Can no longer use my PHYSICAL COPY of Borderlands at all, the game cannot be installed from disk anymore thanks to DRM that the transfer tool was the only workaround for.

[darthokkata]

They not only shut physical copy owners out in the cold, but also took away our ability to install and play the game at all with absolutely no warning.

Thanks to the Securom nonsense, you can no longer install and play the game from a disk at all. The verification from Gearbox and 2K doesn't work anymore, and the only workaround was the Steam transfer tool.

So, they've effectively taken my game away from me by disabling the tool. This is true of both the GOTY edition and the original edition. I have both, one of which I bought at launch, and the other I bought later to get all the DLC in one package.

I was feeling a bit annoyed that I was missing out on the enhanced edition because I couldn't transfer it to Steam. However, I figured I'd just play the regular edition again, so I can run through my copies of Borderlands 2 and the Pre-sequel afterwards with the new upgrades. I figured that might cool my irritation and maybe I'd just get over it and move on once Borderlands 2 VR and Borderlands 3 release.

Now I've discovered that I can't install and play either of them and the disks are effectively useless for anything but drink coasters. This is completely unacceptable and there is no excuse for it.

All because I never found out about an obscure tool that was never publicized and released on the down low who knows how long ago.

Now I can't play Borderlands unless I buy it a third time, and that's absolutely not happening.

Nor am I buying Borderlands 2 VR, or Borderlands 3 for that matter if something isn't done about this soon. I was planning on purchasing both, but that's not happening if my legitimate copy of a game I bought twice is taken away from me this way.

I was even willing to jump over to the Epic Store and grab Borderlands 3 so I wouldn't have to wait six months.

There is no excusing or justifying this. Enhanced edition or not, I should be able to install and play my legitimate physical copy of the game if nothing else. Even if it's only single player, this isn't some MMO where the server is gone so the game doesn't work. The company hasn't gone under so that excuse doesn't fly either.

Give me back my game 2K and Gearbox, there is no world where taking away my ability to install and play my legitimate physical copy is okay.

[Aythadis]

Not gonna lie, I never even heard of the transfer tool till they removed it. Not that it really mattered to me as I bought Borderlands on PS3 when it came out. Kind of glad I didn't buy the PC version since it had this securom garbage on it, seeing how I didn't have internet at that time.

[Rellim]

"an inconvenience"

more like highway robbery, lmao

[Treyno123]

That's going to be a class action lawsuit they're destined to lose. They can point to anything in ToS they want, there is no way a jury doesn't find this to have 'shocked the conscience' and that's a loophole no contract wording can cover.

[HollowLight]

Originally posted by Eyescream:

Yeah it sucks. But you can buy the digital download on amazon for 7.50. it includes GOTY AND enhanced. Get it now!

why pay again? are you insane?

Originally posted by 陰茎王:

"an inconvenience"

more like highway robbery, lmao

anti-consumer code = legal scam.

[scorpios_corz]

I think it's PATHETIC, first WHO KNEW about the conversion tool before BL3 was announced (NOT ME) wasn't made aware of it till the day they shut the tool down. I have the full GOTY retail from years ago and now to be told I can not update it to the newest version cause of this BS red tape crap with 2K, gearbox and steam. Love all you morons that say 'you had years to do it', would have been great to actually been told of this tool LONG BEFORE HAND and to shut it down WHY, so scabby steam can make me pay for a game I already OWN just for the new UPDATE - Talk about being an A R S E H O L E to your client base is a bloody understatement just reopen the TOOL you TOOLS and stop being pedantic scabs, why should I pay AUS$40 from steam for a game I paid AUS$50 for already years ago, let me put simply - GO F % @ K yourselves

[Tsuki Zero]

That's not how things works in the first place.
For starters, I'll narrow down the issues the tool had:
1. It authenticated with a server (I think Gamespy?)
2. There were people who illegally redeemed Borderlands via it
3. Was it removed this late or earlier?

[scorpios_corz]

So their useless programming is OUR problem is it, gamespy was just a multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games, it didn't MAKE THE GAME, so why should it have the monopoly on a game they DIDN'T CREATE. So why are we the people whom paid a fairly for a game excluded from being able to actually have a PATCH that updates the RETAIL Versions, why was it only subjected to digital copies brought after. Most of us only found out about the conversion tool after they announced the new BL GOTY enhanced PATCH, which SHOCK HORROR steam decided to disable the tool that exact same day (literary). All I hear are EXCUSES and well to be forced to pay excess of $90+ total for a content PATCH IS PATHETIC - couldn't care who's BS it is gamespy, steam, 2K or gearbox for that matter this should have been addressed long before they even said anything about the new content patch, gamespy should have informed EVERYONE of this and yeah THEY NEVER DID!

