Yesterday, we reported on a possible online error for Capcom’s Final Fight: Double Impact. Problems being reported that users could not play the PSN title without being connected to PlayStation Network. Unfortunately, this is no error, nor is it an actual problem – because Capcom has done it purposely.
“Nacthenud”, a user on gaming website IGN, shot an email to Capcom complaining on the Final Fight: Double Impact online issue, asking if it was a form of DRM, or a problem of some sort. Thankfully, Capcom responded.
I’ll try to be short. Yes, there is DRM. This was employed to combat the rampant “PSN Sharing” that has been going on over the last year. We’re sorry that your family cannot play the game on their individual accounts (same console). This is a limitation of the Sony network. We are not committed to do this with all titles moving forward but the only way to evaluate impact was to try it with one title first.
To be honest, you could just log in as yourself and allow them to play. I understand there is a principle here, but we would appreciate your understanding of our position while doling out your criticism.
If Capcom has evaluated the impact of game sales for Final Fight: Double Impact, without the use of game sharing, it’ll be interesting to see the outcome. Will future Capcom titles on PlayStation Network use DRM as well? We’ll have to wait and see.
What’s your opinion on all of this? Post below and share!
[UPDATE]
Capcom would like to formally apologize for the issues consumers are having with the PS3 version of Final Fight: Double Impact. Typically, the notification for a required PlayStation Network connection appears in the full game description when a game is downloaded from the PlayStation Store. Unfortunately when populating this content this detail was overlooked and wasn’t included in the versions of the game that released in North America and Asia. It was included in the release for Europe. Capcom should have checked to make sure the notification was included when the final game was made available and we sincerely apologize for this oversight.
The DRM requirements for Final Fight: Double Impact are not unique to this release. This protection mechanism has been implemented in numerous games offered on the PlayStation Store before. When it was brought to our attention that the notification was missing, we acted quickly with Sony Computer Entertainment America and a fix is on the Way.
We would like to thank our vigilant fans for bringing this to our attention and we will exercise better scrutiny on future Capcom releases.
[Source]
