Crush a mouse with your foot - it will be tantamount to an earthquake that will distort the face of the whole earth, radically change our destinies. The death of one caveman is the death of a billion of his descendants, strangled in the womb. Maybe Rome will not appear on its seven hills. Europe will forever remain a dense forest, only in Asia will flourish life. Step on a mouse and you will crush the pyramids. Step on a mouse and you'll leave a dent in Eternity the size of the Grand Canyon. There will be no Queen Elizabeth, Washington will not cross the Delaware. The United States won't show up at all. So be careful. Stay on the path. Never leave her!
Ray Bradbury. A Sound of Thunder
Events around us are constantly taking place, the significance of which we can fully appreciate only after several years, or even decades. Often, what seems insignificant to us today will have the most serious consequences tomorrow, and an act that in itself could not affect anything but our own life turns an entire industry on its head. This is how the "butterfly effect" works, illustrated in Ray Bradbury's fantasy story "Thunder Came". Reality is ... often more surprising than any fiction.
Probably, everyone who is not indifferent to computer games dreamed of their own, ideal project. But only a few managed to create the cherished "dream game", without losing all the enthusiasm in the production hell. And even then, the end result often differed significantly from the original idea. Nevertheless, miracles do happen: almost a quarter of a century ago, two friends not only managed to make their dreams come true, but also laid the foundation for a radical revision of the relationship model between the video game publisher and its end user. We are talking, of course, about the odious Half-Life, which allowed us to look at the first-person shooter genre from a completely different perspective, and the first (and still the only one of its kind in terms of convenience and functionality) Steam digital distribution service, the appearance of which also This game has helped a lot.
The only pity is that with all the convenience and amazing opportunities, the new content distribution model has a downside: from now on, the publisher can literally cripple your favorite game or even take it away with just a couple of mouse clicks. However, we are getting ahead of ourselves. Let's rewind time and see how events unfolded.
Half-Life: It all started with Half-Life
In 1996, Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington, unknown to anyone at that time (both immigrants from Microsoft who had worked for the corporation as programmers for a good 13 years), founded the Valve Software studio. The idea of ββthe guys was truly grandiose: they dreamed of nothing less than to create the perfect horror first-person shooter. Inspired by works such as Stephen King's The Fog and The X-Files television series, they assembled a team, sketched out a concept, licensed id Software's Quake Engine, and began looking for a publisher.
It is unlikely that Gabe Newell could have imagined that in 2017 he would enter the Forbes list of the 400 richest people on the planet, overtaking Donald Trump.
The search was quite difficult: potential investors simply did not want to take risks by investing in a startup of those who did not have any experience in the gaming industry at all. But still, times were different: in the mid-90s, publishers were still betting on innovation, instead of trying to create another Skinner box that encourages players to buy as many loot boxes as possible, and Valve's idea looked really interesting. As a result, Sierra Games took the developers under its wing and the work began to boil.
The prototype began to βovergrow with meatβ: every day the game was filled with more and more new ideas, many of which were born already directly in the development process. Very quickly, the capabilities of the original engine were no longer enough: the Quake Engine was completely redone, and GoldSource was born, which literally translates as "Golden Source". The title turned out to be prophetic: Half-Life won the title of "Best Game of All Time" four times, became the Game of the Year as many as 50 (!) times according to various gaming publications, and its total circulation over the next 10 years after the release reached an impressive 9,3 million copies.
Half-Life is arguably the most important and influential game in the history of the industry
For its time, this game turned out to be a real breakthrough, forever changing the face of 3D shooters, having a huge impact on the development of such a genre as immersive sim, and the industry as a whole. No wonder that Half-Life quickly acquired an army of fans around the world, among which there were many creative people: hundreds of various modifications appeared on the basis of the project, since Valve provided the players with all the necessary tools. Some of them supplemented the main plot, becoming a kind of game fan fiction, others, like Cry of fear, turned into independent games with a unique story. But only one project was able to approach the popularity of the original. It is, of course, about Counter-Strike.
Initially, the world-famous multiplayer shooter was nothing more than one of the modifications for Half-Life, developed by Minh Lee and Jess Cliff. Lee always dreamed of creating his own online game, and was even a member of The A-Team, who worked on a multiplayer mod for Quake 2 called action quake 2, however, with the release of the SDK for GoldSource, I switched to a new product, as I considered this engine more convenient and promising.
