By RPS on February 17th, 2010 at 7:30 pm.
We barely need to say anything here (but we will), as where we’re going we don’t need words. We only need righteous fury. PC Gamer have experienced the controversial new Ubisoft DRM first-hand, in the PC build of Assassin’s Creed 2. We already thought the paranoid new copy protection was pretty bad, requiring as it did an online check everytime you played and giving you a hard time if you tried to launch it offline.
What we didn’t think – what we didn’t believe they’d be mad enough to do – was that it’d kick you out of the game if your net connection dropped for any reason.
Or, as PCG’s Tom Francis rightly observes, even if Ubi’s servers happen to have a funny turn. (A troubling precedent for which has already been set by EA – Alec experienced something similar yesterday, when Bioware/EA’s servers suffering extended maintenance meant all his Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 DLC was deemed unauthorised, which in turn prevented him from loading any savegames which used that DLC. The point being: don’t punish your customers because you’ve screwed up).
Incredibly, the worst is indeed true in Assassin’s Creed 2 – and, it appears, will be for Settlers 7 too. No matter what you’re doing, no matter what the reason, the game will refuse to let you continue playing if it decides you’re not online. You’re dumped right back to a menu, losing any progress made since the last checkpoint. If you don’t have a constant, uninterrupted internet connection, you can’t play. Let’s list some of the reasons you might drop your net connection, shall we? Router crash, ISP problems, cat playing with the cable, microwave muddling your wi-fi connection, train going into a tunnel when you’re on 3G, Windows having a networking befuddlement, someone else in the house torrenting the bandwidth dry…
Incredible. In-cred-i-ble. It’s like someone taking away your food mid-meal because your napkin’s fallen on the floor. It makes us want to pull an expression we’re not physically capable of, like this. It’s also worth noting this is a day on which EA have turned off multiplayer servers for games that are only a year old – so it’s hard to have faith that Ubi’s activation servers will be around for many years hence. Hopefully they wouldn’t turn them off without first releasing an offline mode patch – but, given how unforgiving this system currently is, we’re hardly going to leap to such positive presumptions.
While we’ve not always gone full-pelt protest against excessive DRM, this is open contempt for paying customers, and, quite frankly, it’s the most valid reason yet for PC gamers to call a massed boycott. We’ll certainly be ignoring it with all the passion we can muster.
17/02/2010 at 19:32 Furniture Merchant says:
Dohohoho.
17/02/2010 at 19:33 bhlaab says:
Are… are ubisoft stupid?
30/11/2010 at 01:08 Sonic says:
Oh, this is going to be a doozy.
21/04/2011 at 11:13 resimler says:
:)))
17/02/2010 at 19:35 Flameberge says:
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Are they actually totally insane? Honestly, us “gamers”, if I must use that term, are totally useless at boycotts, but I agree, some sort of line has been crossed here. This is utter madness, not to mention entirely unfair.
During my law degree I never really touched this sort of law, as I find it dull as hell, but in no other consumer transaction is this sort of nonsense allowed. Why do we have to put up with it? I’m not sure we ‘have’ to, it would be interesting to see what someone who knows this area of the law properly would make of this.
17/02/2010 at 19:35 Seniath says:
BRB, getting popcorn.
Oh, this is going to be a doozy.
17/02/2010 at 19:35 BoycottLOL says:
While we’ve not always gone full-pelt protest against excessive DRM, this is open contempt for paying customers, and, quite frankly, it’s the most valid reason yet for PC gamers to call a massed boycott.
Eh, and we know how those turn out…
17/02/2010 at 19:36 LewieP says:
It’s a good job that this DRM will be unhackable, or everyone would just pirate their games.
17/02/2010 at 19:36 Drexer says:
Dear Ubisoft, please refer yourself to the shape my finger is currently making.
And to think I was going to buy two copies of AC2. It must be noted that one of them was a gift for my cousin which only gets intermittent web access, so this was just a stupidly big decision by Ubisoft.
17/02/2010 at 19:36 Tom says:
I just can’t believe it. Who on earth thought this was a good idea?
I’m gonna torrent the nuts off this one, then whip up a quick vid with fraps and post it in Ubi’s forums with a big Thanks For The Free Game!
17/02/2010 at 19:57 subversus says:
I think that some game code might be running on their servers. So it could be not as easy as it seems.
17/02/2010 at 21:25 Tom says:
I’ve no doubt someone will figure out a way around it.
17/02/2010 at 19:36 jsutcliffe says:
I was afraid of this. No Assassin’s Creed 2 for me then, which is a shame as I’d really been looking forward to it. I could always get it for 360, but that’s still rewarding Ubisoft for this utterly back-asswards approach to DRM. I appreciate the need to counter piracy, but this isn’t the way to do it.
I love this idea of it kicking you back to your last checkpoint whenever your Internet connection dies. At peak times, my Internet connection can drop for a while every 5-10 minutes. Fun!
17/02/2010 at 19:37 Twyst says:
Wow. That is a huge pain in the ass. I thought it was bad when i couldnt play Mass Effect 2 the night i bought it because the servers were down!
17/02/2010 at 19:38 Novotny says:
I’m all for an organised total boycott of ubisoft releases. We simply should not accept this.
17/02/2010 at 19:38 Legionary says:
They don’t care about boycotts. It suits their agenda just fine. These companies don’t want sucess, they want failure because failure justifies their decisions.
Nobody’s buying their game? It’s because everyone’s pirating it! Pirates are killing the PC games industry. They need to tighten their DRM in response to the threat.
These companies will drive themselves out of the PC market. It’s a loss for all involved, but it can’t be stopped. They’re in a cycle of cause and effect. Remember how the music industry stabbed itself in the face and is still struggling to right the situation they themselves caused.
I don’t have much patience for DRM arguments. What will be will be.
17/02/2010 at 19:48 itchyeyes says:
That’s what makes this all the more frustrating to us watching from the sidelines. This has all already happened before with the music industry, and the results of this kind of reaction are plain for anyone to see. The fact that not just the games industry, but the film and publishing industries are so keen to follow down that same path is incomprehensible to me.
17/02/2010 at 20:07 Vinraith says:
@Legionary
It is almost as though this were a ploy to increase piracy rates to the point where they could simply justify pulling off the platform entirely, isn’t it?
17/02/2010 at 20:15 Nalano says:
I shed no tears for the music industry, because I am not beholden to the music industry for the simple reason that the music industry is not music itself. I shed no tears for games companies that shoot themselves in the foot like this, because their DRM is not the only place they have stuck it to their customers.
They like to demonize their audience for making that “no pirating ever happens, but if pirating does happen it’s your fault, and if you try and stop us we’ll pirate your game on principle” justification, as if they are catering to an unpleasable base, but it’s primarily that unpleasable base that gave them all their money in the first place.
People do what works best for them. Pirating is a direct response to high prices coupled with mediocre content. Napster was the logical response to the MTV generation of $18 albums of manufactured artists’ dreck. Bittorrent is the logical response to C&C3.
