14 DAY TRIAL // Dragon Age: Origins will not feature SecuROM protection, which means that it will not need to “phone home” in order to be authenticated if you intend to play the game offline. The measure is a gesture of good will on the part of BioWare and Electronic Arts, maybe in compensation for the fact that the PC version of the game has been delayed to be released together with the console version.
Chris Priestly, who is the community manager at BioWare, stated that “We're happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. In other words, the retail PC version of the game won't require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play. We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by Electronic Arts or BioWare.”
It seems that the customer backlash that resulted from the very DRM heavy approach taken by Electronic Arts for Spore, which was released late in 2008, has persuaded some publishers and developers to ship their games with less restrictions. One reason might be the fact that legitimate players seem to be the most affected by strong DRM, while those who pirate the videogames can often bypass the strongest protection measures in just a few days.
The charm offensive that BioWare is conducting in relation to Dragon Age: Origins continues with the announcement that the developer has entered into an agreement with Green Ronin Publishing aimed at creating and launching a pen and paper role playing game based on the world and the mechanics of the videogame. It's quite the reversal, considering that fact that many of the videogames RPGs are based on Dungeons & Dragons, which was initially just pen and paper. The pen and paper Dragon Age game will be available in summer 2009 as a boxed set and other materials will be published afterwards.