Back in early October, 2014 users have been complaining about not being able to retrieve their CD keys for Dark Void. Essentially, they would attempt to log into the game and activate the product with a SecuROM key but the key would be denied. Unfortunately the problem persists to this very day and there isn’t a proper fix in sight.
DRM, or digital rights media, has always been a pain in the side of gamers. However, as time wears on and the DRM servers/services fail to receive proper maintenance and upkeep, we begin to see some games suffer the consequences in a bad way; Dark Void is one of those games.
Published by Capcom and designed by Airtight Games and Iron Galaxy Studios, the third-person shooter has fallen victim to DRM neglect. This kind of “neglect” has been cropping up frequently with games using Games For Windows Live, forcing some developers and publishers to switch over to Valve’s Steamworks DRM. Previous to the exodus from GFWL, many users had constant complaints about key limitations and server activation problems.
In the case of Dark Void, the SecuROM servers aren’t properly verifying the key data. On the Steam forums there are users having difficulty getting their game activated.
Piethief stated…
“Does anyone know how to fix this issue? I purchased this from steam, launch the game and an activation window pops up. I put in the CD key from my steam window and it says the serial key is invalid.”
He tried contacting the Steam support but they couldn’t help. Valve offered him a Steam wallet credit after linking him to the Steam support forums since they couldn’t fix the problem. According to another user, they contacted SecuROM but they told him that they didn’t have his key in their database.
According to Piethief, he contacted Capcom support who told him…
"Thanks for your patience - we apologize for the delay. We've confirmed that SecuROM will now recognize your product key. Please try activating the game again. Typically the key populates right away, but in some cases it may take up to 48 hours for it to properly recognize in SecuROM's database. We apologize for any inconvenience - if you have any additional questions, feedback, or problems with activation, please let us know."
After going through this process the key to Dark Void was activated for Piethief.
While the issue originally occurred on October 8th, 2014, it wasn’t until November 12th, 2014, more than a month later, did he finally get the issue resolved.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmNsRnbf_gk
Unsurprisingly enough, users are still experiencing problems with having their Dark Void SecuROM keys activated. The Combat Wombat wrote – as recent as December 29th, 2014 – that…
Personally, I find it unacceptable a problem like this has not been fixed. Capcom / Securom clearly can't be bothered to actually FIX the database population problem and have decided that it's easier to force their customers to jump through hoops to obtain a manual solution.”
This is probably one of the biggest turn-offs from PC gaming and one of the easiest ways to push consumers toward piracy. Plain and simple there’s no reason why someone paying for a product has to go to such lengths in order to use the product they paid for. It’s a farce.
I imagine a lot of people would likely end up going to Game Copy World to get a working .exe instead of waiting up to month for Capcom or SecuROM to activate the key. According to the thread creator, Piethief, here is the process for getting the key activated and working for Dark Void…
“So what you got to do is:
A) Create a support ticket https://shop.capcom.com/store/capcomus/Content/pbPage.CapcomSupport2
B) Provide them with your key and proof of purchace
C) Wait
D) Wait more
E) Wait for confirmation that they key has been added, and launch the game.”
Extreme DRM methods for preventing piracy are probably the best ways to help push customers into supporting piracy.
Dark Void is available right now during the Steam sale for only $1.99.
