Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition slapped with always-on PC DRM

Hey guys, I just researched and found out that the PC version will be updated to have all 39 characters available offline. Here's the link: http://www.capcom-unity.com/sven/blog/2011/05/25/stuff_you_want_to_know_about_ssfiv:ae_for_pc

@mrmime777 actually you'll be surprised how well SF 4 sold on pc. it's true it was heavily pirated but most of the pirates bought it afterwards for the multiplayer. the draconian drm will only serve to lower sales. it won't stop the pirates (does AC 2 ring any bells?)

Personally, I doubt very much the market for Street Fighter on PC is large enough to justify this DRM. Not enough people will want it bad enough to get past the DRM, so I'm not really sure why Capcom bothers. =/ Let's face it Capcom, Street Fighter isn't exactly on the level of Starcraft for the PC.

AE for PC is still a must-buy for me because I'm a fanboy of one of the characters and I don't own any consoles. And I will be playing with the 0-day offline crack. I'm not bragging about it. We all know that DRM will be cracked and pirates will be pirates, and the only people that suffer are legimitate customers. Based on his antipiracy threats, this will probably be the last SF game Ono releases on PC, and it will be the last dollars Capcom makes from me as I don't play any other Capcom games. Everyone loses. Way to go, Mr. Ono.

That, rolla020980, raises a rather pertinent question: why don't other publishers believe Stardock's model would work? Perhaps they assume that folks won't bother spawning bootleg copies of 'niche' titles... and surely you've heard the saying about why assuming is a bad idea. On another note, it has been pointed out earlier in this thread that Murphy's Law can arise at the most awkward times - when did it become acceptable to basically screw your customers out of portions of a product they _bought and paid for_ simply because their connection to the Internet might hiccup for reasons beyond their control?

looks good buy the DRM..?

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Why would anybody buy this? Anybody who's interested has already bought Super for PS3 or XBox even though vanilla was better for the PC. --- all new balancing? Are they admitting that the balancing was off in Super?

@rolla020980 I completely agree with your post, especially since I own a legitimate copy of Sins. A fair amount of the people that pirate games would stop doing so if there was little to no DRM. Is it a perfect fix? No, but there is no fix for the people who will pirate simply because they do not want to pay, so please, stop punishing the legitimate user.

They need to learn something from Stardock. No DRM, low piracy. This was quoted from a Dev on the Stardock forums (it's old, so bear with me): "So even though Galactic Civilizations II sold 300,000 copies making 8 digits in revenue on a budget of less than $1 million, it's still largely off the radar. I practically have to agree to mow editors lawns to get coverage. And you should see Jeff Green's (Games for Windows) yard. I still can't find my hedge trimmers." Another game that has been off the radar until recently was Sins of a Solar Empire. With a small budget, it has already sold about 200,000 copies in the first month of release. It's the highest rated PC game of 2008 and probably the best selling 2008 PC title. Neither of these titles have CD copy protection." Big lessen here: People do not buy games that restrict when or how they play their games only to see the pirates enjoying it as they wish. Spend $60 and have a big annoyance, or get it for free and take the risk of getting caught? I say neither... I'll wait until I can get a DRM free game for $20 or $30 (if they make a DRM free version that is).

DRM? sorry ... I'll pass to buy the original ... maybe I will try to download it if I really want to play it ... but this game will out from my must buy game list ...

@Rudorlf It's called wireless broadband or 3G/4G. Nothing you mentioned can't be accomplished by either of those.

If its like this.....i suggest you all pirate it....its for the best......god this decision is worse than the Activision "COD elite" thing

like if was a new game made from scratch, its the same only with few new characters. will not buy. i mean find another solution that doesnt involve paying monthly to anyone!

@Nigboy All I was saying is they do make an effort, go out of their way, spend money on, whatever way you prefer to call it to fight piracy. For whatever reasons you choose. They do. Part of the service is fighting piracy for their developer consumers. Anywho, I think we both have said our part. It's been a good talk. By the way, I live in Europe now too, for Steam prices that are worth it, make sure to drop in regularly to get the sales. 80% discounts and the like are not uncommon for a weekend period.

@raptures330 Again, they do what they need to make sure Steam doesn't become a distributor of illegal copies. That doesn't mean they go out of their way to catch pirates (which others have done). Remember, you can't attribute everything to Valve. If you need to create a Windows Live account in order to play GTA or some other game, it's because those publishers forced that through, not Valve. Valve is only responsible for their own games, not all games being distributed through Steam. If you can't play MW2 in any other way than through Steam, not even with a disc, it's because Activision wanted it that way. You can insist all you want that it's the prices that make Steam what it is, even though they are usually higher than retail prices (in Europe), but the fact of the matter is that Gabe Newell himself (and Robin Walker) have clearly stated exactly what I said: "In short, they realize that if they focus on providing a good service, piracy will not be a problem." Also, remember that their sales and wide range of games is part of, or made possible by, their great service.

