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Second Penny Arcade Game Due Out This Week
Hothead Games has announced that the second episode of the Penny Arcade: On the Rain-slick Precipice of Darkness series is coming out this Wednesday, and they've released a trailer showing off some of the gameplay. ACG has an interview with Hothead's Joel DeYoung discussing the series and explaining some of the decision-making that went into its development. The game will launch for Linux, Mac, PC, and Xbox Live, with a PS3 version coming later. Feedback from players of the first game in the series inspired a $5 decrease in price this time around.
I would imagine it would follow the last release, but I'm not sure anyone really knows.
The last release was available in two forms, that I know of:
- Xbox Live Arcade. The strictest DRM possible (they lock down your entire system and pretend it's an appliance (console) rather than a computer), but it generally works. It's not like you'll be running into "You're not allowed to have this program installed" bullshit with this.
- Greenhouse, their own digital distribution system. Light DRM, somewhat less than Windows XP -- when first installed, or when there's a significant hardware change, it phones home. Unlike XP, this "phoning home" doesn't force you to call someone in India and insist that it's the same computer -- you can install it as many times as you like. But they do reserve the right to notice if you're installing it on a few thousand of your best friends' systems, and disable your key in that event.
So no, not DRM-free, but what I would call an acceptable level of DRM. For example, it's not exactly going to refuse to run because Daemontools is installed.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
It was also available on Steam. Other than the Steam platform, no other DRM was included.
I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
Just to point out that the makers of this game, pennyarcade and whoever else, the DRM of XBLA was beyond their control. They never said "let's put DRM into the XBLA version." My impression is that microsoft puts it automatically on everything. I would wager that even the stuff that is free is technically locked to one console.
But you have to be clear that the game shouldn't be dinged points because it has XBLA "DRM." It's not a choice in that case.
I blatantly stole it from Bruce Schneier.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
I would wager that even the stuff that is free is technically locked to one console.
Correct. Everything you download to a 360, free or not, is locked to your console and gamertag. I imagine this makes it harder since you can't compare a DRM'd file with an unDRM'd file.
"We need to get over this notion, that, for Apple to win... Microsoft must lose." - Steve Jobs, 1997