Pirates Foiled by Deliberate Glitch in Batman: Arkham Asylum

[RyanPaulShaffer]

DailyTech Article

Pirate posts help request for "glitch" in official Edios forums ahead of games launch

"PC games are some of the most pirated software out there, as players look for ways to get the game they want without having to pay the $50 asking price most new games demand.

Eidos, the publisher behind the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum, has introduced a deliberate glitch into the game to catch and foil pirates who try and crack the game to play without paying. One person who pirated the game, and was brazen enough to post a help request on the official Edios forums, ahead of the games actual launch mind you, has brought the glitch to the surface.

A poster going by the handle Cheshirec_the_cat posted in a thread requesting help with a problem in the game. The poster wrote, "I've got a problem when it's time to use Batman's glide in the game. When I hold , like it's said to jump from one platform to another, Batman tries to open his wings again and again instead of gliding. So he fels down in a poisoning gas. If somebody could tel me, what should I do there."

An Edios admin going by Keir responded to the thread before it was closed writing, "The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free. It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code.""

:laugh:

A couple of things...

1. LOL @ the pirate posting in the official Eidos forums when he pirated the game head of launch.

2. MEGA LOL @ the response from Eidos. "It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code." Classic! :thumbsup:

Edit: Hmm...it appears the original article spells "Eidos" as "Edios" a couple of times.

 

[robphelan]

that's actually funny

 

[brblx]

i've heard about four or five different 'pirate' glitches in this game. i'm beginning to think they're full of shit and the game is just buggy, but we'll see when it actually comes out.

not to play the devil's advocate, but this strategy probably costs devs more sales that it saves them, anyway. you've already got a bunch of people who are going to pirate your game, and most of them are just going to blindly download and not be aware of any 'intentional' glitches- so instead of maybe catching a few more sales from people who decide they do appreciate the game, everyone says 'man, what a piece of crap,' deletes it, and probably has no future interest in that dev's games, legit or otherwise.

there are a lot of high and mighty people on this forum, but i'd be willing to bet that if you shun anyone who's ever pirated a game, you're probably talking about a solid half of the people playing PC games. i'm sure this game will still be pirated more times that it gets sold, and that's the fundamental problem that devs need to be addressing.

you can buy pirated DVD's for maybe a buck in a lot of places around the world, and downloading them is even faster than getting games, yet the the field of home video sure isn't crashing and burning like PC gaming.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Originally posted by: brblx
i've heard about four or five different 'pirate' glitches in this game. i'm beginning to think they're full of shit and the game is just buggy, but we'll see when it actually comes out.

not to play the devil's advocate, but this strategy probably costs devs more sales that it saves them, anyway. you've already got a bunch of people who are going to pirate your game, and most of them are just going to blindly download and not be aware of any 'intentional' glitches- so instead of maybe catching a few more sales from people who decide they do appreciate the game, everyone says 'man, what a piece of crap,' deletes it, and probably has no future interest in that dev's games, legit or otherwise.

there are a lot of high and mighty people on this forum, but i'd be willing to bet that if you shun anyone who's ever pirated a game, you're probably talking about a solid half of the people playing PC games. i'm sure this game will still be pirated more times that it gets sold, and that's the fundamental problem that devs need to be addressing.

you can buy pirated DVD's for maybe a buck in a lot of places around the world, and downloading them is even faster than getting games, yet the the field of home video sure isn't crashing and burning like PC gaming.

Yarr matey!

 

[brblx]

yes, using logic means i'm a pirate.:roll: or maybe you could just think for yourself instead of adopting the forum mentality of 'anyone who doesn't fawn at the taint of their favorite dev waiting to be shit on is a pirate.'

my point is that a good company would use tactics to try and grow their fan base, rather than simply doing things out of spite that will not help them at all. if most companies didn't release such bug-ridden crap in the first place, they'd have a lot more sales.

a good illustration of this is the fact that the pirate community will probably release a patch to fix this glitch in a more timely manner than most dev's address critical, game-breaking bugs.

 

[Golgatha]

Since there is SecuROM PA (online product activation) on this title, and no no-CD cracks (probably irrelevant since it uses PA) out there yet, I'd say the pirate biatches can die in a cloud of poisonous gas too. I got the PS3 version for the extra Joker content. I imagine this slap in the pirate's face will lead to further piracy. However, the hilarity of it all is epic to be sure.