The companies continue to make an antagonistic stance with their consumer base because they cannot admit fault for their short-sighted business practices. If they wish to succeed, they will have to give their audience a reason to want to support them again. Apple did that with iTunes. Valve did that with Steam.
Anything less is suicide, and a stupid, pointless suicide at that.
17/02/2010 at 20:26 Lilliput King says:
Pirating is a direct response to high prices coupled with mediocre content.
Mmm, no, piracy is a direct response to people’s desire to get shit for free.
If the quality of said shit was poor enough that they did not, in fact, want it, they wouldn’t pirate it. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. It’s a terrible thing to do, for eachother and for the industry, not some high-minded campaign for liberal thought.
17/02/2010 at 20:37 Nalano says:
Then it’s funny how music is still being produced, considering just how many pirates are still out there, Lilliput King. It’s funny how games are still being produced, despite a full decade of online pirating.
I’ve pirated a lot of games, for various reasons: Because they didn’t produce shareware or demos and the reviewers are all in their pocket. Because I lost my original manual with the serial number. Because the CD got scratched. Because the CD check took a full three minutes. Because SecuROM bluescreened my computer after finding CD burning software. Because the average game price went up 50% but my income didn’t.
I’ve also bought a lot of games, for various reasons: Because it got legitimate acclaim from gamers. Because the price went down. Because it was easier to buy than pirate. Because I wanted to see that company succeed.
Money is not an insurmountable obstacle. People will spend money not to go through flaming hoops. That said, if the flaming hoops are hotter after having spent that money, then any rational person is going to go and say, “hey, only people who spent money on this game have to suffer the nonsense of these activation servers when there’s a Day 0 hack already out to loop the request back to yourself.” And pirating wins again.
Edit: It’s really just a simple logical conclusion to the parameters: “Nothing today is worth what they’re charging, but I still want to play games.”
17/02/2010 at 21:17 Theory says:
It’s unwise to project your own personality onto the population at large, Nalano.
17/02/2010 at 21:27 Nalano says:
I’ve only worked in the music industry for eight years, Theory.
Paying 60 bucks for a seven hour game is the same as paying 18 bucks for only one good song is the same as paying 20 bucks for an Adam Sandler movie. You can’t help but feel that you just got robbed.
17/02/2010 at 22:25 Lilliput King says:
Paying 60 bucks for a seven hour game is the same as paying 18 bucks for only one good song is the same as paying 20 bucks for an Adam Sandler movie. You can’t help but feel that you just got robbed.
That’s by the by. Something being not worth the asking price doesn’t morally justify trying to get it for free.
It just doesn’t.
Incidentally, saying “Well why is the music industry is still here, guy!?” is ridiculous. Something can be harmful to the industry without utterly destroying it. Do you think otherwise?
It doesn’t matter if you do, because it’s beside the point. Many of your reasons for pirating a game are fair, though I’m not sure we can really count it as piracy if you already own the game concerned. But I find it astonishing how you can justify pirating a game on the grounds that it was too expensive. If you can’t afford it, just don’t get it. Getting it for free without the owner’s consent (carefully avoiding ‘stealing’ here) – how can that be right?
Again, Nalano. It just isn’t.
18/02/2010 at 04:35 XerxesQados says:
If it rains in the desert, the guys selling water are shit out of luck. That’s life.
The Internet has caused it to rain information. Music, movies, books, and, yes, games, are all, when you get down to it, information. They used to require physical products to transport, and thus the publishers, distributors, and retailers could all reasonably expect to control their proliferation.
But physical products are irrelevant now; as technology has progressed, any artist, musician, filmmaker, game developer, or corporate representative thereof cannot expect control over their work’s distribution. It is a delusion on par with believing that the Sun revolves around the Earth. (A belief that, analogously, was illegal to disagree with for a period of time after it was disproven)
It is not immoral to have zero patience for a delusional person or group of people. Perhaps you’re a good Samaritan if you try to educate them, but there is no logical or moral reason to indulge them in their deluded fantasies.
Furthermore, publishers are in a business. In business, if the market reality changes, you change your business model to compensate for it or you die. It’s that simple.
19/02/2010 at 07:24 Nalano says:
What Xerxes said, Lilliput.
The product (or “license” bullshit they propagate) isn’t worth the price they’re charging. There is insufficient desire for the product at the price listed, but alternatives abound. Filesharing’s easier than CD-swapping, but the principle is still there.
The music industry as it was – the CD album format with a single’s worth of content – was a cabal. That cabal was broken once people found a viable alternative. The music industry’s inability to adapt is not the consumer’s fault. You can’t go on saying how it’s the consumer’s fault the businessman failed to realize just how untenable his business model was, like it’s our job to line his pockets.
Many people have pointed out that it’s still very much a viable industry. iTunes took over and is beating out pirates not for price (and not by DRM) but by service. Steam is beating out pirates by service. We buy water in bottles, Lilliput King. Water is the single most common product in this world, and clean water is as simple as boiling it. Yet people spend a dollar a quart on it, because it’s convenient.
We now have the cheapest, most powerful information system in the world. That’s a revolutionary boon for anyone willing to cash in on its convenience, and lo and behold those people are succeeding. Stop blaming the pirates, Lilliput, and start seeing the industry for what it is.
19/02/2010 at 09:54 Lilliput King says:
I’m not mourning the death of the publishers. Times are changing, and they need to keep up if they want to survive. You both make that point elegantly. I’m not, in actual fact, ‘blaming the pirates,’ either.
But they aren’t our champions. Like Wulf further down in the post, you seem to be saying that people pirate because the product isn’t worth the asking price, but the evidence (90% piracy rate on WoG, almost nothing on consoles) suggests people pirate because it’s easy. Publishers need to combat this by providing a better service, or by making piracy almost impossible. Both ways have been proven to work. One way we will like. The other, we will not.
Piracy is still morally unjustifiable. Publishers need to shape up and protect themselves because people do morally unjustifiable things. But we won’t necessarily end up in the best of all possible worlds as a result of the whole affair, and as such, we really shouldn’t cuddle up to pirates. They don’t have our best interests at heart.
17/02/2010 at 19:39 Psychopomp says:
And pirates won’t have to deal with that bullshit!
17/02/2010 at 19:39 Lim-Dul says:
Ha, ha – and yet again the ones that will be “profiting” from this DRM the most will be software pirates. I bet the protection will be cracked before the game is even officially released. Customers will have to suffer while the DRM will do exactly nothing to prevent piracy – perhaps even raise it. When will publishers understand that the simplest and least troublesome DRM solution is ALWAYS the best one if you have to have DRM at all. People who don’t want to buy your game won’t buy it no matter what and will know where to find cracks – a simple system might just discourage the few guys in the “grey zone” – anything beyond that is madness.
Retarded things like that make me side with StarDock a lot more even if it leads to Demigod-like fiascos from time to time.
