Tomb Raider digital version on PSN requires internet for launch

GameChup:

"Square Enix it seems has included a DRM with the PSN version of Tomb Raider.

This is what greets the player on the PSN Store. You have to sign in to PSN whenever you play the game, however, the retail version does not have this requirement."

[Godchild1020]

"No more than one activated PS3 system within a 24 hour period. Content may not be used by any other account. You must sign in to PSN each time you start the game."

That right there has me a little worried about next gen and buying my games from the Network. I guess I will wait and see what Sony and SE has to say about this before starting the game up.

[Smurf1]

Not a lot of games have such DRM, don't know why Square Enix did such a thing. We know it's not Sony's fault because publishers decide that. Maybe they don't want people to share?

[ThatArtGuy]

The only other company I know of to use it is Capcom (surprise surprise).

[hesido]

It is Sony's fault for giving the option to the publishers. I don't think they would not release it if they couldn't have this DRM.

[delboy]

There are many games with similar DRM, Warhawk has it and it's a launch game and a Sony game on top of that.
What about GT5 DLC, it's also locked, and can't be sheared.

Expect more of this DRM with each day and release, and even more for the next gen systems.

[xPhearR3dx]

I'm pretty certain this was Sony's decision. This statement was released from Square themselves about the PC version:

Q: Will there be any DRM?
“We do not believe in strong anti-consumer DRM methods, so apart from the game using Steamworks and it having to be authenticated with your Steam account there is no additional DRM.”

Obviously this is a different platform, but Square said themselves they don't believe in strong anto-consumer DRM methods. So why would they have no DRM on PC (where piracy is high) compared to a more secure platform such as the PS3?

Sony isn't as innocent as you may all think.

[MikeMyers]

http://www.ps3news.com/PS3-...

Capcom did the same thing on PSN. Sony did something similar to Warhawk. This is yet another reason why questions remain about the PS4 and the upcoming Xbox and how these systems treat used games and DRM.

[SilentNegotiator]

@xPhearR3dx

You think it's more likely that Sony threw a dart and made a random third party game use the DRM than Square making the decision about their own game after changing their mind?

[hesido]

@delboy Warhawk is an online multiplayer game, so I'll give that a pass. As for Gran Turismo, I'm almost sure they now let you share your DLC on your PS3 (please someone correct me if I'm wrong), after a heck lot of backlash from users. But the fact that you still think its DLC cannot be shared is Sony's fault, because they have poisoned the well.

[WildArmed]

Indeed, I know they did this for Betas -- to avoid beta sharing.

Uncharted, Little Big Planet Betas being among them.

Not a fan of this type of DRM, I don't mind 24 hours between activations on any PS3. But having to be online when you start the game is annoying. Esp. since services like PSN/XBL are not very reliable. Just today I was logged out a couple of times while play Ni No Kuni (it didnt really affect me for this game thou)

[Godchild1020]

I'm usually not signed on when playing games, unless I'm playing online or something. And as you said PSN/XBLA services are not reliable, they can go down for maintenance or whatever; making this type of DRM useless. At least with Steam, there is an offline mode, PSN nor XBLA has that feature.

Also, its not just PSN or XBLA, but the cable company or maybe another storm like Sandy hits again. Making this type of DRM annoying because I wouldn't be able to play the game I bought.

I was reading on Neogaf and there are a few titles that have DRM like this on PSN, but some of them are online only games, so you really want notice and there are only a handful of them, so no one would really notice; NBA 2K13, SOCOM Confrontation, Warhawk, Final Fight and Bionic Commando Rearmed 2. http://www.neogaf.com/forum...

[hesido]

For Beta's, I could understand. But why wouldn't they let me continue gaming on a second Ps3?

[SilentNegotiator]

Those are betas; they're always locked to one user.

Why would Sony make a random third party game use the same DRM as betas?

[Outside_ofthe_Box]

And this here folks is why there is concern for going digital only. Add on top of that microtransactions and we can see that the future looks bleak for gaming if this route is taken.

I know they want to limit gaming sharing I have no problem with that, but this is the very reason why we need physical discs to remain so that we always have a choice and don't have to succumb to a Publisher's whim.

[BDSE]

Never going digital while this is the norm.

[fermcr]

Now, after this... who will be stupid enough to buy the PSN version instead of the disk version ?

