Rooting is a way for many users to make their Android devices do what manufacturers could never dream of, but it can sometimes become an obstacle too, as those who bought Square Enix’s costly $13 RPG game, Chaos Rings, from the Play Store and tried to play it on their rooted devices saw the game refuse to run.
Square Enix initially gave no warning about this limitation, though they did come around and added it to the Play Store page of Chaos Rings, probably after multiple one-star reviews popped up pointing out this nuisance of a limitation. Ars Technica reached out to Square Enix about the issue, and got a reply that it would get fixed in an update next week. I have seen a similar case happening with the game Homerun Battle, but in that case the limitation was put in after an update more than a year after the game’s release, but the developers were at least sincere enough to put in the warning immediately and also removed the limitation a couple of weeks later.
A post on the XDA Developer forums mentions that the game checks whether the device is rooted on starting up (the post also provides a workaround to make the game work), indicating that Square Enix might have had reason to deliberately put in this “issue” in the game. Really Square Enix, just because we root our devices doesn’t mean we are evil beings, and we expect a game to work when we shell out $13 for it.
So if you have already bought the game and have a rooted device, wait for a few days for the update to come along, or badger Square Enix via email and ask them to provide a refund immediately. You can also use the workaround mentioned on the XDA post in the meantime in order to play the game.
Those on non-rooted devices can download the game from the Play Store by visiting the link below.
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