17/02/2010 at 19:39 wiper says:
There are no words.
17/02/2010 at 19:40 gryffinp says:
Jesus. Now I feel bad for getting Assassins’ Creed 2 for Christmas and playing it on my little brother’s PS3.
Nice job Ubisoft, you have made me so appalled that I regret having already played your game. I don’t care that that’s an illogical response, I just hate this so much.
17/02/2010 at 19:40 Smurfy says:
Golly, this “Francis Tom” character sure knows his stuff!
17/02/2010 at 19:44 Alec Meer says:
He and Edward Tims do make an excellent team.
17/02/2010 at 19:47 Flameberge says:
Not to mention Smithy Graham and Pearson O’Craig.
17/02/2010 at 19:42 PurpleSteve says:
EA are getting worse as each release passes. Oh, and if the servers are anywhere near as bad as they are on Skate 2 (360) then get ready for a LOT of disconnections.
18/02/2010 at 13:46 Optimaximal says:
EA != Ubisoft
17/02/2010 at 19:43 CC says:
Hahaha, I wonder how many times it’ll be illegally downloaded? I bet it will be the most pirated game ever.
17/02/2010 at 19:44 itchyeyes says:
I’m at a loss for words. Have we really reached this point? In a way, I sympathize with producers. I really do. There are large amounts of people out there using their product without paying for it, and there’s literally nothing they can do about it. That’s got to be a terrifying to them.
But this? This is not the solution to their problems. The games still get put on the torrent sites, and anyone interested in pirating them still can. If anything it compounds the problem by making illegitimate copies of their game even more appealing to people who would otherwise have been quite willing to buy it.
Whatever kind of twisted logic that is leading us down this path needs to be snuffed out, and fast.
17/02/2010 at 19:44 Spyglass says:
Its hard to believe a game company like ubi could take it so far…..whats next, your going to have to play with one of the game developers behind your right ear? This deserves a boycott for sure.
17/02/2010 at 19:44 standardman says:
PIRATE OUR GAME PLEASE.
17/02/2010 at 19:44 Sobric says:
Is this even legal?
What if I bought a copy of AC2, then if/when their server/my internet went down and my game stopped working, I were to promptly sue Ubisoft?
This seems like a huge blow to consumer rights, never mind PC gaming in general.
17/02/2010 at 19:50 DJ Phantoon says:
Consumers don’t have rights.
Not legally, anyways. Otherwise this would be illegal.
I boycotted Modern Warfare 2 (to the point I haven’t even watched the infamous Russian airport level) and shall be doing the same for any Ubisoft product.
To be fair, I didn’t care so much about Assassin’s Creed 1 and I can’t even think of any game they make I’d want otherwise.
17/02/2010 at 19:57 Flameberge says:
Um, consumers do have legal rights…
To know exactly what they are, if any, in this circumstance, would require a solicitor with far better knowledge of the various Sale of Goods and Provisions of Services acts, along with knowledge of other stautues like the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977, as well as how that all interelated with Copyright and intellectual property law, than I have managed to glean from 3 years of undergraduate lawyer-ing.
17/02/2010 at 20:29 Nathan says:
Digital consumer rights are a hideously complex thing largely uncodified under traditional consumer rights laws and virtually unexplored in case law. So it might be legal… but it might not.
Ubisoft would certainly claim that they sold the game whilst making it clear on the box that an active internet connection is required for online play (presuming that this is the case, but I can’t imagine they’d miss that out) and therefore the product was sold as described.
17/02/2010 at 19:45 skizelo says:
Goddamnit, I was looking forward to Beyond Good & Evil 2.
17/02/2010 at 20:13 jsutcliffe says:
@skizelo
Your likelihood of playing it probably hasn’t changed…
17/02/2010 at 19:45 medwards says:
I’m not saying these events vindicate internet nerd rage on DRM, but I think the crowd that normally shat on people who are angry over the every increasing intrusiveness of digital locks should maybe take a step back and consider that they were kind of being dicks too.
17/02/2010 at 19:45 Drakkheim says:
Damnit! I was really looking forward to Settlers!…
17/02/2010 at 19:46 Jimbo says:
The Ubisoft end of it will be emulated about 0.0000005 seconds after release. Pointless.
17/02/2010 at 19:46 Bogie says:
Well i’m in the military and serving on a ship with no net connection for my gaming laptop. So there is another no buy for me. I’ll have to download the cracked version so I can play it.
How retarded are these people?
Nothing like shooting yourself in the foot.
UBISOFT you can poke it I will not buy a game from you while you condone this crap.
17/02/2010 at 19:47 WilPal says:
This calls for the word “ludicrous” to be used.
Alas, thats ludicrous!
17/02/2010 at 19:47 Vinraith says:
Thanks for keeping a fire under this one, RPS. It’s completely unacceptable, and the only way there’s even a slim chance of Ubi coming around to reason is if the gaming press gets after them about this and makes it an issue. They’re impervious to all the customer howling in the world as long as they can console themselves that most customers don’t know/care about their little scheme, but the further the word about this insanity is spread the weaker that position becomes.
It’s a damn shame I won’t get to play Assassin’s Creed 2 because of this idiocy, though.
17/02/2010 at 19:57 Clovis says:
The boatloads of XBox 360 and PS3 copies provide them with plenty of console-ation, hurr hurr.
17/02/2010 at 19:47 MadMatty says:
thats pretty bad.
anyways the only game i might be wanting to get is Beyond Good and Evil 2- and why is the assassin white as a snowflake?
17/02/2010 at 19:48 You Be Soft! says:
Hrm. Will their future games offered through Steam also do this shit?
Was looking forward to Splinter Cell and Beyond Good & Evil sequel (if there ever is one)…not anymore.
17/02/2010 at 20:31 Nathan says:
Of course. Steam’s just a distribution platform…
17/02/2010 at 19:48 Mistah J says:
Commence laceration of multiple female canines.
There’s a reason offline mode (however half-assed) is incorporated into even Steam with all it’s Community “goodness”.
17/02/2010 at 19:48 l1ddl3monkey says:
THANKS, I INTEND TO.
Disappointed as my console type buddies tell me Ass Creed Eye Eye is the game the first one could have been and I was kind of wanting to play it.
I do have an X Box, but I’m not buying this (or anything else by Ubi) on principle now.
17/02/2010 at 19:49 Awesome Robot says:
The solution is simple.
1) Don’t buy the game
2) Rate the game 1 star on Amazon and explain why the DRM means this game is unplayable offline and is therefore broken.
3) Don’t pirate the game, or any other game. I know some people will tell you the opposite, and I agree that this just encourages piracy, but pirating the game will just make things worse. Don’t punish everyone who worked on the game, it’s not their fault. Just boycott the game until they release a patch that fixes the DRM issue.
17/02/2010 at 20:24 jsutcliffe says:
@awesome robot
Easy, tiger. People who post reviews of things that don’t own or haven’t experienced break the usefulness of customer reviews.