70$ for game and 100$ for internet . no way to spend 100$ every month for this stupid game. from crapcom or ur bi soft .

@Nigboy You made them sound like they did nothing to fight piracy at it was all service. It is not. It is more than authentication. Buy MW2. You have the disc. You should be able to simply install off disc and play. No. Need to go online, make a Steam account, lock this game forever to that account making it impossible to lend unless you lend the whole account, install the game, decrypt some nonsense and so on and so forth. I had the game sitting next to the laptop that holiday waiting for me to get home so I could play it. Felt like HL2 all over again. I insist. It is not the service, but the prices that make Steam what it is. They do fight piracy. Constantly. Updates take forever to come to Steam. They do make mistakes and new games get hiccups now on then too. Not developer bugs either. Why did I bring up the internet connection? Because sometimes you need to download stuff they want you to download for anti-piracy reasons even if you own the retail discs. Remember this is what I was answering: "In short, they realize that if they focus on providing a good service, piracy will not be a problem."

When Capcom considered this option, I'm sure a part of a study didn't overlook a partial loss in quantity of customers. Like... me and my friend, the people not giving a penny to this DRM abusive scheme messaging here. You think I'll swallow my words and pay for it eventually? hahaha... going for a pre-owned on any console.

Remember, this is what I was answering: "please offer up some alternatives that (a) satisfy Capcom that their hard work will be protected to an extent from people wishing to steal it and (b) satisfy gamers that the methods are unobtrusive to their enjoyment of the game." Here's a good link, by the way: http://bit.ly/mcVCf6

@raptures330 I don't see how you would be able to install the game without connecting to Steam. That's probably asking too much technically. Instead of forcing players to stay connected as much as possible, they have enabled their customers to stay offline as much as possible, without using a system which would make piracy ridiculously easy and efficient. So they have really put their customers first, unlike the people we are complaining about now. I'm not sure why you bring up the fact that everyone doesn't have a good Internet connection. Steam is a service directed towards Internet users who want digital copies of games, in the same way that physical stores are directed towards people who want physical copies of games. Even despite that, they allow players to add their physical copies to Steam (even though they have nothing to gain directly, as far as I know). Valve are doing the best they can to not restrict the consumers, while at the same time making sure that their platform for digital distribution doesn't become the most efficient distributor of illegal copies (and thereby ruining the whole gaming industry or being sued and going bankrupt). I don't think anyone expects anything less than standard authentication, so I didn't think it was worth discussing.

@Nigboy Actually most of mine ask me to do it, or get some "offline mode" turned on. Yet, you still have to connect to it for: installation, decryption, authentication... etc in many cases. That is anti-piracy. Steam also has their own version of DRM. It is not draconian like many others but it is still there. Steam works where you live because you are lucky enough not to have a download limit, fast enough connection, etc. It is not so amazing in places that either have download limits or slow connections. The best thing about Steam is the prices and sales. Also, availability of games that otherwise would be hard to find overseas. I was just pointing out that they do fight piracy, not their primary focus, but they don't have the gloves off completely. Steam works because all the cogs work for their market, including protecting their developer customers' content.

@raptures330 You do know you don't actually have to be connected to Steam in order to play your games, right? At least not a great majority of them. Also, as long as you're logged into an account, be it online or offline, you can play ALL of your games, not just a great majority. Steam works the way it does because of the service they are trying to provide, not because they try to fight piracy. Do you not need to connect to the Internet in order to update non-Steam games as well? Do you not need to visit a game shop in order to buy non-Steam games? Heck, even if you choose to buy a physical copy instead, you can register most games on Steam as well, so you can play it both ways.

@NigBoy Just the very fact that you have to be connected to Steam to play your games a lot of the time, and an active internet connection to install them/activate them/decrypt them... Yeah, no anti-piracy there ;)

@RandyAU93: I would recommend you to look through interviews with Gabe Newell and Valve developers, like Robin Walker. In short, they realize that if they focus on providing a good service, piracy will not be a problem. Their approach has proven successful so far and they focus almost nothing on fighting piracy. If you don't manage to find enough interview material, I can have a look for you, I should have some links saved somewhere.

So instead of having some people buy it and a few pirate it they will have no one buy it or pirate it because it is a POS. That's a solid business plan if I ever heard one. Apparently they hate having customers.

