I'm assuming you're talking about this game: http://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/cross-r … ampionship-2005

ROFLMAO. The only company that has been able to get away with anything close to this so far is VALVe with Half-Life 2, and that only worked because most people either bought it via Steam or so that they could play CS:S or HL2DM online. Even then, VALVe had lots of technical and policy-related problems and was heavily criticized.

This will never be viable for games that are primarily played off-line.

That is utter crap, unless its a massively multiplayer game which will eventually cease its existence. If the user doesn't want to play it on a connected computer and the game does not require an on-line connection, then he should not have to ever go online. Even Microsoft XP's Product Activation system is more generous, as it only checks once per install or after a major hardware upgrade.

I would seriously complain, loudly and longly, and look around for cracks. What happens when the game no longer is no longer supported or the servers that check the activation are down/shut down. No CRC for you! HL2's Steem is just as bad.

Also, if I upgrade my system, I would probably upgrade it to get a better experience with CRC 2005 and other intensive games. I would want to play it THAT DAY, not wait until next week or upgrade it Saturday night. A company has no right to artifically dictate usage times to you through a copy-protection scheme. If you want to play the game 16 hours per day, seven days per week, (to use an extreme example) you have a right to do so regardless of what the company may say. You also have the right to play it twenty years from now as much as you wish to play it today.

Who the hell ever heard of Project Three Interactive or Invictus Games (publisher and developer) anyways? These Hungarians who make up Invictus Games should try for another publisher the next time around.