17/02/2010 at 20:27 Vinraith says:
@Jsutcliffe
I understand the sentiment, but in cases like this I disagree. The copy protection in this case represents a serious playability issue. Potential customers (who don’t read game press sites) need to be informed of those problems before they make a purchase. I shouldn’t have to buy the game to be able to tell people the game is broken. I already know the game is broken, Ubisoft told me so and I think they’re a reliable source on the matter.
17/02/2010 at 20:33 Eggy says:
Then UBI picks and chooses their statistics. If everyone pirates the game, they simply howl that piracy is running rampant and their DRM is necessary. If people refrain from pirating the game in order to try to reverse the process, they claim that their new DRM is working and was therefore justified.
Either way, we’re fucked.
17/02/2010 at 20:36 jsutcliffe says:
@vinraith
But you’re still not reviewing the product. You’re reviewing something you believe to be true about the product. I don’t think customer reviews are the correct venue for spreading that information.
17/02/2010 at 22:09 Flameberge says:
@jsutcliffe
I would have to respectfully disagree with you there. One would be reviewing the product: The DRM is an inescapable, and therefore inherent ‘feature’ of the game. It is therefore part of ‘the product’ being marketed to consumers – most of whom will not be the, how should I say, ‘enlightened’ individuals who post here, or on the PC Gamer forums – that consumers need to be aware of. No one else is going to tell middle aged Mrs. Smith that the new-fangled PC game she is buying for her nephew will not work unless he has constant internet connection.
Furthermore, stating what “you believe to be true about a game” essentially defines a review, surely. No review is actually the simple stating of ‘facts’, and in many ways, reviewing a game on amazon, to let purchasers know what they are getting in to is closer to being a factual statement than a subjective value judgment on the quality of the gameplay mechanics. It is rather the further condemnation of the DRM (Ha! Should be called Digital Rights Deprivation), that is a subjective opinion, and hence proper review of a feature of the product, and therefore is entirely valid as a review, in my humble opinion.
17/02/2010 at 23:39 MWoody says:
Awesome Robot, I don’t know if you are indeed a mechanical being, but you are indeed worthy of awe. Well said.
18/02/2010 at 16:04 jsutcliffe says:
On the topic of giving the game low ratings on Amazon as a response:
It’s a matter of experience. If you’ve not experienced something, what makes you think your opinion is accurate?
I have never been to the Grand Canyon. I understand it’s pretty sweet though. Am I qualified to write a review of what it’s like? I have been to canyons that are reputedly prettier and more impressive than the Grand Canyon. However, I don’t feel like I can say that they are a better destination.
I haven’t tried the Ubisoft DRM scheme, but I understand it’s a pain in the ass. Am I qualified to write a review of it? I have been subjected to other invasive DRM schemes that are reputedly less obnoxious than the Ubisoft DRM. However, I don’t feel like I can say that the Ubisoft thing is worse unless I experience it myself.
I understand your basic point — how is nice Mr. Anderson going to know little Jane’s game might not work for her? — and I also understand that the Amazon reviews are a convenient location to let
Cpt.Mr. Anderson know about potential issues, but there is the potential to mis-state the facts or exaggerate them or just be plain wrong if you have not had first-hand experience of the DRM and are relying on hearsay. That helps nobody.17/02/2010 at 19:49 The Diddler says:
>We only need righteous fury
I’m a born and raised Catholic, I’m full of self-righteous fury
17/02/2010 at 19:49 Smurfy says:
EA went through all of this years ago with The Great Spore Shitstorm of 2008. After that they released their games sans DRM on Steam and released deactivation tools – wasn’t perfect but it was better than the relentless public uproar that preceded it.
Ubisoft clearly didn’t watch and learn so now they too are going to have to be tied to a lamppost and raped until they learn their lesson.
17/02/2010 at 21:26 kromagg says:
Dude, Dragon Age (an EA game) and Mass Effect 2 (an EA game) BOTH require you to be online to play. Unless you don’t want any of the DLC including the one that is shipped with the game. So uhm, EA didn’t learn shit.
17/02/2010 at 23:31 Half says:
ME2 requires a single online authentication, not permanent internet connection to install DLC, which is fairly reasonable considering it is downloadable content.
Dragon Age allowed you to play in offline mode as well, after a single online authentication.
17/02/2010 at 19:50 HermitUK says:
It boggles the mind that noone who worked on this ever realised how staggeringly stupid this is.
17/02/2010 at 19:51 Jerome Koehler says:
This is just totally insane. I promised I would boycott any and all Ubisoft games once this crap is released and it looks like I will be following through. What in the world where they thinking?
17/02/2010 at 19:51 Velvet Fist, Iron Glove says:
I guess I’ll be giving Assassin’s Creed II a miss then.
Or rather, I’ll just wait until it’s out on GOG in 5 years time. ;)
17/02/2010 at 19:51 TCM says:
Ordinarily, I see people exagerrating how bad DRM is. Usually, it’s not as bad as they think.
This is that bad. Maybe worse.
This is indefensible, inexcusably, excrutiatingly terrible. My god, this may actually convince me to side with the pirates.
And that’s terrible.
17/02/2010 at 19:55 Dominic White says:
“Ordinarily, I see people exagerrating how bad DRM is. Usually, it’s not as bad as they think.
This is that bad. Maybe worse.”
So true. I’m in the same boat – most of the complaints about DRM really are wildly exaggerated, but what Ubisoft are rolling out here is an abomination. Not even sealed-box consoles like the 360 and PS3 kick you out of the game if your connection falters.
As others have said, the only way I’d consider buying any Ubisoft game on PC in the forseeable future is if there’s a confirmed working crack out for it. My connection is still fairly stable where I’m living now (although it still drops once or twice a week), but my last home in Wales had a seriously wonky ADSL line where you’d likely just lose all connection 2-3 times a day, sometimes for extended periods of time.
This DRM, plus that line = Unplayable. game. I really do feel for anyone in that boat right now.
Fuck you, Ubisoft. Fuck you.
17/02/2010 at 19:51 PaulMode7 says:
I think that if Ubisoft want to adopt an anti-piracy scheme that is this controversial, they HAVE to position it somewhere within the slalom poles of sanity.
I thought this (from the original RPS post)…
…was an enormous get-out clause for them; probably the most vital part of the whole thing.
If that’s truly gone then they should be congratulated on devising a system that alienates even those who sympathise with what they’re trying to do in principle.
17/02/2010 at 19:51 JohnH says:
So basically they’re saying they want us to crack their games? /sigh
This is beyond stupid honestly!
17/02/2010 at 19:52 Batolemaeus says:
http://www.youtube.com/watch#v=Cqon0nVWA4A
That is all.
17/02/2010 at 19:53 Rakysh says:
I wasn’t intending to get it at all, but I’m seriously tempted to thieve it now. Not to play, or anything unprincipled like that, just so I can say that I too was a soldier in the Great DRM War of ’10.
