This is certainly a new anti-piracy approach...

[Kairyu]

http://www.gamespot.com/all/news/news_6076592.html

Atrophying games... Is atrophying a word?

Anyway, I hope you are familiar enough with the forums now to be able to post your opinions on this idea. Personally, I can see how it might work... until the person figures out to just redownload the program or something.

[cyberkiller6276]

Is the fade software a seperate program or is it actually inserted into the games original code?

With that question in mind, how does that software know if the program is a pirated program?

It confuses me...

[TheGeepster]

There has to be some difference between a legit copy and an unauthorized copy which cannot be transferred. Since I don't know how they would accomplish this copy-proof, I don't know how it would work.

The idea seems to be an excellent one though, and obviously some means exist to do this.

[gdorf]

I think it is a great idea! I just hope it doesn't backfire on them when people find a way to circumvent the restrictions.

I can see companies using this in the future as demo's.

[TheGeepster]

They have invented disposal DVDs which only last a certain length of time from the rental... Can't remember who was planning on switching to them, though.

[zfreak2004]

Originally posted by TheGeepster
They have invented disposal DVDs which only last a certain length of time from the rental... Can't remember who was planning on switching to them, though.

I believe that was Disney... I find the technology interesting... but not all that practical yet.

[cyberkiller6276]

I'd say that's a waste of a DVD (yes I know how cheap it is to manufacture them, but stil!!) and millions if not billions of those will wind up in our nations landfills. Just another thing to throw away...That is, If they are non-recycleable...

[MottZilla]

Wow. How craptacular. You know there are alot of guys out there that hope they get this crap out soon so they can crack it and release the information to the public domain and see this company having wasted probably thousands of dollars on some cheap new attempt at copy protection.

Also, it's nothing new to protect a game against piracy by having the game not work right when bootlegged. The thing is I highly doubt they way they are doing this will work. You can't have it both ways. You either have it work always or not at all correctly. If you have any kind of timer, someone could make a program to freeze this timer thus the program never "degrades".

[TheGeepster]

It is a known fact that for every attempt to thwart piracy, there is at least one way to circumvent it.

The logic is this: There must be a way to mass-produce the media, no matter what the technology is that prevents normal copying and/or use.

So with the right files and technology, one can illegitimately recreate the media in legitimate format. There is also the possibility of diffusing the mechanism which disables illegitimate copy. (Can we say Crack?)

Note: This isn't an argument not to try, because the techniques they use do make it more difficult to bootleg, which is a good thing.

[MottZilla]

That is why GameCube is best off when it comes to piracy. GameCube discs unlike PS2 or Xbox do NOT use the ISO standard. They also are written in a way in which a PC DVD rom will never manage to even properly spin up.

All the current GC isos were ripped like the Dreamcast had its ripped. Via broadband/serial connection of the hardware and a PC. :O

Anyways, PC game protection is most definitely a lost cause. ;)

[Slider Zero]

That won't stop them from trying. They will find any way possible to make sure the get paid. Think about the way things go now for PC games...95% of all PC games don't even have a public demo, and almost all software outlets have a "non-returnable" policy once you remove the plastic wrap off the box. That said, it's no surprise that PC software gets hacked, cracked, burned, and otherwise *ahem* "illegaly" distributed, just so people are making sure they don't blow $50 on a piece of crap (in the case of developer software and OS'es, that can be as high as $500 on average).

Don't get me wrong. I still think that software piracy is a bad thing, but thare has to be a line drawn somewhere. If you try to make money off of selling crap w/ a no-refund policy, you WILL get your stuff hacked. that was one of the purposes of the hacking community to exist, anyways.

As for console hacking...

Originally posted by TheGeepster
It is a known fact that for every attempt to thwart piracy, there is at least one way to circumvent it.

Ill just leave it at that.

[Dart Zaidyer]

I can't wait to see when this one backfires on legitimate customers, as almost all anti-piracy measures have done.