No one likes DRM. Legitimate players hate that its always-online, verify-your-retinal-scan, apply-3-pints-of-blood mechanisms are overbearing and, in a sense, punish them for not pirating the game. Pirates hate that it can make pirating a hassle. And crackers are inconvenienced by the extra three seconds it takes to disable most DRM. Serious Sam 3 BFE has found an interesting way around this by utilizing a unique DRM system in the form of a giant, invincible, pink scorpion enemy. Pirates will find themselves harried by the beast from the outset of the game and will presumably get frustrated and go get a real copy.
The real question is: how long will it be before a really bizarre subculture comes up around this? I mean, it’s just asking for it. Pink scorpion speed runs, pink scorpion glitching, pink scorpion survival challenges, the possibilities are endless. Well, that’s probably not true, but I would totally try a pink scorpion speed run if I was any good at Serious Sam, which I am not. Check out the video below to see this guy in action. He looks annoying, but I’ll bet you could totally avoid him for the most part if you tried, unless there’s some sort of checkpoint where he’ll get you no matter what. See? You want to pirate Serious Sam 3 BFE to find out now, don’t you?
(via Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
- Earthbound had a similar but far more nefarious variety of this kind of DRM
- Giant pink scorpions totally beat SOPA