17/02/2010 at 19:53 Fatrat says:
This is so funny. When it’s cracked (in no time at all, as usual, i’m sure) by pirate groups, they will find a way around this. So anyone who downloads the game will have zero problems with the DRM, the only ones affected will be the customers.
Are these people really THAT out of touch with the world, don’t they realise and learn that this is how it happens? Every. Single. Time.
The only thing that will be selling well will be eye patches, parrots and wooden legs… then they’ll blame piracy (yet again) for the reason PC titles sell badly, and stop releasing games on the format. Joy!
17/02/2010 at 19:54 CloakRaider says:
Grab a seat folks, the next few releases are going to be a FUN RIDE
17/02/2010 at 19:54 Clovis says:
inb4 Ubisoft yields to all this “pressure” and only has the game phone home every 30 minutes and we all suddenly find that acceptable …
10/07/2010 at 01:50 Gnasher says:
Quote : “inb4 Ubisoft yields to all this “pressure” and only has the game phone home every 30 minutes and we all suddenly find that acceptable …”
Exactly… Make the DRM absurd at launch, wait for the uproar, and then reduce the restrictiveness to make it seem like you’re complying with consumer demand (when all you’ve really done is set the DRM to the level that you originally intended, and put a good PR spin on it all.)
17/02/2010 at 19:54 Crusoe says:
Games that carry this – and am I to understand it’s all future Ubisoft titles – should be marked down in all reviews. I personally will never purchase a game that uses the ‘always online’ rule. Ever.
I had no idea this scheme was just around the corner. Honestly, it makes me want to weep.
18/02/2010 at 00:12 Sonicgoo says:
@Crusoe
Since this particular article was posted by ‘RPS’, I’m also wondering whether this will mean that if they review it (chances are at least one of them will), they will take this into account. After all, it is a ‘feature’ of the game. Though I’m sure the Dave Tossers amongst the gaming journalists will keep rolling out the 9s and 10s anyway…
23/02/2011 at 12:22 tomz says:
They should have to create an elaborate server to parse the save game data for each game released. Ubisoft has the resources and documentation to do this easily, but attempts from outside groups are suddenly a lot harder.
_______________________
- indiana insurance company
.
17/02/2010 at 19:55 Jocho says:
Sounds like I won’t buy that game after all. A shame, I kind of looked forward to it.
Don’t think a shouted boycot would help, but.. boycot?
17/02/2010 at 19:55 RLacey says:
Thats me not buying any new Ubisoft games, then. Sure, my net connection is almost always up, but this one steps way over the boundaries of what I as a customer will put up with on my legitimately-purchased games.
17/02/2010 at 19:55 linfosoma says:
Im going to laugh my ass off once Ubisofts releases a patch to allow offline play and it turns out to be a pirate crack. Oh wait….
17/02/2010 at 20:22 Batolemaeus says:
Heh, i remember that story..
17/02/2010 at 19:56 Hmm-Hmm. says:
*sigh* There are no words.
17/02/2010 at 19:59 Dante says:
I’ve never not bought a game because of the DRM before, but there’s absolutely no way I’m putting up with this.
17/02/2010 at 20:00 Jason Moyer says:
I miss the days of SecureROM activation. *sniff*
17/02/2010 at 20:02 RLacey says:
When something begins to make me long for StarForce, that something is seriously wrong…
17/02/2010 at 20:01 Nick C says:
I’m not worried; i’ll just pirate it. Only paying customers get punished.
10/07/2010 at 02:03 Gnasher says:
Or better yet, go play one of the other gajillion good PC games out now, and then buy a legal copy of AC2 when it turns up in the bargain bin with all the other Ubisoft shovelware. ;) Not only will you be playing a legitimate copy, but you can giggle to yourself knowing that the $9.95 you paid for it didn’t even cover the cost of the box it’s in… and that Ubisoft LOST money on it. ;)
It’s not like it was a decade ago, when you could pretty much play every new release — there are just too many now. Be selective : reward the publishers that treat you well, and crap on those who crap on you. ;)
17/02/2010 at 20:02 Slapstick says:
Thanks for giving us the go-ahead on pirating this Ubisoft, maybe you’ll remember not to be retarded next time.
17/02/2010 at 20:02 alinkdeejay says:
This only encourages piracy over buying it legally. You know what bothers me the most? The people that came up with this idea probably make more money than I do, yet they are so incompetent they actually think this is a good idea?
The real suckers are the people who pay their salary.
17/02/2010 at 20:06 Lobotomist says:
So true…
17/02/2010 at 20:02 Nobody Important says:
When do we start lowering review scores for DRM?
17/02/2010 at 20:25 rocketman71 says:
Whenever fanboys stop yelling at reviewers. I remember a joystiq review that gave a very well deserved 0/10 to Trackmania United (I love the game, but it came with StarForce), and the flames still burn since then.
As for Ubi: Valve does this same shit. I’ve had 4 or 5 single player campaigns of L4D2 die on me because my shitty ISP had a shaky day, and it wouldn’t try to reconnect or anything, it would just throw me to the menu, losing all progress. I spoke with Steam Support, and they kept babbling how to config my router, and when they finally read what I was saying, they basically told me (very politely) to go fuck myself.
The difference is: Valve makes exceptional games, Steam gives good prices, and the support is good, so I’m willing to bite. Ubi makes sloppy ports and has nothing but contempt for its customers. So fuck you, Ubi, I’m not buying anything riddled with this shit.
17/02/2010 at 21:32 Psychopomp says:
Whoa whoa whoa whoa, back the fun bus the fuck up. You got kicked out of a single player campaign? As in, you were offline? I call bullshit. My connection has more ups and downs than a god damn rollercoaster, and I’ve never once been kicked out of a single player game on Steam because of it.
17/02/2010 at 23:43 rocketman71 says:
Bullshit is indeed what I said when it happened to me the first time.
Only happened in safe rooms, while changing maps, though. When it finished loading the next map, it’d pop up the “connection lost to steam” box, and return me to the menu.
Steam Support’s answer?. “Play in offline mode”. Yeah, no stats, no achievements, no nothing. For them, it’s better to do that instead of fixing the fact that for a single player campaign, authentication on launch should be more than enough.
17/02/2010 at 20:02 manintheshack says:
Um… isn’t this going to lead to an inordinate amount of parents taking their children’s games back declaring them to be broken or worthless? High street stores are going to have to be seriously vigilant to stop that happening, but even if they are it’ll still drive the market down.
This is such incomprehensible move I don’t actually see how there can be much of a backlash. How can people who are utterly speechless speak up?
17/02/2010 at 20:05 TCM says:
Most stores don’t allow PC game returns for any reason.
So we’re going to be getting a lot of SOMETHING in the near future.
17/02/2010 at 20:42 DrGonzo says:
Not true in the UK. If a product doesn’t work they have to refund you.
