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EA Releases SecuROM De-Authorization Tool

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9:51 AM - April 2, 2009 by Marcus Yam

Electronic Arts is trying to make things right again with the release of the SecuROM de-authorization tool.

PC gamers probably know all too well the pains caused by SecuROM copy protection. EA’s game management system with SecuROM places a limit on its games to be installed on up to five computers to play the game.

While good in theory, in practice this just caused headaches for gamers who legitimately purchased the game. To ease their pain, EA has now released a tool that will manage the authorizations of each of the SecuROM’s protected games.

“If your EA PC game was released after May 2008 and has a machine authorization limit, you can now manage your computer authorizations using EA De-Authorization Tools!” EA released.

Gamers have the option to download a tool that will scan a user’s computer for any applicable games to de-authorize, or the user may choose to selectively download tools specific to each game.

The games affected are:

  • Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3
  • Crysis Warhead
  • Dead Space
  • FIFA Manager 09
  • FIFA Soccer 09
  • Littlest Pet Shop
  • The Lord of the Rings: Conquest
  • Mass Effect
  • Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
  • Mirror's Edge
  • MySims
  • Need for Speed: Undercover
  • NHL 09
  • Spore
  • Spore Creature Creator
  • The Sims 2: Apartment Life
  • The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff
  • The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff

With new developments in game DRM from Microsoft, Valve and Stardock, perhaps life will get easier for PC gamers who buy their games.

Source : Tom's Hardware US

Talkback
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timaahhh 04/02/2009 4:17 PM
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-5+

Thank god. Sony has been horrible with DRM. EA's implimentations didn't help either the 3 install limit is unreal. Valves seems to know what they are doing with DRM, as does StarDock.

stridervm 04/02/2009 4:36 PM
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-7+

It helps, but it really doesn't solve the problem. The hassle that pirates don't experience. *sigh*

LATTEH 04/02/2009 4:36 PM
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--3+

YES NOW IM BUYING MASS EFFECT YES!!!

gwolfman 04/02/2009 4:39 PM
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-7+

So, what if you had it installed on another machine and formatted? You're stuck with one authorization that you can't ever get rid of?

wikiwikiwhat 04/02/2009 5:11 PM
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-2+

Man, sometimes the thing is that people want to play LAN maybe once or twice in a month and the game you have you can put on all the computers. I understand they want to get all they can for the product they own and the licenses they lease to us, but in gaming it doesn't work that way. Customers aren't businesses (yes, some are but most businesses aren't buying games to just install them), they are people trying to have fun on a weekend after a long week.

I absolutely love PC gaming but there is no way to stop piracy. That may be a downfall to PC gaming. But if businesses have more deals for LAN goers then they will pay. A regular game that costs 50 bucks, if they had a LAN special of like 3 copies for 100 bucks I'd be all for it. Well, if the game was worth it. Its better than people illegally downloading it and using a keygen. Plus, customers would feel better about getting a sweet deal and would probably buy from the publisher again. Publisher makes some money at least to continue its survival.

eklipz330 04/02/2009 5:18 PM
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-1+

LATTEH :
YES NOW IM BUYING MASS EFFECT YES!!!



mass effect is ea drm free on steam... but still has the install steam thing which you may not like, or the lack of a physical copy..but it gets the job done nonetheless

this is def a move in the right direction, now we know ea falls into peer pressure. once other companies find a better drm solution, they will follow. hopefully they will rid of drm from any ea game after sims 3

megamanx00 04/02/2009 5:59 PM
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Not too sure how I feel about this. I mean really the games should deauthorize themselves when you uninstall them, but at least you have this tool if it doesn't. Another case for steam being a better alternative, unless you have dial up :D. Well, then again people using Time Warrner cable may start thinking twice about downloading games from Steam now that they are going forward with their whole metered internet billing ^_^.

daft 04/02/2009 6:13 PM
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-1+

i can finally play littlest pet shop again! hurrah!!!!!!!!

