretty much a fact. May deter a little or a lot but its a deterrence none the less.

I simply have issues when a game is not designed around multiplayer yet hinders consumers with unnecessary DRM. It may reduce loss for the pirates but the cost against players simply outweigh it. Single player requiring online connection is practically an oxymoron.

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Steam is also a form of DRM.

There are games on steam that do not require drm just so you know :x

[Edge-]

There are games on steam that do not require drm just so you know :x

Kinda feel like being "that guy" and pointing out that Steam itself is a form of DRM. Super diet DRM that provides a ton of other benefits, but DRM still the same.

[Tech614]

There are games on steam that do not require drm just so you know :x

Steam is DRM. If a game is steamworks then Steam is it's DRM.

If you need a service open to launch the game be it in offline mode or not that is DRM.

Can't judge the topic at hand because we know so little about the game.

Always online games are fine if there is a reason and benefit to them being always online. Sim City had neither. Diablo 3 had neither. Both where just EA and Blizzard trying to police the games, albeit Blizzard had a good reason at the time with the RMAH which in itself was a dumb idea.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Steam is DRM. If a game is steamworks then Steam is it's DRM.

If you need a service open to launch the game be it in offline mode or not that is DRM.

Can't judge the topic at hand because we know so little about the game.

Always online games are fine if there is a reason and benefit to them being always online. Sim City had neither. Diablo 3 had neither. Both where just EA and Blizzard trying to police the games, albeit Blizzard had a good reason at the time with the RMAH which in itself was a dumb idea.

Skyrim is an example of this. It's a SteamWorks exclusive. No Steam, no Skyrim.

[SirRobin]

I don't have a problem with DRM itself. I have a problem with the abuse of it. And EA choosing to have their SimCity reboot's DRM require an always online connection but not prepare for at least as much launch traffic as another Maxis game had five years earlier, counts as abuse for me.

[breadisfunny]

I can't imagine why anyone is surprised at this requirement. Get used to it.

brushing aside people concerns with an argument that is basically. "LOL GET USED TO IT." ISN'T AN ARGUMENT.

[bbr]

http://www.pcgamer.com/eas-new-need-...ction-to-play/

The new NFS game will require always-online DRM.



This is EXACTLY the same reason they used for SimCity last year (though with the added "Your PC isn't powerful enough to simulate it" total bull that was debunked.

Oh man, they just keep pushing hard for this one...

This will fail in the same way as sim city failed.
EA needs to just take a clue pill and roll over.

[Tackhisis]

but not allowing to take them home.

You cannot take home commercially viable books from most libraries anyway.

[SirRobin]

This will fail in the same way as sim city failed.
EA needs to just take a clue pill and roll over.

I see the Need For Speed reboot flopping just as badly as the SimCity reboot did, if not worse. I hope whoever they have working on this has their resumes updated because they are going to be needing them soon. I wonder if EA pre-prints their termination notices before their latest reboot flops. The last kiss of death would be to hear that Lucy "needs to get her vision checked" Bradshaw is in charge of it.

I wonder if they'll get caught lying as pathetically badly with Need For DRM as they did with SimShitty. They'll probably deal with it the same way too.

[Dilbon]

When would you even play games offline?

[Wilian]

When would you even play games offline?

Aside from all the time?

[SirRobin]

When would you even play games offline?

Meh... Probably bait but what the hell, I'm bored.

Before we even get to the online/offline part there is the matter of whether the developer/publisher's infrastructure can handle the online requirement. SimShitty was a glaring example of a developer/publisher choosing not to be ready. So when we consider your question we end up adding a "will they let us play online" in front of it.

Now getting to the online/offline part there are various scenarios that show the need for offline options.

1. Poor internet service provider with no better provider options.
2. Poor local infrastructure.
3. Multiple internet users in the household.
4. Restrictive data plans.
5. Travelling and local network access is non-existent.
6. Travelling and local network access is very poor.
7. Travelling and local network access is very insecure.
8. The developer/publisher has closed so their infrastructure is no longer available to connect too.
9. The developer/publisher has abandoned the game so their infrastructure is no longer accepting it.

[Dilbon]

Ok 8 and 9 are valid, rest are just entitlement.

[Wilian]

Ok 8 and 9 are valid, rest are just entitlement.

Do you people even know what the word means anymore?

[barackopala]

Do you people even know what the word means anymore?

Jar jar binks for you m8, yeah, always online sucks, servers collapsing is quite common on release days so gg

[SirRobin]

Do you people even know what the word means anymore?

Clearly not, but I figured he was probably just baiting. Its not like its actually hard to figure out.

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Jar jar binks for you m8, yeah, always online sucks, servers collapsing is quite common on release days so gg

And it doesn't have too be that way. Its the publisher/developer wanting to have their cake and eat it too. They want to require an always online connection but don't want to pay for the infrastructure to support it.

Of course the fix is easy. Just don't buy before or at launch. Wait a couple of weeks after launch before buying the game. Naturally that is the last thing the publisher/developer wants us to do because that is their peak sales window.