17/02/2010 at 20:03 Chris says:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PC-Games-That-Dont-Require-Me-to-Be-Constantly-Connected-to-the-Internet/327874647136
17/02/2010 at 20:03 SomeGuy says:
Anyone know a good crack for assasins creed yet?
17/02/2010 at 20:04 Dan says:
I feel like this expresses my feelings on this fairly well.
http://www.classicrockmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/court-crimson-king.jpg
17/02/2010 at 20:34 Will says:
YES! In the Court of the Crimson King was so bloody awesome. I love that album!
18/02/2010 at 00:14 Casimir's Blake says:
Excellent choice sir! Ubisoft, the Great Deceiver, I tire of their Elephant Talk, someone should impress upon them some Discipline. Okay, I’m done.
I haven’t played the first AC, this makes me care even less. But does convince me to avoid any and all Ubisoft titles in future.
17/02/2010 at 20:05 DarkFenix says:
So, I could buy the game legally, and have it kick me out every time my internet cuts out for any reason. Or I could download the game illegally and have it work properly. Hmm, tough call.
Short version: Pre-order cancelled.
17/02/2010 at 20:05 Darth says:
I think this sums it up:
http://www.nooooooooooooooo.com/
17/02/2010 at 20:05 Devenger says:
If the backlash to this scares Ubisoft off of releasing their titles on PC, I will still think the PC gamer is the winner here. We’ve got many good developers who treat our platform well – we don’t need every giant publisher under the sun.
What I do hope is that PC game reviewers – on sites, in magazines, or anywhere else – CLEARLY acknowledge the FAILINGS of the system in their reviews, and adjust any scoring they make in according with the decreased quality of game that players will actually experience. Reviewers should not be reviewing games purely on how they are at their best, and at its worst AC2 will be literally unplayable, so somewhere around 0% might do the trick.
17/02/2010 at 20:08 Wilson says:
@Devenger – Amen to that. We can only hope the reviewers don’t overlook the DRM, for whatever reason.
17/02/2010 at 20:13 Mistah J says:
@Devenger (in case reply borks)
Reasons like agreeing to have Assassin’s Creed 2 skins and advertising draped over their website/front cover in exchange for LOADSA MONEY?
17/02/2010 at 20:21 Dante says:
I’ve seen this sentiment many times in DRM comments, but I honestly can’t agree with it. Losing a game like that is a loss, none of us want to burn our bridges here, we just want Ubisoft to come to their senses, come home and say they’re sorry.
Then we’ll hug them and tell them it’s okay, we forgive them.
17/02/2010 at 20:06 DMJ says:
The only logical way for this to get worse would be for Ubisoft to ship only blank CDs, as letting anyone have a copy of the working product is clearly the path to rampant piracy.
17/02/2010 at 20:07 Wilson says:
Yeah, this is really awful. We have to hope they’ll change their minds, like EA (?) did with some game of theirs. The more stuff like this happens, the more scared I am for all my games which use online elements. All of Steam, Dragon Age, stuff like that. They’re just going to get turned off with no warning aren’t they, at some point?
It makes me seriously consider pirating all the games like that I own so I can be sure I’ll still be able to play them after the devs/publishers don’t care anymore. Which, as we saw in another post earlier, might only be a year or so. Very bad times.
17/02/2010 at 20:07 Dan says:
Why do they have to do this right before releasing 3 games that I want?
Not playing co-op SC:Conviction will hurt the most.
17/02/2010 at 20:08 Jethro says:
And thus people with no internet/slow internet are doomed even more.
17/02/2010 at 20:08 blah says:
Are you being sarcastic? Ah, no matter, I have to ELL-OH-ELL at the notion of an “unhackable” software protection.
17/02/2010 at 20:10 blah says:
Damn reply system! *Shakes fist*
17/02/2010 at 20:11 blah says:
Oh, great NOW it works!
17/02/2010 at 20:09 Komsing says:
I actually think this is a really smart move on Ubisoft’s part… they have a right to protect their profits you know. If anything, this kind of DRM doesn’t really go far enough.
Think about it, if your internet connection drops out for a moment and you are (rightfully) kicked out of the game you paid for, you can still go back into the game with absolutely no lasting consequences when your connection is back up again. What the fuck is that?! You lost your damn internet connection and then can just carry on gaming willy nilly 5 minutes later whilst Ubisoft sit there uncertain whether you are a pirate or not?
What they really need to do, is force customers to ring Ubisoft customer support’s international rate phone line every 150 seconds to obtain a rotating 47 digit alpha-numeric-symbollic case-sensitive serial key, read out to you in a distorted angry french accent, which you must input into a randomly moving and flashing dialog box within the game UI. Naturally, the input mechanism will be a direct console port so you won’t actually be able to use your keys, but you will be able to use the left and right arrows to scroll through all the characters to select them one by one.
They could even take a leaf out of Bioshock’s hacking minigame book and electrocute the tits off you if you typo it, or even have a bunch of klaxons set off as gun toting whirly-gigs come out of an obscured side hatch and mow you down in a hail of armour piercing depleted uranium .50 cal bullets for being a fat-fingered incompetent moron.
They clearly just haven’t thought about this properly yet. It’s sad to think that until Ubisoft wake up and realise there’s just so much more they could be doing to roger their customers, all these gamers around the world are going to be getting away with entire minutes of uninterrupted gaming pleasure.
Quite frankly, it sickens me.
17/02/2010 at 20:12 DXN says:
Damned fine ranting, sir. Good show.
17/02/2010 at 20:13 TCM says:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/5/9/
update dialogue as necessary
17/02/2010 at 20:09 Bolt Axyon says:
The interesting thing now is to see how the scene groups bypass this.
17/02/2010 at 20:10 Okami says:
You know what’s really sad and terrible? The idiots in the comment sections of [insert any video game blog name here] who will call pc gamers hysterical and make fun about any kind of boycott , because they’re good little sheep, who’d follow their corporate overlords anywhere. They can’t do wrong, because they’ve got so much money and power, right?
18/02/2010 at 03:29 redrain85 says:
@Okami:
Their day is coming. As others have noted, the publishers are experimenting and doing trial runs with their DRM schemes on the PC first because it’s easiest to do it there. Once the next generation of consoles come out, they will implement whatever DRM scheme they deem was most successful on the PC.
THEN let we’ll hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth when the fanboys laughing at PC gamers, see their turn. Sony already wanted to implement a form of DRM on their console (locking your purchased game disc to your particular PS3), but backed off at the last minute. (Do a search for “Playstation 3 won’t play used games”.)
They won’t back off next time.
17/02/2010 at 20:11 Nesneros says:
You can always buy a copy and then run the pirated version. I’ve seen this approach used quite well for engineering software.
17/02/2010 at 20:33 Hmm-Hmm. says:
Yeah, and that’ll make them reconsider using this for other games, eh?
