Talos Principle Traps Pirating Gamers in An Elevator

[steven36]

The developers of "The Talos Principle" have come up with a nifty punishment for those playing pirated versions of the game. Instead of preventing the game from running, players are locked in a virtual elevator. Apparently the measure is having the desired effect, as some pirates are rushing to the store to buy a legit copy in order to finish the game.

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Every day hundreds of thousands of games are downloaded from various torrent sites. While it can be quite a challenge to get a pirated game working, most will play just fine.

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The same is true for Croteam’s latest release The Talos Principle. A few days ago a pirated copy of the puzzle title surfaced online which initially appeared to work as a regular game.

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However, the fun didn’t last long as the developers had previously embedded a feature that traps free-riding pirates in a virtual elevator.

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“When I unlocked the 2nd floor on the tower, all the elevators have stopped working. Whenever I want to get somewhere, it just stops in the middle of the way and I can’t do anything,” J.K. wrote on the Steam forums.

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The measure had many pirates puzzled, but in a thread on Neogaf the purpose of the “bug” soon came to light.

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While bugs in “cracked” games are a regular occurrence, in this case it’s clearly an intentional anti-piracy measure. As can be seen below, the QR code visible in the elevator clearly references the scene release group SKIDROW, who are responsible for many pirated game copies.

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Croteam acknowledged the feature on social media by retweeting a mention of the puzzled Steam user, which must have been good for a few laughs among the developers.

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Even more so, it probably led to a few extra sales as well. Apparently some pirates were hooked enough to get a legit copy of the game on Steam, to continue playing without any hassles.

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“I hit the bug where the elevators stopped working correctly, so I bought the game on Steam and was able to import my save,” an anonymous user wrote on a popular torrent site, adding that it’s been worth the money.

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“I did lose some progress, possibly a side effect of the elevator bug, but I was able to get back to where I was pretty quickly. I just finished the game (one ending, at least) and it was totally worth the purchase price.”

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So the developers managed to punish pirates and get paid. That’s a pretty good outcome to say the least.

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As Kotaku mentions, this isn’t the first time that Croteam has come up with a rather creative form of DRM. Three years ago the developers added an invincible scorpion to Serious Sam, making it impossible for pirates to progress.

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​Source: https://torrentfreak.com/talos-principle-traps-pirating-gamers-elevator-141230/

[VileTouch]

meh, lame crack

[Ryrynz]

Can't freeload everything you know.

[VileTouch]

Can't freeload everything you know.

no, actually you can, if the person making the crack even cared.

see prince of persia the lost sands. they added check on the doors and every single cutscene to see if you're running a legit copy, making load screens at least 30% longer for EVERYONE, and if you happen to fail the check for any reason, like your connection dropped, then you would be trapped in that level.

what did the cracker do? (Skidrow i think) removed the checks of course!, with the added benefit of reducing load times to almost nil. as it is, the cracked version is BETTER than the legit one just for that.

if you feel bad about the developer not getting your hard-earned, you can go ahead and buy a copy if it makes you feel better. but that doesn't change the fact that getting rid of DRM garbage makes the world a better place.

[DKT27]

First of all, I cannot find SKIDROW release on this. All I find is P2P releases and a couple of scene releases for Unix based OSs.

Now, as far as the so called bug is concerned, I read a comment for this:

Already fixed by putting the game files to Steam\steamapps\common\The Talos Principle\

The joke is on them.

So this does seem to have been bypassed as far as the P2P releases are concerned. However, if a scene group is trying to make a fix for it, they will take this into account. Or even better, if a scene group has already released a release, there should be another release that fixes this.

[VileTouch]

First of all, I cannot find SKIDROW release on this. All I find is P2P releases and a couple of scene releases for Unix based OSs.

oh, sorry, i mentioned SKIDROW in the context of the Prince of Persia similar issue.

