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S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Will Require A Permanent Internet Connection UPDATE: Or maybe not?

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Well, shit. I guess this is what I get for supporting a company with money.

Won't make that mistake again with these guys! Get fucked, STALKER 2!
 

gabbo

Member
I might buy it when they finally figure out that reasonable way to fight piracy. Until then, I'll find other games to play.
 

x3sphere

Member
Blizzard is doing the same thing with Diablo III. The game is still leading on PC so I'll probably buy it, despite the DRM.
 

Longshot

Member
Hilarious.

It's like they want people to pirate there games. Such a shame, was looking rather interesting and I enjoyed what I played of the first Stalker, oh well.

Definitely a skip from me, I wonder how that anti-piracy measure is going now?

All this is going to achieve is piss off the existing fans, alienate consumers and reward pirates.

Good job.
 

Card Boy

Banned
Sigma Storm said:
All this is going to achieve is piss off the existing fans, alienate consumers and reward pirates.

+1 Pretty much. Any measure that punishes your paying costumers is fucken plain out wrong. Why should you as a consumer have a lesser experience than a pirate? It boggles my mind when developers put all this anti-consumer DRM BS in there games.

I'll say it again, never bite the hand that feeds you.
 

Sysgen

Member
Problem of course is that 5 years from now when the servers are offline you won't be able to play. Can't support that.
 

Iztli

Member
I wish that Gabe would have meeting with all these Devs..

gabenewell4.jpg


"Is there a crisis in [PC] gaming?" asked Newell, who led the first segment of the talk. "You know, 'Piracy killed my game,' 'Console numbers are huge,' 'People don't want to play their PCs in the living room' - all these stories get written over and over again, and our view is that it's exactly the opposite. PC is where all the action is, and there's a perception problem."
 

x3sphere

Member
Mistwalker said:
This is how I look at it, and completely agree.

For what it's worth, depending on how much content is stored server-side, this might actually make the game nigh-impossible to pirate (without losing some of that content). If it hurts pirates that's all good, but the whole "you don't get all the game content at purchase" turns this from a wait-for-Steam-sale-price to never-for-me-thanks.

The only thing that made the original Stalkers playable for me was the modding scene, wonder how this will impact mods, unofficial patches and such?

I don't think it would affect mods. Sounds like just scripting for quests is stored server side. That would basically make the single player broken for anyone that tries to pirate - but the game itself would still be functional, so you could still tinker around with the engine, I assume.
 

Ionic

Member
Today has just been bad. First we get the most out of character Carmack interview ever, then the sequel to one of the best shooters of all time gets a ridiculous form of DRM.
 

charsace

Member
Lasthope106 said:
The lure of big money on consoles is enough to seduce any exclusive pc game companies into making stupid decisions.
Please explain to me how tons of people bootlegging the previous stalker games and a console version of Stalker 2 are both the cause of the DRM they are implementing for Stalker 2 pc? Because to me it seems like the bootlegging of the previous games in the series is the only thing causing this DRM to be implemented.
 

x3sphere

Member
BrokenEchelon said:
I'm sure this will effectively prevent piracy.

Do I need to even put a "/sarcasm" tag at the end of this post at this point?

It will, actually. All the scripting routines are stored server-side, pirates aren't going to bother coding all that. So you get a broken game if you can't connect to the auth server.

Blizzard has done the same with D3.

I don't agree with it, but it IS a great defense against piracy.
 
So what happens in a couple of years when they decide to shutdown the DRM servers? I assume they'll release a patch which adds the missing content into the game then?

If so, I'll wait for that!
 
The M.O.B said:
Is THQ publishing like the first one?

That's a good question. They've been using Steamworks for awhile so either they're making an exception with this or it's being published by somebody else.
 

Salsa

Member
“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. Software piracy is an issue for us, we try to fight it, but within reason.

is that how always-online DRM works? never knew


This is fucking garbage, but i cant say i wont play it on my permanent internet connection.. it just takes it to "wait for a good deal" territory
 

DTKT

Member
SalsaShark said:
is that how always-online DRM works? never knew


This is fucking garbage, but i cant say i wont play it on my permanent internet connection.. it just takes it to "wait for a good deal" territory

I dont think that's how Ubisoft online DRM works. All the data is local but it just checks that you have a connection to the server.

It's still a terrible decision and probably won't really decrease piracy and I can't help but wonder if modding is also going to be affected.
 

Longshot

Member
x3sphere said:
I don't agree with it, but it IS a great defense against piracy.
A better solution to piracy would be to make the game not function correctly such as, disable saving, blocking off part of the game world, messages that pop up telling you to buy a retail copy, removing core characters or disabling story progression.

I'd be totally fine with that because it's not DRM, it's copy protection which I have no issue with. But seeing as they're totally fine with literally biting the hand that feeds them, I have no problems giving this game a miss. It's there loss.
 
I bought the first two Stalker games on the cheap since I was just trying to build my PC gaming library up before I build my real tower come Winter. Now I need a permanent internet connection for the sequel to one of the more interesting shooter franchises that attracted me to Steam in the first place? SMH

I wouldn't buy it for $2.50 after this announcement. I could get an indie gaming pack and it would be a way better deal.

