Pheace: I think the real question here is whether there is any actual technical limitation that required games that use Galaxy Multiplayer matchmaking to only work on accounts that have the game activated.
If there isn't, then the purpose is account based DRM. And whether that only applies to multiplayer and not single player really wouldn't take away from the fact that it's a form of DRM at that point.
I don't think there should be. From a data handling view, the save games and multiplayer statics need to be unbound from ownership.
That could be a problematic. You either need to create an extra table to handle games "played" by account, or add a field to games_owned table that denotes the account has played the game but doesn't own it.
It is definately a back end database problem.
mechmouse: Unless its changed, that game can be launched without Galaxy
Grargar: For single-player, yes. Multiplayer requires Galaxy.
mechmouse: and played on a Local LAN.
Grargar: LAN has been stripped from this version of the game.
I've just created a local LAN server. Need to wait for laptop to install game to test it. But I'm sure you're wrong.