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Pirates of all ilks are locked in a game of cat and mouse with regulators and content proprietors. Throughout their endless war, both have tightly clung to Newton’s third law: every regulation (action) has an equal and opposite ruse (action). Microsoft has come up with a fresh way to stymie videogame piracy. Its newfangled anti-piracy measure will prevent gamers from enjoying illicit copies of games before the street date.
Copies of Games for Windows Live titles will become playable on a set date – the date of the release of the game. PC games will be authenticated online under this new scheme.
"We have zero-day piracy protection—this helps reduce the leakage of IP before release. The bits are encrypted, and there is a one-time activation that checks to see if the game has been released or not, and we'll send out a decrypt code so the game can be played." Drew Johnston, the product unit manager for the Windows Gaming Platform, told Ars Technica.How will pirates respond?
Image Credit: PCGAMESHARDWARE
Links:
[1] http://www.maximumpc.com/user/opulent_rigs_0
[2] http://www.tomshardware.com/news/games-windows-piracy-downloading-microsoft,7377.html
[3] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/atari_accuses_nongaming_senior_citizens_software_piracy
[4] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/pc_gaming_alliance_lets_use_piracy_fun_and_profit
[5] http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/shadows_lengthening_over_broadcast_tv_analyst_spoiler_piracy_blame
[6] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/drm
[7] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/games_windows_live
[8] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/microsoft
[9] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/pc
[10] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/piracy
[11] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/release_date
[12] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/software
[13] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/software_news
[14] http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/videogame
[15] http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/news
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