Thank you for being pro-customer

[Mr Evil]

I'm sure everyone here has experienced problems in the past or heard horror stories about copy-protection. Past UT games have been good in this regard, with only a requirement for the disc to be in the drive, and even that requirement being removed in patches. That's still not perfect though, since there is initially an inability to listen to audio CDs while playing, among other problems.

UT3 goes a step further and has no copy protection. I have no doubt that this will have no effect on copyright infringement, since copy protection or no copy protection, it will be available on P2P easily, but most importantly it means exactly zero problems for us, the end-users. Particularly nice for me, since I've been moving towards putting everything on the network rather than on my own PC, including optical drives at some point.

So thanks to Epic, or perhaps it is Midway who bear responsibility for the decision. Anyway, I'm waffling on while I should be playing...

[Hickeroar]

Absolutely 100% agreed. It's great to go from Bioshock...to Gears of War...to THIS.

[Ren78]

Installed, doubleclicked icon,and no problems whatsoever (besides the game starting up in a resolution my Plasma screen can not accept, but a small ini. tweak solved that )

Muchos gracias Epic!

[sekazi]

Their protection is if more than 1 of the same key gets online the key is banned.

Perfect protection for a online multiplayer game.

As for playing music just play with winamp and skip tracks using the media keys on the keyboard.

[Trouble]

Yeah, thanks for this.

[BeerNut]

Indeed... Big thanks to Epic AND Midway (as the publisher definitely has a big vote in how copy-protection goes down).

[Hickeroar]

Their protection is if more than 1 of the same key gets online the key is banned.

Perfect protection for a online multiplayer game.

Yeah. People are ALWAYS going to figure out how to get around copy protection from a single player standpoint, but Epic (or whoever is responsible) realized this and took the pro-consumer stance that they should have.

With all the insane and ridiculous copy protection that Bioshock (and other EA games) have been using there are STILL hacked versions on the torrent sites.

The ONLY system out right now that hasn't had any issues with copy protection is the PS3 and I'd bet that's mainly because of the expense (and relative scarcity) of the bluray discs. Even the 360 has had modded DVD-Rom firmwares that allow players to get around the copy protection. MS has banned many 360s from live as a result. PSP has custom firmwares, the DS has cartridges that allow the use of DS roms, the list goes on and on.

DRM will *NEVER* succeed and the sooner companies get this picture the sooner they can stop punishing the vast majority of people who actually DO pay for their products. Epic has always tried their hardest to get copy protection removed as soon as possible. I remember the moment of realization when UT99's 436 patch came out and everyone rejoiced that the CD check was gone.

[ZDragon]

Yes, this is awesome. Just purely awesome. Big thanks don't only go to Epic, but also to MIDWAY here - because usually the publisher takes care of stuff like copy protections.

Well, it's really easy why they did it, and other people need to see this too: This is an online game. Whoever pirates this will sooner or later either find out that the game's not for him anyway (wouldn't have bought it in the first place!) OR they will go and BUY it so they can play online!

[Podosniper]

I agree 100%. Copy protection does not stop pirates at all, all it does is annoy and **** off the people that actually paid for and supported the game. I'm glad they don't even require the cd for UT3 rather than remove it in a later patch like they usually do. Big thumbs up!

[Hickeroar]

Whoever pirates this will sooner or later either find out that the game's not for him anyway (wouldn't have bought it in the first place!) OR they will go and BUY it so they can play online!

Ya, I'd say overwhelmingly people who steal games would not buy them in the first place if stealing them wasn't possible.

[[YS]Alienz]

Agreed. And I'm sure that the protecton in place now stops people from just going online with p2p copies so its perfect. We end users get the full online glory of UT3 while p2pers get a boring instant action at BEST...

[ILLFINGAZ]

WOW , I just took the DVD out and the game ran without it , very nice very nice. Thanks Epic and Midway for removing that . Now I dont have to worry about the disc getting all scratched up or ruined . Thanks Again.