In August 11th, SEGA claimed that the PC version of Sonic Mania was delayed by two weeks in order to further polish it. However, it appears that things did not turn out too well for our beloved blue hedgehog.
Sonic Mania uses the Denuvo anti-tamper tech on the PC, something that was not listed on the game’s Steam store page. As such, a number of PC gamers are really frustrated by this, believing that the reason the PC version was delayed was to simply add this controversial DRM system.
Not only that, but the game does not currently support any offline mode. In order to play Sonic Mania, PC gamers will have to stay always online. SEGA commented on this and claimed that this was a bug, and that they are currently looking into it.
It’s worth nothing that the Sonic Team was not responsible for the inclusion of this anti-tamper tech to the PC version of Sonic Mania. This was done by the publishing part of SEGA, and it will be interesting to see whether Denuvo will be removed once and if the game gets cracked.
DRM is not something our team makes the decision on, if you have feedback send it via customer service to Sega's steam account
— Christian Whitehead (@CFWhitehead) August 29, 2017
UPDATE:
SEGA has released the first PC hotfix for Sonic Mania that enables offline mode. This hotfix does not address any additional issues, and does not bring any further changes, tweaks, fixes or improvements. It simply enables the game’s offline mode.
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Aaaaaand one less purchase. Don’t support the Denuvo cancer.
because you want the game free LOL
the game will be “free” in a day or two. Denuvo is useless.
Because pc gamer are pirate,but sega will stop support pc market vanquish sold only 80.000 copies on steam,very bad
how are you not banned yet is truely a mystery…
because this isnt your safe space reddit and people arent perma banned for hurting someones feelings
he made a few other “pc pirate race” insults in other threads
he’s clearly an admitted troll
but eh, he was already warned by an admin so i’m sure he’ll play it cool from now.
Are you seeking to make your own comments your own personal “safe space” by upvoting them like you have done right there?
“Only”? A 7-year old niche game “only” sold 80,000 copies on a single platform.
Yeah, okay nutty, keep talking.
zenoclash 2 sold over 280k and no one knows about that game.
I will not buy it now Denuvo should be dead,It only hurts who buys the original
It’s such a di** move from SEGA.
I’ve heard that some of the developers objected, but we all know how greedy is SEGA…
Update from Sega’s Facebook page:
“We’d like to thank the community for their honest feedback with regards to Sonic Mania on PC. We’ve found the problem within the game code that was stopping people playing offline and it’s been corrected by the dev team. The fix is now being tested by SEGA QA to ensure it is working properly and we’ll let you know when it will be implemented via our social channels ASAP.
We’ve looked into the DRM complaints and can confirm this was not the cause of the problem. We apologise for any inconvenience any of the bugs may have caused players of the PC version at launch and would like to reassure them again, that as with this particular bug, we are on the case and working on fixes so everyone can have an uninterrupted and enjoyable experience playing Sonic Mania both online and offline.”
I hate hope scummy it is for them to pin it on the dev team and how they were “investigating it”. They knew full well what they had done.
Publishers are the scummiest companies in the games industry by far. Never willing to fully apologise for what they have done and instead would rather sweep it under the rug and try again later on. The only way they ever get the message is when the death knell has been given and they are beyond redemption and saving.
Check out Jim Sterling’s recent video on the subject. It seems that those who pre-ordered the game are barred from getting it refunded due to the inclusion of an old Sonic game as the pre-order bonus.
FOR REAL?!
man Steam is going downhill
WOW they literally did it on purpose
gifted sonic 1 (an old game easily accessible anywhere)
just so people can’t refund it after the 2 weeks period
THAT IS SO SINISTER!
It’s supposition that Sega did so “on purpose” for that reason. I’d like to think that they didn’t!
there is nothing uncertain about that, sonic 1 is literally worthless on the steam store since it’s basically shareware by now
they didn’t include it until the delay 2 weeks back
(which means they added it to prevent the said users from refunding, it’s either sinister planning or extreme paranoia due to denuvo’s reputation)
Yeah it was a “Bug” that made our game online only. i like to know about this “Bug”, i mean how is that a bug ?
*Releases a stream of remasters for years on end without Denuvo*
*Releases a callback to the glorious era of Sonic in his prime….. with Denuvo*
Dafuq?
P.S. Offline bug has been patched.
I was actually wary about Sonic Mania having Denuvo and I called it 2 weeks back, in the article regarding the PC delay…
Smartass ;P
Naw, good call, seriously. I didn’t see it coming at all >.<
I mean, does SEGA even have a Denuvo record?