Now, I'd be pretty pissed if they did this to a title that was a CD-check only title. I imagine with PA Securom though, that the CD isn't needed once it is installed. As long as those PAs remain recoverable and resell of the game is an option, I'm good.

 

[tk149]

Originally posted by: brblx
i've heard about four or five different 'pirate' glitches in this game. i'm beginning to think they're full of shit and the game is just buggy, but we'll see when it actually comes out.

not to play the devil's advocate, but this strategy probably costs devs more sales that it saves them, anyway. you've already got a bunch of people who are going to pirate your game, and most of them are just going to blindly download and not be aware of any 'intentional' glitches- so instead of maybe catching a few more sales from people who decide they do appreciate the game, everyone says 'man, what a piece of crap,' deletes it, and probably has no future interest in that dev's games, legit or otherwise.

I would think that most people who are capable of pirating the game would also tend to be more internet savvy than your average user, and therefore would be more likely to find out about the intended "glitch." I don't think they'd lose many sales from this. I don't think they're going to generate many sales from this either.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Originally posted by: brblx
yes, using logic means i'm a pirate.:roll: or maybe you could just think for yourself instead of adopting the forum mentality of 'anyone who doesn't fawn at the taint of their favorite dev waiting to be shit on is a pirate.'

my point is that a good company would use tactics to try and grow their fan base, rather than simply doing things out of spite that will not help them at all. if most companies didn't release such bug-ridden crap in the first place, they'd have a lot more sales.

a good illustration of this is the fact that the pirate community will probably release a patch to fix this glitch in a more timely manner than most dev's address critical, game-breaking bugs.

Instead of trying to justify piracy and blast Eidos for protecting their IP, you could just laugh at the stupidity of the pirate for posting on the official forums before the game was released, and chuckle at the amusing response the Eidos rep gave.

Also, this is a "bug" only in pirated/cracked versions of the game, so it wouldn't affect a normal user at all. I don't understand how this is hurting a standard consumer in any way?



PS - I've spoken out numerous times on this forum against onerous DRM such as SecuROM, so I'm hardly "fawning" over any dev, but this is funny even to me.

 

[brblx]

well, upon investigation (through reading, not pirating the game), it would appear that there are three or four game-breaking bugs hindering the pirated version, though they don't seem to affect everyone- the glide bug actually seems to be the least prominent. which, again, says to me that this is not an anti-piracy measure as much as just a general bug which eidos will either patch upon release, or fixed after the game way leaked (doubtful, i'm sure the game was gold long before the first pirated copy showed up).

there have been plenty of other threads where people have been blasted for posting a bug that exposed them as a 'pirate,' despite having paid for the game. makes me think these measures are never intended, they're just a way for the company to pretend there's a reason for their bad QA....

 

[coloumb]

Eh - the only thing I see is a clueless Eidos Admin who posted a blanket "this is why little johnny shouldn't pirate a game" response.

Or maybe the game code actually does verify the main executable is legit - if it finds any changes, it runs a routine that purposely screws up game play.

 

[Gunbuster]

This is all fine and dandy until the foolproof all knowing copy protection give a false positive on a legit users copy.

 

[lupi]

For those that pirate simply because they don't want to pay (opposite those that do so because they can't pay, a distinct separation the idiots bemoaning pirating can't seem to decipher), I'm perfectly happy with them getting their computer trashed or other backdoor routines running from the program. Of course if there is any chance of this occurring to a regular buyer, then the publisher will take this hilt deep as a forever pr blemish.

 

[Gothgar]

Originally posted by: Gunbuster
This is all fine and dandy until the foolproof all knowing copy protection give a false positive on a legit users copy.

this

 

[Slick5150]

Or the registration process also runs a quick patch to fix the intentionally placed bugs in the game.

I have no issues with that if that's actually what they're doing here.

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Negative Nancies!

:|

This was supposed to be a funny story!

 

[TheKub]

Originally posted by: brblx
not to play the devil's advocate, but this strategy probably costs devs more sales that it saves them, anyway. you've already got a bunch of people who are going to pirate your game, and most of them are just going to blindly download and not be aware of any 'intentional' glitches- so instead of maybe catching a few more sales from people who decide they do appreciate the game, everyone says 'man, what a piece of crap,' deletes it, and probably has no future interest in that dev's games, legit or otherwise.