Minh Lee is the man who started Counter-Strike
Soon he was joined by another enthusiast, Jess Cliff, who not only helped in the development, but also promoted the project among the fan community Half-Life. The beta version of the modification, which was released on June 19, 1999, received a simple name Counter-Strike, and its first servers were launched in the fall.
Despite the simplicity of the concept, being a completely non-commercial project, Counter-Strike quickly gained popularity, competing on equal terms with such hits as Quake III: Arena ΠΈ Unreal Tournament. Already in the spring of 2000, Valve noticed the modification, making friends an offer that was impossible to refuse: the company bought the rights to the name, and yesterday's fans became professional game developers, having received positions in the studio. The full game was released on November 8, 2000.
Counter-Strike is one of the most popular online shooters in history.
Counter-Strike quickly gained loyal fans, becoming one of the most (if not the most) popular online shooters: while the average online multiplayer projects at the beginning of the 2s did not exceed 3-XNUMX thousand people, the number of active players in CS numbered in the tens of thousands. And then Valve ran into an unexpected problem: the World Opponent Network service, previously developed by Sierra Games and integrated into all games published by the company with an online component, was simply not designed for such loads.
Valve took drastic action, buying WON from its then owner in 2001 (which had been run by Havas Interactive since January 1999), and began developing its own project based on it, called Steam. At first, the developers only wanted to improve the performance of the network infrastructure, making it scalable, and integrating the service with its own anti-cheat and update distribution system for online games. However, then it was decided to go further and create not just a tool to support online projects, but a full-fledged store where anyone can directly purchase a licensed copy of the game and immediately install it on their computer. At that time, the idea was truly innovative, and initially even Valve itself doubted that they could cope with the maintenance of such a project. They tried to enter into partnership agreements with Amazon, Yahoo and Cisco, but representatives of these corporations were skeptical about the idea (oh, if they only knew how much profit they were voluntarily giving up) and the company had to act on its own.
The studio worked on the first version of Steam for the next 3 years, while simultaneously maintaining WON for already released games. Steam 1.0 is part of the distribution Counter-Strike 1.4, however, its installation was only an additional option. On July 26, 2004, the release version of the online platform was released. And the first single-player game that required a Steam client on the computer was naturally Half-Life 2.
The best exclusive for Steam promotion was hard to come up with
In the future, Valve began to cooperate with other publishers and studios, providing those with the opportunity to publish games on the pages of their store. The first side projects to appear on Steam were Ragdoll Kung Fu (released October 12, 2005) and darwinia (published December 14, 2005).
The range of Steam continued to expand, and the service itself - to acquire new features. Among the numerous updates, two of the most important can be distinguished: the emergence of a social platform for players Steam Community (September 12, 2007) and the release of Steamworks (January 28, 2008) - a set of free tools that allowed third-party developers to implement advanced Steam functionality, including DRM, into their games, tools for collecting game statistics, a bug tracker, an achievement system, multiplayer, user chats and much more. The first game to take advantage of Steamworks was a musical arcade game. Audiosurf, which was released on February 15, 2008.
Audiosurf is the first project with Steam achievements, beloved by modern players
Assessing the prospects of digital distribution, other large companies began to catch up after Valve: today it is almost impossible to buy a game for a PC that does not have Steam, Origin, Uplay or another launcher (or even a couple at once) built into it. As for the very progenitor of all online gaming stores, statistics speak eloquently about his position.
While Valve doesn't report earnings, its progress can be approximated using third-party tools. So, according to SteamSpy, in 2017 the company earned about 4,3 billion US dollars on the service (despite the fact that only direct sales were taken into account, without DLC and in-game purchases).
So, in just 10 years, Steam completely changed the model of relationship between the publisher and the end user, eventually becoming the most popular platform for distributing digital versions of computer games and almost monopolizing the market. But it all started with two programmers who decided to make a dream shooter. The butterfly effect in action.
But what is the reason for such wild popularity? In fact, it is banal, and it can be expressed in one phrase: digital distribution services are really convenient. You no longer have to stand in line on the day of release to buy the next hit or tediously wait for pre-order delivery: you can get any title in just a couple of mouse clicks and play in the forefront thanks to the preload function. There is no need to manually search for and install patches or additional software needed to launch: the smart launcher will do everything for you. You can now also forget about save backups: the necessary files are automatically transferred to the cloud. Well, if your backlog is booked for years to come, you can also save a lot by buying a game during a seasonal sale, since discounts in a digital store are much easier to track: the service itself will send you a notification about a price reduction for an item from your wish list.
