BioWare's Dragon Age Won't Have Invasive DRM

By Marcus Yam
published

No SecuROM is Dragon Age.

Are you sick of stupid DRM schemes that get in the way of your legitimate gaming experience? BioWare feels your pain and has heard your cries.

BioWare community coodinator Chris Priestly announced on the Dragon Age forums that upcoming PC RPG will not come with SecuROM copy protection that’s been common on all EA and BioWare’s recently published games, including Mass Effect.

“We’re happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication,” Priestly wrote. “In other words, the retail PC version of the game won’t require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play.”

Games protected by SecuROM have been causing problems for EA’s games, with the most widely publicized being Spore. EA recently released a deauthorization tool that helps users better manage their SecuROM-protected games.

“We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare,” added Priestly.

Dragon Age: Origins is set for a release for the second half of 2009.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • grieve
    Good article….

    Now EA hits the news for NOT using DRM?! They are still idiots regardless.
    Reply
  • burnley14
    I'm so excited for this game to come out. And then Mass Effect 2 . . .
    Reply
  • hellwig
    The boxed versions won't have DRM, does that mean Steam Downloads will? (EA/BioWare is on Steam, right?) I don't mind games that use Steam's authorization software (assuming no one gains control of my steam account), but I hate when games sold on Steam still come with manufacturer DRM.
    Reply
  • invlem
    Steam is quite possibly the best DRM software in the world. Mainly due to the fact that it's not seen as DRM by its users.

    Valve is the only company which has done DRM correctly it seems, basically loading it with value added features which exceeds the inconvenience of having to log in to play your game.

    If you make the process pain free and non-restrictive, people won't complain about DRM in the first place.
    Reply
  • ricin
    @grieve: You're an idiot. They fail if they do, and they fail if they don't. That makes a lot of sense.

    Reply
  • azetec
    DRM is so fucking stupid and it only affects legitimate users, u basically pay for a piece of shity software that makes your computer to run slower and cause problems to all your OS, so u pay for a shity software that fucks your computer, so why even buy it since it fucks your computer.
    I don't even install games anymore on my computer.

    Even disk check it's stupid everytime u wanna play a game changing discs like crazy that's just fucking retarded.
    Reply
  • Niva
    DRM does not only affect legitimate users, there are good and bad ways of doing it. Securom and in particular Spore are examples of how it should not be done. When DRM does interfere with legitimate users it is indeed a problem, this is EA's method of addressing it: offline play go ahead, if you expect to play online then you better have a legit copy.

    Sounds good to me!
    Reply
  • smithereen
    I wouldn't say Valve is the *only* company doing it right... Stardock is as well. SoaSE is probably the only notable, recent DRM-free game. It doesn't even have a disk check, but requires unique CD key registration to download updates and play online. I imagine many of their customers were people who pirated the game and wanted multiplayer and updates.
    Reply
  • JeBuSBrian
    "No SecuROM is Dragon Age."

    What, get your hands confused? You folks are professional writers, but apparently can't proof-read.
    Reply
  • kutark
    For me the biggest advantage of steam, and one that honestly makes me wish i could purchase ALL of my games on it, is that i dont have to lug around my cds/dvds everywhere. Although im glad they're not pulling the securom garbage, still having to put a DVD in EVERY time i want to play the game is going to get old, quick.
    Reply