Fuck off with the DRM, assholes.
 

luka

Loves Robotech S1
I don't even have the will to recite an overused STALKER meme anymore. This is just..sad. No way I'm going near this thing.

These people need a kick in the head from the CD Projekt guys.
 

Kuran

Banned
Neuromancer said:
You're making an assumption that had Metro 2033 been developed on PC only, it would have been very different. Unless anyone has any insider info, impossible to tell.

Also open world games are made for consoles all the time. They don't look as pretty as PC games of course but it's doable.

Anyway I did really enjoy Stalker 1 so I'm hoping they're not changing the formula too much. And back on topic. always online DRM sucks a big one.

Edit: OK you changed your post, now I'm not sure what's going on.

Oh, I didn't really wanted to go into an argument, you caught me pre-edit.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
According to automatic surveys that come with every copy of Stalker almost everyPC on which the game was installed has internet connection. Grigorovich always hated piracy so it was expected.

I don't give a damn, because my connection is good.
 
Fuck. You're telling me I have to upgrade from my temporary internet connection? Whatever, this is my favorite dark horse game series ever and I'll play it no matter what.
 

Aselith

Member
Well, that's unfortunate. My satellite connection probably won't allow me to play this and I'll be goddamned if I'll pay $50 to try. I guess I'll wait until it's on sale at $10 instead of paying full price. I love Stalker but there are too many good games to put up with this bullshit.

I'm sure by the time I buy they'll have patched it out anyways.


subversus said:
According to automatic surveys that come with every copy of Stalker almost everyPC on which the game was installed has internet connection. Grigorovich always hated piracy so it was expected.

I don't give a damn, because my connection is good.

Problem being I don't think they just want to maintain their current audience (they probably want to expand it) and this is a barrier to entry for some and it won't be a barrier to entry for pirates almost certainly. Why cut off your nose to spite your face?

Ubi could probably tell them what's up, with their 90% decrease in PC sales.
 

Deadbeat

Banned
subversus said:
According to automatic surveys that come with every copy of Stalker almost everyPC on which the game was installed has internet connection. Grigorovich always hated piracy so it was expected.

I don't give a damn, because my connection is good.
But when their servers go down you wont be able to play the game. Just like AC2 when Ubi servers went down. But people are so quick to forget that.
 

Bazhard

Banned
TheSeks said:
Solution if you have bandwidth caps: Don't buy Stalker 2. Simple. Too bad you'll buy it anyway and send the message that it's completely okay to do this like most people will. :/
Too bad i won't buy it.

I refuse to buy any SP game that requires a internet connection to play, if you wanna support this bullshit cool beans.
 

HK-47

Oh, bitch bitch bitch.
legend166 said:
This would probably hurt the mod community too, right?

The STALKER games were made immeasurably better with mods.


The STALKER games require mods IMO.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
Deadbeat said:
But when their servers go down you wont be able to play the game. Just like AC2 when Ubi servers went down. But people are so quick to forget that.

Yes, they WILL go down. But it's expected. I won't be playing this day 1 or day 3. Most likely day 40.

Grigorovich once told that they would have had sold 4x more STALKER games if it they weren't pirated.
 
subversus said:
Yes, they WILL go down. But it's expected. I won't be playing this day 1 or day 3. Most likely day 40.

Grigorovich once told that they would have had sold 4x more STALKER games if it they weren't pirated.

How does he know that? Claiming is one thing. CD Projekt can claim that adding DRM would have made the Witcher 2 sold 5 times more too. Utter bullshit.
 

Aselith

Member
subversus said:
Yes, they WILL go down. But it's expected. I won't be playing this day 1 or day 3. Most likely day 40.

Grigorovich once told that they would have had sold 4x more STALKER games if it they weren't pirated.

Wishful thinking on his part where every part is a missed opportunity. A lot more people will play a game for free than would for retail price.

He's fooling himself by chasing that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and making his game seem more hostile to potential (and actual) customers (I bought the games 2 times each but I have satellite so fuck that)

It's not a good thing what they're doing here and it's not going to be good for their game regardless of what they've deluded themselves into believing.
 
Aselith said:
Well, that's unfortunate. My satellite connection probably won't allow me to play this and I'll be goddamned if I'll pay $50 to try. I guess I'll wait until it's on sale at $10 instead of paying full price. I love Stalker but there are too many good games to put up with this bullshit.

I'm sure by the time I buy they'll have patched it out anyways.




Problem being I don't think they just want to maintain their current audience (they probably want to expand it) and this is a barrier to entry for some and it won't be a barrier to entry for pirates almost certainly. Why cut off your nose to spite your face?

Ubi could probably tell them what's up, with their 90% decrease in PC sales.
You got a link? Just curious...
Lasthope106 said:
How does he know that? Claiming is one thing. CD Projekt can claim that adding DRM would have made the Witcher 2 sold 5 times more too. Utter bullshit.
Yeah, I was about to ask about that. People can say whatever they want, but it is an educated guess at beast and bullshit at worst.

It's not like they can just zoom into the future and back when they want to see how their game will do under specific conditions.
 
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