Well that’s me saved $50. The FSP horror shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, sequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyle will be having always-online DRM that makes many players across the world froth at the mouth and demand a living sacrifice of a CEO to appease the Gaming Gods.
In a Q&A, studio director Sergey Grigorovich said “Software piracy is an issue for us, we try to fight it, but within reason.”, the full quote is “Protection from piracy? Part of the content will be located on the server and downloaded as the game progresses. Permanent internet access is required. Text information, code and quests will be loaded through that connection. ”
This is about as far from “within reason” as you can get, though dynamic downloading of data can work in some games, and allows for updates and tweaks on the fly if a minor bug is discovered, as well as delivering brand new content whenever they wish, using it as DRM is just plain cruel.
GSC Game World, the developer, is a Ukraine-based company, and according to NationMaster.com, has an extreme problem with piracy, ranking in at #16 in the world overall, so their fears of losing money on a high-budget game are well justified, moreso than in the United States-based companies which have a much lower rate of piracy.
I am honestly starting to think that releasing the game cheap and having mountains of DLC is going to be the way to go in countries where piracy is a problem. You can still pirate DLC but it’s not as easy as opening up an ISO and installing the game.
Chris Hernandez
I guess they are thinking, “sure we’ll lose sales, But at least those grubby pirates won’t be touching our game”
mark
Yep, they lost my money and nearly every other previous fan of the game’s money, too, that I’ve spoken to. Sure, it’s just anecdotal evidence but it’s a bad sign when all the game’s fans that you personally know are horrified at this info and no longer keen on buying the game. Utter fail, Stalker devs. Utter fail.