S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 could have always-on DRM, but it's out of love [update]

by Jessica Conditt on Oct 8th 2011 2:30PM

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 will use always-on DRM as "protection from piracy," GSC Game World head Sergey Grigorovich said. A permanent internet connection will be required to load information, codes and quests, much like previous DRM systems from Ubisoft.

"Software piracy is an issue for us; we try to fight it, but within reason," Grigorovich said. "If people can not afford a licensed version, it is to our advantage if they download a pirated copy and then want to buy a license. In Ukraine, there are different products that people love so much that they buy a license in principle. We want to create just such a product."

Studios know fans don't enjoy always-on DRM, and their insistence on using it must mean it works in some capacity. We don't think it's the way to create "products that people love so much," but it's definitely great at making fans suspicious and bitter.

[Update] GSC has clarified its intentions via Twitter: "DRM was only mentioned as a possibility, not a choice." GSC also issued a statement to Rock, Paper, Shotgun: "The idea of implementing DRM came in as a possible anti-piracy solution. You know the severe level of commercial piracy we have here in ex-USSR region. This said however, there is no firm decision to go for DRM with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 as of now. Be assured, we do realize how uncomfortable this solution is for the players, so we'll continue looking for most effective, yet acceptable for all, way of protecting the game by the time of its release."

Source: GameSpy

Tags: DRM, GSC-Game-World, stalker-2, Ubisoft

Reader Comments (89)

Aaaand there goes my purchase. Seriously all this will do is just hinder the people who legitimately bought the game while pirates get to experience it without bother. It almost comes across as if they WANT people to pirate the game.

@TacoHell Yep yep.

In the past week my connection dropped multiple times, and there were couple of days that it dropped a few times in the course of the evening. Now, I'm in the process of switching from my crappy Rogers provider but the point is, it happens. I don't care what kind of excuses you might have, there is no reason for a single player to require an always on-connection, and any game that does that can kiss my wallet good bye.

@TacoHell

Agreed. I own the other three, I was super excited for this one... now its a no till user feedback gets so bad they have to remove it, like ubisoft usually does in the end

@TacoHell

Really?? they want to get more customers by adding DRM??? well, news flash: there is a better way to get customers, and that is to give a quality product free of DRM and showing real quality in your games, it sounds silly right??? yeah, some people call it "the witcher 2" syndrome, and it can get you more than 1 million copies sold.....

@TacoHell

Someone call the whambualnce. Tired of the cry babies and this issue. I wish they would all go to this format so we could get rid of the scumbags who steal software. Obviously if your whining about having an internet connection on then your a thief. We all have our internet on so get over it. Down vote if you like just know when you do it that your the scumbags that caused us to have DRM in the first place so rage on losers.

@IQ Review Congratulations, you live in a place that never has any lighting storms, floods, hurricans, ect, have an amazing isp provider that never takes down your internet for maintence and never travel anywhere. Because that is the only logical conclusion if you really wish for that. Not to mention that this type of drm has been cracked again and again so the only people who it doesn't effect are the pirates. You should really follow your own name and review your IQ.

@IQ Review

You do realize pirates will simply bypass this right? Like they do pretty much every DRM... It will ONLY negatively affect legitimate purchases.

Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion sold exctremely well on the PC and Bethesda was very satisfied. It sold 4 times more the Morrowind (one of the best selling PC games even 4 years after its release).
SOURCE: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/record-breaking-sales-of-bethesda-softworks-the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion-56139772.html

So yeah... This, in my opinion will only deter sales. They sure lost mine.

@IQ Review

The thing that seems to be escaping your grasp is that the "scumbags" are still getting the games for free, and they aren't hindered by the restrictions of the DRM, either.

While paying customers are having issues playing single player games like Assassins Creed 2 or From Dust that halt their progress whenever there's a hiccup in their internet connection, pirates enjoy the exact same content without a care.

And those are just the mainstream games that get promoted for a week on Steam's front page.

