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Square Enix Reverses Course on 'Deus Ex' Anti-Jailbreak Code

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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Yesterday it was reported that users who purchased the new game Deus Ex: The Fall were unable to properly play the game on jailbroken devices because of an anti-piracy measure. Users were prevented from firing any guns, a key part of the game.

Today, Square Enix has apologized for not properly communicating that the game would not work on jailbroken devices and has announced that it will rectify the issue in a future software update, Eurogamer reports.

deusexjailbreak.jpg
Publisher Square Enix issued this statement:
We have not been clear in our communication earlier this week when we launched Deus Ex: The Fall. We did not state clearly that the game would not support jailbroken devices and so we will be switching this off via an update, so that all the supported iOS devices will be able to play the game in the near future.

We feel it's the right thing to do in this situation and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. No customer should be out of pocket when we were not clear from the start, so we'll get the game updated as soon as possible so that everyone who wants to play Deus Ex: The Fall can do regardless of whether their device is jailbroken or not. As soon as this update is live we will communicate this via the Eidos Montreal Community channels.
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Article Link: Square Enix Reverses Course on 'Deus Ex' Anti-Jailbreak Code
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2013/07/12/square-enix-reverses-course-on-deus-ex-anti-jailbreak-code/
adcx64

adcx64

macrumors 65816
Nov 17, 2008
1,270
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I dont understand why companies do this, as long as they are getting the money for the app. Can someone fill me in on how this works anyway?
 
Michael Goff

Michael Goff

Suspended
Jul 5, 2012
13,329
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adcx64 said:
I dont understand why companies do this, as long as they are getting the money for the app. Can someone fill me in on how this works anyway?
Click to expand...

The idea was to try to stop people from being able to side-load the app when a person hasn't paid for it... you know, theft.
 
pgiguere1

pgiguere1

macrumors 68020
May 28, 2009
2,167
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Montreal, Canada
This fits well with my previous theory:

pgiguere1 said:
I don't get this. How is it helping Eidos at all?

  1. Those who have jailbroken iPhones but planned to buy the game will not = lost sales.
  2. Those who have jailbroken iPhones and planned to pirate the game will not = no consequence on sales.
  3. Some Deus Ex fans who planned to buy it may remove their jailbreak just to buy it = no consequence on sales.
  4. Some Deus Ex fans who planned to pirate it may remove their jailbreak just to buy it = sales gain.

Basically, case 2 and 3 have no effect and the number of people from case 1 is undoubtely significantly higher than those in case 4. Which means the overall result is lost sales.

My guess is that they're doing it for free publicity, so that their game gets mentionned on tech websites (see, it worked here). I see no other logical explanation.
Click to expand...

Now that they've had the free publicity (twice), they want to avoid the lost sales.

Makes sense.
 
T

tempusfugit

macrumors 65816
May 21, 2009
1,112
1
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Pretty sure the vast majority of app piracy was coming from installous, which got shut down.

Targeting every jail broken device with this kind of stuff is imprudent and juvenile. A lot of us jailbroken iPhone users are just your average Joe's when it comes to buying apps. I'd say I spend way more than the average on apps.
 
K

komodrone

macrumors 6502
Apr 26, 2011
499
0
adcx64 said:
I dont understand why companies do this, as long as they are getting the money for the app. Can someone fill me in on how this works anyway?
Click to expand...

jailbroken iphones can download and play the game illegally.

EDIT
-----
and apparently several people on macrumors misinterpret my answer for "OMG komodrone thinks all people that jailbreak their iPhones are pirates". frustrating. I'M JUST ANSWERING THE QUESTION.
 
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C

cmwade77

macrumors 65816
Nov 18, 2008
1,071
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Michael Goff said:
The idea was to try to stop people from being able to side-load the app when a person hasn't paid for it... you know, theft.
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There are many ways they can accomplish this without restoring to these kinds of tactics.

That being said, this comes too little, too late, I will not buy any of their games. The kind of mentality that has to exist to enact this in the first place demonstrates that the company does not really care about it's users.
 
cclloyd

cclloyd

macrumors 68000
Oct 26, 2011
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Alpha Centauri A
They realized that too many people were asking for returns. If they are asking for a return that means they actually bought the game. Then they realized "Wait, the jailbreakers are actually buying our game".
 
M

mike...

macrumors 6502
Oct 9, 2008
381
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komodrone said:
jailbroken iphones can download and play the game illegally.
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Yeah well PCs and Macs can download and play games illegally. That doesn't stop people making games for them! To assume that all jailbreakers are pirates is completely wrong.
 
Mr Fusion

Mr Fusion

macrumors 6502a
May 7, 2007
841
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Michael Goff said:
The idea was to try to stop people from being able to side-load the app when a person hasn't paid for it... you know, theft.
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Bad idea.

I'm not suggesting I have the right answer, but I know a wrong one when I see it and apparently so does the dev.
 
T

thasan

macrumors 65816
Oct 19, 2007
1,104
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Germany
cmwade77 said:
There are many ways they can accomplish this without restoring to these kinds of tactics.

That being said, this comes too little, too late, I will not buy any of their games. The kind of mentality that has to exist to enact this in the first place demonstrates that the company does not really care about it's users.
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lol...users who wants to steal? :confused:
wahahahah.
i dont play this game but i fully support this myself.
if they dont block, they should at least have a notice before the game starts
 
bassfingers

bassfingers

macrumors 6502
Nov 15, 2010
410
0
cmwade77 said:
There are many ways they can accomplish this without restoring to these kinds of tactics.

That being said, this comes too little, too late, I will not buy any of their games. The kind of mentality that has to exist to enact this in the first place demonstrates that the company does not really care about it's users.
Click to expand...

Wow, chill
 
Plutonius

Plutonius

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2003
9,032
8,404
New Hampshire, USA
mike... said:
Yeah well PCs and Macs can download and play games illegally. That doesn't stop people making games for them! To assume that all jailbreakers are pirates is completely wrong.
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Most people who jailbreak do not jailbreak to pirate. I do believe though that most people who jailbreak do end up with pirated software on their devices.
 
5

5590982

macrumors member
Jul 12, 2013
97
106
Free publicity worked here

I'm quite a Deus Ex fan and I had no idea that this iOS game was coming out at all until I saw this very story right here.

I'm now searching it out to buy on my (non-Jailbroken) iPhone so if it was a stunt, it's worked at least once.
 
Ishayu

Ishayu

macrumors regular
Jan 18, 2012
217
603
Denmark
Michael Goff said:
The idea was to try to stop people from being able to side-load the app when a person hasn't paid for it... you know, theft.
Click to expand...
Even that doesn't make sense to me. You can just use programs like iExplorer to do this even on a non-jailbroken device...

Or you can make the purchase, go into support and click the oops button, and get your money back a few seconds later if you REALLY want to pirate.

This was a stupid move; glad they realized.
 
M

MegamanX

macrumors regular
May 13, 2013
221
0
adcx64 said:
I dont understand why companies do this, as long as they are getting the money for the app. Can someone fill me in on how this works anyway?
Click to expand...

Well if the app touches their servers in any way pirated copies increase server load with no payment. The pirated copies are stealing limited resources from the company.
 
MacDav

MacDav

macrumors 65816
Mar 24, 2004
1,031
0
Total waste of time and money trying to play a decent PC game on a touch based device. I'll wait till the actual PC version is released. I can see why they would want to milk the mobile device world for as much money as they can get though. I just hope this is not indicative of the future of gaming. Playing FPS games on tablets sux big time. :cool:
 
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