Rockstar's most recent update to the Steam version of L.A. Noire added online-only DRM.

zamardii12

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The update was made in April of 2021. Prior to that the game was playable offline. There is currently no known fix or patch that reverts the update, and you can't roll back to the previous version either, since Rockstar changed the executable's file name with this update (trying to launch the game from Steam with the previous version will result in a "missing executable" error).


 
The update was made in April of 2021. Prior to that the game was playable offline. There is currently no known fix or patch that reverts the update, and you can't roll back to the previous version either, since Rockstar changed the executable's file name with this update (trying to launch the game from Steam with the previous version will result in a "missing executable" error).



They did this to Max Payne 3, too. What a bunch of assholes.
 
The fuck for? For a company that makes so much bank they pull this for old games no one buys anymore?
The theory is that they are trying to get people to use their Rockstar launcher. I will NEVER fucking use a Rockstar launcher. It just makes no sense... like your company doesn't make THAT many games that it makes sense to have your own launcher. Same with Bethesda. There are less than a dozen games in the Bethesda launcher... yes their games are all available elsewhere... but like I bought Doom Eternal for quite cheap through CDKEYS or something and it turned out it was a Bethesda launcher key. So now I have more launchers installed than fingers at this point.

Every publisher is coming out with their own launchers and I'm tired of it.
 
So refund time or class action suit time? I'm not sure why all these publishers suddenly seem to think it's ok for them fundamentally alter the function of a product after they sell it, removing music and adding more restrictive drm is happening way too often these days.
 
They're a shit company, run by greedy, mindless psychopaths. And with the GTA remasters together with these moves, it seems like they've followed BioWare, DICE, Bethesda, and Blizzard in suiciding their reputation.
 
Take Two/Rockstar has lost their god damn marbles completely. They have always been problematic with mods but lately they have been complete assholes even if they have no legal rights to C&D the project. Hell they have been going after a savegame file download too! WTF!? And now this DRM issue. Also how horrible the GTA Trilogy is. Did anyone even check that game? I love GTA but the way Take Two/Rockstar has been behaving last few years have earned them a spot in my "Do not buy games from these companies" list.
 
They're a shit company, run by greedy, mindless psychopaths. And with the GTA remasters together with these moves, it seems like they've followed BioWare, DICE, Bethesda, and Blizzard in suiciding their reputation.
To RS credit. They still make great games. Unlike the ones you mentioned.
 
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So refund time or class action suit time? I'm not sure why all these publishers suddenly seem to think it's ok for them fundamentally alter the function of a product after they sell it, removing music and adding more restrictive drm is happening way too often these days.
Are there sufficient grounds for a lawsuit? I would assume that buried somewhere in either Rockstar or Steam's massive Terms of Service legalese are their ability to make changes to their software, its distribution and use rights at any time or something similar.
 
They're a shit company, run by greedy, mindless psychopaths. And with the GTA remasters together with these moves, it seems like they've followed BioWare, DICE, Bethesda, and Blizzard in suiciding their reputation.
That's a little rash. Rockstar has consistently been the gold standard of releasing games that are extremely polished. GTA: Definitive Edition was not developed by Rockstar, and this whole thing seems more like just a bad business decision to entrust the developers of the mobile ports to crank out this remaster for consoles. They could have picked a better company to do the remaster, but they went with a company they worked with prior. They should have double-checked the quality of the game before approving it, and it's possible that they didn't give this enough attention with them working on new ports of GTA 5, expanding GTA Online, and developing GTA 6.

I am not trying to be incredibly apologist but rather looking at everything that Rockstar has directly developed. They didn't develop L.A. Noire either... that being said I don't think it's fair lumping in Rockstar with the likes of Bioware and Dice. Also as much as people love shitting on Bethesda like it's the popular thing to do... we all (for the most part) know and love what Bethesda does and few other studios make RPGs to the scale that they do. Like yeah it hasn't been perfect for them, but Fallout and Elder Scrolls are beloved franchises. Even Fallout 76 despite the hot mess that it was in the first year, is now an actual compelling Fallout title with a bunch to do.
 
