It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
I did a quick search I found that 3SwitcheD is no longer playable because the DRM requires you to activate it on TopWare's servers which are down. But you can still buy it on Steam for some reason, though they throw you a bone by being 90% off.
avatar
nightcraw1er.488: You are empty. Never found a nocd for it, so it sits there on the shelf all lonely.

GTA4, but that's more hope it is lost to time.
avatar
kohlrak: Hasn't there also been console releases with no DRM?
it was also sold on Gamersgate, no cd there.
avatar
kohlrak: What's the story there?
Port made by Transgaming... bought by nvidia they decided to make games for tv instead of port for mac.
the drm included with Metal Gear Rising Mac edition cannot comunicate with the server anymore and that's why the game does not even start (of course the "drm-free" version still works... of course there is no official drm-free version).

I was able to get Metal gear solid V for windows (steam) as a refund (I had the mac app store version that was deleted from the mac app store one year before the drm was unable to work), but I had to contact Konami and excenge mail for one year (not because they did not want to give me a refund... just because they answer each mail after 2-3 months).
Of course this is a denuvo game, so i had to install it on a clean pc, and format after I played the game... Of course this is another "rent" because when they will shut down denuvo I'm sure MGS V will also stop to work (I only wish they will update and remove it this time before the shut down).

Also I was able to get a credit to rent a movie from itunes from apple (because I did made a backup copy of the game, and that backup was unable to start. The license say that you are responsable to make an offline backup... but the license does not say anything about the responsibility for a backup that does not work because of DRM... that's the only reason why I was able to get something).

I don't even know what type of drm they were using... (when they removed it from the mac app store I though it was the usual apple drm that was not working (the apple drm require you to log in if it need validation... but Metal Gear Rising crashed every time it needed validation... while I was able to make it work if I downloaded the game again... that's from day one). But one year after that also the steam version was not able to start (I don't own it, but it was said in the steam forum)).
avatar
Pheace: Scores and scores of android games. Wouldn't be surprised if it happened every day :p
avatar
mechmouse: Yep, son got really upset over one of his games being pulled

Also when they update games dramatically changing the game too.

Kind of regret getting tablets for the kids.
Tablets for kids can be good, but you gotta be careful with these games. On the plus side, Termux can make your day.

avatar
theslitherydeee: I did a quick search I found that 3SwitcheD is no longer playable because the DRM requires you to activate it on TopWare's servers which are down. But you can still buy it on Steam for some reason, though they throw you a bone by being 90% off.
Wait, so it's completely broken, but it's still for sale? What's the status on iOS and the other platforms?

avatar
kohlrak: What's the story there?
avatar
LiefLayer: Port made by Transgaming... bought by nvidia they decided to make games for tv instead of port for mac.
the drm included with Metal Gear Rising Mac edition cannot comunicate with the server anymore and that's why the game does not even start (of course the "drm-free" version still works... of course there is no official drm-free version).

I was able to get Metal gear solid V for windows (steam) as a refund (I had the mac app store version that was deleted from the mac app store one year before the drm was unable to work), but I had to contact Konami and excenge mail for one year (not because they did not want to give me a refund... just because they answer each mail after 2-3 months).
Of course this is a denuvo game, so i had to install it on a clean pc, and format after I played the game... Of course this is another "rent" because when they will shut down denuvo I'm sure MGS V will also stop to work (I only wish they will update and remove it this time before the shut down).

Also I was able to get a credit to rent a movie from itunes from apple (because I did made a backup copy of the game, and that backup was unable to start. The license say that you are responsable to make an offline backup... but the license does not say anything about the responsibility for a backup that does not work because of DRM... that's the only reason why I was able to get something).

I don't even know what type of drm they were using... (when they removed it from the mac app store I though it was the usual apple drm that was not working (the apple drm require you to log in if it need validation... but Metal Gear Rising crashed every time it needed validation... while I was able to make it work if I downloaded the game again... that's from day one). But one year after that also the steam version was not able to start (I don't own it, but it was said in the steam forum)).
So somsone did crack it, then. I've found alot of always-online DRM actually breaks pretty easily. Final Fantasy games on android have always online DRM, but it only checks if you have an internet connection, not that it actually works, which i found to be really strange. Some just check for return codes, so breaking the DRM of these games are usually easy if all the content is available offline and it only, basically, phones home.
avatar
kohlrak: In the past hour, i read about Moonrise and Darkspore. I'm curious if anyone has a list, or wants to build a list, of games that became unplayable because of modern DRM (not because of buggy CD checks).
Wasn't Moonrise basically an MMO? And not even passed Early Access/Beta phase?
Post edited August 17, 2018 by LootHunter
avatar
nightcraw1er.488: You are empty. Never found a nocd for it, so it sits there on the shelf all lonely.
It has DRM? My cousin got You Are Empty from a gaming magazine DVD and IIRC, he installed it on a computer without internet and it ran fine. He finished the game without problems.
avatar
Pheace: Scores and scores of android games. Wouldn't be surprised if it happened every day :p
avatar
kohlrak: That, i know. But alot of people see that as different. I'd like to focus on desktop games, for that reason.
I get that. Just brought it up because this *is* what the next generation is growing up on, as shown by the kid example above. The worry of 'desktop' games suffering from this is an aging concept for a world that really is getting more and more used to seeing this happen on a regular basis, and we're likely to see the same thing in the long term more and more online integration being a thing.
Post edited August 17, 2018 by Pheace
Age of empires online , a pretty sweet game you could actually play on your own lost due to damn gfwl....
avatar
kohlrak: In the past hour, i read about Moonrise and Darkspore. I'm curious if anyone has a list, or wants to build a list, of games that became unplayable because of modern DRM (not because of buggy CD checks).
Do you mean unplayable in the sense that no one can play it (even a pirated version from torrentz zitez), or that legit owners can't anymore play their legit copy (without either hunting down a working crack, or replace their legit version with a pirated version)?

