Providing the customer with all the "service updates" is also part of the licensing deal. You own the same game as that on Steam, therefore you are entitled to those updates. If they cannot or will not provide them, you can cancel the contract and get a refund.

While a company doesn't "have to" further service a working product, they choose to do and that means everybody who has licensed the game is entitled to this. One of the "side bets" of the recent ECJ judgement was that all updates are also included in a user licence.

The only thing that could be a bit muddy is if you can refuse a Steam key to get a refund. You probably would need to explain why you are in need of an DRM free version. The problem is that GG isn't really DRM free and the "workaround" can't be used to strengthen that issue legally. For all legal purposes you bought a DRM'd version. If you don't already have a Steam account, then you could go with the "no third party contract" reasoning, but that would be hard to justify if you are already using Steam.

It all boils down to your claim for the updates VS. their right of "supplementary performance" (Recht der zweiten Andienung), which is the "legal counterpart" to all those strong EU consumer rights and equally respected by the courts.

Hmmm, I didn't have any problems w/ SolidShield on Dead Space 2 (from Origin)...


Did GG have Precursors.EXE version (Version 1.0) that was DRM-FREE before it began offering up Version 1.1?

I've used a lot of Starforce and Tages games in the past without any problems. But how many bad experiences do you need to have before you say enough's enough? I've had to format my computer twice because of Starforce. Why would I take that chance again? Why would I support the use of DRM that potentially damaging?

Oh, I absolutely don't blame you one bit.
That just flat-out freaking bites.
Ugh. :(

I consider myself very lucky - I've never really had much issues w/ disastrous StarForce and Tages.
Especially SF, since SF's known to wreck your game-disc; actual disc-drive; & compromise your system.
Namely, I've had issues where games wouldn't boot and games would crash b/c of those 2 DRM's -- and that was really about it.
[knocks on more wood]

YAY!!! My game key for The Precursors from Gamersgate showed-up today.
Though, they only give you two activations.
WTH? :-x

They really should eventually remove this DRM on this SP-based game...

I thought I already told you that The Precursors has a three time activation limit and no revokes. You only got two activations, though? That's a little odd. Are you sure it didn't just say that you had two remaining activations?

Besides all that, I thought I helped you out with a lot of your issues earlier. I'm sad to see that you're still having trouble with the DRM. Though, yes, this game has horrible DRM that needs to go die in a fire... but then, ultimately, I suppose you could say the same about any DRM, really. Again, I wouldn't mind seeing some Deep Shadows on GOG. Not the most polished games in the world, but there are already arguably worse titles here already.

It said that it had one activation remaining, after my (first) activation.

Oh. Ow. Well, that's not good.

I guess the new keys will have two activations from now on. I guess the publisher decided that if they ran out of keys, it must mean people are sharing keys and killing their sales. They must think their game is good enough to allow them to shoot themselves in the foot like this, if it turns out that this was such a deliberate decision.

If that's the case, I'm not too hopeful on a DRM-free release any time this century. Stupid, stupid, stupid. It really is so very stupid. It's such a shame. It deserves recognition, but it's hard to recommend it to anybody when they hate their customers so much that they would do this to them.

On the bright side, GamersGate support is pretty good about issuing new keys/activations, and if you still have trouble after that, just send me a line and I'll see if I can help you.


At any rate, you have your game activated and you can play it offline, so that's good. That information is stored to the registry, so don't be afraid of uninstalling and reinstalling. I do hope you enjoy The Precursors, it's a lot of fun.

I got this game forever ago and the DRM was indeed horrid. I assumed the fan patch would eventually remove it though.

Still waiting to play it. Not enough time in the day/year/life.