For a series like Stalker that appeals to a much more hardcore subset, you can bet their fanbase is going to be a bit more inclined to crack their software.

@TacoHell

If you're in the middle of a hurricane or tornado, did you ever think about you know... SEEKING SHELTER INSTEAD OF PLAYING VIDEO GAMES?

@IQ Review

I really don't know why I'm bothering with this since in all likelihood your nothing more than a standard substandard troll ..... I guess it could just be a legitimate case of the stupids.

Always-On DRM only serves to needlessly introduce two points of failure in their product that. Said point of failure will not deter pirates as they will simply wait for the smart pirates to patch said DRM out of the game.

1) Their server goes down for whatever reason preventing EVERYONE EVERYWHERE from playing the game they PURCHASED.

2) The customers internet goes down preventing individual(s) from playing the game they PURCHASED.

Both are wholly unacceptable.

Add to that the lingering point of probable planned obsolescence in this case because the DRM also withholds parts of the game to be uploaded "as needed" to the end user (See: paying customer). So in a few years they could just decide that the game is no longer viable enough financial to warrant continued server operations and pull the plug.

The same could be said about the base always-on DRM itself but it is far more likely with withed content that they might never make a patch that gives those who purchased the game a content complete experience after they pull said plug(s).

tl:dr
I'd downvote you but everyone else with more than two braincells to rub together already seems to have beaten me to it.

@TacoHell
Exactly. I'm not buying anything with this DRM. I won't even think twice about it at anything over $10. I'll probably buy this, and the new driver, when they are about $5, and, thanks to this DRM, that probably won't be too far off.

@IQ Review

Well, it completely sucks for us Navy guys. Most of us play a lot of video games while deployed, but we do not have access to any kind of internet.

For example, I've been a Total War gamer since the beginning. So you could imagine how excited I was to find Empire:Total War on sale when we pulled into port in Bahrain. Since I didn't play any games in port, I didn't open the box until about a week later on the ship. Bad on me for not reading the (literally) fine print, but Empire was the first Total War game that needed a Steam account and online verification.

So, I wasn't able to play the game...which I bought legally...for 5 weeks until we pulled into port again. Then, I had to buy Wi-Fi access at a Turkish hotel (not cheap by the way) to verify the game. Then, the game automatically started to download a 1.3 GB patch...Seriously? Do you know how long that takes on a crappy hotel Wi-Fi connection that multiple people are sharing?

Any the who, guess what. That is absolutely the last DRM game that I will buy. Note I didn't say play. It's complete BS to hamper the people that pay for the game. I'd rather they go back to code wheels and manual word searches.

@legios

It is fake!!!!

"The idea of implementing DRM came in as a possible anti-piracy solution. You know the severe level of commercial piracy we have here in ex-USSR region. This said however, there is no firm decision to go for DRM with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 as of now. Be assured, we do realize how uncomfortable this solution is for the players, so we'll continue looking for most effective, yet acceptable for all, way of protecting the game by the time of its release."

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/10/09/gsc-respond-on-stalker-2-drm-issue/

Get out here Stalker! really who the heck pirates these games? I think I got the newest one's collector's edition a month after it came out for like 20 bucks at Target. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is awesome. =) I am against the always on drm though and may not get the next one.

@Accessgranted
When most people see I own it on my STEAM list they question why I bought it and didn't download it.

@Accessgranted $20? I think I got it for like $5 on Steam.

@Faceless Troll

Yeah well. I got lot's of steam deals too but I don't need Steam to play my copy of CoP.. =)

@The Aquacharger

You really should try it out. It's a great game. :)

@Accessgranted
I said I owned the game. It's fine, I just can't play it for long hours.

@Faceless Troll Steam Haloween sale, games 1 and 3 for over half off, booyah. Gotta love that Gaben and his sales...

What's wrong with Steamworks?

Also - considering your playerbase is only PC. It's best not to piss off your major demographic off.

@diamount
STALKER2 is supposed to be on console.