[HarryMasonHerpderp]

This sucks and whoever made this decision be it Square Enix or Sony they're screwing over consumers.
Here's an idea though, walk into a shop buy it for a fraction of the digital price and enjoy doing whatever the heck you want with it! physical games FTW!

[admiralvic]

Wasn't that how Socom Confrontation, Warhawk and GT 5 Prologue digital copies were? Sure it's odd to see it come back, but these were systems that lasted a GOOD percentage of the consoles life with plenty of people forgetting / not being aware they existed.

edit~

proof of Warhawk

http://www.joystiq.com/2007...

too lazy to look up the other ones, but thats at least enough to prove my point.

[SheenuTheLegend]

if you ask me than this is even more bad then blocking used games...
why can't we use the content we own even on the same system....
its like buying a car which only u can drive .. n if ur friend wanna drive it u r gonna buy the car again oh cmon...
i will become grand theft auto then you know...
i m gonna support hacking openly

[gamernova]

Damn, didn't even do it on the PC version. I wonder what triggered this...

[Nitrowolf2]

SE doesn't want the game shared with more than one PS3. I know a few game shave this, but they still allow offline play I think?

Still, this is pretty dumb TBH, it is afterall mostly a SP game. I would like to play it offline

[hesido]

I have over 50 titles, without this restriction. And I so far refused to buy stuff with this restriction, especially Capcom titles. If they think they are going to be able to sell more with this DRM, let them think again.

Sony's fault is to allow such DRM. This prevents me from making impulse buys, I have to make sure the game doesn't come with such crap. That involves going in forums to see if it has, as I remember correctly, some titles didn't even mention the DRM beforehand, but they had to edit the product description later. By the time I do it, the impulse is gone.

[BLAKHOODe]

That pretty much stops me COLD on supporting digital releases. I have 2 PS3s.. one in the living room and another in the bedroom and I liked the idea of digital, because I could avoid moving the disc back and forth from one to the other, but if restrictions are going to stop me from enjoying the game on both consoles, I'll just stick to physical media.

[colonel179]

Yeah! Publishers go to an extreme thinking that sharing a game means people will pirate the games. They don't want to understand that some people have several consoles in their homes and would like to share content with each other.

Also, if even Apple allows this, which they were the most closed-minded people on earth, and they could figure out a way to have all your content in all your apple devices, I don't see how this could be done in consoles.

[SSJBen]

How is sharing games = pirating games.

This baffles me for the publishers who thinks like that. Sharing means paying half of it, they're still getting paid. Not as much as they should, but they still are.

Pirating means they don't get a dime.

[Godchild1020]

That is how I feel. I usually have the game downloaded on both consoles, just in case I want to move from the bedroom to the living room or vice versa.

I try my best not to buy retail when there is a digital copy, but since this happened, I'm going to be limiting my purchases.

[a_bro]

@BLAKHOODe
sorry, i pressed the disagree button by mistake, i was suppose to press the agree button. but yea, this is one of the major turn offs of digital releases. its kind of like what capcom did to their games like final fight. its total BS>

[hesido]

I did not buy Final Fight just because it had this DRM.

But the problem is, they still probably think they were able to sell more with the DRM.

[Godmars290]

Yeah, they're going to keep pushing little by little. Or really big with things they know people want.

[Blank]

Those are my thoughts as well im very disgusted by this any game doing this DRM on consoles im not buying I was getting comfortable doing digital but unnessary BS like this only pushes me further away from digital I hope they change this but its square enix they know how to piss off fans and consumers so saying that they might do this for every game they release digitally so they can get a ps3 hdd with tomb raider downloaded On it and shove it up their wazoo

[clintagious650]

Square Enix will continue to go down hill because of this. They already ruined the FF Series & cant even create a new kingdom hearts game. These guys should just go creat mobile games since they hate listening to their fans lol. Company is a joke now.

[tweet75]

sony is just prepping people for ps4, it seems it will not play any digital content without a streaming internet connection active . Seriously i hope this goes viral and digital sales of this suck and phsyical sales are great. This would send sony a message.

[Soldierone]

And THIS is a huge reason I don't want all digital machines. The only thing topping it is the prices never going down.

[MartinB105]

The retail version will be cheaper anyway, at least here in the UK. Amazon UK currently have the game priced at £31.90, whereas typical PSN digital retail releases go for at least £49.99.

