Keep on fighting that losing battle MS.

My torrents will keep on downloading.

i dont know i think this may be a good thing we may get more games for the PC if this works out

And i bet your proud of that?

hackers will find ways around it faster than microdopes can stop it...

If it means no DRM, then I am good with it. Steam and StarDock's Impulse are certainly ahead of the curve where Microsoft sits, but this should help the gaming industry further. If they do it right, you won't always need to be "connected", just like Steam and Impulse.

Of course you realize that if everyone did this, there would be no games for PCs, right?

i'm guessing this article is targeting the single player aspect of a game since most developers hav some sort of account rego to play online, n they can check if ur key is already used or not

Is the real issue here who is pirating and how?
For crying out loud release a "mature" and stable game for once at reasonable prices and then more people are going to buy it.

Latest example is Empire Total War with all the issues gamers have been having. When will you guys get it? It's not the piracy that kills the gaming industry, it's what we get for the money we pay.
Maybe instead of spending money on "protections" you should invest your money into customer value proposition and take back the market share.

Good luck Microsoft.

As a computer programmer I know how sad is the fact that some people steal your work when is very hard to produce (games specially), but let's face it, piracy will never die. I encourage companies (not just MS) fighting against piracy, but this is a never ending story. More than fighting piracy I encourage gamers to support the gaming industry one way or another. Because of honest players the industry is and it will be alive.

It's not a bad compromise but I feel that those with a 'stand alone' system may have a few problems with the on-line authentication. I personally don't like to go online to authenticate anything because most of the time it's just a limited install on so many computers. Still, this is one of the better ideas MS has come up with.

I see one huge problem with this. What about people on slow or no Internet connections? I feel this is what really limits steams appeal to some people. I can also see this becoming a legal issue whether or not it would successes or fail is of debate. But I could still see people suing saying that by releasing a title and requiring you to have access to the Internet your trying to single out specific group of people from your customer base which is true. Your basically singling out the one group that doesn't pirate or torrent at all the people with no Internet. Please don't flame me about will ever one should have Internet
I have had quiet a few friends who have either turned there Internet service off or never had it due to cost and not having the option for Internet service (other then dial up) in there area. Plus has anyone thought of the long term? Steam will not always be around nether will these servers to authenticate things as much as we love to believe things will always be around its not true people will still have the rights to the games but what happens if your beloved game isn't usable because someone decided to stop support for it?

Congratulations!!!

You seem to be one of those guys who makes the IT world slow down because of the time we programmers spend developing ways to stop you, FYI if security issues (caused by people by YOU) would not be a problem, the IT world (gaming also) would be a super better place to be!!

Thanks for slowing the development of the world you live in!

Agreed, if I buy the game and decide I want to play it 20 years down the road, I should still be able to install it on a computer and play it, This relatively new bout of activation bs and buying digital games from steam and other digital providers is only as good as the company is around, and companies don't last forever. I only buy games digitally from steam if they are on sale for $15 or less because that is the amount of money I am willing to part with for the risk of not being able to play it down the road. Otherwise I buy the disc, because someone will crack it if steam whet under and I would still (hopefully) be able to play the game should I desire to.

Exactly.

It's not really that big of a deal. Oh god! The intarwebs can't get a hold of titles before the release date! All it does is help put more money in the pockets of developers from people who would actually purchase the game. People are still going to pirate it, but overall I think it's at least an attempt to help developers get some return on their investment in the game process.

Hrm...I would like to think that they could include a mailer with the game purchase to get an unlock sent to you after the game launches? Still punishes someone for not having an internet connection...but that said most people who game on their PC's have some kind of access if nothing else but for driver updates and game patches. The only people I know with zero internet access also aren't PC gamers.

Of course there are exceptions to everything but its certainly a better solution than securom.

well folks never fear. There is something new coming out that will eliminate piracy once and for all.

http://www.onlive.com/

and will change the way we play games too.

Only requirement is a cheap laptop or desktop with a os on it a web broswer download a plugin and off you go to playing these high end titles without having to have anything on the local workstation as the games is server to client based.

Yep this will kill off piracy once and for all.

and to the guy that is happily doing torrents well hope you happy because pretty soon onlive will make sure you never torrent another game again.

Better and less obtrusive than some attempts, but still will fail.

I don't mind this restriction, I never buy games on the release day or preorder anyway.

I avoid games with abusive DRM like the BioShock and Spore, just because of the DRM they carry.

While I still believe StarDock's approach is still best, I'd still prefer this approach over Starforce and Securom.

Of course there's a crack for everything, minutes after the security is put in place. It's software, it can be re-made to do whatever you want.

This isn't going to stop piracy.

What it will do, is stop me from playing a PC game again 3 or 4 years from now when I get the urge to play an old game.

The software on the CD/DVD isn't going to have updates on it so it knows that it's developer no longer has a web presence with which to activate (unlock) itself.

I have a feeling they've considered the offline and 20 years later scenarios, so I'm not that worried about it.

Not to beat a dead horse, but people will always find a way around DRM. The companies should just invest that money into making a quality title for a change.

But then, that's just my opinion.

well i am not sure if you are aware but seems like this new trend is kicking up

http://www.onlive.com

something to really look at. Its getting alot of hits and this might be the future for gaming

I believe it would be a mistake to explicitly sell games on onlive. Although it would definetly eliminate PC piracy, the service itself has a few drawbacks that I doubt people will want to deal with. However, onlive would definetly reduce piracy from those who use the service because their PC wouldn't be able to handle a real game.

I also think that this will only do a little to deter piracy. I think it will have some impact on multiplayer games in which players have to login to a service, but for offline games getting around that activation isn't really a problem. I do cheer the fact that its a non-DRM solution because I do hate DRMs and don't buy games with it attached unless its Steam.

I personally hate the fact that companies are deliberately destroying the used PC game market. Why is it that I can buy used games for consoles, but when I try to do it on PC, there's suddenly a keycode, an online authentication, various updates, etc. etc.?

we already hacked this shit

Onlive = bad idea
Steam = good

With the way I play games, I don't imagine myself thinking 20 years down the road, "Dang, I wish I could play Commander Keen right now!" Something bigger and better will come along and I will have no desire to replay a game that old.

It seems like a good thing.
Again much better than DRM and limited installs.

See? Told ya. LOL.