DRM screws up PC version of Gears of War

ARS Technica reports about another DRM fiasco, this time it's related to Gears of War. Gamers are enraged because they discovered this week that the DRM of Gears of War has a built-in shut off date: the digital certificate expires on January 28, 2009.

Gamers who tried to play Gears of War on the PC Thursday ran into a slight snag: it seems that the digital certificate that allows the game to run expired on January 28, 2009. Basically that means if you keep your PC's clock up to date, you can no longer play the game. The official Epic forum is ablaze with complaints about this issue, as the still-kicking community becomes enraged.

"I had this problem this evening, I had to change the date and time (from PM to AM) and I am able to get in just fine," one frustrated gamer posted. "I also changed it back to the current date and time and it didn't work. Change it back to yesterday AM and it works fine... EPIC games won't be on my list anytime soon...."

Epic Games is aware of the issue and says they're working with Microsoft to get it resolved. Until then, the only way to run the game is to change your system time.