Steam has completely changed the face of modern PC gaming
Anyway, modern digital distribution services have long ceased to be ordinary launchers: the same Steam is essentially a full-fledged social network for gamers, allowing you to find friends to play together, participate in discussions, save screenshots, write guides and reviews, create and download mods , give gifts and even trade in-game items. The only pity is that all of the above pluses crosses out one fat minus: from now on, the purchased games do not belong to you.
Other people's games, or why you need to read license agreements
When registering with any digital distribution service, you must accept the terms of the user agreement. Often, you are asked to repeat a similar manipulation when buying a particular game or when it is first launched. Be honest, have you read this document from and to at least once? No? In this case, we bring to your attention a list of the main provisions that are somehow set forth in such agreements.
- Your account is the property of the owners of the digital distribution service.
The account is provided to you for use in making purchases and does not belong to you. You own only personal and payment data (for the processing and use of which, by the way, you also consent during registration).
- You are not purchasing the games, but a private use license for a copy of the applicable software.
This nuance also needs to be understood. From a legal point of view, βbuyβ means becoming the full owner of the game, while in the case of digital distribution, you are essentially renting it indefinitely. However, all ownership rights remain with the publisher, and the publisher can do whatever it wants with the original product or change the terms under which you are allowed to use the software.
- The product is supplied "as is".
Also a very interesting point. According to him, the publisher disclaims all responsibility for the quality of the software. In fact, even if the game for which the money was paid does not start, the copyright holder is not obliged to fix anything and release patches. Of course, if this happens on release, the publisher will make every effort to fix the bug as soon as possible, but only for the simple reason that if they donβt do this, they will suffer huge financial losses, and no one will buy his next game at all. But it is important to understand that these actions are dictated by purely economic benefits, and if the correction of certain programmatic problems turns out to be unprofitable, no one will lift a finger.
- The site owners can restrict the user's access to the services at any time without giving reasons.
Again, no one will just block your account: any digital distribution store is interested in as many loyal customers as possible. At the same time, if your account gets banned, the store administration reserves the right not to respond to your requests at all and not to take any action to clarify the circumstances. Moreover, determining the cause of an erroneous ban, if the problem is not widespread, is quite resource-intensive.
- The terms of the license agreement can be changed unilaterally without prior notice to customers. You express your consent to the new terms by continuing to use the digital distribution service.
You don't even have to buy anything: you turn on the computer, the Steam client automatically connects to the authorization server, and this fact in itself is considered an agreement to the new terms of service, which you have not even read yet.
Similar conditions were in effect in the pre-digital era, when computer games were distributed exclusively on discs. But de facto, you could completely ignore them: at least it would be strange to assume that an evil publisher would send special forces after you to take away a DVD with a game for which, for example, the license had expired.
"Don't do stupid things! Slowly put the disc on the floor and push it towards meβ¦β
But now times have changed, and digital copies of games are essentially out of your control. You might say, βYeah, license agreements are written to protect publishers and platformers as much as possible, that's not unusual. And something personally did not cause any damage to me, although I have been using various online services for a long time. In that case, you're in luck: perhaps the games that were somehow affected by the actions (or inaction) of the copyright holders simply lie outside the scope of your interests. In the meantime, many precedents have already accumulated to date. In order not to be unfounded, consider specific examples.
Fantasy first-person action Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, released on December 21, 2006 by Arkane Studios, which at that time was under the wing of Ubisoft, was distinguished not only by an excellent combat system, but also by a very good Russian localization. However, the latest patch, which fixes a number of minor bugs, has led to the fact that the demoness Zana, who accompanies the protagonist throughout a good part of the adventure, spoke German.
The German language gives Zana a certain charm, it's a pity that the essence of the story is lost.
You can correct the situation only by finding the desired file on the Internet and manually replacing it in the localization folder: since Arkane Studios now belongs to the ZeniMax Media holding, and Ubisoft, which is the copyright holder, is clearly not interested in reviving the franchise, you should not wait for official patches, which means that the Russian version The "Dark Messiah" will forever remain broken.