I can't install nor play my legit digital versions of Plants Vs Zombies and Peggle anymore. I recall either upon installation or running it for the first time, it asks me to register with a code (that I have), but the validation fails as the PopCap validation servers are now permanently offline.

I think EA is selling some versions of both games on EA Origin, but at least I couldn't redeem the codes I have there, they are not in the correct format for Origin. Not sure if the Origin versions are the exact same versions anyway.

Another somewhat similar case is... I don't recall if it was the first Rise of Nations, or the sequel Rise of Legends, or both. You can install and play both games... BUT you can't get any much-needed updates for them as the only official way to update both games is using the in-game update functionality, and the game publisher's servers have been offline for many many years already.

So you can still install and play the game(s)... but only in their original buggy format, without fixes. I recall though that one of those games had some fan-made patch where he had gathered the downloaded update files to some kind of simple installer.

avatar
kohlrak: That, i know. But alot of people see that as different. I'd like to focus on desktop games, for that reason.
avatar
Pheace: I get that. Just brought it up because this *is* what the next generation is growing up on, as shown by the kid example above. The worry of 'desktop' games suffering from this is an aging concept for a world that really is getting more and more used to seeing this happen on a regular basis, and we're likely to see the same thing in the long term more and more online integration being a thing.
Ah yes, I should have expected you come into this discussion to preach to us that we should just accept DRM and not care if games will permanently die. You keep telling in other DRM discussions how you wouldn't care even if you lost all your Steam games, you would just buy them all over again on some other service (in case they would even be released at all in some future service).

Would you extend that "laissez-fairez I don't carez" mentality also to e.g. movies and music? You don't care even if people wouldn't be able to listen to music from the 70s or 80s anymore, unless some publisher decided to make a remake of some old song or movie? After all, there are always newer music and movies to hear/see, why should people be able to see some old "classic" movies or hear some Beatles by the original band? Or if you want to see the movie Psycho, there's always the modernized version with new actors in it.

I hope you don't mind if I call you pro-DRM as that is what you clearly are, based on what you keep writing to GOG forums (including your "see how people complain when DRM works"-thread).
Post edited August 17, 2018 by timppu
avatar
kohlrak: In the past hour, i read about Moonrise and Darkspore. I'm curious if anyone has a list, or wants to build a list, of games that became unplayable because of modern DRM (not because of buggy CD checks).
avatar
LootHunter: Wasn't Moonrise basically an MMO? And not even passed Early Access/Beta phase?
Actually, i don't know. If it was, then that would make sense, at which point we're just down to Darkspore, which i'm told did actually have single player.

avatar
kohlrak: That, i know. But alot of people see that as different. I'd like to focus on desktop games, for that reason.
avatar
Pheace: I get that. Just brought it up because this *is* what the next generation is growing up on, as shown by the kid example above. The worry of 'desktop' games suffering from this is an aging concept for a world that really is getting more and more used to seeing this happen on a regular basis, and we're likely to see the same thing in the long term more and more online integration being a thing.
Both for and against your argument (simultaneously, mind you), i present to you Termux. Basically, phones and tablets are mini-laptops with the OS more restricted than a laptop or desktop. It was always like this, but now with bluetooth keyboards and busybox and the like, it's just become painfully obvious enough that slowly even those who aren't coders or systems designers can see it. On the whole, mobile games are meeting much criticism, but it's empty because people keep downloading them and playing them right after criticising them. However, at the end of the day, the general population does see apps, PC games, console games, and general software all as completely separate worlds. I'm anxious for the day when they don't, but for now it's what we have to work with.

Now, if anyone else here is a coder, i'd be glad to work with you to help you wake people up, at least through android, in order to get the ball rolling. I have some ideas, but I really could use some help with this.

avatar
kohlrak: In the past hour, i read about Moonrise and Darkspore. I'm curious if anyone has a list, or wants to build a list, of games that became unplayable because of modern DRM (not because of buggy CD checks).
avatar
timppu: Do you mean unplayable in the sense that no one can play it (even a pirated version from torrentz zitez), or that legit owners can't anymore play their legit copy (without either hunting down a working crack, or replace their legit version with a pirated version)?
I'm focused on scenarios where something simply disappears from steam or origin, basically, and people with legit copies are told they're out of luck, even if it has single player elements. Particulary games that actually do work when pirated, because it proves then that shutting down the game was absolutely unnecessary as keeping the game running cost the company absolutely nothing other than sales of a sequel or something.
I can't install nor play my legit digital versions of Plants Vs Zombies and Peggle anymore. I recall either upon installation or running it for the first time, it asks me to register with a code (that I have), but the validation fails as the PopCap validation servers are now permanently offline.