No, I’m just as surprised as you.
Totalwar 2016 and totalwar 2017 (just like fifa) and that down of war thingy.
Dawn of War III?
Huh, interesting. Cheers ^^
Yup.
Now this is just hilarious, remember the Nier Automata DRM guy? He’s in the patch thread too defending Denuvo again. Page 3 of the pinned thread.
He should jump on a cactus denuvo does not increase sales.
That is so sad 🙁 , and this is coming from a game developer and gamer.
There is no need for DRM in any game. It really sucks that every game is not on GOG, wouldn’t that be something.
Why the hell did this game even need Denuvo?
good choice,on pc the piracy is very high,denuvo with online check is the best decision!good job sega!
the new version of denuvo was cracked in record time, denuvo is useless. Get rebanned.
We’re keeping this comment as a warning. If you continue trolling, you will get banned
“Delay the game to polish” that is one of the biggest lies in the game industry, also screw you SEGA and your DENUVO cancer.
I called it… I f@cking called it. I left a comment on the article regarding the delay of the PC version of Sonic Mania…
But you want to know the sad part. I actually own Sonic Mania. I preordered it 1 day before release so I could save some money, thinking that maybe I was a bit paranoic. I finished it and I love it. And I’ll replay it again and again.
The first game I ever preordered in my life and it has Denuvo in it without even me knowing… Here’s my Steam page and review just so I can prove it.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b9bdc525dbd2f1c05ce712813d0e86b2ee2977f679434491df6533398d9aab4.png
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2083052d7b6da3adcfd659127a8b843e7ee04726a558343d2675db3fffc5c512.png
You’ve really got to play more games 😛
Don’t have a lot of disposable income… Uhm… quality over quantity? 😀
I highly recommend to check out the latest Humble Bundle. For once, I didn’t already own any of the featured titles so $10 for all those games was a great bargain!
Absolutely.
But still 😀 Remember; it’s all about wasting your life away for dem shiny pixels! ^^
WHY?
you called it brother
that tweet was too suspicious and i f**king knew sega was up to no good
that’s it, i’m pirating this game, sega can go to hell from now on
Nice excuse to “steal” someone’s work.
If you are against Denuvo then don’t buy and don’t play the game.
too bad. pirating as soon as its cracked. use anti consumer drm?
prepare to feel the backlash.
As I said, “nice excuse”.
i would rather buy this and now
full price.
IF IT DIDN’T have denuvo
but it has, and it was delayed 2 weeks just to implement this malware into the game
for that, the publishers cannot be forgiven
maybe in the future, they’ll decide to remove the DRM then it would be worth buying
I’m also furious about Denuvo, and I most probably wouldn’t buy it if I knew it sooner. Piracy though is another story.
but it makes sense
sega delayed the game for 2 weeks JUST to implament anti-piracy measures
AND they were so paranoid people would refund the game they also added sonic 1 (a worthless gift and basically a shareware game) into the pre-order bonus
Just so people who pre-ordered after 2 weeks couldn’t cancel it
that’s when you draw the line
Denovu doesn’t stop piracy, it creates it (that’s how they stay in business to justify their miserable existence)
and when you treat your paying customers like pirates, don’t go all surprised when some of them actually decide to pirate your game…
What doesn’t make sense?
A developer created a game and the publisher put something we don’t like.
2 options, take it or leave it.
Trying to justify/camouflage downloading cracked software is childish.
I like 2D Sonic games from Mega-Drive era and I bought it full price to support the developers and to show Sega that this is the kind of Sonic I want to play.
Pirating it my message will never be delivered and the developers may loose the opportunity to create similar titles, Sega on the other hand will only loose some extra profit.
The internet uproar for Denuvo will make them remove it at some point(at least I hope). It has happened for many games already.
first off, it was made by fan developers who modded original sonic Rom’s into fan games
which got recruited into Sega, sega basically did nothing BUT publish it
which basically means it’s their decision to ruin the creative developer’s game with unnecessary DRM
and don’t be fooled, their track pirate statistics
if the game gets pirated Denuvo will be removed from the game
the thing is with denovu, it’s more of a subscribtion service rather than a payed software, and they have a guarantee that at least 3 months of release it can’t be pirated, breaking that guarantee will make the service free for that period
by pirating the game we’re not just doing the game a service, but also taking the livelihood of the Denuvo devs
the thing is with the publisher executives, they never played a single game in their life, they never listen or read the fans feedback
they just heard from their shareholders about “protecting their investment” using anti-piracy measures and they went out and did it shush shush without saying anything on the product page (which is illegal in europe btw)
so considering me (and others) pirating this game a temporary trial until Denovu is purged from the game
then, i’ll gladly buy it for the achivements and supporting the cucklevers (clever wordplay eh) for their efforts
Sorry I can’t see the point in continuing this conversation.