This case is rather comical, and the problem can be solved without much difficulty. And here's to the fans Warcraft III do not envy. On January 29 this year, a remaster of the game was released, called Warcraft III: Reforged, and the "reforged" version of the famous strategy in just a few days became the lowest rated game on the Metacritic aggregator (at the time of writing this material, its rating is only 0,5 points). The project βdistinguished itselfβ literally from all sides: in addition to bugs, buyers found that many of the previously announced changes in the game are simply missing (for example, instead of a complete rework of the videos, only two cinematics were replaced, the interface remained outdated, and there were no plot edits or additional missions in game did not appear), but for some reason the old high-quality voice acting was removed, while the new one turned out to be very mediocre and inexpressive.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. In the end, the most important thing in the game is the gameplay. And here the list of problems turned out to be much more impressive:
- rating games disappeared;
- the clan system is gone;
- Lost the ability to play on the local network;
- missing custom campaigns;
- chat commands disappeared;
- part of the graphics settings disappeared;
- the ability to configure hot keys from the menu has disappeared (they can still be changed, but only manually in the configuration file);
- broken the balance of the story campaigns due to the transfer of characteristics The frozen throne Π² Reign of Chaos;
- with the updated graphics, the battle began to read much worse, which is very critical for a real-time strategy.
What does the unsuccessful remaster have to do with the topic of our today's article? The most direct. Blizzard exercised its right to make any changes to the software products it sells by forcing an update to the classic version of the game as well. Yes, yes, you understood everything correctly: now the owners of the original, along with those who bought the remaster, enjoy all the listed bugs, breakdowns and limitations absolutely free of charge. The difference is that the original version Warcraft III did not receive updated graphics (although the launcher still downloads 30 gigabytes with new assets), but maybe this is for the best: among other things, many players note that highly detailed character and unit models against the background of a low-poly environment (even here hack-work) look at least absurd.
At the sight of such a βhigh-qualityβ remaster, nothing but the sacramental βDamn, Uther!β comes to mind
However, broken games are by no means always the product of developers' carelessness: often the problem lies in the licensing of certain materials used in the creation of the project. One of the most illustrative of such stories occurred with the cult Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. In an effort to recreate the atmosphere of the 30s of the XX century, the Czech studio Illusion Softworks included in the game's soundtrack many classic compositions by Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Django Reinhardt, the Mills brothers and many other jazz artists. When the license to use the music expired, the game was simply withdrawn from sale. However, October 20, 2017 Mafia returned to the virtual shelves again, but without musical accompaniment: all that remains in it is the original tracks written for the project by the Czech composer Vladimir Shimunek. Of course, previously sold versions were forcibly updated.
Without that same music, Mafia will never be the same
A similar fate almost befell Alan Wake. On May 13, 2017, Remedy Entertainment announced that the game would be taken off the market in two days due to the expiration of the rights to use certain music in the soundtrack. Fortunately, Microsoft intervened: less than a year later, both parts of the epic about the misadventures of Alan Wake returned to digital stores, moreover, in their original form, with all audio tracks.
The soundtrack in Alan Wake is as important to the atmosphere as the visuals.
But the history of Alan Wake - an exception. This franchise is too promising from the point of view of commerce: the series has become a cult, fans are still waiting for the continuation, gaming publications recall the project with enviable regularity, all this spurs sales and makes a profit. If further support is unprofitable, then the game is simply withdrawn from stores, and there are already quite a few such cases today. Here are just a few of them:
Wolfenstein 2009
Direct sequel to the famous Return to Castle Wolfenstein, released in August 2009. Developed by Raven Software based on the id Tech 4 engine, this game was published by Activision. Subsequently, the rights to the series were transferred to Bethesda Softworks, which successfully restarted the franchise. The game itself turned out to be of no use to anyone and soon disappeared from the pages of Steam.
Games about agent 007
In 2006, Activision received the rights to develop games about James Bond, the famous 007 agent. Quantum of Solace, Blood stone, 007 Goldeneye, Goldeneye Reloaded ΠΈ 007 Legends. None of them can currently be purchased legally: after the expiration of the license, the listed games were removed from the catalogs of digital services.
Blur
Released in May 2010, the arcade race had every chance of becoming a hit, but alas: released almost simultaneously with it Split / Second eclipsed the competitor, and the game failed even despite the high marks from critics. The second part was canceled, the developer studio Bizarre Creations closed, and the game itself was withdrawn from sales in 2012, as Activision decided not to renew the rights to licensed cars.
OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast
The eighth game in the series was a hit with players and critics alike, but now it's nowhere to be found: Sega has run out of Ferrari rights.
Cryostasis: Sleep of Reason
Although the game was released on December 5, 2008, the digital version appeared in the Steam catalog only in 2012. And safely disappeared from the pages of the store a year later. The reason for this was a legal dispute between the Action Forms studio (subsequently split into two teams - Tatem Games and Beatshapers) and the publisher 1C.
The Godfather
At one time, Electronic Arts tried to grab a piece of the successful franchise by buying the rights to develop games based on The Godfather. But if the first part, released in the spring of 2006, was accepted by the audience quite warmly, then the second turned out to be a failure: at the start, only 241 copies of the sequel were sold. As a result, EA canceled all plans to develop a sequel and did not renew the license, after which both games disappeared from the virtual shelves of Steam.
MLB Series
Baseball managers, previously published by 2K, left the digital stores in full force after the publisher terminated the contract with Major League Baseball. The last game in the series was released in 2012.
Shaun White Snowboarding
A snowboarding simulator featuring three-time Olympic champion Shaun White was released by Ubisoft in 2008. For such a niche product, the game turned out to be quite successful: in 2009, the publisher reported 3 million copies sold. Despite this, Ubisoft felt that it was too wasteful to pay for a license to use the name of a famous athlete, so in 2016, instead of Shaun White Snowboarding 2 saw the light steep, and the original game disappeared from digital platforms.
Infernal
Released in March 2007, the third-person action game lacked stars from the sky. However, this game cannot be called bad either: quite a strong action movie, albeit not distinguished by outstanding staging of cut-scenes and sophistication of the plot. Unfortunately, in 2010 the Metropolis Software studio was closed, so now we will not see a continuation in which the developers could work on the bugs, nor the original in the Steam catalog.
SEGA Rally Revo
Released in autumn 2007, SEGA Rally Revo turned out to be the last game from Sega Racing Studio. Despite an aggressive marketing campaign (Sega even filmed several comedy shorts for the release of the game Tonya & Donya featuring Natasha Legereau) and a warm reception from critics, the rally simulator was a flop. And the publisher himself, of course, did not renew the rights to licensed machines, preferring to remove the game from digital distribution services.
This list can be continued for a long time, and without even mentioning games based on films, animated series and comics (Deadpool, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan, both parts The Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Jackson's King Kong, DuckTales: Remastered and many other projects were taken off the market by thrifty publishers right after the license expired). But copyright and related rights are by no means the only problem of digital distribution. Strictly speaking, you can lose your entire game library overnight if the same Steam suddenly closes. Seems incredible? But such a precedent has already taken place.
Games for Windows Live, with which any active PC gamer must have a lot of unpleasant memories, was by no means only an online service for playing online: Microsoft planned to create a full-fledged digital distribution platform based on it, which could compete with Steam. GFWL had its own store (by the way, it exclusively sold Halo 2 ΠΈ Gears of War), a system of achievements, tools for social interaction between players - in general, quite a good gentleman's set. Here's just one problem: all of the above worked very badly. It got to the point that even before the release Dark Souls on PC, fans of the series wrote a petition to Bandai Namco with a request to remove the integration with Games for Windows Live from the game: in 2012, no one hoped that Microsoft would be able to make at least something more or less sensible from the ill-fated service.
Microsoft had big plans for Games for Windows Live, but the service didn't take off
And this time, gamers looked into the water: already on August 19, 2013, the corporation announced that on July 1, 2014, support for the platform would be completely discontinued. The problem is that in a number of games GFWL acted as a DRM, in addition, all DLCs required additional activation in the service. And if from the games of the series Batman: Arkham, Bioshock, Resident Evil 5 ΠΈ Red Faction: Guerrilla the developers eventually removed all traces of Games for Windows Live, and the same Bulletstorm, which did not run at all without online activation in the Microsoft service, eventually received a re-release, then Fable III turned out to be useless, and now this game has also disappeared from Steam.
