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(Updated) Windows 10 Can Find and Disable Pirated Games

(Updated) Windows 10 Can Find and Disable Pirated Games

Update: Microsoft has clarified its EULA language, stating that the segments in question only apply to Microsoft services.  Pirates could be locked out of Microsoft-run services such as Xbox Live or the Windows Store, but the company will not scan or remove random games on a customer’s hard drive.

Yarr pirates, beware! Windows 10 can apparently find pirated games and shut them down. Microsoft recently updated its Windows 10 end user license agreement, in which it was revealed that the system is capable of searching for games and other pirated software, using popular cracks and cracked files from the internet. It will then disable your access to them, and there’s nothing you can do about it (at least until pirates find a way around the system). This, and the mandatory requirement for installing Windows updates, will make pirated software a hassle. However, it also may make indie software and otherwise unstable software a hassle too. We are already hearing reports of Windows 10 breaking graphics card drivers.

One thing that is worrying, however, is that Windows 10 can also seek out and disable “unauthorized hardware peripheral devices.” We aren’t quite sure what this means, but if Microsoft decides it wants to, it can, say, block the use of all PC controllers other than the Xbox One controller. It’s a disturbing amount of control that could prove harmful to gamers in the future. The question is whether or not the damage done to pirates will outweigh the harm inadvertently done to gamers as well. Will this save game creators money? Or will this be a repeat of fiascos like Sim City or Diablo III which alienated their player base with draconian DRM? Only time will tell.

Source: Windows 10 EULA

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