Mysteries of WestGate release date announced

[Stefan9]

Would love to buy this since I own all the other never winter nights stuff but with those restriction in place I won't. Won't buy something where the install limit can't be reset.

The NWN2 Adventure Pack Mysteries of Westgate will be released on April 29th by digital download for $9.95.
The official announcement is below but Avantenor writes in with the following additional but unconfirmed details (German link) from Atari France Product Manager Arnaud Staebler:

- Copy Protection: Online Activation, one-time per installation
- Installation limit: Allowed to install on three different PCs
- Installation Limit Reset: not possible
- Available at: AtariSHOP, Metaboli, IGN, Steam, most likely others will follow

Ossian's Tiberius is unaware of the DRM restrictions and posted on the official forums that he would check further - we'll follow up if he posts again on the topic.
Also, Borutnik had previously let us know Poland will get a disc-based release through CD Projekt.
Here's the official PR:

‘NEVERWINTER NIGHTS™ 2: MYSTERIES OF WESTGATE™’ Adventure Pack confirmed for WORLDWIDE RELEASE ON 29 APRIL 2009
- First Neverwinter Nights™ 2 Adventure Pack Available Exclusively via Digital Download -
Atari today announced that the first Neverwinter Nights™ 2 Adventure Pack entitled Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate will be available exclusively via digital download for the Windows platform on 29 April 2009 at a suggested retail price of €9.99 / £9.99 /$9.99. Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate will be available for digital download at the Atari store by visiting www.atari-store.eu in Europe or www.atari.com/us in the US.
Neverwinter Nights 2: Mysteries of Westgate provides over 15 hours of additional entertainment with all-new engrossing storylines, professional voice acting, enchanting musical scores, new in-game content, and much more. Neverwinter Nights 2 is set in the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® Forgotten Realms® universe created by Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. (NYSE: HAS). DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is under license from Hasbro.
More information about Neverwinter Nights 2 can be found at www.nwn2.com, which includes user forums, project news, development updates and more.

[Shamrock]

If I loved Neverwinter Nights 2 any more than I already do, I'd turn bi so I could enjoy the best of both worlds. On a more serious note, I'll download it even if I have to fly to China. That game was amazing.

Gotta say though, the ending was horrible. I couldn't actually believe they splurged a voice over random pictures and killed everyone off.

[Stefan9]

The first expansion pack Mask of the Betrayer is better than the original campaign. I would love to get this but unless they have a system in place where I can get more activations I will buy it.

[Shamrock]

I'm a little confused, what does that mean exactly? Installation Limit Reset. Does that mean you can install it once and then the gaming companies rape you for money?

[Stefan9]

I'm a little confused, what does that mean exactly? Installation Limit Reset. Does that mean you can install it once and then the gaming companies rape you for money?

It means one activation per system. The problem is the definition of system. If you upgrade certain parts of the system the drm sees it as a different system and you lose an activation. They don't tell you what changes constitute this. Also a h/d reformat and os reinstall also counts as a new system.

You can install it 3 times and then you are screwed here. With EA's system you could call them and they would decide whether to give you more activations and recently they released a system so you can manage your activations yourself. But from the looks of it Atari has no such plans so once you run out of activations you either have to buy another copy or use alternative methods.

[Stefan9]

Some clarification from the developers. Its better than initially but I still don't like this normally it won't cost you an activation when reformatting, to me that says they themselves don't have a clue when this causes an activation and when it doesn't.

With these conditions especially the last I will probably buy it now. Still not happy but what is one to do.

Posted 04/20/09 22:09 (GMT) by Alan Miranda at Ossian

Hi Everybody,

I wanted to clarify for you what Atari is intending with regard to the 3 activations for MoW. So I’ve consulted with them to get some specific details and prepared a list of clarifications.

Firstly, please note that entering your serial key when installing MoW is NOT the same thing as MoW automatically authenticating with the Atari server in order to activate.

- With 3 activations you can install MoW on 3 different PCs.
- If you reinstall MoW on the same PC with unchanged hardware (see below for details), you can do this an unlimited number of times. You can do this on 3 different PCs.
- If you uninstall MoW and reinstall it, the westgate.key file (generated from the authentication) in your NWN2 folder won't have been removed, so your new MoW installation will not count as an activation.
- If you uninstall MoW and NWN2 (on the same PC), and then reinstall them, you can either have backed up your westgate.key file (to copy back into your NWN2 folder so MoW doesn't have to authenticate again) or not backed up the key at all and let MoW authenticate again (in this case, it will detect that this machine has activated before). In either case, this will not count as an activation.
- If you change your RAM or video card (and likely sound card too) and play or install MoW, this will not count as an activation. I don’t have 100% confirmation from Atari on this next part, but I would expect that changing your CPU, motherboard, or hard drive where MoW is installed would count as an activation.
- If you reformat your hard drive and reinstall your OS, NWN2, and MoW, but without changing your hardware configuration, then this “normally” shouldn’t be another activation. I say “normally” because that is the wording that Atari told me.
- Apparently, for some retail games, a user can revoke their usage of it in order to resell it, so that the slate is wiped clean for a new user to install and activate (I think this is termed an “installation reset”). Atari has said that can’t be the case for a digitally-distributed title like MoW.
- If you surpass 3 activations, then you can contact Atari tech support in order to get another activation.

I hope this has helped answer your questions about activations.
- Alan

http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums...forum=122&sp=0