In the end you will pirate everything believing that you are hurting Denuvo devs.
That previous guy was right about “trying to talk logic”.
i rarely pirate games, and every game i pirated i always end up buying
the last game i pirated was mass effect 3
and i already owned that game (i just pirated the DLC cause the price was absolutely F**ked)
like i said before, this is more of an act of rebellion against Denovu than an act of piracy
it’s not bad enough we waited 2 weeks while the “peasants” had their fun of the game
now we get f**ked by anti-piracy malware in our game
and the most absurd thing is that this cycle of anti-piracy measures will never change
some games (like GTA IV) still come with sec-rum (the original creators of denovu) and GFWL
don’t blame me when the pirated version has a smoother experince than the payed one.
sorry people are pirating your game. your obviously a butthurt person on the team and are sad. too bad.
I would love to be able to create games, especially this one.
Where “Sonic-Mania” put any other game and re-read what I wrote about piracy, not that you will understand but stil…
Edit: For example I’m boycotting Ubisoft for Uplay and there are some games that I like from them. I never tried to find them cracked.
Maybe in the future if they remove Uplay from the recipe I will.
Dude no point arguing with some people here, they go off of weird logic. The guy basically sarcastically said that “something a developer slaved over, and with the current shi##y industry practices such as crunch, it is too bad their product won’t be bought no matter how good it is. Oh and that they may or may not get fired if it does too bad, just saying”
You are totally right if you can afford it but actively don’t buy it then don’t play it.
Denuvo is useless it keeps getting cracked faster and faster.
Why ruin oldschool gmaes with it?
I am not a fan of Denuvo myself, and as you say they get cracked, matter of time, my point was just in regards to the general attitude towards devs though as it really isn’t up to them.
funny, this game was made by sega fans and modders of original sonic games (same guys who ported Sonic CD to consoles and PC with HD support)
and yet sega delibrately sabotaged this game with DRM-nonsense
For anyone who wants to play something close to Sonic Mania, I can recommend Sonic After The Sequel DX. It’s an update of Sonic After The Sequel, made by LakeFeperd with imrpoved physics and a drop dash. You can get it from LakeFeperd’s Youtube channel.
Just read that the offline mode isn’t exactly a proper offline mode lol.
What a helluva way to ruin all of the hype for your game, especially with all that nostalgia behind it.
Man I found out last night as well 🙁 , you totally can not play it with out internet.
Will companies, publishers and game developers ever get it that DRM only harms your sales and most importantly the actual game it self 🙁
DRM needs to die.
you know this is a question they have asked publishers for almost a decade now
it seems that publisher would rather sabotage their own game, their own paying customers
just to have the illusion that their game won’t be pirated for at least the first month of release (where the big money rolls in)
the only real way to deal with these companies is to make your voice heard and boycott them as you should
though i doubt they care… charts show the game sold well enough on consolizes to ever patch denuvo out of the steam version
I 100% agree, this is why and as much as it pained me I returned the game on principle.
Yeah, its most likely true that Publishers could cares less(which is sad), if a few of us don’t get it over the DRM. If you could get the majority to not get it that could/would make them change I bet. Or maybe they would just not release it on the PC all together 🙁 , a lot of publishers think that way.
You might as well just go support Hollow Knight for it is HD 2D and DRM free and an epic game, those guys are doing it right.
Sucks, I really wanted Sonic Mania 🙁 . All well I have Sonic Generation on my PC and it is very good, so I will live.
Got make a stand about DRM and let companies know, you are so right about that.
i’ve finished sonic after the sequel about 2 years ago
what’s added in the DX version?
Improved physics and the drop dash, as well as the ability to curl back into a ball after being launched from a spring or falling without rolling.
You’d be surprised just how fun this fangame is these additions. 🙂
i should know, i enjoyed Freedom planet very much
and i did play a few roms back at the day (something with Silver and Sonia, very fun fangame)
i watched some of your playthrough and it looks enjoyable, i’ll definitely revisit SatS
Not even Sonic is fast enough to run away from the inevitability of death.