Deus Ex: The Fall disables guns on jailbroken devices
UPDATE: Square Enix apologises for not warning people, promises to remove the restriction.
UPDATE: Square Enix has apologised for not communicating the jailbroken restriction in advance and plans to rectify the matter with an update "in the near future" that will remove it.
The statement failed to address why this restriction was ever added in the first place. I've asked about this and was told that the mobile team was already off for the weekend but that my query would be passed along. I'll update as I find out more.
The full statement Square Enix sent us is as follows:
“We have not been clear in our communication earlier this week when we launched Deus Ex: The Fall. We did not state clearly that the game would not support jailbroken devices and so we will be switching this off via an update, so that all the supported iOS devices will be able to play the game in the near future."
"We feel it's the right thing to do in this situation and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. No customer should be out of pocket when we were not clear from the start, so we'll get the game updated as soon as possible so that everyone who wants to play Deus Ex: The Fall can do regardless of whether their device is jailbroken or not. As soon as this update is live we will communicate this via the Eidos Montreal Community channels.”
Original Story: Sci-fi adventure Deus Ex: The Fall may envision its cyberpunk dystopia a little too well as the game won't allow those playing on jailbroken devices to fire their guns.
"We are sorry but you can't fire on jailbroken devices," says a pop-up message during the game's tutorial, as captured by Reddit user KipEnyan. Several user reviews on the App Store have confirmed this to be the case.
This is especially egregious because this happens during a part of the tutoral - shown below - where you have to shoot some guards with a tranquilizer in order to cue the next sequence.
"This is massively offensive on Square Enix's behalf," KipEnyan explained on the Reddit thread they began. "The obvious implication is that all jailbreakers are pirates who more than likely pirated this game. I paid good money for this game and Squeenix feels it's okay to break my game because I prefer to customize my iPhone to my liking."
"$7 for a game that doesn't work on jail broken devices. No warning in App Store description," said iTunes user Moscowice in their review. "No warning - one star, would give zero if I could. Want my money back!"
"I bought this game and can't play it because I'm jailbroken," railed iTunes user Naruto219, who also demanded their money back.
The US Copyright Office has previously ruled that jailbreaking a phone is perfectly legal, though it didn't extend the same courtesy to tablets. While, jailbreaking a phone will often void its warranty, it doesn't mean that the phone's user is pirating their apps. As such, the game is assuming some people stole it when they really paid the full price of $6.99.
I've contacted Square about the issue and will update as I hear back.