JimmiG 04/02/2009 7:32 PM
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-4+

Legally purchased games are catching up, but the pirates still offer superior products with less hassle and less "luggage". I'm not encouraging piracy, just stating the truth. I know of many who legally purchase games only to go home and download them off the net so they don't have to deal with the DRM...

tiredwolf 04/02/2009 11:27 PM
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-2+

Yeah I just get everything off of steam and dont have to worry about it... when i first heard about steam I really didn't like the idea of of not getting a box, I just kinda collected them. But after getting used to it, it's way better, no more worrying about scratched cd's :D

pocketdrummer 04/03/2009 7:01 AM
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--1+

Where the "F" is Bioshock on that list!?

UGH! I hate SUCKuROM!

Luscious 04/03/2009 11:09 AM
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-1+

This is still nothing compared to the pita time I went through getting BF2 to finally work with all it's account BS. Funny EA hasn't done anything to solve that yet.

neiroatopelcc 04/03/2009 11:28 AM
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-0+

When I bought The Path earlier this month, what I got was a simple msi installer with no drm ..... and I still paid for the game .... THAT is how it should be delivered. And when I got the civ4 based colonization last year, I just got a 'custom setup exe' that matched my serial I was mailed, and voilla - works. No drm in sight.

Life is good - so long you use iso's from release groups for the big titles. I never unpacked my farcry2 collectors ed to play it - I only used the tshirt and the map, and a nice simple iso without drm for actual gameplay. It's a bit of a hazzle just to keep your system relatively junkfree though.

Gazz 04/03/2009 2:36 PM
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-0+

Too late now I refuse to bye any EA games there is no Securom on my computer now and until they get rid of it out of there games well I just wont play there games ;-)
Gazz

xsamitt 04/03/2009 3:52 PM
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-0+

Does this update allow unlimited installs?OF the games listed?

JWL3 04/03/2009 6:08 PM
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Too little too late. I swore that I wouldn't buy another EA game after they totally screwed PC users last year by canceling annual PC sports titles like NBA, Madden, Tiger Woods, FIFA. They laughed in our faces and said that "piracy was the cause. " Three months down the line, their sales were miserable and they realized they miscalculated horribly. Tough sh*t scumbuckets. 2kSports stepped up and gave us PC users incredible graphics at $19.99 for NBA 2k9 and MLB 2009. EA can lick my ball juice. I had been a faithful EA sports guy for 13+ years, buying their titles every year. A metaphor for this would be a washed up wife who leaves a faithful and devoted husband and then wants him back after seeing him with a younger, hotter, and better woman. NO, get lost!

JWL3 04/03/2009 6:14 PM
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JimmiG:
I know of many who legally purchase games only to go home and download them off the net so they don't have to deal with the DRM...


I did that with Far Cry 2 and NBA 2k9. Steam was a pain in the @ss. Problem is that a lot of these pirated versions have trojans in there. Far Cry gave me some browser hijacker that cost me 8 hours to reformat and reinstall all my programs. Not worth the pain.

kami3k 04/03/2009 7:49 PM
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-1+

pocketdrummer :
Where the "F" is Bioshock on that list!?UGH! I hate SUCKuROM!



Uh, can't you read? I'll give you a hint "EA Releases SecuROM De-Authorization Tool" notice the EA and not 2K?

Oh and jwl3, how are they screwing over the what 10 people who bought the PC version of those sports games? Maybe they canceled them because NO PC GAMER GIVES A FUCK ABOUT SPORTS GAMES?!

Thank you

neiroatopelcc 04/06/2009 8:45 AM
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-0+

kami3k :
jwl3, how are they screwing over the what 10 people who bought the PC version of those sports games? Maybe they canceled them because NO PC GAMER GIVES A FUCK ABOUT SPORTS GAMES?!Thank you



I don't like sports very much, so I don't like sports games very much. But my best friend has studied sports at the university, and he's a huge fan of german soccer and nba. He plays those nba games, and he probably pays for some of them. And a collegue of mine bought nfl or something for his kid last xmas, so there are a few customers for these kinds of games. They've got better replay value than most of the games on the marked, so although their initial thrill is.... questionable their long term impression isn't any worse. That might be good actually. A game like Oblivion or Dark Messiah you only play thru once, maybe twice. That's it. My friend still plays nba 2007 (he didn't like the newer ones)....

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