Maybe Fable III was inferior to the previous parts, but it was still a great game
Not so long ago, she shared her fate and, no matter how incredible it may sound, GTA IV along with add-ons: on January 10, the game was removed from sales again because of the ill-fated GFWL. Rockstar promised to "fix the situation", and even add support for Steam achievements, without specifying, however, exactly when the patch that removes the dead service from the project will be released: given that they have constantly generating income GTA Online, this task is obviously not a priority. By the way, the fourth part Grand Theft Auto suffered twice: in 2018, many tracks that sounded on various radio stations disappeared from the game.
So how can Niko Bellic steal cars without Vladivostok FM now? It remains to take a taxi
By the way, third-party online DRM, which has also come into vogue thanks to the rapid development of digital distribution, can themselves cause a lot of problems. Yes, dilogy. Chronicles of Riddick was withdrawn from sale for the simple reason that the developers of the Tages copy protection system, built into both parts, went bankrupt and the online activation servers were disabled. As a result, even previously purchased copies today are absolutely useless, unless, of course, they were previously activated.
Riddick can beat anyone but DRM
A similar fate befell Tron:Evolution. Here the situation is unique in its own way: Disney, which published the game, paid for a license to use the online version of SecuROM copy protection for 10 years and did not renew it. As a result, not only new customers suffered (and the game was withdrawn from stores after the license expired), but also those who grabbed the toy on sale, but never launched it, as well as those who played it before, but withdrew activation ( for example, when replacing the system drive or reinstalling Windows).
Cyberpunk has arrived, but a little different than we expected
We summarize all of the above and outline the key problems of modern digital distribution services from the perspective of the end user:
- The account you use to access Steam, Origin, Uplay, Battlenet, PSN, Xbox Games Store, or Nintendo eShop is the property of the owners of the digital content distribution service. In accordance with the terms of the license agreement, the platform owner may at any time change the rules of service unilaterally or block your account without giving reasons.
- The vast majority of launchers have a built-in DRM system, and many games are equipped with additional means of protection against illegal copying, one way or another tied to online activation. Thus, if Steam ceases to exist tomorrow, the owners of the service block the user account, or the provider of the DRM system disables the servers that ensure its functioning, then you will automatically lose access to your digital game library or to a significant part of the games (including singles).
- From a legal point of view, you are not purchasing digital goods, but licenses for the right to use software. Since the games themselves are the property of the publisher, the publisher can at any time restrict your access to their product, change the code or multimedia content included in its composition, and you will not be able to do anything about it.
Simply put, every owner of a digital toy library can lose it overnight, and no one will reimburse him for anything!
In this regard, there are not so many ways to collect a full-fledged collection of single-player video games that will not be controlled by third parties, which means that they truly belong to you (albeit not de jure, but de facto), but they still exist. We can still:
1. Buy games on discs
This method is relevant for computer games of the "pre-Steam" era (with a number of exceptions, such as the one mentioned above Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, the disc version of which, although it came with a Steam activation key, could function standalone) and console releases for consoles up to the 7th generation (i.e. Playstation 3 and Xbox 360) inclusive. It makes no sense to purchase physical copies of PC games at present: firstly, the vast majority of modern releases will still require online activation, and secondly, you risk finding inside the box instead of a disc only a sticker with a license key or a DVD with a Steam installer, like this was the case with Metal Gear Solid V.
Your face when there was no game in the box with the game
However, even with online DRM-free games of yesteryear, you can get into trouble. If FEAR received an offline version of SecuROM, which generally works well now, and Quake 4 had no protection at all (in any case, the gold edition with all the latest patches released by 1C), then, for example, the Russian edition Suffering 2 protected from the evil hackers of the odious StarForce - the very driver that repeatedly pleased you with a BSOD out of the blue, asked you to remove "forbidden software" from your computer, detecting an antivirus, and because of which your DVD drive eventually broke. On modern versions of Windows, such games, alas, cannot be launched, which means that the only thing left is to look on eBay and other similar sites for foreign publications that the βstar powerβ has bypassed.
StarForce is so reliable that even the owner of a licensed copy will not be able to run the game
With console releases, too, not everything is so simple. Having bought a disc for the Playstation 2, you can immediately insert it into the console and enjoy the game (or run it on a PC using an emulator, which is also an absolutely legal action today), but, alas, this number will not work with the Playstation 4: Since the development of digital distribution has untied the hands of developers, raw (or even incomplete) versions of games are often sent for gold, which turn out to be inoperable without a patch of the first day or a couple of tens of gigabytes of content from above. Therefore, you need to not only get a licensed disk at your disposal, but install the game on an internal or external drive and then download all the updates, after which you should never delete the game.
