Some games like to combat piracy with DRM, a code unique to a game that was legitimately purchased, while other games like to get a little more creative with their piracy prevention. With Serious Sam 3: BFE, for example, developer Croteam decided that DRM was less of a deterrent than something like an invincible, super fast, scorpion-like creature that does nothing but try to kill Sam the second piracy is detected.

Serious Sam has always been injected with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and, as such, it makes sense that something like this would be found in BFE. Sure, this isn’t the best source of piracy prevention since it actually allows gamers to load up the game, and, in some respects, encourages piracy for those who want to experience the scorpion, but it’s certainly the most creative.

A couple months back players were met with a similarly unbeatable enemy in Dark Souls, but most assumed that was simply part of the game rather than a deterrent to gamers who had procured an early copy of the game, which is what it really was.

Check out one player’s experience with the scorpion enemy in the video below:

 httpv://youtu.be/e91q5BtlxK0

Obviously piracy is a problem in all mediums, but its prevalence in video games has developers and publishers working around the clock to find new ways to combat it. With Serious Sam 3: BFE being available not just on consoles but on PC, unfortunately, lends itself perfectly to Internet pirates, and thus this scorpion attack was born.

We’ve never quite experienced something like this before, both because piracy is something we don’t condone, and because creatively combating pirates almost feels like an oxymoron. Now this doesn’t speak to the quality of Serious Sam 3: BFE, but it does have us intrigued to see what funny situations legitimate players can get themselves into.

Have you ever encountered something like this in another game? Do you think that if the developer puts in something clever like an invincible enemy that it is more or less of a deterrent than DRM?

Serious Sam 3: BFE is available now for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.

Source: Boing Boing