Gears of War PC digital certificate expires, kills the game
by Sam Naylor on January 29, 2009 at 10:27 am
Users on the Gears of War official forums are reporting that the digital certificates for the game have expired, as of 28th January 2009. This means that the game will not launch at a system date post-28th Jan. Obviously, this is awful news for those people who enjoy playing the game on the PC, since unless they keep their system date before the 28th, they cannot play the game.
This is what all the fuss about DRM (Digital Rights Management) is about; people who bought this game are essentially not allowed to play it. Ironically, the people who pirated the game, who the DRM is supposedly trying to stop, won’t be affected by this. The more that stuff like this happens due to DRM, the more the games are going to be pirated- only the customers are being punished. Anyway- bad show on Epic’s part; this needs to be fixed.
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on January 29, 2009 5:46 pm
Wow! What a bunch of B.S.!
on January 29, 2009 6:03 pm
That’s what happens when you play a game on the wrong system o_O
on January 30, 2009 12:41 am
The Wrong System? Hahahahaha, Pc is far more powerful then the Crapbox and shitstation
on January 30, 2009 1:56 am
Epic Fail!
on January 30, 2009 8:03 am
You said it, K_L, “EPIC (Games) Fail”…
on January 30, 2009 12:33 pm
“That’s what happens when you play a game on the wrong system o_O”
And what exactly is that supposed to mean?
on January 30, 2009 12:43 pm
Handbags, guys. Handbags.
on January 30, 2009 12:45 pm
Gears is a 360 game, not a pc game. And I’d much rather take my crapbox or whatever you said it was over a DRM infested, windows running virus having PC, thanks though.
on January 30, 2009 2:39 pm
I don’t know, pc games are visually more stunning but consoles are just so user friendly. That’s my take anyway. Trust me though, if my wife would allow it, I would take a pimped out alienware ALS X58 system over an xbox 360 or ps3 anyday!
on February 1, 2009 9:45 pm
I just bought Gears of War for my fiance on his birthday. That being on January 31st. He just tried to install it and yup, that message popped up. After spending over 3 hours trying to figure it out, I told him I would try and he went to bed. So I googled and this is what I’ve found. The problem have better be fixed soon, for if not Futur Shop will have a very angry customer on their hands when they refuse to refund me ’cause the game has been opened.
on February 2, 2009 12:21 am
Vicky F:
First thing to do is to set your system date back a few days, as a temporary fix. This will let you play the game. In the meantime, Epic will release a fix/workaround for the issue.
on February 2, 2009 4:15 am
Actually, this is not a DRM issue. It’s an issue with the digital signature verification. The digital signature is used to make sure that gamers haven’t altered their game to give them unfair advantages against other online players (stuff like being able to see through walls). In effect, the digital signature is used to make sure that online players have a good experience playing online - rather than being continually killed by other players who have hacked their copy of the game.
on February 3, 2009 5:48 pm
I would say that revoking the right to play the game, if the game is in any way hacked, is indeed a benign form of ‘DRM’. I suspect that this is an attempt to slow down circumvention of more malevolent DRM’ (e.g. phoning home, blacklisting programs etc).