Encryption chip will end PC game piracy...

[TQ]

Read all about it...

Be nice if it was true and if there are no unpleasant side effects...

[yamawho]

Maybe we should start a pool on this one.

Title: How long before it's cracked ?

[SupDawg]

Yeah... there will be a workaround. I can see it now. Someone posting instructions on how to disable the chip.

[polymorphic]

LOL!

I just had a good laugh at this article. Arrogance can only get you so far until you end up behind the pirates again. First of all, why brag about it? Keep it S-E-C-R-E-T for goodness sake! Secondly, we all know from experience that absolutely, positively, undeniably nothing is uncrackable -- including Vista's full proof activation scheme. Lastly, if this is why games are still $50 a pop, why not end the millions of dollars in anti-piracy R&D and give me well made games via download for $35 and sell the same thing to Asian/Indian markets for $10 or less???

Good lord. All this will wind up accomplishing is raising the price of games and hardware for Westerners while boosting Asian/Indian sales by 0%. Please. The hardware will be cracked before it's fully implemented!

[traveler]

Does that mean I won't have to activate Windows 2010???

[k0NG0]

The TPM is nothing new. We've had a thread on that subject for years.

And security through obscurity isn't security at all. So keeping it a secret does exactly nothing.

[zapionics<alt>]

Encryption chip will end PC game piracy...

[Cogar]

I can't believe that someone is actually willing to put such a statement in print.

The TPM will, in fact, absolutely stop piracy of gameplay.

Let me say that I am all for stopping piracy, but there are entire nations full of people dedicated to circumventing things like this. If the piracy rate is really as high as they say it is (I have heard that it is over 90% worldwide for PC games--most of that taking place outside of the United States), why not drop the price to a point where buying something besides the real deal is no longer worthwhile? I bet that they could drop price drastically in places like India and China and make more money there than they are making now, which is essentially zero. Yes, you probably still need some kind of copy protection, but only to avoid casual copying. They will not stop the professionals in other countries who make their living by bootlegging games.

[Gorganzola]

Let's see, you put the device that does the encryption in peoples hands so they can figure out how it works and how it reacts when something goes in and then comes out. Oh wait, let's see, DVD did that, Blu-Ray did that, HD-DVD did that, umm ..., any other copy protection algorithm to date did that.

Sorry, not buying into this one either.

[polonyc2]

too many smart people in the world, that's the problem...we need to raise some more dummies, that would end all this piracy crap

[SpeedDMN]

Originally Posted by polonyc2

too many smart people in the world, that's the problem...we need to raise some more dummies, that would end all this piracy crap

I wouldn't worry. the days of "Idiocracy" are right around the corner If they are actually stupid enough to waste money on this new "chip" I give it a week on the outside before it's cracked. I can see some hackers now wringing their hands in anticipation for the fun new project and the chance to be the first to beat it.

[WhiteEclipse]

What is funny is that in theory consoles prevent piracy through hardware. It works to some extent, but is broken too.

GTA IV was on the internet days before its release, and it is not on the PC(yet).

[SpeedDMN]

I don't know about PS3, but PS2 is easy to defeat. You can download an image and burn it that fools it somehow. Then, you have to open the cd drawer with a plastic tool that is fairly easy to make (if you eject it normally it wont work) then you put in what ever game you downloaded and off you go. Geez there hasn't been any game on any platform that I even want to bother to get for free lately. Where's HL2 EP3? Project Origin?

[WhiteEclipse]

OK, I should not enjoy this. But apparently the xbox360 version of Alone in The Dark was on the internet several days before its release. Ready to be downloaded and played.

This just proves that even a chip will be defeated. And when pirates have had their way with the PC, they will start moving more and more to consoles.

[traveler]

Let's see ... I think I heard that games sell two copies for the xbox for every one copy sold for the pc. If I were I pirate, I'd go for selling pirated versions of xbox games along with the instructions for the hardware crack for them. Soon everyone will be using burned disks for their xbox games.

And that's great news for PC gamers. As soon as the pirates have their way with the xbox and playstation, then games will migrate towards the PC with STEAM style or similiar control. You can't download games to a console so effectivly as to a PC.