I think EA is selling some versions of both games on EA Origin, but at least I couldn't redeem the codes I have there, they are not in the correct format for Origin. Not sure if the Origin versions are the exact same versions anyway.

Another somewhat similar case is... I don't recall if it was the first Rise of Nations, or the sequel Rise of Legends, or both. You can install and play both games... BUT you can't get any much-needed updates for them as the only official way to update both games is using the in-game update functionality, and the game publisher's servers have been offline for many many years already.

So you can still install and play the game(s)... but only in their original buggy format, without fixes. I recall though that one of those games had some fan-made patch where he had gathered the downloaded update files to some kind of simple installer.
Those aren't make or break, other than the mobile games, which everyone accepts to be a crooked market.
avatar
Pheace: I get that. Just brought it up because this *is* what the next generation is growing up on, as shown by the kid example above. The worry of 'desktop' games suffering from this is an aging concept for a world that really is getting more and more used to seeing this happen on a regular basis, and we're likely to see the same thing in the long term more and more online integration being a thing.
Ah yes, I should have expected you come into this discussion to preach to us that we should just accept DRM and not care if games will permanently die. You keep telling in other DRM discussions how you wouldn't care even if you lost all your Steam games, you would just buy them all over again on some other service (in case they would even be released at all in some future service).

Would you extend that "laissez-fairez I don't carez" mentality also to e.g. movies and music? You don't care even if people wouldn't be able to listen to music from the 70s or 80s anymore, unless some publisher decided to make a remake of some old song or movie? After all, there are always newer music and movies to hear/see, why should people be able to see some old "classic" movies or hear some Beatles by the original band? Or if you want to see the movie Psycho, there's always the modernized version with new actors in it.

I hope you don't mind if I call you pro-DRM, because that is what you clearly are, based on what you keep writing to GOG forums (including your "see how people complain when DRM works"-thread).
Honestly, in this case, i don't think we can say he's suggesting we just deal with it. His attitude, here at least, simply seems to be that it's becoming a thing, whether we like it or not, so we're going to have a hard time fighting it. Honestly, he's kinda right: people are getting used to this and continue to invest, anyway, then complain when it's gone, but then move on to clones. We still don't quite know how it'll be when something a bit heavier, more investing gets whacked off, like a roguelike or something where you can put alot of time investing in, only for it to go away with no hope of a replacement coming. Right now, the apps closing down are the ones that alot of people haved played and got bored of, despite investing money into them. Now a game where you spend time and actually build "skill" in, such as a fighting game or something, that tends to have a much bigger impact, but that's not really the kind of thing we see on mobile right now (i mean, we have it, but it's usually mostly DRM-free, and alot of it is also sold on GOG as well).
avatar
nightcraw1er.488: You are empty. Never found a nocd for it, so it sits there on the shelf all lonely.
avatar
idbeholdME: It has DRM? My cousin got You Are Empty from a gaming magazine DVD and IIRC, he installed it on a computer without internet and it ran fine. He finished the game without problems.
Not all DRM require Internet. Some require DVD in DVD drive. And if that DVD is damaged (too scratched for example) or you simply lost it, game stops working.
avatar
idbeholdME: It has DRM? My cousin got You Are Empty from a gaming magazine DVD and IIRC, he installed it on a computer without internet and it ran fine. He finished the game without problems.
avatar
LootHunter: Not all DRM require Internet. Some require DVD in DVD drive. And if that DVD is damaged (too scratched for example) or you simply lost it, game stops working.
Presumably, though, this is your fault, not the DRM. Mounting systems are also legal and common, now, but i'm not sure about ISO files that you make yourself. I think you might be able to legally make a backup copy (at least in the US, under DMCA), but i'm not 100% sure.
avatar
paladin181: To play BF2, you have to login to EAs servers (even to play single player). Those servers were shut down.
It shouldn't be confused with Battlefield Bad company 2, or anything.
avatar
kohlrak: Googling that comes up with posts about disk versions with no DRM. Or is there more than one Battlefield II?
avatar
paladin181:
You don't have to login to EA servers to play BF2 SP. You can create an offline account. You do have to login to EA servers to play BF2142 though, but this can be bypassed by disabling your internet and trying to login - it will offer an offline option so you can play SP.
avatar
1mikey1: You don't have to login to EA servers to play BF2 SP. You can create an offline account. You do have to login to EA servers to play BF2142 though, but this can be bypassed by disabling your internet and trying to login - it will offer an offline option so you can play SP.
Good work, detective.
avatar
1mikey1: You don't have to login to EA servers to play BF2 SP. You can create an offline account. You do have to login to EA servers to play BF2142 though, but this can be bypassed by disabling your internet and trying to login - it will offer an offline option so you can play SP.
avatar
kohlrak: Good work, detective.
Why thank you.