17/02/2010 at 20:12 mickiscoole says:
Was looking forward to this, and SC:conviction. Oh well. It kinda makes me happy to know that BG&E2 won’t be released anytime soon.
17/02/2010 at 20:14 Nathan says:
This is virtually beyond hilarious. However good my internet connection might be, this is the first DRM to be so draconian that I quite definitely will not buy this product.
Even from a business view it makes absolutely no sense. Ubisoft, how can you be so thick? How?
The saddest thing about this is that BGE2 is going to be a Ubisoft game, if it ever appears. Sigh….
17/02/2010 at 20:16 Flimgoblin says:
*head in hands*
Normally the pirates are only competing on price, with Ubisoft’s new games they’re actually offering a significantly better product.
So, is Ubisoft losing money on its PC game dev or something? Only reason I can think of to flee the market like this.
17/02/2010 at 20:16 kikito says:
arrrrrrrrrr
17/02/2010 at 20:17 Pat says:
The best way to combat it might be to try and get reviewers to dock several points from their scores much as they would for a game that crashed frequently. The reviewers are more likely to listen than ubisoft, but ubisoft might take notice if assassin’s creed 2 is hovering around 50% on metacritic.
17/02/2010 at 20:17 StalinsGhost says:
Fuck. That. Shit.
17/02/2010 at 20:17 Brian Rubin says:
As much as I wanna buy the next Silent Hunter game, this is preventing me from buying it, or any other UbiSoft PC game. Sigh. Why do they hate us?
17/02/2010 at 20:17 Calabi says:
Could be one of those sly tactics where they get people to accept something bad by announcing something way badder. The governments does that all the time. I’m betting they’ll come out with an announcement soon to the effect of they were idiots, and apologise and it will only try to connect every hour instead.
17/02/2010 at 20:17 Unaco says:
OUTRAGE!
17/02/2010 at 20:19 Marar says:
I’m gonna boycott all future ubisoft games as well, good think they didn’t get me excited in the first place
17/02/2010 at 20:21 God at play says:
Don’t boycott, othercott. Go somewhere else instead, because it’s a means of voting and not voting at all isn’t a solution.
What’s the solution? Indie games! :)
17/02/2010 at 20:35 Batolemaeus says:
Luckily, there are even big companies who actually want out money. I’m glad that Valve, Piranha Bytes, Ascaron (rip..), THQ, CCP and the many smaller game forges like Introversion, OneTooFree AB, 2D Boy and many more actually delivered enjoyable things I spent money on..
17/02/2010 at 20:22 Po0py says:
Did I read that right? RPS openly supporting a boycott of a game published by a rather large company?
17/02/2010 at 20:28 Kieron Gillen says:
Po0py: Strictly speaking, we said we think a boycott a totally understandable reaction and we’ll be ignoring the games from now on in. Or, rather, ignoring anything other than this particular topic.
KG
17/02/2010 at 20:33 Vinraith says:
@Kieron
Which is still a ballsy stand for games journalists to take, kudos. In fact, have a round on me (courtesy of the donate button).
18/02/2010 at 03:16 Kakksakkamaddafakka says:
Chin chin!
17/02/2010 at 20:24 Tei says:
Lets hope this fail. Probably Ubisoft expect it to fail and don’t care, since his main market is the console. Maybe even want PC gamers to buy the console version, so making the PC version as misserable has possible just works. I mean, you get free advertising from the people like Rock Paper Shotgun for your “PC Game”, but the game has soo horrible DRM that some people will still buy the console version. Maybe thats the plan, avoid selling on the PC, and using the PC title just a “advertising title” to make people buy more console titles.
17/02/2010 at 20:24 RogB says:
red rag to a bull, bravo ubisoft – you’ve just made this one of the highest prestige targets for crackers.
for those that want to keep morals intact.. buy game, remove and discard cd, download torrent, play.
me, i’ll just probably buy preowned on ps3 or just pirate the pc one. both are the same in terms of the developer/publisher not seeing any return, but only one is considered acceptable.
17/02/2010 at 20:25 LewieP says:
I have a plan that is better than a boycott. I’ll be with you shortly.
17/02/2010 at 20:26 Dante says:
You know I’ve never pirated a game before, so I’ll probably just ignore them. Buying it on 360 helps no-one.
Of course I could buy it used on 360, that would work. It’s also something their copy protection doesn’t actually stop, unlike EA’s ‘project ten dollar’.
17/02/2010 at 20:32 elyscape says:
Rent it.
17/02/2010 at 20:28 Michael Hughes says:
The sad thing? It will be cracked and pirated within a week, all the nonsense DRM only serving to punish people who buy legitimate copies of the game. Complete bs.
17/02/2010 at 20:35 stormbringer951 says:
DRM doesn’t stop piracy. No one is that stupid, believe me. They just want it to hold out long enough so that the pirates don’t get a zero-day crack out there. Because absolutely everyone would get a 0-day cracked version. I mean, it’s free and early, what more do you want?
Case in point: Bioshock’s DRM held out for 13 days, and the devs were really happy out that.
17/02/2010 at 20:32 stormbringer951 says:
Guys, welcome to the age of the pirate. They’re enforcing shitty DRM measures because any game that doesn’t (e.g. World of Goo) gets pirated a lot anyway. Everyone says they’d buy reasonably priced, DRM-free games. And then World of Goo comes out and it gets a 90% piracy rate. Well played, boys. Well played.
Everyone hates DRM. Companies don’t want to shell out £££ to buy protection software from SecuROM or Starforce. I hate DRM. But it’s here, and it’s a reasonable industry reaction to piracy. First things first, remember that gaming companies are businesses. I’m planning to go into the industry itself and it’s shocking that only 40% or so of games break even. That’s a pretty volatile industry, which piracy doesn’t help.
Anyone advocating piracy as a knee jerk reaction to DRM should just GROW UP. If you steal games, at least have the honesty to admit that you do it because it’s free stuff. I sometimes do, and I do it because it’s free. Not because I’m engaging in a political protest or something like that. And I bet that growing piracy sales don’t make the corporate suits want to lower digital rights management schemes.
What you think happens: “Oh crap, we’re losing sales. We need to cut down on the amount of DRM we place on this so more people will buy it.”
What actually happens: “Oh crap, we’re losing sales. Let’s go buy some more effective DRM from that protection company. Or let’s just leave the sodding PC market and go make things for consoles.”
Modern Warfare 2 made five or six times as many sales on the consoles as on the PC. There are just as many, if not more, gaming PCs worldwide. Piracy rates for PC are much much higher. Imagine yourself as a businessman. Development costs are the same, so would you develop for the market that’s going to buy 6m copies or the market that’s not even going to buy a million? It’s a measure of how little esteem most devs hold the PC market in that they don’t even bother putting in enough manpower to optimise the UI for PC.
PC gaming isn’t dead, but it’s changing. Say goodbye to quality single player games like Deus Ex. You’ll be seeing them as console ports. Why develop for the PC when you can bag a larger part of the console market? PC gaming is moving towards free, ad-based or micro-payment based multiplayer games (where they can verify ID more easily) for the lowest common denominator, or niche market games.