[Tsuki Zero]

Simple: They needed to make sure that people weren't hacking or pirating, Gamespy said "I'll help!" and screwed them over.

Also, tone down, you are sounding like an edgy Youtube Reviewer.

[Corben]

Ranting here in the thread is of course a way to ventilate your anger. I'm not sure if 2k or gearbox is following this thread though.

But you need to reach out to them and tell them you have this problem. In a normal tone of course. The more people complain, the higher our chances are they find a different solution. Maybe via the DLC code in the GOTY retail version. But that's up to them.

I guess they don't do anything, if there aren't a significant number of gamers complaining.
And with complaining I mean not insulting them. Tell them you are disappointed and angry, but insults won't help. At the moment if feels like here are just a few dozens of people writing, so I have no idea how many people are affected and bothering. But a few dozens won't make them move, I'm afraid.

[Tsuki Zero]

If anything it was your fault for not redeeming SOONER. I redeemed mine the moment I put it on PC.

[darthokkata]

Originally posted by Tsukiyomaru Zero:

If anything it was your fault for not redeeming SOONER. I redeemed mine the moment I put it on PC.

This is pretty tone deaf and shows you don't understand the situation.

The option to redeem it on Steam wasn't available until five years after the game was released.

The tool wasn't announced and was quietly put out without any attempt to make people aware of it, a lot of people didn't even find out that it ever existed until after it was taken down.

How many games do you pay attention to for quiet updates that no one announces five years after you bought and played them?

A lot of people haven't had it installed in nearly ten years. The upcoming sequel prompted a lot of people to install the game again to play through it again before it comes out, only to discover that their disks don't work and that the only legitimate workaround has been disabled for no good reason.

People aren't able to install and play the version they have of the game because of this nonsense. It's not that they didn't give out free stuff to certain people, it's that they took away what people paid for because of some stupid marketing thing for a remaster.

People who buy physical copies of games tend to do it so this exact situation doesn't happen.

I have numerous physical copies of games from the '90s and early '00s that I can still install and play on any PC to this day. I'm still using the same .wad files to play Doom that I bought in 1993.

Borderlands came out before everything was a Steam Key. It was an era where when you bought a game on a disk, the disk actually contained a copy of the game that you expected to be able to play indefinitely as long as you owned that physical copy.

A lot of people don't care about the remaster and just want the game they paid for to work without having to rebuy it so they can play it again, which again, is exactly why they bought it on a physical disk in the first place.

[greysondn]

OH MY GOD I FOUND WHERE THEY ANNOUNCED IT

https://support.2k.com/hc/en-us/articles/202552173--PC-Borderlands-GameSpy-Shutdown-and-Conversion-Tool

[greysondn]

Also without specifically linking to piracy, here's some notes on things to try if you're ***not*** running Windows 10 to get it running again. https://www.howtogeek.com/230773/how-to-play-pc-games-that-require-safedisc-or-securom-drm-on-windows-10-8.1-8-7-and-vista/

You could try selfsigning the securom drivers in Win10:
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/play-games-safedisc-securerom-drm-windows-10/

And there's always the option of a No-CD crack, but ironically, I can't link you to it (it's easily findable via Google) which will disable the Securom checks on the disk and should make it installable again.

[greysondn]

Piracy sites offer a few more interesting facts. The only protection on the original binaries were apparently SecuROM v7 and Securom DFA. Both of those have known bypass tools; again, ironically can't link you, again there are well known workarounds for them.

[greysondn]

So I'm an indie game dev and this is one of those morally grey areas, so I'd like to follow up that with just a few more simple things here.

This information, conceivably, is enough to make piracy *as easy as looking up what I'm telling you on Google*. I'm not really one hundo comfortable with that, but I started in the homebrew scene and Nintendo's response to the R4/M3 really left a sour taste in the mouth of anyone into homebrew. When you talk about "this is some people's first exposure to console game development", it becomes a very fine, fine line and that doesn't leave you.

Please *do not pirate the game*. That sends the wrong message and that is not at all what I would encourage you to do.

The DMCA provides a safe harbor for games which are obtained on disc and no longer have authentication services available to them... if the games were obtained legally in the first place. *If you actually own the game, legally, on disc, you are okay under the DMCA to install a No-CD patch or to bypass the SecuROM checks*. SecuROM was disabled in Windows Vista/7 after a major security vulnerability was located in it. It is, by definition, an authentication service which is no longer available.

My point is this: Feel free to make your game playable. There is nothing they can do. It's just extremely bad karma to link to piracy tools to fix your own game. I would encourage Gearbox/2k to do it anyway, but that's another story entirely. The entire reason I can't do it (as I keep saying, ironically) is because it could conceivably be used for piracy - even on Steam - and that is a violation of the standards on Steam itself.

Feeling cute, might post it on my Github later, I'dunno.