Software piracy has been the bane of videogame development for a long, long time, especially for PC developers. But it’s not very often when a game studio resorts to hidden piracy protection rather than activation codes or shoddy DRM, which makes Batman: Arkham Asylum a classic example of programming brilliance.
On the Eidos forums, a user by the name of Cheshirec_the_cat announced a problem he was having with the game, which he apparently downloaded for free. Let’s just say Eidos’s response is absolutely hilarious.
Cheshirec_the_cat (The Pirater):
“Hi!
I’ve got a problem when it’s time to use Batman’s glide in the game. When I hold , like it’s said to jump from one platform to another, Batman tries to open his wings again and again instead of gliding. So he fels down in a poisoning gas. If somebody could tel me, what should I do there.”
Keir (Eidos Admin):
“The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free.
It’s not a bug in the game’s code, it’s a bug in your moral code.”