@The Aquacharger Then it's doomed to be shit anyway.

@The Aquacharger Always on DRM doesn't affect consoles.

@riesza HURF HURF HURF HURF

@Faceless Troll
I'm aware, but his comment said that htis game was PC exclusive, when it's not.

@Faceless Troll

Any other time I might agree with you but a proper Stalker game is a PC only experience. For better or worse, that's a fact.

@Haizeus Dismissing a game as shit because it's on another platform is the height of stupidity.

@Faceless Troll Wrong, the PSN versions of Final Fight: Double Impact and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 have always on DRM.

@Faceless Troll I thought it was your job to be the troll? Looks like someone is after your position...

@nerdydesi1 "For retail games", if you really want to nitpick it.

@Faceless Troll

"Dismissing a game as shit because it's on another platform is the height of stupidity."

Not really. I wouldn't play a classic Total War game on a handheld, and I wouldn't play Fruit Ninja on consoles, just as I wouldn't want to play a twin stick styled shooter with M+KB.

I'm not saying Stalker wouldn't be good on consoles, I'm saying that it would require a lot of console translation. Proper=/=good, as I thought I'd made clear with my first comment.

@Haizeus Except the comment I was replying to explicitly dismissed them as shit, and from the sounds of it you're defending that.

I think they just slashed their sales by half, maybe more.

@2late2die

It's why the game is being simultaneously released on both major platforms. They're seriously shooting themselves in the foot.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R has always been a benchmark game in terms of visuals & tech, with this decision we're having another Crysis 2 on our hands.

These are the same people who complain that PC gaming is dying or PC gaming can't hold a good amount of sales.

If you treat your consumers as second-hand people, then of course you aren't going to get much sales. Most pirate games are distributed in developing countries, where the game might not even be sold.

"Oh we lost these amount of sales, because of pirates" BULL..you didn't even sell the game in the first place or made it a huge hassle to be a loyal consumer.

@xiLeShadow Faceless Troll got it right, 99% of piracy isn't a lost sale, they either didn't really care anyways or its somewhere you couldn't buy it anyways. It's why nobody ever cares if you say you pirated Mother 3 and English patched it, it never made it outside of the Japan part of the NTSC zone so there was no way for you to HAVE been a sale. And now devs and pubs seem to think that pissing off the people who WOULD buy the game is going to keep them from becoming lost sales, when it instead will send them straight to ThePirateBay for a less-annoying version of the game.

get out of here, DRM

A lot of people in here angry that they won't be able to pirate the game.

@Hoops Too bad always on drm doesn't actually stop people from pirating?

@Hoops
A lot of people in here are angry that they have to pirate the game, if they want to play it without problems

@Faceless Troll It must be somewhat effective or companies wouldn't use it, right? That's like saying 'Too bad condoms don't actually stop you from getting diseases/babies'. Just because some people can get around it, doesn't mean it doesn't work.

@Hoops

If it works for the publisher, it's effective between one to three weeks. For the person who actually bought the game, they may not be able to play it reliably (if at all) for up to 6 weeks. If the DRM servers get hit with a DOS attack or they're pulled offline for an upgrade, you don't get to play the game. If the servers are online but the DRM triggers themselves are having issues loading, you don't get to play the game. If your internet experiences any downtime at all (some so sudden it's not perceptible), you don't get to play the game. Just because it somewhat works as an anti-piracy deter for the first week or so doesn't make it acceptable for the end user; if I have to pay $50-$60 to get an inferior product compared to someone who paid nothing at all, I'll just take my business elsewhere and buy a game from a developer who acts as if they want my money.

""If people can not afford a licensed version, it is to our advantage if they download a pirated copy and then want to buy a license. In Ukraine, there are different products that people love so much that they buy a license in principle. We want to create just such a product.""

We want our product to be SO GOOD that nobody wants to pirate it.

But we clearly don't believe in ourselves, so have some always-on DRM.

