Suddenly, the Gears Stopped Turning

CD-keys and game authorization codes are not only annoying for most PC gamers, they’re generally accepted as standard procedure. In fact, they’re so standard that you find yourself letting your guard down — forgetting that titles under the banner of “Games for Windows” should not be so readily trusted; after all, Windows is in the title.

So, when you purchase a computer game, you expect its CD-key to remain valid forever — not expire randomly, as is the case with Gears of War. Those who 0wn with the PC version have been temporarily barred from playing their copy of the game since late Wednesday night — and demand an answer as to why.

This will most likely be the method used to destroy the error.

Many have been receiving messages reading, “the certificate has expired or is not yet valid,” or “you cannot run the game with modified executable code.” In a little over 24 hours, the GoW message boards have become saturated with inquisitive fans, and calm, collected replies from Epic: “We have been notified of the issue and are working with Microsoft to get it resolved.” It seems that way too many are experiencing this problem for it to be a minor fix, though some have already found a temporary solution of their own: set your system’s internal clock back (thus tricking the digital expiration component). But who wants to have their computer incessantly declare that it’s still 2008?

As they work towards a solution, let’s just hope that Microsoft cares about Gears of War as much as the developers and fans do — so as to avoid another lengthy fan grudge towards Microsoft (i.e., as if this were actually possible).