Dragon Age: Origins copy protection announced, toolset beta launched

Great, great news: BioWare and Electronic Arts, perhaps the two most notorious companies for heavy digital rights management (DRM) appear to have come to a very pleasing agreement on the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins' anti-piracy methods (and on a sidenote, the toolset beta has already been launched for fans to create mods and such).

Get this: disk check! That's it! Some users are saying perhaps something like Uniloc or Tages could be used instead for the check (Safedisc died and apparently Starforce can't be used in North America so they're out), but we're assuming (and hoping) this will not be the case.

Update: Senior Technical Designer Georg Zoeller responds, saying, "I think neither constitute a 'simple disk check', with Technical Producer Derek French adding, "I don't think we are hitting the specifics yet, but I can tell you two things. Starforce is not a basic disk check. Tages is not a basic disk check."

Here's the forum post from BioWare's Community Coordinator Chris Priestly:

Hi Everyone,

I have some good news to pass on to you today that answers one of the most frequently asked Dragon Age: Origins PC questions.

We’re happy to announce that the boxed/retail PC version of Dragon Age: Origins will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. In other words, the retail PC version of the game won’t require you to go online to authenticate the game for offline play. We have chosen not to use SecuROM in any version of Dragon Age that is distributed by EA or BioWare.

More, they'll be offering plenty of downloadable content (DLC) after release (which may require the EA Download Manager we figure, as with The Sims 3, though patches will remain standalone); this won't be free like it was with Mass Effect, but offering the toolset stifles any complaints we might have, as practically endless amounts of free stuff will be had through that.

Get over there and sing your praises! Between this and The Sims 3 DRM, we have to say, at least on a couple fronts, EA is really turning around. Let's just hope it lasts.