Deus Ex: The Fall Jailbreak DRM Will Be Removed

Eidos Montreal has announced that they're removing the DRM restriction included with the launch version of Deus Ex: The Fall. This restriction prevents gamers with jailbroken iOS devices from properly playing the game.

If you have a jailbroken device, you can buy and run The Fall normally. However, once you start playing, you'll notice something's awry: you can't fire guns. A dialog box informs you says that, "We are sorry but you can't fire on jailbroken devices."

Jailbreaking, if you're not aware, is the process of removing Apple's restrictions on iOS devices. This allows you to run software that hasn't been authorized by Apple for inclusion in the official App Store. Some people do it to so they can unlock carrier-locked phones and switch to a different carrier. Some use it to further customize their devices with new features. Others use it for illegal purposes like downloading ROMs.

Regardless of what you do with the phone after its jailbroken, the actual process of jailbreaking your phone is legal in the United States. This made The Fall's restriction really clumsy and shortsighted. It was preventing players who actually bought the game from enjoying it.

Eidos has thankfully updated the App Store so that gamers who haven't bought The Fall yet will know that it doesn't work properly on jailbroken devices. Furthermore, they're currently working on the update to remove the restriction. They plan to release this update in the near future.

"It was never our intention to impact the enjoyment or experience of our fans and legitimate customers, and so we would like to offer our sincere apologies to those affected," Eidos said. "We agree that removing restrictions on jailbroken devices is the right thing to do - we could have handled this differently, but we hope that you won’t stay mad at us. The upcoming update to the game will ensure that everyone who wants to play Deus Ex: The Fall on a supported device can do so, without issue."

The funny thing about this DRM is that it had the opposite of its intended effect. The developers wanted to discourage jailbreaking because they consider it tantamount to piracy. However, all they did with this snafu is remind everyone that jailbreaking your phone is legal.

While you wait for the official patch, there's a way to get around the restriction. According to an iMore forum thread, downloading XCON from Cydia will do the trick. XCON is an app that prevents other applications from noticing that you're playing on a jailbroken app.

The Fall is a brand-new Deus Ex adventure created specifically for mobile devices. It continues the story of novel Deus Ex: Icarus Effect. Former SAS member Ben Saxon must investigate a conspiracy regarding human augmentation. The game is said to mix stealth, combat and hacking just like the console/PC editions of Deus Ex. The reviews have been fairly positive (Metacritic rating of 74) so it's unfortunate that Eidos managed to turn off so many gamers to The Fall with their DRM policy.