I sympathise with developers, piracy on PC is completely out of control and, ridiculously, only getting easier. When was the last time anyone even *needed* a torrent?

A great way of tackling it is to provide a demo. This gives people a legit way to see if they're interested in the game. I'd say the majority of illegally downloaded games are just to see what it's like. The problem is, even if you swore to yourself you weren't going to steal the game, once you have it there it's very hard to then think 'I'm going to now give my money away for something I already have'. Demo circumvents this, if you like a demo you're more likely to buy it than steal it. And yet so many devleopers don't provide a demo, probably because they think it will put people off. Great way to operate, business based on 'our product's is crap, let's trick as many people into buying it as possible!' rather than being civil abouit it and letting people decide if they like it or not.

The always on DRM is a disaster. It may be the only DRM that works (but for how long? Weeks? Less now pirates understand the cracking process better?) but as you can see from the reaction on all forums, it has slashed possible sales and breeds resentment.

Why can't there be a halfway solution, something like you need to check in online at certain times and that downloads something, but if your connection drops, the game doesn't just boot you out of the game, but says you can't progress until you check in again? Still not ideal but game piracy on PC is literally killing PC gaming right now. You think they're going to keep releasing games like Batman and Assassins Creed in the future? It's a miracle they bothered this time, in 5 years pirates will have made it just not worth it for any developer, and every entitled twit will complain about the consequences of their own behvaviour.

Or what about some USB device that you have to veryfy online and that then lets you play the game? There has to be some intelligent solution to this problem. Piracy may never be stopped, but the slower and more of a hassle it becomes, the less people will even try. Always on DRM don't just put people off piracy, it puts people off the game. So you get the lose/lose situation of no pirate copies floating around, inspiring some good people to support the company in the future, and no legit customers!

@Dick Socrates A halfway solution doesn't really help people with laptops. What if I'm traveling, at a hotel without an internet connection and want to fire up a game?

@Dick Socrates Interestingly enough, I halfway agree with you. I think demos would prevent piracy on a small scale and would probably get publishers a nice boost to pre-orders. However Piracy isn't killing PC gaming, all one has to do is look at Witcher 2's success to see that piracy isn't killing PC gaming.

@Faceless Troll

A half-way solution is called Steam; it has the benefits of an "always-on" connection but it also has an offline mode that doesn't require re-authentication for up to a month after your connection goes down.

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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 could have always-on DRM, but it's out of love [update]

Reader Comments (89)

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 2:36PM TacoHell said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 2:43PM 2late2die said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 4:33PM Faenix said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 5:24PM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 7:04PM IQ Review said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 8:08PM TacoHell said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 8:15PM Morisato said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 8:27PM Chareth Cutestory said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 9:45PM dez said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 10:03PM Scuffles said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 11:23PM mietha said

Posted: Oct 9th 2011 8:52AM legios said

Posted: Oct 9th 2011 1:51PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 2:37PM Accessgranted said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 2:58PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 3:17PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 4:31PM Accessgranted said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 4:32PM Accessgranted said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 4:32PM Accessgranted said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 4:52PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 7:03PM Jetleo1 said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 2:42PM diamount said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 2:43PM diamount said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 3:42PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 4:34PM riesza said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 4:40PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 4:47PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 4:53PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 6:11PM Haizeus said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 6:34PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 6:37PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 7:02PM Jetleo1 said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 7:07PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 7:21PM Haizeus said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 7:25PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 2:44PM 2late2die said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 9:12PM BoBsS said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 2:47PM xiLeShadow said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 7:01PM Jetleo1 said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 2:53PM Cleric said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 3:01PM Hoops said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 3:16PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 3:33PM (Unverified) said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 8:36PM Hoops said

Posted: Oct 9th 2011 8:18AM jackal said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 3:06PM FuzzyPierce said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 3:13PM Dick Socrates said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 3:49PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Oct 8th 2011 4:37PM BaronVonSachsen said

Posted: Oct 9th 2011 8:08AM jackal said

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