We live in a weird time, where sonic is actually good again. Sonic Mania is a return to glory for the blitzing blue speedster, with many fans and critics applauding the game’s superlative level design and back-to-basics approach. It’s also stuffed with fan-service, memes, and other little pop culture nods that show that SEGA’s not taking itself, or Sonic, too seriously.
The game is finally out on PC – but many people have discovered a problem. The game’s been saddled with Denuvo’s anti-tamper tech, which isn’t really a problem in itself. What is though, is its implementation, that requires that the game be online to play.
The game won’t unlock or launch if Steam is set to offline mode, which means that if you want to play it on the go you’ll have to boot the game while connected to the internet and leave it running in the background while you step away from Wi-Fi access.
SEGA is aware of the situation, and plans to fix it. As per the game’s Steam page:
“Like you, we’ve noticed an error in the Steam store not mentioning the DRM for Sonic Mania.
We’re fixing that now.
Sonic Mania is intended to be played offline and we’re investigating reports on that.
We’re also investigating other issues like controller support, these are all PC specific things that Christian and the team have been working on these last few weeks
Please bare with us while we collate and investigate problems that are being brought to our attention”
Sonic the Hedgehog’s PR chap Aaron Webber took to Twitter to urge fans to let SEGA know of their displeasure.
In particular, please do share your feedback on DRM or any issues you’re having at the link above. Make your voices heard.
— Aaron Webber (@RubyEclipse) August 29, 2017
While I will always champion developers’ rights to protect their copyrights, the inclusion of Denuvo is a strange one. The game is hugely anticipated and affordable enough – and including Denuvo destroys much of the game’s good will. According to reports, the PC version otherwise runs well, and includes a few fixes not yet found in the console versions.
Last Updated: August 30, 2017
Skyblue
September 1, 2017 at 11:14
I was looking forward to this but when a publisher feels the need to force Denuvo on their fans in order to curtail a few… yeah, no.
HvR
September 1, 2017 at 11:43
Okay I will admit I read that as Delano the first time and went o.O