If using the RS launcher, it plays just fine offline. so maybe this wasn't on purpose and they are just not in a hurry to fix? seems crappy either way
 
Are there sufficient grounds for a lawsuit? I would assume that buried somewhere in either Rockstar or Steam's massive Terms of Service legalese are their ability to make changes to their software, its distribution and use rights at any time or something similar.
There have been successful lawsuits for altering functionality of a product after the sale and publishers have offered refunds over undisclosed drm. They can put whatever they want in the TOS but it doesn't allow them to skirt consumer protection laws.

My comment was a bit tongue in cheek as I doubt the potential payout on a lawsuit over an old game like that would be enough to attract a competent class action lawyer. This trend is annoying enough that I'd like to see one of them sued to create stronger precedent though.
 
If using the RS launcher, it plays just fine offline. so maybe this wasn't on purpose and they are just not in a hurry to fix? seems crappy either way
Might be a heavy-handed tactic to make sure your Steam and Rockstar accounts are linked?
 
I never understand the point of doing stuff like this. It never works out in the end, leaves customers feeling betrayed and angry (as they should), and pirates just go around it anyways. At this point it's like we have to pirate our own games to enjoy them.

Random aside (somewhat related) - I was trying to install Age of Mythology on a PC the other day only to discover that my particular version uses some esoteric DRM on the disc that doesn't work with Windows 10. What the fuck, Microsoft?
 
The theory is that they are trying to get people to use their Rockstar launcher. I will NEVER fucking use a Rockstar launcher. It just makes no sense... like your company doesn't make THAT many games that it makes sense to have your own launcher. Same with Bethesda. There are less than a dozen games in the Bethesda launcher... yes their games are all available elsewhere... but like I bought Doom Eternal for quite cheap through CDKEYS or something and it turned out it was a Bethesda launcher key. So now I have more launchers installed than fingers at this point.

Every publisher is coming out with their own launchers and I'm tired of it.

+1 on the launcher hate. I can’t stand the number of ridiculous accounts and launchers I need to have now. I miss the days where I could just install something on my PC and move on with my life, playing a single player game offline the way God intended.
 
+1 on the launcher hate. I can’t stand the number of ridiculous accounts and launchers I need to have now. I miss the days where I could just install something on my PC and move on with my life, playing a single player game offline the way God intended.

Yeah same here, thats why I use GOG standalone installers. No mess, no 22 additional launchers.
 
After the GTA "remasters" I don't think I'll be giving Rockstar any more money any time soon. All they care about is Shark Card bullshit now.
Rockstar didn't develop the remasters. It was a bad business decision to have the developers of the mobile ports to do the remaster, but Rockstar's core games will always get a purchase from me... i'll just stick with consoles for the GTA and RDR games. I don't care about the online components anyway.
 
I never understand the point of doing stuff like this. It never works out in the end, leaves customers feeling betrayed and angry (as they should), and pirates just go around it anyways. At this point it's like we have to pirate our own games to enjoy them.

Random aside (somewhat related) - I was trying to install Age of Mythology on a PC the other day only to discover that my particular version uses some esoteric DRM on the disc that doesn't work with Windows 10. What the fuck, Microsoft?
Age of Mythology uses SafeDisc, which hasn't been supported in Windows for quite a while. There is a workaround for it described in this article to manually enable the SafeDisc driver. It's listed under the "Known issues in this security update" section.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...r-8-2015-6a1e4fc4-0821-79d4-d25c-02728a6fdf30
 
Rockstar didn't develop the remasters. It was a bad business decision to have the developers of the mobile ports to do the remaster, but Rockstar's core games will always get a purchase from me... i'll just stick with consoles for the GTA and RDR games. I don't care about the online components anyway.
Rockstar made the choice to release that pile of crap. Rockstar made the decision to remove the existing versions.
 
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