Well, Steam gave me a serial key, but could not use it, using the support site to generate unlock code for me, it has written "Error occured! Your Serial is deactivated"
What should I do?
IT IS STILL POSSIBLE TO LAUNCH THE GAME IN 2022, EVEN THE MULTIPLAYER MODE, AND IT'S ACTUALLY NOT THAT HARD TO DO.
To those, who are not satisfied with just the summary - all that you have to do to launch the game is:
- Open this Steam Guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2087402071
- Download GFWL using "backup link" from that guide, install it and log in;
- Download 80PA app using another "backup link" from there (and no, it's not a virus or scam - simply a barely-legal soft, that, however, won't harm your license key or Steam account);
- Download, install and launch the game;
- Activate it with 80PA app, choosing "manual activation" option in the game's installer window.
- Welcome to the Grid, Program!😎👌
- Optionally #1 - using yet another "backup link" from that guide, you can also download and install a DLC Multiplayer Map Pack (if you deem it necessary, of course).
- Optionally #2 (NOT REALLY OPTIONALLY) - leave your like and/or comment on Lulech23's guide, he is our hero - and he definitely deserves our appreciation.
https://support.securom.com/pop_tron.html (SecuROM's faq is stating that you need to contact Disney's support)
https://appsupport.disney.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000800163-About-TRON-Evolution (go to the lower part of the webpage and click on the email, you'll then see a small type of pop-up on the lower right corner of the webpage, type tron evolution in it and press enter on your keyboard, then click on "Contact Support" and fill out the required infos.
I do not know if Disney is willing to help anyone out due to the fact that Disney has officially dropped support for the game. But it won't cost much, just your time.
You're not missing a lot though because the message raidebaron posted is exactly the same one I got:
On one side, Disney must have obviously known since the beginning that the DRM would eventually make the game unplayable, since it works as a subscription that they wouldn't want to keep paying once they stopped selling the game because of the music licensing. Maybe they didn't even had to decide "we're going to stop paying for SecuROM", maybe they did a single big initial payment to use SecuROM for X years and they have known the expiration date since the very beginning.
On the other side, depending on how SecuROM works, removing the DRM could be trivial. In some implementations of Denuvo where the DRM thingy is only checked when the game starts, a Denuvo-free .exe should be enough. If I'm not mistaken, when Devil May Cry 5 was released, an official drm-free exe of the game was leaked and it was the only thing neccesary to play without Denuvo. I think the same happened with Arkham Knight, you can just take the .exe from the Denuvo-free Epic Store version and replace it on the Steam version. Hell, you probably might not even need to make a DRM-free build, the development builds of Tron: Evolution probably didn't even had any and their .exe could be used with just a few tweaks.
Knowing that, Disney could have prepared a DRM-free version beforehand instead of letting the DRM expire and wait until we complained (when did the DRM expired anyways? It might have been even months before this thread was made), so excuse me if I don't trust them 100% when they say "we hope to fix this who knows when".
Workaround is to download bloody crack. Isnt it fascinating how only solution for our purchased games is to do same thing as those who didnt bought it.
Agree. However we shouldn't be put in a position where we are required to rely on potentially shady cracked .exe which has the potential for all sorts of malware.