The digital rights management scheme built into the PC version of Gears of War has a rather severe unintended side-effect: It locks out legitimate users after a certain date. Originally designed to thwart would-be software pirates, the DRM prohibits use of the game by anyone whose computer reports that the date is later than January 28, 2009, reports Ars Technica. As the current date, is January 30, this leaves many Gears fans unable to use the software they paid for. Epic Games has been made aware of the problem via the maelstrom of angry comments on the game's official forums, though so far the only response the developer has been able to offer is "We have been notified of the issue and are working with Microsoft to get it resolved." As Ars points out, the irony here is that those gamers who downloaded pirated copies of the game instead of purchasing it remain unaffected by the DRM. Source Another reason to hate DRM, my legit copy of the game on PC is indeed dead yet pirated copys are still playing fine with the bonus of not needing the DVD in your system to play. Apparently putting the date back on your pc’s clock a few days will fix the problem.
I'm just waiting for a fanboy to come along and call this a gameplay feature and mention the mothers of those who pirate it