Those still playing the PC version of the original Gears of War were greeted on Jan. 28 with a slight problem: they couldn’t play the game. More specifically, an error prevented them from accessing the game saying, “You cannot run the game with modified executable code. Please reinstall the game.” Upon which, users have reported that reinstalling did not fix the issue.

After being reported on several places including Epic’s forums, the problem was acknowledged by Epic on their forums saying, “We have been notified of the issue and are working with Microsoft to get it resolved.” It was assumed that the source of the problem was the DRM that came shipped with Gears of War.

It can now be confirmed however, according to Epic Games VP, Mark Rein that it is not the DRM that is at fault but instead the online cheat detection. “The online cheat detection features in Gears of War for Windows are based on digital signatures. Well, we made an embarrassing mistake: we signed the executable with a certificate that expired in a way that broke the game,” Rein told IGN. With that being said, the only known solution until the issue is resolved is to set back the date on your computer before Jan. 28. Rein continued, “We’re working with Microsoft to re-sign the binaries properly, and hope to have this fixed very soon. We know how much this situation sucks, and we apologize for the inconvenience.” Well, at least it wasn’t the DRM.