@ShadowDragoon05 Well, piracy on the PC is a lot easier than consoles. Sorry to disagree. 1: You need to know a lot more what you are doing on consoles to "jailbreak" them. 2. If you do not it costs money. A good amount. 3. If you want to play online with a modded console, you might get caught and get banned. 4. An update you should not get, which you might by mistake, might either undo your "jailbreak" or brick your system. PC all you need to do if follow 6 steps. If you can read you can do it. That is why piracy is so rampant on PC and less of a problem on consoles. @zidan4000 You need an applause for feeling guilty for pirating something? Congratulations. Maybe they didn't "trust" you so much, but trust the fact ANY and all protection gets broken so they though "what is the point? people like zidan4000 are going to pirate it anyway and then feel guilty... but still pirate it anyway." ------------------------ Draconian DRM only hurts paying customers. Pirates circumvent these measures anyway within a few days and have an easier time with the game. This lesson seems hard to learn.

Now look what those guys did,Downloading the game most of times.THANK YOU!!!..!.,

DRM = no buy. Full stop.

Capcom, gonna let you in on a little secret, ok? Hear me out. Releasing it on Steam would have been just as good without all the DRM. That's the first thing. Second, it is just as easy to get the game pirated for a console as it is for it to be pirated for a computer. Just a heads up.

this wont stop the hackers they still find away around it and then just make it even worse on the normal ppl later on

yeah i heard about this a few days ago. It's just absurd but apparently they are trying to come up with some sort of compromise since they response to this DRM has been so negative. Hopefully we can convince to at least tone it down a little Link = http://www.capcom-unity.com/ask_capcom/go/thread/view/7371/27677673/SSF4:AE_PC_ONLINE_QUESTION&post_num=99#497069701

eigh...

Well i guess they gotta do wut they gotta do.

Crapcom.

to be honest , i find myself quite guilty if i pirate a game that didn't have any form of DRM but only a simple serial ,it makes me think that the developers trusted me to buy that game, guess what? by that way , all of a sudden i find myself wanting to buy the game just to support them because they trusted me for it.

awesome once again the industry is encouraging piracy. gg Capcom.

@KaBo0m Despite the fact that I'm at -2 already on my previous post, I'll point this out again: All SSFIVAE for PC requires is that you be signed into GFWL. I've now done a little research on the topic since I play SFIV on Ps3, and it turns out all the online leaderboards and matchmaking are done through GFWL on the existing PC version. So, in other words, this 'DRM' basically requires you to be connected to the service you would need to be connected to anyway in order to do anything other than single-player or local multi. But I suppose that point will go over the heads of most people around here who think games spring fully-formed from under damp rocks and are therefore worth no money.

Who in their right mind would buy this game when they could download it for free and avoid this DRM nonsense

I want that new SFIV for PC! -Remember Spore and AC? NO EFFIN WAY!?! -Yup, but if you pirate it, you'll have it without the DRM, because it is sooooo easy for hackers to bypass. Thanks! -Now you know what to do next time this happens.

DRM makes game developer lazy.

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So will capcom only use anti piracy methods on PC or the console versions aswell. Because no matter which gaming plattform piracy exists. This is like saying our PC customers are used to it. If pc gets chains so be it for the console versions aswell. This is like spitting directly into pc consumers face saying "you`re not worth our attention". This is BS It`s ok for PC consumers not having full content availability when playing the purchased game offline, but it`s ok for consoles!? What i pay for is mine to do with and use as i wish. This is nonsense. Same goes for their DLC costume plans, they seem to be only usable online even though you payed for them. It`s downloadable Content not Online content. You want to make a step forward into pc game marketing, well then get your act together and open your eyes.

The negative reactions to this news seem a little overblown. If you actually read how the protection works, it doesn't pull an Assassin's Creed and kill you off mid-game if you lose connection, it waits till you finish and then prompts you to reconnect. Given that the majority of SSFIV players are playing their multiplayer online, if your connection goes down your match would be borked anyway. The only real issue is the use of GFWL, which is, to be frank, horrible. If they had taken the same approach but used Steam, I'm not sure there would be any problem at all. An interesting related question is how this will impact modding. There's a heck of a lot of custom skins out there for PC SFIV, and Capcom can't be happy about that since that's DLC they're not selling. They could use the always-online component to perform some sort of file check, and if they should, I'd expect the howls of protest to be much, much louder.

this kind of $^%t promotes pirating

So they punish the people who would actually pay for the game, while the pirates will simply crack the DRM and have a better experience than the paying customers. Awesome.

Yeah, smart move Capcom. Hurting the consumers works just great doesn't it. Anything can be cracked so stop with the antipiracy software. It's only a waste of time. inb4piratehaters Learn the difference between stealing and copying before you call piracy a crime.

Lol what i dont understand is, where does this company workers live, in space maybe? not everyone has internet connection which means no moeny from them, also those who have weak or sometimes have random dc`s no money from them too, and do they really know that 99% of the games that use DRM are already cracked exept HAWX 2, good luck on selling it lol.

come on 360 pirated version comes first than the pc.