14 DAY TRIAL // Probably game developers have already thought about filling a Blu-Ray disc with anti-piracy protection for a game that has about 900MB, but eventually the game hackers or the game pirates will manage to crack it and offer it on torrent websites. It happened with every big game (just remember the Assassin's Creed PC beta or demo version released quite a while ago) and it will probably never stop. Still, there are some anti-piracy measures that are really funny.
Take Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, the recently released Square Enix game, as an example. According to dsfanboy.com, hackers needed just a few hours to crack the game and make it available via different torrent sites. Or, at least, they thought they managed to hack it.
Because Square Enix came with a really interesting solution which is only visible after you play the game for 20 minutes or so: the message "Thank you for playing!!" appears on the screen and players are unable to progress. However, they can restart from the last check point but the message will appear again, at random intervals. And that is absolutely hilarious: not just that Square Enix slapped and made fun of the hackers, but also found a way to stop piracy - at least partially, because I really doubt that is something those master brains can't hack.
Again, it could prove to be a good marketing strategy, since it is a slim chance that those who get stuck after 20 minutes of playing would feel the need to continue the real game, head to the nearest game store and get the original, as they should've done in the first place. It is indeed something hard to believe - most of them will very likely wait for the new crack but, still, there is a chance. And, most important, this decision Square Enix made for their Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates proves that game developers can still trick the pirates and create some... non-hackable games.