Well, as the article said, Capcom in their infinite wisdom delusion decided to retroactively add DRM to what seems to be their entire PC portfolio. We’re talking about titles that are 10+ years old.
Rumours have it that this is some sort of crackdown on mods (more spicy rumours involve some thirsty gonk having a nude Chun Li mod active at an official Capcom sponsored event). The main issues are that it’s a) shovelware quality level DRM from a dodgy-looking developer which sends your friendly local antivirus into a tizzy and screws performance and b) it breaks mods as intended, which for quite a few pc titles (like, say, Monster Hunter World) is a dealbreaker for many folks.
It also prevents usage of cheat engine, which, due to shoddy programming on Capcom’s side, can be used to obtain the sort of stuff that Capcom would very much like to sell as DLC. Red Balls and Rift Crystals and character visual reset tokens, for example.
Given the shoddy programming and virus warnings, I fear it could also do a lot more interesting things, but quite frankly, I’m not giving them the benefit of the doubt and install that crap.
Seeing that the total DLC for a game like Monster Hunter Worlds totals a quaint 541.22 € (593.72 US-$) worth of mostly useless shit, I wish them the best of luck with their future endeavours and henceforth put them on the same list where I keep EA, Ubisoft and Activision-Blizzard.
That’s the one labeled “No money for you tossers”.
I suggest uninstalling and doublechecking for spicy residue after rebooting. Theoretically the DRM should be contained within the game files, but given the above it seems it’s so shoddily programmed that no one can be sure if it’s just incompetence or actual malware.
Someone sent me this post earlier refuting the changes. Personally I’m not playing anything by Capcom at the moment so I’ll wait until everyone figures out what’s actually going on.
My guess is that stuff was added way back when, nobody was playing and then suddenly everyone notices games aren’t working. It happened with Lost Planet 2 here a few months ago, and getting it to work was really maddening.
But as the person says, enigma is just a wrapper: the shitty gift inside is Capcom’s own work.
Like Uplay’s PC nightmares, the best workaround seems to be playing the console versions, which is probably the goal of it all.
At least there is progress on Capcom’s policies: they reverted the Rev.1 patch, instead of pulling the game from the store like Lost Planet 2!
According to someone on the Steam forums, the following titles currently have Enigma DRM
Capcom Arcade Stadium
Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol1
Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection Vol2
Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection
Resident Evil 5
Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection
Strider (x64 exe file)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective
Again, as we live in a post-truth society, take that info with a grain of salt. What is certain is that Capcom does retroactively apply a shoddy DRM to their games. Whether they found it in a trash can or wrote it themselves is of little concern - it’s still awful, inpacts performance negatively, and adds nothing of value for their customers.
Awwwww, but those are my favourites. Particularly those that upset the public order.
Deck compatibility did get fixed soon after, and mods were broken for an even lesser amount of time. So I certainly agree, but this wasn’t all out doomsday yet.
