Writing on the Command and Conquer Den, community manager Aaron "APOC" Kaufman said that those who play the single-player campaign of Command and Conquer 4 will need to constantly be connected to the internet, in much the same way as players of MMOs. "As of right now, you need to be online all the time to play C&C 4," he explains. "This is primarily due to our 'player progression' feature so everything can be tracked. C&C 4 is not an MMO in the sense of World of Warcraft, but conceptually it has similar principles for being online all the time. While some may be taken aback by this, we've been testing this feature internally with all of our world-wide markets."
OK, indulge us in a bit of conjecture. What strikes us as weird is that, just last week, What They Play editor John Davison said on 1UP's Listen Up that he wouldn't be surprised for games to adopt a streaming model (read: no physical media) by the time C&C 4 is released. It seemed sort of oddly specific at the time, but now we're wondering if there might be more reasons that your computer has to be connected to play. Just saying.
[Via Voodoo Extreme]
Reader Comments (82)
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 4:26PM Captain Planet Planeteer Power said
Hey as long as it's free and doesn't install anything "extra", I don't care what the fuck they do.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 4:33PM Snowblind said
I'm unhappy about the lack of lan in Starcraft, but look at the state of PC gaming. Having to constantly play online for verification doesn't seem that silly when you consider without it, everyone and their dog will be playing an illegal copy.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 4:44PM UK31337 said
There'll be a nice offline enabled version before too long. Just don't expect to find it in stores and don't worry if the stats tracking is a little bit inconsistent.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 4:49PM (Unverified) said
I wish they'd just be honest about it. Is that too much to ask?
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 4:55PM (Unverified) said
Chalk another one up for the fail category!
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 5:08PM R Planteer said
Like this wont be cracked within 2 days after its released as well.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 5:20PM (Unverified) said
2 days? You kidding me? The first copy will appear a week before launch as usual and that is even slow considering the people cracking this only reluctantly distribute this to the public.
Reply
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 5:11PM Mr Slayer said
It's fucking drm.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 5:13PM tobz1000 said
Shame, I was looking forward to this.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 5:22PM Nomi said
Why can't they be like every other game that has stat tracking and upload it whenever the person connects to online play.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 5:23PM mrmobius said
I'm pretty sure the hacker community could bluff this into thinking it is online if it wanted, or at least redirect to a fake server.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 5:23PM (Unverified) said
Woah, EA sure has learned a thing or two from the Spore/Sims 3 DRM business lately. If your drug doesn't work ... take more of it. Ridanculous.
Pirates stopped = 0
Customers stopped = loads
Pirates stopped = 0
Customers stopped = loads
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 6:39PM (Unverified) said
@Follisimo: Sorry but are you really that foolish? I can't take you seriously.
"I'm sorry but if you don't have a constant internet connection these days you shouldn't be gaming anyways on a computer."
You're incredibly ignorant, you know that? What about people who have gaming laptops for when they are on the move? What about if your ISP is down? What about other net problems?
"This is a great idea if done the right way."
Where is this a great idea? No matter how, real time stat tracking of an offline singleplayer game is per definition useless and terrible design. Regardless of the other implications. You can do everything it should do once you sign on every now and again. Don't believe everything a marketing exec tells you.
"It won't stop the true customers who are going to buy this game."
Yes it will. If you need to be connected to Internet constantly good luck with a LAN party in your basement (other place) where you don't have Inet, good luck with the servers being down or slow as hell. It will stop those that are fed up with the DRM shenanigans at least. You might have a fully set up network in your place (as do I) but what about the kids that have their own "gaming" rig and need to go online on a different machine? They're good customers too.
"It only stops the people who want a free copy to play."
OK you ARE an idiot. C&C4 will leak onto the internet cracked as usual. There will be means of playing it on "illegal" servers and such and a local fake server to play it w/o going online. Since we're talking about singleplayer it makes no difference whatsoever. No DRM has ever stopped anyone. This is no exception. There are fake WoW servers btw. just to ruin your MMO/"DRM against piracy" view.
