ALERT: Origin Giving Retail Customers Unpatchable SC4 Again

[mgb204]

Keep bothering Origin, eventually they will refund your money when the cost of support starts to outweigh the cost of the refund. I.e., once you've proven you are not going to go away. That's a really crappy way to treat your customers, but that's Origin for you.

There is simply nothing you can do to patch the Origin version, no workarounds whatsoever thanks to their "anti-piracy" measures screwing with your legitimate version. So it's either a case of live without the patches or buy it again. Getting your refund is unconnected, but is really more down to whether or not you're prepared to go through the rigmarole needed on principle to get it.

[John Mitchell]

Well, I opted for a call back and within 10 seconds I received a call and then a thirteen minute phone later they refunded the money so I can purchase it on steam now!

Thanks for replying and heres to updates and mods for the future!

[APSMS]

I would recommend GOG.com or Amazon Digital Download. Both of those options have no DRM to fiddle with, and GOG at least has excellent customer support if you have any issues.

[Tarkus]

Congrats on successfully getting a refund out of them!   If more people did that, they might actually be inclined to fix their version to match what the rest of the world sells--Origin may not have the slightest clue about SC4, but they do care about money, and this hits them where it hurts. 

If you are going to get it off Amazon, they sell two digital options--make sure it says "DRM: None" down there.  The other option they sell will say "DRM: Origin" (and, oddly enough, is more expensive).

-Alex

[JP Schriefer]

I bought mine like 1 year ago, do you think it's still possible to ask for a refund?

[Tarkus]

Based on Robin's theory, I'd say it's worth a shot.  If nothing else, should we get enough people tying up Origin Support asking for non-nerfed copies and/or refunds, it might actually force them to change.  Additionally, it's worth noting that 1.1.610 is missing a number of stability fixes from the 1.1.638/EP1 Update 1 patch, which can make the game quite a bit more prone to CTDs.

The most alarming thing I've heard in this latest batch of reports is that Origin has apparently issued an "update" to those still running a patched version, which actually reverts them to the nerfed version.

-Alex

[Wiimeiser]

On the subject of programs not working on Windows 10,
 this is an incomplete list of programs that used backdoor code they weren't supposed to, and thus don't work on Windows Vista, 8, 8.1 or 10 AFAIK. That's 6,520 entries. Note that SC4 is on that list, that's probably what caused my problem last year, Nahimic must be an emulator of some kind. Slightly unrelated, but for SimTunes it appears to be something font related.

On the proper topic I'd definitely say it's either an anti-mod thing or just sheer idiocy. I don't see any mods for The Sims 4, and considering they're apparently developing the game again... Or they might not be aware there's an updated version in the first place.

(The one thing I agree with regarding TS4's DLC practices is that it allows you to pick and choose individual features more easily. Unlike in TS3 where installing certain expansions added features hated more than the censorship of The Last Roundup, most notably turning random sims into celebrities for absolutely no reason other than EA being too lazy to make any fixed celebrities and the addition of memories which can bloat save files to several gigabytes in size. Not to mention the door update that makes it physically impossible to obtain the Axe of Pangu without debug mode, I'm not sure if the latter can even be fixed without completely butchering something else, likely indoor pools or penthouses.)

[mgb204]

It's got nothing to do with Backdoor code, the reason you can't run the disk version on Windows is very simple. It needs a driver to validate the SafeDisc 2 DRM on the disk, before the application can be run. Since Windows 10 removed this driver altogether, it simply fails to start. MS then removed the driver in an update to Vista, 7 and 8 versions of Windows, claiming it had a security vulnerability. It's not such a problem on these older O/S's, since you can use a workaround, but if you are on Windows 10, unless you want to manually digitally sign the driver, you have to buy it again.

The very same game code, but in digital editions, works just fine, because the Safedisc code was removed, since Safedisc is only applicable to optical media, this wasn't so much a choice. Some vendors, Steam and Origin replaced Safedisc with their own DRM systems. The problem with Origin is that they don't sell you a patched version of the game. But the changes to the .exe (adding their DRM) cause the official patches and BAT installer not to recognise the SC4 install as genuine. The solution is to update these installers to correctly recognise the modified versions as legitimate. But that's not going to happen, at least when Origin bothered to include the patches with the digital release, that only caused problems installing SC4 BAT. But now they've reverted to the unpatched version, users are getting screwed.

To be clear, there is nothing relating to the SC4 code that is in the slightest bit incompatible with Windows 10.

[Wiimeiser]

I was actually referring to the fact that a lot of games even without disc-based DRM. TV Tropes has this quote:

One of the reasons Vista was so poorly received was because a lot of programs that did stuff they shouldn't have done wouldn't work properly. "Properly" being based on guidelines formed around 2001 and enforced in 2007.

EDIT: I was specifically referring to a line in this post:

while some of the related games like Sims 2 started to be incompatible since windows 8 era and some other minor programs. There is a conspiracy says that these stuff is to make people buy and play newer games and ditch the older one which also means profits for many companies. Yet I don't follow these conspiracy stuff so idk much about this.

I guess I should have clarified that.

[Schimada]

Damn Origin... grrrrrrrr

I opend it for what im looking for.... at what did origin??? He aktualled my Simcity for (i instaled by Steam) to the low version...
What the hack is this???
I must deinstalled Simcity an reinstalled. I hope it works...
Damn Fu...ing Origin.... I deinstalled instantly....
Im very angry...
The Readon is, I installed Simcity 4 (Steam) in the Steam Folder.... and what did Origin?? they overwright it only...
This is criminal.... He never ask me for it......

lol