Serious Sam 3: BFE fights piracy with crabs
Croteam attempts a more direct/terrifying method of DRM
Planning to steal Serious Sam 3: BFE? Prepared to be hunted down. As demonstrated in this in-game video, developer Croteam has taken a more creative approach to fighting digital piracy in the form of a relentless, unstoppable mutant scorpion... thing... who's sole mission seems to be to torment illegal downloaders until they run out of ammo or patience.
Croteam is one of many developers who have attempted to beat pirates at their own game. This September, From Software combated the leak of Dark Souls online by creating its own insanely skilled enemy and letting it loose upon those who dared to take advantage of the early release. Granted, given the nature of Dark Souls, most pirates probably just assumed it was a regular part of the experience.
Unfortunately for Croteam, there's already a fix floating around for avoiding the anti-pirate blood-crab (or whatever the crap it is). That's a pity too, because it means developers are eventually going to give up on using unique ways to defend themselves and go back to the standard DRM strategies that are a virtual nightmare for everyone.
Read our Serious Sam 3: BFE review to find out if it's worth the effort, skinless alien crab or not.
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Matt Bradford wrote news and features here at 12DOVE until 2016. Since then he's gone on to work with the Guinness World Records, acting as writer and researcher for the annual Gamer's Edition series of books, and has worked as an editor, technical writer, and voice actor. Matt is now a freelance journalist and editor, generating copy across a multitude of industries.