Elder Scrolls: Oblivion - No Copy Protection - Congrats to everyone involved

[Gimpymoo]

At first I was like, "WHY, are they mad".

However, after playing the game and seeing how good it is, £30 is a BARGAIN.

The game is going to sell SHEDLOADS anyway, just because it is that good.

The only publishers who need to use copy protection are those who dish out sub standard games.

Release good games, and they will sell.

Will be interesting to see the sales figures for Oblivion in a few weeks if their available. Gamers have been saying for a long time that Copy protection only hinders the ones who buy the games as those who do pirate the games bypass it anyway.

I just feel that the move Bethesda and Y2K games have made is a common sense one which I hope pays off for them.

REST OF THE GAMING INDUSTRY - TAKE NOTE

 

[HAz]

 

[Jokester]

Still need the disc in the drive though.

Jokester

 

[HAz]

codemasters seam to have the best copy protecion, in fact its so good hackers and ppl who download the image cba with the hassle u have to go through to play the game, even in the readme it says "just buy the game".

so copy protecion does work, its just the carp ones that most games use dont realy help.

 

[Nikias]

I hope the lack of copy-protection doesn't harm Oblivion's sales.

It would be nice of them to make the next patch not require the DVD as well though...

 

[ScarySquirrel]

I really would like to give my input, but due to the rules i won't.

I think decent copy protection is needed. I can gaurentee you there would be more sales of Oblivion if it couldnt be cracked etc.

With other games however, people just download them to play, a lot probably would never have bought it anyway

 

[mark_t50]

I really would like to give my input, but due to the rules i won't.

I think decent copy protection is needed. I can gaurentee you there would be more sales of Oblivion if it couldnt be cracked etc.

With other games however, people just download them to play, a lot probably would never have bought it anyway

I agree, I think copy protection of some sort is needed. I just hope the makers of Oblivion don't live to regret this.

I bought Oblivion twice (PC + 360) I think it's worth every penny. I personally never touch pirated games, if I want a game I'll buy it. However the sad fact is that a copy is already doing the rounds at my place of work

It makes me angry when I think that games like oblivion are rare and only happen every few years, we need games like this to succeed and make a profit to give developers and publishing firms the incentive to make more original, freeform games rather than the endless Fifa and other paint by numbers games that get made.

 

[nikebee]

Still need the disc in the drive though.

Jokester

at the bottom of the ini file that gets edited for screenshots, there are references to "dvd not being in X drive" etc... not tinkered with it myself though... :-/

i'm sure somebodies patched it though.
only thing is though, if you use a no DVD/CD patch... and a patch from Bethesda comes out fixing bugs in the game, it would remove the no DVD/CD patch wouldn't it??

However, after playing the game and seeing how good it is, £30 is a BARGAIN.

if we're talking PC version here, its only £25... i've noticed prices have gone up since i preordered... they were £19.99 when i first preordered, i got my Collector's Edition for £29.99

 

[drunken fool]

if we're talking PC version here, its only £25... i've noticed prices have gone up since i preordered... they were £19.99 when i first preordered, i got my Collector's Edition for £29.99

I picked up my copy for £19.99 from a high street store

 

[dirtydog]

Still need the disc in the drive though.

Jokester

So it does use copy protection then?

In reply to the OP, it's not a new thing. UT2004 doesn't use copy protection, nor do you need the disc in the drive.

 

[Ugley_Matt]

This seems like a good move for the company and shows that they actually care about their fan base.

IMO copy protection is pretty useless for the following reasons.

The sort of people that download a game from P2P are easily capable of finding a crack or serial to get round any copy protection so it doesnt deter them.

Joe public who is not as computer savvy buys a legit copy and then suffers from the system, eg starforce, or the cd will only play using a certain player etc.

It seems to penalise the honest people, and can turn an honest person into a dishonest (albeit slightly) when they have to circumvent the copy protection in order to use the product they have legitimately bought.

I think Bethedsda realise that they cannot stop people downloading and pirating the game so why cripple it and annoy the good users, seems like a very good thing to me.

 

[Psyk]

So it does use copy protection then?

In reply to the OP, it's not a new thing. UT2004 doesn't use copy protection, nor do you need the disc in the drive.

IIRC you needed the disc until the first patch. Generally copy protection is damage control rather than to outright stop piracy. The aim is to limit piracy as much as possible in the first month or so people who can't wait until a crack is out will just buy it instead. So after the first few months they might as well remove the need for a disc in the drive since if you were going to get it illegally you would do so regardless.

 

[dirtydog]

IIRC you needed the disc until the first patch

Correct. But UT2004 doesn't need piracy protection because the game is useless without a legitimate CD key (at least for online play) and those have not been cracked to this day.

(let me clarify: there are cracked keys to let you install the game, but you can't play online with them so effectively useless)

 

[Dutch Guy]

A lot of people downloading/copying the game wouldn't have bought it anyway, they either succeed in playing a downloaded copy or not play the game at all, it's the same for music.

 

[Psyk]

A lot of people downloading/copying the game wouldn't have bought it anyway, they either succeed in playing a downloaded copy or not play the game at all, it's the same for music.

That's true but a lot of people who download games would buy some of them if downloading wasn't an option. To be honest I think most people who download oblivion would have bought it if they had to.

 

[G.O.A.T]

Too much copy protection on the PC is killing the platform. Oblivion doesn't need a CD key which is good step, hopefully they will make it NOCD with the next patch.

I refuse to buy new any game with starcrap protection (I might buy it second hand, just so long as the devs don't get my money.) This means I can't play GT Legends currently but I guess that's just the way things are.

 

[Drizmod]

A lot of people downloading/copying the game wouldn't have bought it anyway, they either succeed in playing a downloaded copy or not play the game at all, it's the same for music.

That may be the case but there must be a percentage in there that would have bought the game had there been no choice but to buy the game. This is lost revenue. People like me who have paid for the game end up paying for those people. Its not fair.

 

[Steven]

Still need the disc in the drive though.

Jokester

If you can spare the space you could make a disk image, thats what I did...No more annoying dvd drive noise.

 

[Dutch Guy]

That may be the case but there must be a percentage in there that would have bought the game had there been no choice but to buy the game. This is lost revenue. People like me who have paid for the game end up paying for those people. Its not fair.

I'm not saying it is fair, but you also have to remember that with aggressive copy-protection you run the risk of losing even more as there are people that just cannot install the game with some DVD players.

 

[wnb]

Whats the problem with starforce? The only downside to it that i can tell is that it installs drivers which you can't uninstall. I've read ppl who tell horror stories about it but the company who makes starforce has offered $10,000 to the first perosn who can prove starforce is the cause and as of yet no one has collected.