Originally Posted by Kalyx triaD (Post 3491643)

Everybody will be able to play together - the AE rebalance is free. What the buyers get are new replay features and the four new characters. Whether you have DLC or disc you can play against people with the update.

Originally Posted by D Mac (Post 3497720)

Mortal Kombat just ripped this shits head off.

Originally Posted by Funky Fly (Post 3498014)

Nigga, are you 12?

Anyway, I'm not shitting on Mortal Kombat. The series has a goodish (some parts are fucking stupid) story which is surprisingly well developed for a fighter and has been reasonably fun since it hit the PS2. The problem is that multiplayer is ass because the games are not balanced. Some characters have a beastly set of moves and others are just kinda target practice dummies. I just would like them to focus more on gameplay (like they did this iteration) and less on "look at how much blood shoots out of his nose lol". Potential's always been there, but it's taken too long for the series to come this far.

Originally Posted by Sven, CapUnity

I understand there's some very strong opinions here and around the net.

Let me ask a few questions of the users here and perhaps we can come to a better solution for all folks involved. What I'm proposing is a constructive dialog and I'll take this feedback back to the team.

But first some ground rules for this discussion to be constructive:

Any posts dealing with complaints about GFWL will be summarily ignored and/or deleted depending upon the language used. That is a non-negotiable point at this point in development and it's not constructive to make that an issue. We have used GFWL with no problems on several releases and it works great on SSFIV:AE.

Any posts outright dismissing the need for DRM of some form are also not feasible, especially given the history with SFIV. Sorry, but that's another reality in which we live. Blizzard and Valve both use DRM in their games... and when they do have offline forms, they have reduced functionality/features. This is not new or exclusive in any way to Capcom.

Now, that said, it is in no way our intention to punish legitimate users. That's definitely not the purpose here. It is to attempt to ensure that our content is only enjoyed fully by legitimate users.

Question 1: Without using a secure network authentication mechanism of some kind (SSA, Steam CEG, Impulse GOO, SecuROAM, etc.) how can we validate that a copy is legitimate versus pirated?

Question 2: If it isn't what we've proposed, what form of limitations would be acceptable in the event that there in a "non trusted" mode, assuming that it can be secured?

Question 3: If there were a network validated install and we put in an offline mode that would allow you to have funtionality for some period of time, but require revalidation on a frequent interval, would that be acceptable?

Question 4: There seems to be a lot of supposition that the pirates will instantly crack whatever protections we put in place. One never knows, that could well be true. Personally, I'm not quite as defeatist. One at least has to try. Now, if we promised to "sunset" those protections in the event of a crack being created so that legitimate users don't have a substandard experience to pirates, is that an acceptable solution?

Happy to hear any other proposed solutions that could work and I'll see what we can do with the team.