2. Use the services of online services that distribute game distributions without built-in protection
At the moment, the main such platform is GOG (Good Old Games) - a subsidiary of CD Project, the author of the famous series of games about the Witcher. Initially, the online store was positioned as a place where you can buy old games modified for modern operating systems and equipment, but after the restart, which took place on September 23, 2010, current releases began to appear in the service. But although today's range of the site is no longer limited to the classics, the main rule of GOG has remained unchanged: only games that are completely free of DRM, including offline ones, are published here.
GOG is the last bastion against the arbitrariness of computer game publishers
Games without copy protection can also be purchased from sites such as Humble Bundle, IndieGala, Itch.io and several others. But do not forget: your purchase must be downloaded, because all of the listed services operate in a legal field and will be required to replace the distribution kit of the game with a βmodifiedβ one (for example, without a soundtrack) at the request of the publisher.
3. Buy games on Steam
No, this is not a mistake: in fact, there are quite a few games on Steam that do not have anti-piracy protection in principle. A fairly extensive list of such projects is published in . If you want to check if DRM is built into the game installed on your computer, simply open the folder with the executable file (the path to it looks like ...steamsteamapps<account name><game name>), exit Steam and try to launch the game: if everything goes smoothly, then there is no protection. By the way, this manipulation can be done with other clients: many games from Origin or EGS are also deprived of protection.
Of course, in order to make such a game your own, you will have to manually zip the appropriate folder and save it in a safe place, that is, outside the client's service directories. Although the same Steam has the necessary tools for creating backups of games, this option will not work for us, since you still need to log in to the service to restore the backup.
4. Keep installed and activated copies of digitally purchased games on a separate drive
The method is radical and resource-intensive, but reliable as a Swiss watch. Since Steam supports offline operation (the account only needs to be activated once on your PC), you can take a separate drive, install the operating system, the digital distribution service client and all the games from your virtual collection on it, and then take the account offline. If the game has a third-party DRM (like the same Alone In The Dark 2008), it must be launched and activated at least once. After that, you will have at your disposal an emergency supply of games that you can play whenever you want, even if Steam suddenly closes tomorrow. Why do we recommend having a separate disk for this with a separate copy of the operating system? Theoretically, activation may fail during a Windows update, and you will not constantly keep the Steam client offline (you will probably want to play some kind of shooter or race over the network). A dedicated drive will allow you to encapsulate your entire game library, as well as avoid situations when a patch installed in the background safely cuts the soundtrack from your favorite game.
Of course, all of these measures require a huge amount of disk space, because the times when the weight of games was measured in megabytes are long gone: modern AAA projects weigh at least several tens of gigabytes, and the heaviest of them even approach the 300 GB mark, as in case with the same Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. But you donβt have to worry about this, because Western Digital has already thought of everything for you.
WD_Black - external drives for real collectors
The modern market offers many external drives of various capacities, but none of them is suitable for storing backup copies of games, much less for running them. The reason for this lies on the surface: when developing such devices, the manufacturer thinks about anyone, but not about gamers. Why? Let's discuss.
Why can an ordinary consumer buy an external hard drive? Obviously, in order to store documents, photos, music, books, films, and possibly some utility programs on it. Compared to the distribution kit of a modern game, almost any of the listed files will turn out to be negligible, which means that it will not require any exorbitant speeds or large volumes to download it. In the same way, low bandwidth will not affect the quality of playback of multimedia content in any way, because even for 4K video with a frame rate of 60 frames per second, 50 MB / s will be more than enough. As a result, "civilian" external drives use slower, but more economical HDDs of small and medium capacity. This does not affect the user experience in any way, but it helps to further reduce the cost of the device, reduce power consumption and heat dissipation.
With games, the situation is different. Even if you plan to only save distribution backups on an external drive, you will already need a fairly high data transfer rate, otherwise copying the same Red Dead Redemption 2 weighing 112 gigabytes will take forever. If you want to run games directly from mobile storage, then the performance of the device becomes extremely important, because the download speed of individual locations and even the minimum FPS will depend on it: if the PC does not have time to load the resources necessary for rendering 3D scenes into the operating system quickly enough, memory and VRAM, you will expect constant friezes (which is especially noticeable in open world games) and all sorts of visual glitches like drawing textures directly in the frame, objects appearing from the air and jumping shadows.
