SecuROM
| Basic Information | |
|---|---|
| Release Year | 1998 |
| Product Type | Digital rights management |
| In Production | No |
| Official Website | https://support.securom.com/index.html |
SecuROM is a digital rights management (DRM) system developed by Sony for PC games and first released in 1998.[1] Historically, SecuROM is well known for being the most agitating form of DRM of the 2000s, and its inclusion within Electronic Arts' Spore has led to the game retaining its position as the most pirated game to-date.[2] SecuROM stopped being supported by Sony quietly some time after 2017, the release date of the last SecuROM-protected title, Onyx. In 2014, SecuROM was succeeded by a newer DRM system, Denuvo, through a management buyout of its developer.
Consumer impact summary
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General problems
[edit | edit source]Optical-drive bugs
[edit | edit source]Various releases of Secu-ROM have been known to sometimes struggle to even detect legitimate copies of games inside users' disc drives.[3] Additionally, some optical drive models were simply incompatible with SecuROM.[3]
Explicit Congestion Notification
[edit | edit source]Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN), a feature seen on Windows Vista which helped users with still connecting online with large networks, was required to be turned off because of how SecuROM functioned.[4]
Software conflicts
[edit | edit source]SecuROM also fought multiple other pieces of software,[3] one of which being Process Explorer.[5]
Installation limits
[edit | edit source]Users who owned SecuROM-protected games would often be allotted a limited number of times that they can install their games. EA's Spore had a limit of 3 installs (raised to 5), Bioshock had 2 (raised to 5, before being removed) and would even limit installs per user on the same device,[6][7] and Mass Effect had 3, but uninstallations would not increase the number of installs unlike other SecuROM titles.
Degradation
[edit | edit source]Because of the security features introduced by Microsoft to Windows 10 and later, many older SecuROM titles cannot function on modern hardware without cracking or other means of circumvention.[8]
Incidents
[edit | edit source]This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents related to this product line. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the SecuROM category.
| Game | Release year | Notable effects | Relevant article |
|---|---|---|---|
| BioShock | 2007 | Users were limited to 2 installs of the game, and had to call in to be allowed further installs. It was raised soon to 5 after a misprint of a phone number in a manual,[citation needed] and eventually the limit discontinued in 2008, however it took much longer before editions of BioShock would be officially released without SecuROM. | |
| Mass Effect | 2007 | Mass Effect was the first SecuROM game known to not refund installations for users, and also required that the game installation to be verified every 10 days.[9] | |
| Spore | 2008 | The application of SecuROM in Spore left the program trapped under always-online DRM,[10] which in the 2000s was costly for anyone's internet bills. The popularity of this game, mixed in with its pre-emptive cracking, and DRM led to the title holding the record as the most pirated video game for years.[2] Additionally, there were lawsuits that formed over the implementation of SecuROM inside Spore.[11] | |
| Tron: Evolution | 2010 | Towards the tail-end of SecuROM's usage in 2019, Disney decided to terminate their license, thus leading to all legitimate copies of Tron: Evolution to be unplayable, and the game was subsequently pulled from digital software vendors.[12] Disney claims to be currently updating the game to not have SecuROM, however after nearly six years since its termination, there has been no new updates upon whether the game will re-release | |
| Final Fantasy VII (PC, re-release) | 2012 | The distribution of the re-release of FF7 for PCs caught users off guard when Square Enix distributed this version with SecuROM, and on release, servers were inaccessible, so users could not verify their licenses until much later.[13] |
See also
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References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ "SecuROM". PCGamingWiki. Archived from the original on 2 May 2025. Retrieved 8 Mar 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Van der Sar, Ernesto (13 Sep 2008). "Spore: Most Pirated Game Ever Thanks to DRM". torrentfreak. Archived from the original on 14 Sep 2008. Retrieved 8 Mar 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Copy Protection & DRM". TweakGuides. Archived from the original on 5 Nov 2019.
- ↑ Gladstone, Darren (12 Sep 2008). "Casual Friday: Why Spore Won't Work". PC World. Archived from the original on 28 Nov 2021. Retrieved 8 Mar 2026.
- ↑ Spikeles (17 Mar 2007). "Securom blacklisted ProcessExplorer". Windows Sysinternals. Archived from the original on 3 Mar 2016.
- ↑ Chan, Leo (5 Sep 2007). "One copy of BioShock per family (member)?". NeoSeeker. Archived from the original on 3 Sep 2014. Retrieved 8 Mar 2026.
- ↑ malloc (5 Sep 2005). "2K: Tell your brother to buy his own Bioshock, you didn't buy it for the whole family". MaxConsole. Archived from the original on 13 Oct 2007.
- ↑ "SecuROM". LegoIsland. Archived from the original on 5 Mar 2025. Retrieved 8 Mar 2026.
- ↑ Breckon, Nick (9 May 2008). "Electronic Arts Responds to Copy Protection Outcry, Removes 10-day SecuROM Check for the Troops". Shack News. Archived from the original on 14 Jun 2011. Retrieved 8 Mar 2026.
- ↑ Modern Vintage Gamer (25 Nov 2019). "SecuROM - The PC CD-ROM DRM that broke games | MVG". YouTube. Archived from the original on 17 Jan 2025. Retrieved 16 Mar 2025.
- ↑ "Class Action Complaint" (PDF). Courthouse News. 22 Sep 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 Jun 2016.
- ↑ Geigner, Timothy (6 Dec 2019). "Disney's Decision Not To Renew SecuROM License Bricks 'Tron: Evolution'". techdirt. Archived from the original on 7 Mar 2022. Retrieved 16 Mar 2025.
- ↑ Fletcher, JC (5 Aug 2012). "Final Fantasy VII PC released early, then pulled". Joystiq. Archived from the original on 8 Aug 2012.