I see the US Amazon price is $59.99, which presumably matches the digital price? I guess I'm lucky to be British, since £31.90 is only about $48 including tax. :)

[ZodTheRipper]

I was just starting to get used and comfortable with buying digital games ...but if this is the future for digital media then don't count me in.

[SaffronCurse]

Vote with your wallets people, don't support these tactics.

[Godmars290]

Need to spread the word too.

Faster than Sony can offer it online...

[Sam Fisher]

Im in

[cleverusername]

You need an internet connection to buy it from psn in the 1st place so what's the issue exactly?

[aquamala]

you need an internet connection to log in to PSN every time you want to play the game!

[cleverusername]

Which u obviously have if u bought the game from the store

[colonel179]

Not necessarily. What if your DSL company had a problem and disconnects the internet for a few hours? (Happens a lot where I live) You're left without being able to play the game.

[porkChop]

Let's say PSN is down, which happens often, you won't be able to play the game. Every time Sony does maintenance and shuts PSN down, you won't be able to play the game. If your internet goes down, for any reason, you won't be able to play the game.

It's a big issue for a lot of people.

There's also another issue. You can only play the game on 1 activated PS3 per 24 hour period. So let's say you have a PS3 in your living room, and you're playing the game. Then you want to go upstairs to bed and continue from there. You can't. Let's say you play the game in your room at night, then in the morning you want to play it downstairs. You can't. That's a huge problem for me because I play a lot of my games this way. That's the whole reason I bought 2 PS3's in the first place.

[cleverusername]

"Happens often" Really? You can still sign in during maintenance

[Silly gameAr]

@clever

That's true. The disagrees you got are probably from people who don't even use PSN.

On, topic, there's no way I would support tactics like these.

[hazelamy]

just like all drm this will fail, because the numbers of people they drive away will far outweigh the numbers of people that would have abused the system.

is a lack of common sense a prerequisite to manage a software publisher these days?

[sway_z]

SOLUTION TO DRM >BOYCOTT DIGITAL & PURCHASE RETAIL ONLY!!

This type of DRM was implemented back in 2007 with GT Prologue, but Sony subsequently removed it due to negative feedback.

How foolish is this system? ...I mean, what if your net is down or you have no internet at all? I suspect after the desired sales targets for Tomb Raider are met, this DRM will be de-activated.

Games are becoming more and more restrictive! ...This after you're expected to pony up $60? Vote with your wallets people, stick to retail only..let us kill this over priced digital distribution dictatorship!

[GABRIEL1030]

NO digital buy then, this is insane, Sony and Nintendo don't restrict the systems, but a publisher does it...oh... but It's Square, the worse publisher in this gen with EA, why I'm not surprised?

Guys please purchase retail only¡¡¡

[InTheLab]

And that is why the only digital titles on my PS3 came from PSN+...

[BLAKHOODe]

About 95% of mine have.

[Modestmex]

this the bullshit we pc gamers have to go through.

[BladerunnerZX]

I will never buy a game digitally that features DRM on console or PC.

As others have stated this is the type of BS that pushes me away from digital.

I guess its back to the Tomb Raider Trilogy (only on PS3 btw) and Uncharted 3 multiplayer for me.

Oh and just FYI for all those trophie hunters. the Tomb Raider Trilogy features 3 full games each with full trophy sets including 3 platinums all one Blue Ray disc...sweet.

[sypher]

If you have the choice always buy the physical product. The only games i ever buy digitally are those that never get released as physical. You have infinitely more control of your physical goods than something tied to a closed system which might just disappear one day.

[TRGMatt]

While this is a bit disturbing at face value it makes sense to me. Imagine if everyone decided to "gameshare" this game and nothing was in place to prevent that. How many MILLIONS of dollars would that company be out as a result? If we want to continue to play high quality games, those companies need our money to keep putting them out. They are just covering their asses. Let them. They have a right to.

What is the alternative? Don't require the internet connection that DL'd the game in the first place? Walk straight into the realm of company-supported piracy? There are plenty of open source or free to play models out there. Feel free to play those. But triple A titles will always need significant consumer support in order to keep coming our way.

Both PS3 AND PS4 have been confirmed to be disc-based...which means if you wanna let more than one person borrow your game, you have the option to buy the disc version. Feel free.