Does the steam version of Dragon Age II use SecuROM?
Does Dragon Age II ship with SecuROM when it's purchased through Steam? If so, why aren't Steam's protections good enough?
Contrary to preliminary reports by reviewers and the report by the website Reclaim Your Game and widely disseminated as fact, SecuROM was not used in retail copies of Dragon Age II, and by extension, is not used in the Steam version or any other version sold to consumers.
As stated by BioWare:
All EA preview & review game builds sent to press use Securom which is where the assumption came from. The Dragon Age 2 actual retail & download version of the game that you will play will not use Securom[...]
Additionally, nobody has confirmed Reclaim Your Game's assertion that Dragon Age II retail shipped with SecuROM. BioWare issued the following update after blogs started republishing Reclaim Your Game's claim as fact:
Someone also pm'd me that apparently it leaves behind a couple library files in the temp directory, which are named securom or their signature when examined mentions securom and that this was mentioned on an external site claiming proof that we've snuck securom in.
I haven't been able to check these files personally yet, but as these are inert files sitting in the temp folder after removing itself, I still don't see the issue. Most developers (including ourselves) re-use libraries we create all the time. These are likely common utility files (e.g. contact a server) which do not make any sense to re-write from scratch when you have a perfectly usable generic library that already works.
The fact it leaves some inert files behind (while not great practice) is common with nearly every piece of software on windows. Again, the files are inert and you can simply delete them manually - sometimes you just can't remove everything as files may be in use as part of the removal step of the program itself (something is running to do the removal).
But to go from that to say that we've installed Securom DRM is like saying because DA2 uses common Microsoft libraries, we have clearly gone and snuck in Games for Windows Live now. That's the kind of 'jump' in assumptions we're talking about.
As for the site claiming this (again, I admit I haven't had the opportunity to check yet - I did a while back but just got 403 errors on the page), if that is what they are claiming then sadly they are doing a great disservice to their audience. Anyone that has ever actually used/installed SecuROM DRM and this, and is reasonably impartial in their assesment (ie. is not jumping to conclusion because they see the word 'securom' on the pop up) should be able to clearly tell the two things apart - and appreciate how far apart they actually are.
It appears today's craziness is all due to one person making poor assumptions and a host of blogs not doing the proper fact-checking because it confirmed a certain narrative.
Direct feedback from BioWare about the issue: They state that the Steam version does not use SecuROM. http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6194280/1