As we speculated earlier, it is now confirmed that the PC version of Mirror’s Edge will have Sony’s SecuROM Digital Rights Management (DRM) software embedded. SecuROM is a controversial DRM system that is hated by many gamers and most consider it to be too much ‘intrusive’. From what it looks like the game will have to be authenticated online before playing.
So how do we know for sure that Mirror’s Edge will have SecuROM? The following is quoted from the Mirror’s Edge download page on EA store (link redirects elsewhere now). Notice the text in bold.
INTERNET CONNECTION, ONLINE AUTHENTICATION AND ACCEPTANCE OF END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT REQUIRED TO PLAY. TO ACCESS ONLINE FEATURES, YOU MUST REGISTER ONLINE WITH THE ENCLOSED SERIAL CODE. ONLY ONE REGISTRATION IS AVAILABLE PER GAME. EA ONLINE TERMS & CONDITIONS AND FEATURE UPDATES CAN BE FOUND AT www.ea.com. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO REGISTER WITH EA ONLINE. THIS GAME USES SECUROM ANTI-PIRACY TECHNOLOGY BY SONY DADC. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SECUROM, VISIT WWW.SECUROM.COM
It is not confirmed which version of SecuROM will be bundled with the game. It is also not known for sure whether the SecuROM PA component (one that enforces online activation) will be included. But judging by EA’s mention of ‘Online Authentication’, I’d bet it’ll be included as well. There have already been several interesting user opinions posted on ‘On-Mirror’s-Edge forums’ regarding the inclusion of SecuROM.
Even with the state of the art DRM components embedded into most PC games in 2008, pirates managed to crack almost all of them, sometimes even before release. Several major EA titles which used SecuROM such as Dead Space, Red Alert 3 and NFS Undercover were among the ones cracked. Warez scene groups such as RELOADED, ViTALITY , RAZOR1911 and non scene individuals such as DarkC0der have previously developed cracks or loaders that either completely removed Securom from the game exe or bypassed it entirely. Who’s to say the same won’t happen in 2009?
Mirror’s Edge is due to be released on the 13th of January. Stay tuned for updates.