[x3r0]

The crackers are sam2k8 along with steam006 from cs.rin.ru (for Windows). The game indeed has huge type of checks, ranging from CPUID to in-game. Removing in-game is one of the most tedious thing to do, since they're only occurred in specific area.

[DKT27]

First of all, I cannot find SKIDROW release on this. All I find is P2P releases and a couple of scene releases for Unix based OSs.

oh, sorry, i mentioned SKIDROW in the context of the Prince of Persia similar issue.

I know. I was referring to the article mentioning it. My mistake though, it's not saying that SKIDROW has released it, instead, it is saying that the devs have put an QR code in the game, which if one hovers to, will find the scene group's name on it. Meaning the devs were expecting the group to release it, but it looks like they have not yet.

The crackers are sam2k8 along with steam006 from cs.rin.ru (for Windows). The game indeed has huge type of checks, ranging from CPUID to in-game. Removing in-game is one of the most tedious thing to do, since they're only occurred in specific area.

Agreed. This CPU check is a big one too. A person needs specific exe file made specifically for that CPU model in order to run the game.

I personally was thinking about this game, but not until a scene group comes out with a proper and easy to use release.

One thing is for sure though, this game is a real puzzle. Puzzle for players, puzzle gameplay and if that's not enough, a puzzle for fixers and pirates as well. :P

[Ryrynz]

Can't freeload everything you know.

no, actually you can, if the person making the crack even cared.

if you feel bad about the developer not getting your hard-earned, you can go ahead and buy a copy if it makes you feel better. but that doesn't change the fact that getting rid of DRM garbage makes the world a better place.

It's not about caring, they missed it, which is what it is. And no you can't freeload everything, because it's just not possible. Sure a proper crack will be released but designers should counteract

this wherever possible. You scoff at the cracker, but it's actually good protection from the manufacturer to protect themselves from a world full of freeloaders, this often times gives them sales so it

makes sense.

If you created something would you be fine with people taking it because they could? Not that they don't have the money for you to be compensated

but just because.. fuck you? That's not to say they may have already achieved profits well beyond their costs.. that's another issue entirely (one I'm not happy with as the economy is set up for greed)

But TBH if their price is fair then it's a fair system, perhaps I should take something from you in exchange for nothing then maybe then you might think differently.. but then that just depends on how smart and caring you are really..

Scoffing at methods used to prevent thievery just shows you for what you are. You could always consider a life of breaking and entering.

[VileTouch]

Can't freeload everything you know.

no, actually you can, if the person making the crack even cared.

if you feel bad about the developer not getting your hard-earned, you can go ahead and buy a copy if it makes you feel better. but that doesn't change the fact that getting rid of DRM garbage makes the world a better place.

It's not about caring, they missed it, which is what it is. And no you can't freeload everything, because it's just not possible. Sure a proper crack will be released but designers should counteract

this wherever possible. You scoff at the cracker, but it's actually good protection from the manufacturer to protect themselves from a world full of freeloaders, this often times gives them sales so it

makes sense.

If you created something would you be fine with people taking it because they could? Not that they don't have the money for you to be compensated

but just because.. fuck you? That's not to say they may have already achieved profits well beyond their costs.. that's another issue entirely (one I'm not happy with as the economy is set up for greed)

But TBH if their price is fair then it's a fair system, perhaps I should take something from you in exchange for nothing then maybe then you might think differently.. but then that just depends on how smart and caring you are really..

Scoffing at methods used to prevent thievery just shows you for what you are. You could always consider a life of breaking and entering.

whatever you say, sweetheart.

If you created something would you be fine with people taking it because they could?

absolutely!

I remember when sharing used to be caring... now it's a crime.

however, your use of the world "freeloaders" makes me think you're not used to getting anything for free. what i fail to comprehend is how other people getting "free" the same thing you paid for, bothers you? (...that was an awkward construct, i might rephrase it later on)

i would comment on your use of "thievery" but i already typed more than i really wanted to.