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Namco Bandai Partners supports 'always on' DRM, for now
Namco Bandai Partners, the former Atari Europe operation acquired by Namco Bandai last year, is a bit more supportive of Ubisoft's "always on" DRM for PC games than Blizzard -- but only a bit. Speaking to CVG, Namco Bandai Partners VP Olivier Comte called the technology "a good [approach] for one reason: I have no alternative today." He added that it's "certainly not" the best option, and "if I can make something else I'll do it, but it's better to do something than not do something." It seems likely, then, that the same kind of DRM that has beset the PC versions of Assassin's Creed 2 and Settlers 7 will be present in Namco Bandai's Test Drive Unlimited 2 and The Witcher 2, at least in Europe. Despite his reluctant adoption of DRM, Comte lamented the futility of such attempts to curb piracy. "I'm convinced that whatever system you put in place you can be sure that two hours before putting it out it'll be cracked in Russia," he said. "I think that the combat against piracy is very complicated because it's very complicated to explain to a 12-year-old that drag and dropping a file on a PC is piracy -- he was born with this." [Via Big Download]
Non-Sony versions of Ghostbusters delayed in Europe
While North American Xbox 360 and Wii gamers should have mastered ghostbusting by now, European players were forced to put their talents on the shelf when the game was announced as a timed exclusive for Sony platforms. Sadly, European gamers will have to wait a little longer to capture a copies of Ghostbusters on Microsoft and Nintendo's platforms.CVG reports that Ghostbusters for the Xbox 360 and Wii has been delayed from October 23rd to November 6th. Of course, European Xbox 360 owners are more than welcome to import the game, since the Ghostbusters NTSC release uses no region protection.
Non-Sony Ghostbusters releases dated in Europe
Namco Bandai partners has announced that Ghostbusters will officially arrive on European Wii, DS and Xbox 360 consoles (and PCs) on October 23, according to VideoGamer.com. Thus far, the game has only been officially available for the PS3 and PS2 thanks to its initial European publisher, Sony. That said, the North American Xbox 360 version is reportedly not region-locked, allowing European gamers to import the title. Still, for Nintendo and Xbox players longing for what Play Magazine calls the "best damn Ghostbusters game [they've] ever seen" (as opposed to the vastly superior version we were hoping for), the wait is going to be just a bit longer.
