SecuROM - The PC CD-ROM DRM that broke games | MVG

In 1997 a sophisticated PC CD-ROM anti tamper software was introduced by Sony DADC known as SecuROM. SecuROM did much to frustrate paying customers but very little to stop piracy. Here is the story of the most pointless and frustrating DRM in the PC world.

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#SecuROM #DRM #Spore

[SkulManEXE]

Ironic, how Spore became the most pirated game in history.

[ShaunDreclin]

Pirates: **downloads the game for free and plays it whenever and wherever they want**

Legitimate customers: **buys the game in a store, only allowed to install the game three times then has to beg customer service to let them keep using the software they already paid for**

Yep, DRM working as intended /s

[skipfred]

"EA learned their lessson"

Lol, no they didn't.

[abloogywoogywoo]

Strange world we live in where games are only still playable, and not lost to time, all thanks to Pirates.

[SkyyySi]

This moment when you have to crack your legal coppy of a game just to be able to play it...

[Deathinition]

imagine buying a game and every 10 days a guy knocks on your door and asks for the receipt

[LGR]

Ugh, SUCKurerom. The worst part of revisiting many of my favorite older PC games for far too long now. SafeDisc as well, just pointlessly annoying things to deal with for dozens of games I've bought that would otherwise be pretty simple to run.

Awesome to see a closer look into how it worked and was cracked, nice work!

[MikeDest]

I bought Vice City and still used the no cd crack just because it was annoying to need the CD to play.

[justuseodysee]

Meanwhile: Witcher 3 sells like a hot cakes to this day, despite not having any DRM at all

[asmahasmalaria]

Oh man, I remember getting a game called "Earth 2060". I was so damn hyped to play it and got it on my birthday, only to find out it had to be activated via internet (which we didn't have at that time) or via telephone (but you had to use your number pad and our telephone was too old for that to work) and so I had to travel 15km with my bike to my grandmother to activate the damn game. I was so upset at the time. And the game turned out to be not even that good.

[koalitaDormilona]

That insert CD to play thing was so annoying, I used no CD cracks even with games I purchased legit

[GoldSrc_]

Funny how it always seems to hurt more legit owners of a game, while pirates actually have a better experience most of the time, specially with single player games.
Keep up the good work.

[simonj]

I used a no-cd patch for all the games I purchased that required me to put the CD in the drive. No thanks, thats why I had a PC and a harddisk. Probably helped Steam gain some traction around that time as well.

[theaninova]

"EA learned their lesson"

*Sim City*

[SuperSmashDolls]

"SecuROM was a totally avoidable disaster for SPORE"

"Also let's make Darkspore an always-online preservation nightmare"

[randomweeb]

>SecuROM
>broke games
Ever heard of StarForce? It's even worse.

[davidlane]

"Thank God for GoG"

Damn straight. The only game distribution company that actually respects you as a consumer

[amshermansen]

The SecuROM days of Spore and Mass Effect actually prompted me to crack ALL of my legitimate games for a long time, just to avoid any kind of issues altogether. I even went as far as back up my entire physical disc collection to my NAS and include patches, essential mods and no-cd cracks from places like Gamecopyworld.

Just so I could always ensure I could play my games, in case these sites went under later due to lawsuits, or if EA would decide to re-sell them to existing customers (Which they are - Called that one for once) again on Origin and such.

[WHKHero]

Why dont Devs learn: Ultrahard DRM will only increase piracy, as all the customer wants is to play the game and not play arround 10 hours with DRM in a vain effort to authenticate and start the game?

[Lambda.Function]

You say DRM, I say "consumer rights violations." Same thing.