I would believe this. I cannot mention why.

And as for the game being crippled becasue of the DRM being bypassed. Ive used No-CD cracks on legitimate games before and would be upset if it borked the game.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

I kind of like it except the strategy has some horribly critical flaws.
1: bad word of mouth from "buggy game"
2: false positives absolutely nothing in the gaming industry will more permanently hurt your rep with someone than calling them a blantant pirate after they bought your game and had problems that you propusefully introduced into the game.

The people who made titan's quest pretty much went out of business for the above reasons.

 

[I4AT]

No, the people who made Titan Quest pretty much went out of business because their game was a pos. I have the Gold edition and the game is simply buggy. Memory leaks galore, slowdowns after portaling too much due to their dumb decision to precache anything and everything, massive framerate dips in certain areas of the game, unfinishable quests, skill description and other display errors throughout the UI. The lead designer threw a whiney little bitch fit after Iron Lore got shut down blaming pirates this and reviewers that, but in reality their game really did need way more polish.

 

[Kev]

Originally posted by: brblx
i've heard about four or five different 'pirate' glitches in this game. i'm beginning to think they're full of shit and the game is just buggy, but we'll see when it actually comes out.

not to play the devil's advocate, but this strategy probably costs devs more sales that it saves them, anyway. you've already got a bunch of people who are going to pirate your game, and most of them are just going to blindly download and not be aware of any 'intentional' glitches- so instead of maybe catching a few more sales from people who decide they do appreciate the game, everyone says 'man, what a piece of crap,' deletes it, and probably has no future interest in that dev's games, legit or otherwise.

there are a lot of high and mighty people on this forum, but i'd be willing to bet that if you shun anyone who's ever pirated a game, you're probably talking about a solid half of the people playing PC games. i'm sure this game will still be pirated more times that it gets sold, and that's the fundamental problem that devs need to be addressing.

you can buy pirated DVD's for maybe a buck in a lot of places around the world, and downloading them is even faster than getting games, yet the the field of home video sure isn't crashing and burning like PC gaming.

BS. If I were a developer I couldn't give a shit about what someone who stole my product thought about the game.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: RyanPaulShaffer
Negative Nancies!

:|

This was supposed to be a funny story!

I see where you're coming from, but so is the state of PC gaming these days... Every new release people are interested in is marred by either DRM, piracy, or both. It does get tiresome though.

 

[Barfo]

How long till someone releases a crack that bypasses this "glitch"?

 

[Newbian]

Originally posted by: Barfo
How long till someone releases a crack that bypasses this "glitch" by having batman make out with catwoman?

:Q

 

[Zenoth]

Good one by Eidos.

The same thing happened with Titan Quest and Iron Lore, they introduced a "hook" in specific caverns in the game, and if the main executable was cracked the hook would provoke a game crash to the desktop. But unfortunately in Iron Lore's case their fight against piracy was in vain. I believe there's actually many developers out there doing the exact same thing without the public being aware that very specific (and repeatable) bugs are attributed to pirated copies, and I for one think it's a great idea, you want to pirate? ok, but suck it down and crash all the way to Hell. As a developer and publisher's point of view it must be joyful to see things like that, I would laugh about that in the office with my colleagues: « good one guys! »

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Meh.

The problem with the 'better ten thousand pirates get free gaming then one paying customer be annoyed by malfunctioning DRM' here is that if the publishers were to take that stance, the solution would be very, very obvious - do not release on PC. It would be especially easy with Batman, being as it's a high profile game that is absolutely targeted at the consoles.

It's a small miracle that they released a PC version, and a large miracle that they did so without a 6 month delay to prevent PC piracy from cutting into console sales. There aren't any miracles left to make it financially feasible to do so without heavy DRM.

 

[EricMartello]

These days $50 a game just seems high. They'd sell more if the price was in the $30 or less range and the increased volume would most likely offset the reduction in price. With people able to download apps online for a few bucks, i.e Battlefield 1943 for $15 on Xbox Live and PS3 network, for $50 a game had better be damn good and I doubt another batman game is worthy of that big price tag.