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You couldn’t play Final Fantasy 7 today because of DRM

final fantasy 7 drm

There are plenty of players longing for the “good old days” of gaming, back before constant patches, DLC, and online-connected experiences. Luckily, the games of your youth still exist, and you can go back and play the classics even today, and even games as seminal as Final Fantasy VII are available on Steam for you to download and play today. That is, when the online DRM is functioning.

Check out the best old games on PC.

Some of Square Enix’s older games, including Final Fantasy VII and VIII, check in with the company’s servers on a loading screen before launch. If the game can’t make the connection, then it won’t launch, dropping players out with a “connection error” message. Square Enix’s servers went down for several hours today, meaning that players across the board weren’t able to load up the game.

A quick search suggests this isn’t the first time there’s been a widespread connection error with these games, but today’s was especially notable because both games are half off as part of a Square Enix sale on the Humble Store. Loading up a new purchase of an old game only to find server errors isn’t the strongest first impression.

Both games appear to be back up and running as of this writing, with hundreds of players grinding their way through the respective adventures of Cloud and Squall. If you really want to escape a constant need for an internet connection, you may want to stick with your OG PlayStation discs. Or just wait for the FF7 remake, so you can at least enjoy prettier visuals along the way.