With these features in mind, we have developed three lines of external drives focused on the needs of modern gamers:
- WD_Black P10 Game Drive β compact and capacious hard drives with a capacity of 2, 4 and 5 TB (special versions of WD_Black P10 Game Drive for Xbox One are also available for 1, 3 and 5 TB);
- WD_Black D10 Game Drive - High-performance 8TB external drive with built-in active cooling (also available in a 10TB special edition WD_Black D12 Game Drive for Xbox One)
- WD_Black P50 Game Drive - High-speed external SSDs with a capacity of 500 GB, 1 and 2 TB.
Let's take a closer look at each of them.
WD_Black P10 Game Drive
WD_Black P10 Game Drive is a compact (118Γ88 mm) USB 3.2 Gen 1 external hard drive compatible with personal computers running Windows 8.1 and 10 operating systems, Mac OS 10.11 and higher, as well as with current game consoles (supported Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Playstation 4 Pro with firmware version 4.50 or later). The performance of this model is identical to the internal HDD of the WD Blue series: data transfer speeds up to 140 MB / s, which allows you to quickly backup even the heaviest games. So, for example, copying a 50 GB distribution kit will take no more than 6 minutes.
The WD_Black P10 Game Drive for Xbox One version is optimized to work with the Microsoft game console. It also comes with a 100-month coupon for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which gives you all the benefits of the Xbox Live online service and gives you access to over XNUMX games for Xbox One and PC.
WD_Black D10 Game Drive
WD_Black D10 Game Drive can rightly be called "heavy artillery". In terms of performance, it is in no way inferior to top-end SATA HDDs: support for the USB 3.2 Gen 1 interface provides the ability to transfer files at a speed of 250 MB / s. In addition, this model is equipped with a built-in air cooling system that maintains an optimal temperature regime inside the case, guaranteeing stable operation of the device and eliminating its overheating even under heavy load. The combination of high capacity, reliability, versatility (like the WD_Black P10, the drive is compatible with PC, Mac and current consoles) and impressive speed performance makes the WD_Black D10 an almost ideal solution for those who collect a digital game library: this hard drive can easily install all your collection of games, and its performance is quite enough for comfortable gameplay.
The WD_Black D10 Game Drive has another interesting feature: it has two 7,5-watt USB Type A connectors on its body, which allows you to use the hard drive as a charging station for wireless accessories (for example, keyboards, mice or headsets). It also comes with a handy stand that allows you to install the drive vertically.
The special edition WD_Black D10 Game Drive for Xbox One has a larger capacity (12TB). In addition, each customer also receives a gift code for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (valid for 3 months).
WD_Black P50 Game Drive
The WD_Black P50 Game Drive is the fastest device in the family, supporting SuperSpeed ββUSB (USB 3.2 Gen 2Γ2) and using advanced 3D NAND flash memory, it reaches a record speed of 2000MB/s, which is almost 4 times faster in compared to a SATA SSD and only 400 MB/s less than the WD Blue SN550 NVMe SSD. High data transfer speeds can significantly improve the performance of your PC, laptop or game console (Xbox One, Playstation 4 and Playstation 4 Pro with firmware version 4.50 or later are supported). And thanks to the shockproof design, you can be 100% sure of the safety of your game collection.
Such an impressive arsenal will help you effectively manage your digital game library by choosing a drive that is optimally suited in terms of capacity and speed. For example, WD_Black P10 can be used both for storing distribution backups and for installing games that are not demanding on hard disk performance (releases from previous years, CD and DVD images for previous generation consoles prepared to run on an emulator, etc.) .
WD_Black D10 is ideal for those who are tired of freeing up free space for a fresh release every time, sacrificing the necessary files: since this model is not inferior in performance to top SATA hard drives and has its own cooling system, you can install games directly to an external drive and play directly from him. It will also serve you well as a backup system drive for installing and storing activated copies of games with DRM offline, since the impressive capacity will allow you to download your entire Steam game library without any problems.
Finally, WD_Black P50 will not only provide you with enough free space, but also help you βpumpβ your PC or console: performance comparable to that of a mid-range NVMe SSD guarantees fast loading of locations and a stable frame rate even in the most graphically sophisticated games.
Source: habr.com