Remedy Entertainment implements a rather comical anti-piracy measure in Quantum Break that forces players, and Jack Joyce, to wear an eye-patch in-game.
Ever since the dawn of gaming, piracy has been a major issue for publishers and developers alike. Admittedly, it's a problem that's become worse as the Internet has evolved – making it easier to obtain almost any source of media without paying – but developers have gone about implementing some creative ways of combating such issues. Remedy Games is one such firm that guilts pirates through comedic means, and its recently released title Quantum Break is no exception.
Apparently, those that have pirated the game will boot it up to find the title's main character, Jack Joyce (as played by Shawn Ashmore), wearing an eye-patch. This sly move is meant to call out those that have, evidently, refused to pay for the software, and it's a rather smart way of going about doing so. As it turns out, those who have legitimately purchased Quantum Break on PC can also encounter the eye-patch if they're eager to see it first-hand.
As first reported by Reddit user disasterstorm, the pirate-inspired version of Jack Joyce will appear on Windows computers if players simply log out of the Windows Store before booting up the game on PC. Doing so will cause Quantum Break to be treated like a pirated copy, and fans will then be able to play through the campaign as one-eyed Jack. While this is clearly not an intentional side effect, Remedy Games has at least provided fans with a comedic (albeit tricky overly backdoor) alternate costume for the game's protagonist.
Eurogamer has also taken the liberty of pointing out that the official FAQ for Quantum Break features a reference to this occurring, with the issue in question reading as "Jack looks like a pirate." This is simply met with a response stating that the "DRM might've accidentally triggered. Reboot the game and eat a lot of vitamin C." So, if players have accidentally pirate-ified the time-bending third-person shooter, then there's at least a process they can use to give Jack his eye back.
It's no secret that we quite enjoyed Quantum Break, as is evident by our review of the game. Even then, there's no denying the initial backlash that accompanied news of the title's PC release amongst the Xbox community. Even if a handful of consumers don't believe that a dual platform release has served the interest of Microsoft or its Xbox One console, there's no denying that Shawn Ashmore can rock the crap out of an eye-patch – something we probably wouldn't have ever known if it weren't for this Windows port.
Quantum Break is available now for Xbox One and Windows PC.