Microsoft DRM shuts down Gears of War
p2pnet news view DRM | Games:- Microsoft DRM is has jammed Gears of War.
“Gears PC owners who tried to fire up the game yesterday were met with a rather jarring response,” says The Escapist, going on an error message, “tells users to reinstall the game, which unfortunately does nothing to correct the problem”.
It’s something to do with Modified Executable Code which equals, No You Can’t.
“As of January 28, 2009, the certificate for Gears of War on the PC has expired, rendering it unplayable for any user with a later system date,” Joystiq reports.
“A temporary workaround involves setting your system clock to sometime before this date,” says Planet Gears of War, also observing, “however this is hardly ideal.”
Says Epic SuperMod Joe Graf:
“We have been notified of the issue and are working with Microsoft to get it resolved. Sorry for any problems related to this. I’ll post more once we have a resolution.”
The Escapist – Epic Working To Fix Massive Gears Of War PC Bug, January 30, 2009
Joystiq – Gears of War PC certificate expires, breaks game, January 29, 2009
Planet Gears of War – DRM Glitch Cripples Gears PC, January 30, 2009
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January 30th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
oops
January 30th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
Fucking pricks. They intentionally set the expiry date to only a year or so from release and let it expire. It would take absolutely nothing for them to have set a date at any point in the future, say 50 years when you can absolutely guarantee that no one will be playing it.
I reckon they wanted to gauge gamer’s responses in some way, hell knows what for.
Yeah, this is DRM koolaid for the unwashed masses. Enjoy (gag)
Rant over.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
this is why I dont buy microsoft. valve Ftw not that it isnt drm its just non invasive.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
And yet those who downloaded and cracked the game and spent nothing, are no doubt free to play as much as they want.
Remind me again about the DRM that the British government wishes to foist on their electorate by taxing consumers to “protect” these asshats.
January 31st, 2009 at 2:10 am
Lol… and Valve can suck it. I like the idea of money having the same value everywhere but this 1$ = 1€ is just BS.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:21 am
The bigger question here is why did it have an expiration date in the first place? If this was five years from now do you think Epic or MS would even blink about it? Not likely, and you’d be permanently screwed out of the game you rightfully purchased.
January 31st, 2009 at 11:11 am
Instead of bitching about it. Just stop buying this games. Maybe things might then change for the better.
January 31st, 2009 at 2:09 pm
it should be called Gears of DRM LOL =P
January 31st, 2009 at 9:17 pm
It’s funny that while Steam is probably the most restrictive form of DRM, it’s also the least intrusive.
February 1st, 2009 at 2:35 pm
I pre-ordered Halflife 2 from amazon. Then it arrived and it required that I install a second piece of software that required internet access to play it. A piece of software that would run with my system startup, constantly hog my internet connection and report who knows what back to a third party regarding my system.
I sent it back to Amazon and have not bought anything from Valve since.
In fact I almost never buy games at all anymore, and when I do, its only after extensive research into the DRM used.
I applaud Stardock for their stance on DRM and would buy their stuff if they had anything that interested me.
DRM is the death knell for games for a great many PC gamers and until the publishers wake up and realize this they will continue to be out of pocket. The cracked versions work better, more reliably, easier and with far less pain and suffering for the end user. This is a ridiculous situation.