"People who play MMOs have no problem paying for the game, expansions, and being connected all the time. So for your offline games it shouldn't matter either."
Jeez, please just stop writing. This is a cringe-inducingly dumb point to make. An MMO is an MMO = Massively Multiplayer ONLINE game ... you say it yourself ... offline games are something completely different. That is a HUUUGE difference. Yeah MMO players pay a subscription in order to keep the servers running all the time because the main feature of the game is being ONLINE with other people. A singleplayer OFFLINE game has no reason to justify it requiring permanent online connection.
If only for the ridiculous amount of control these publishers want to have about what you do with the game you pay for, it should matter.
Reply
"I'm sorry but if you don't have a constant internet connection these days you shouldn't be gaming anyways on a computer."
You're incredibly ignorant, you know that? What about people who have gaming laptops for when they are on the move? What about if your ISP is down? What about other net problems?
"This is a great idea if done the right way."
Where is this a great idea? No matter how, real time stat tracking of an offline singleplayer game is per definition useless and terrible design. Regardless of the other implications. You can do everything it should do once you sign on every now and again. Don't believe everything a marketing exec tells you.
"It won't stop the true customers who are going to buy this game."
Yes it will. If you need to be connected to Internet constantly good luck with a LAN party in your basement (other place) where you don't have Inet, good luck with the servers being down or slow as hell. It will stop those that are fed up with the DRM shenanigans at least. You might have a fully set up network in your place (as do I) but what about the kids that have their own "gaming" rig and need to go online on a different machine? They're good customers too.
"It only stops the people who want a free copy to play."
OK you ARE an idiot. C&C4 will leak onto the internet cracked as usual. There will be means of playing it on "illegal" servers and such and a local fake server to play it w/o going online. Since we're talking about singleplayer it makes no difference whatsoever. No DRM has ever stopped anyone. This is no exception. There are fake WoW servers btw. just to ruin your MMO/"DRM against piracy" view.
"People who play MMOs have no problem paying for the game, expansions, and being connected all the time. So for your offline games it shouldn't matter either."
Jeez, please just stop writing. This is a cringe-inducingly dumb point to make. An MMO is an MMO = Massively Multiplayer ONLINE game ... you say it yourself ... offline games are something completely different. That is a HUUUGE difference. Yeah MMO players pay a subscription in order to keep the servers running all the time because the main feature of the game is being ONLINE with other people. A singleplayer OFFLINE game has no reason to justify it requiring permanent online connection.
If only for the ridiculous amount of control these publishers want to have about what you do with the game you pay for, it should matter.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 8:02PM (Unverified) said
Folisimo: "I almost cared."
Wrong or else you wouldn't have written back.
"At least they are testing waters in ways to combat piracy."
They've been testing the waters for a while and it was way cold and the sharks chewed their feet off. Time to get in a different boat.
"Sure piracy can't be stopped completely but they are still working on new ideas."
Implementing a "report to us if you want to play" scheme is not a "new idea". All that's new is the layer of bullshit about stats that they keep wrapping the old fascist registration/auth scheme in.
"I said what I wanted to say so I'm out."
That's not how it works, you say stupid things. People lash out over your remarks. You run away. I see. The right thing is to stay and discuss but as you said ... you just wanted to say what you thought ... not interested in discussions. Nevermind. I also just said what I thought about how wrong I find your points are.
Reply
Wrong or else you wouldn't have written back.
"At least they are testing waters in ways to combat piracy."
They've been testing the waters for a while and it was way cold and the sharks chewed their feet off. Time to get in a different boat.
"Sure piracy can't be stopped completely but they are still working on new ideas."
Implementing a "report to us if you want to play" scheme is not a "new idea". All that's new is the layer of bullshit about stats that they keep wrapping the old fascist registration/auth scheme in.
"I said what I wanted to say so I'm out."
That's not how it works, you say stupid things. People lash out over your remarks. You run away. I see. The right thing is to stay and discuss but as you said ... you just wanted to say what you thought ... not interested in discussions. Nevermind. I also just said what I thought about how wrong I find your points are.
