Final Fantasy VII PC released early, gets pulled quickly because of DRM

[garyopa]

PC re-release secretly comes out in the Square Enix Store, however...



That's right, the re-release of the PC version of Final Fantasy VII announced last month, was launched on Square-Enix’s online store, but got pulled from the service just a few hours later...

As you may remember, Square Enix announced the PC re-release of Final Fantasy VII, featuring achievements support, cloud saving and a character booster.

Now, the game showed up for sale on the Square-Enix’s online store for $11.99 on Saturday night, but was suddenly yanked from the service a few hours later, because of problems with the Securom DRM...

The problem is that the downloaded copies don't work yet. The automatic license activation (through the SecuROM DRM) failed for those who bought it, and manual serial number entry also didn't work.

If that's how it is for early purchasers, it's probably a good idea that Square Enix pulled the apparently erroneous purchase links.

This what an user said at the official S-E forums:

“After installation, it asks you to enter your serial for it to connect and unlock the game for you. I entered my serial, it connected to the license server, and it tells me my activation failed and my serial was invalid. I did it manually with my serial and unlock code, and still nothing. I paid $12.70 for something that doesn’t work. Perhaps you could flip the ‘on’ switch, SE? Thanks”

So, it's currently unknown when they re-enable the downloads (for its re-re-release), but it looks like S-E -being influenced by a "Haste" spell- pressed the button a little too early.

* UPDATE:

According to MCV, the early game launch was accidental:

But a company dealing with the situation tells MCV that this isn't an error with the game's DRM system. Rather, the title was is not yet ready and was simply released prematurely.

Still, a bad idea to use SecuROM in any PC game, don't you think?

NEWS SOURCE #1: Final Fantasy VII PC DRM is borked (via) Square-Enix
NEWS SOURCE #2: Final Fantasy VII PC released early then pulled (via) JoyStiq

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[Signa]

As I understand it, they still haven't offered refunds to those who bought it.

[billysastard]

As I understand it, they still haven't offered refunds to those who bought it.

square has now said that not only will it give a full refund to everyone who bought the game but also a free WORKING copy once its properly released.