Capcom Adds Enigma Protector Drm to Older Games, to Gamers’ Discontent

Capcom has started the year terribly. The Japanese publisher has started implementing a new DRM system to its old games, such as Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection and Resident Evil Revelations.

1. Players began to notice that many of the publisher's old games received mysterious updates. It turns out that they are adding the anti-piracy system called Enigma Protector. User reactions to this are naturally very negative.
2. It's not working well, many games started to freeze after the update, and players report that performance has dropped by as much as 10-15 fps. In the case of Resident Evil Revelations, DRM was introduced so badly that the entire game stopped working altogether and Capcom was forced to withdraw the patch, but it is known that after these problems are removed, Enigma Protector will be added to the game again.
3. It's hard to understand why the Japanese company decided to take this step. In no way will this stop piracy - all the games being updated now have long been cracked and will remain available on warez website regardless of what Capcom does with their legal versions on Steam.
4. If it's not about piracy, then the Japanese publisher is probably motivated by the desire to crack down on mods. The Enigma Protector causes most mods for games "protected" by this system to stop working. DRM prevents interference with the operation of the .exe file, which is what most of the more advanced fan projects for Capcom games do. This stems from the fact that this Japanese giant has never supported mods for its games, so players had to develop their own solutions and this forced the development of those that affect the operation of .exe files.

These anti-mod changes were confirmed by ThirteenAG, which has created a lot of mods that improve various aspects of older games, including those from Capcom.

The company has long made no secret of its aversion to mods, seeing them mainly as a source of cheats. Publishers also dislike how many modifications there are that undress various characters from its games. Last year it caused a small scandal. During an European Street Fighter 6 tournament, the host player forgot to turn off mods in his copy of the game, and as a result, viewers were briefly able to admire a naked Chun-Li on the stream.

The problem is that Enigma Protector won't change much in this regard. Players who want to mod their games will find workarounds (one of them , intended for the Mega Man series collection, has already been made available, and ThirteenAG is also working on updating its mods), so it's a battle against windmills. For Capcom, the PC is quickly becoming the most important hardware platform, but it is clear that the Japanese publisher does not yet fully understand the specifics of this market.

1. Capcom - official website

Resident Evil: Revelations

January 27, 2012

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