Posted: Jul 15th 2009 7:58AM profquatermass said
Perhaps it'll be no different than those silly 'you must insert the CD to play' annoyances?
Some Hacker will simply offer Owners the ability to disable it.
Some Hacker will simply offer Owners the ability to disable it.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 5:32PM wcanyon said
Hrm, what should I do while I wait for the cable guy to come fix my cable.... play C&C4!!! Wait, no...
This is pretty dumb and a blatant DRM push -- yet another from EA, what a surprise.
This is pretty dumb and a blatant DRM push -- yet another from EA, what a surprise.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 5:36PM (Unverified) said
What... The... Fuck.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 5:46PM R Planteer said
"The first copy will appear a week before launch as usual"
This I agree is possible, I was being conservative, as not all games are cracked before launch.
"the people cracking this only reluctantly distribute this to the public."
I would LOVE to know your source for this one. Did you poll each and every cracker about their thoughts of redistributing their cracks? The ones that do want to will, and the ones that dont want to will. I highly doubt some of these crackers run what is nearly a small company (The crackers Reloaded come to mind) because they are "reluctant."
This I agree is possible, I was being conservative, as not all games are cracked before launch.
"the people cracking this only reluctantly distribute this to the public."
I would LOVE to know your source for this one. Did you poll each and every cracker about their thoughts of redistributing their cracks? The ones that do want to will, and the ones that dont want to will. I highly doubt some of these crackers run what is nearly a small company (The crackers Reloaded come to mind) because they are "reluctant."
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 6:06PM Tephlon said
What the FUCK is the internet?
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 6:08PM Professor Lario said
I also immediately thought of John's comments made on the last 1up Podcast when I saw this headline. He must have been 'in da know.'
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 6:10PM Professor Lario said
Listened to the podcast again - John specifically used C&C4 as the example.
Reply
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 7:04PM Capgun said
(Facepalm)
Seriously though, Comcast has been crappy the last few days, so I've been losing internet randomly, and often for several hours. I ended up digging out several old SP games to play offline. And seeing as its comcast, this will happen again. CNC4 wont end up on this list, or on this computer for that matter.
Seriously though, Comcast has been crappy the last few days, so I've been losing internet randomly, and often for several hours. I ended up digging out several old SP games to play offline. And seeing as its comcast, this will happen again. CNC4 wont end up on this list, or on this computer for that matter.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 7:17PM Lekko said
What kind of stats even require real time tracking? nobody really cares about live updated leaderboards, you don't watch while you play. I really don't care about how my friends are doing or how the rest of the world is doing when I'm casually working through the single player campaign. I really don't care about global stat tracking while I am actually playing.
I'd be willing to play a single player game with an online connection required, it's just that it is requiring it for a useless feature that really doesn't need to exist in the first place.
It is a non-issue for me though, I PC game on a desktop that is always on, but I feel sorry for mobile laptop gamers that play stuff at work or on planes and such.
I'd be willing to play a single player game with an online connection required, it's just that it is requiring it for a useless feature that really doesn't need to exist in the first place.
It is a non-issue for me though, I PC game on a desktop that is always on, but I feel sorry for mobile laptop gamers that play stuff at work or on planes and such.
Posted: Jul 14th 2009 9:06PM (Unverified) said
Omg who cares about stat tracking?
Once again this hurts the people who actually do buy PC games. I alway shut my Virus firewall umong other software to get the best preformance out of my PC now I got to trust EA, no thanks, count me out. = (
Once again this hurts the people who actually do buy PC games. I alway shut my Virus firewall umong other software to get the best preformance out of my PC now I got to trust EA, no thanks, count me out. = (
Posted: Jul 15th 2009 2:53AM (Unverified) said
Does anyone here seriously believe that this is to make the single player experience better with this "player progression" thing and not just another memeber EAs ever expanding DRM family?
Posted: Jul 15th 2009 10:29AM (Unverified) said
pirating this
Posted: Jul 22nd 2009 10:16AM (Unverified) said
I must be the only on who actually likes this idea, I welcome any change to CnC.
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