Oh, and if you want to protest to Ubisoft: http://www.ubi.com/UK/Info/Info.aspx?tagname=ContactUs
Trust me, it’s going to look a lot more impressive as a letter explaining why you won’t buy Assassin’s Creed 2: Attack of the DRM than a counter on a torrent site.
/rant
17/02/2010 at 21:55 Bret says:
World of Goo gets pirated…
The same amount as ANYTHING ELSE. And it still sold well enough. DRM does, from all data I’ve seen, jack shit other than hurt honest consumers.
And this is the worst DRM I’ve ever seen. As others have said better already.
17/02/2010 at 20:32 Duck says:
Guys, you can’t complain about this like it’s a new thing. With the way that Ubisoft has acted in the past, i.e., ignoring their ENTIRE FAN BASE of Splinter Cell, and thereby absolutely ruining the series with Double Agent (so, you aren’t missing out on Conviction, it’s only going to be another arrogant milking of the series, anyways), banning anyone who disagrees with them on their forums, creating fake forum accounts to praise themselves on popular forums, etc etc etc, and now this.
Ever since they so arrogantly ignored everyone and made Double Agent the way they did, you’d think that everyone would have gotten a clue. But after all this time, they do something as stupid as this, and NOW everyone makes a fuss? They have been like this for years! YEARS!
I suggest that we truly boycott them, by, you know, not buying their games, not giving them press, etc. Instead of the messes that were the MW2 (unnecessary and invalid, doomed to fail), or L4D2 (totally valid, yet doomed to fail) “boycotts”.
They used to be a great company that made Chaos Theory one of the best games of all time. Ever since then, they’ve become the worst.
17/02/2010 at 20:39 stormbringer951 says:
I agree, it’s pretty dumb handling of a great franchise. Splinter Cell used to be very Thief-like and sneaky. And now it’s a pseudo-action game. *facepalm*
However, they’re going mainstream because more people play action games and less play stealth games. My friend who has Double Agent thinks that it’s “too boring, not enough shooting”. They’re ignoring the old fanbase because they’re building a new, bigger, more mainstream one.
17/02/2010 at 20:32 jsutcliffe says:
I think that in the next podcast, one of the RPS folks should make an impromptu call to a Ubisoft person and demand answers. I guess it’d be illegal to record their responses, but even just one side of the conversation ought to be entertaining.
17/02/2010 at 20:35 D says:
I mentioned this in my support email to stardock, and it got filtered due to profanity. Damn you Ubisoft
17/02/2010 at 20:37 ET says:
Why does this look like Ubisoft giving a huge F-you to people without decent, reliable broadband? Which comprises, um, most of the world?
I thought being left out of the Steam loop (not about authentication; I just can’t download in any decent time frame) by having an atrocious connection was bad, but this is so much WORSE.
17/02/2010 at 20:37 Heliosicle says:
PLEASE DONT BE IN SPLINTER CELL.
17/02/2010 at 20:37 sfury says:
AssCreed2′s PC sales are going to be HUUUGE.
And noone, asdolutely noone, will download it from the torrent sites when it leaks and gets cracked, thus ridding it of all the DRM nons..goodness, one to two weeks prior the official release.
Meanwhile I’ll be playing ME2, Bioshock 2 and Call of Pripyat.
Cheers, Ubi!
17/02/2010 at 20:37 Ravenger says:
The thing is, pirates don’t buy games. I do. I buy a lot of them, but I’m also very choosy about games that I buy so it’s important for publishers to treat me with respect otherwise I’ll buy someone elses games instead. I’m exactly the sort of customer that Ubisoft should want – I don’t pirate their games, I evangelise about good games to my friends, and I’ve got enough disposable income to buy games frequently.
Ubisoft should be trying to encourage me to buy their games and not discourage me with ludicrous DRM. I passed on Far Cry 2 due to the DRM and I can’t even be bothered to buy it cheap now the DRM has been patched out. The same goes for AC2. This was on my ‘to buy’ list, but now it’s off it. So that’s around £50 worth of Ubisoft games I haven’t bought due to retarded DRM.
EA seem to have learned at least some lessons from the Spore fiasco, and I’ve bought loads of their games on Steam since they released them there without extra DRM. let’s hope Ubisoft learn from this fiasco too.
17/02/2010 at 20:38 Brilhasti says:
I believe in paying for games, music and software. I do not feel like being treated as a criminal for the products I paid for.
Having said that, I will not purchase anything with draconic DRM such as this. I will pirate it in situations like these.
How’s that DRM working out for you now, Ubisoft?
17/02/2010 at 20:42 stormbringer951 says:
They’ll think “hmm, it’s being pirated. Needs more DRM”. =P
17/02/2010 at 20:56 Snarkland says:
@Brilhasti
“I will pirate it in situations like these.”
That’s unfair to the people who actually created the game and most likely had no input in the DRM decision. I think people should buy games they’re interested in, and if the DRM seriously limits your enjoyment, then download a pirated copy that has fewer restrictions.
17/02/2010 at 21:04 Chobes says:
That’s sweet as lollipops and all but paying for this game is one more vote for “this shit is OK with me”. You’re effectively dropping $50 to be a scab; if you want to help the developers then buy their games after the ridiculous DRM is removed by their publisher.
17/02/2010 at 21:13 Spectre-7 says:
@Snarkland
Errmmmm…. unless there’s something really strange going on at Ubisoft, all of the developers are salaried workers. It’s not as if they make royalties off the game’s sales, so they’re pretty much the only people in the deal who aren’t harmed at all by piracy (except perhaps that it damages the long-term viability of their career). The people who made the game were already paid for their work; it’s the publisher that would be taking it in the pants.
17/02/2010 at 20:40 Langman says:
I too am going to add my name to the ‘never been that fussed about DRM before but now it’s time to boycott’ list.
17/02/2010 at 20:41 Evo says:
Why does everyone except large publishers seem to realize that schemes like this are detrimental only to paying customers? They can’t all be that stupid. I mean its actually impossible for everyone involved in dreaming up this DRM system to be that stupid. It makes no sense it any way whatsoever. It’s like they’re just throwing piles of money away developing draconian schemes which will be dropped after 6 months when they realize they don’t work.
17/02/2010 at 20:46 stormbringer951 says:
They work. Bioshock kept off the pirates for 13 days with it’s DRM. They said they were satisfied. They know they can’t stop the pirates (ever heard the hacker expression, “if you can touch it, you can own it” ?) but they don’t want a zero-day copy getting out.
And they hate DRM as well by the way. I’d hate it if I had to pay $$$ to some random protection company like Starforce or SecuROM just to make sure that my game turned a profit. But given that World of Goo shipped without DRM and allegedly got piracy rates of up to 90%, I don’t think they’re in a hurry to get rid of digital rights management.
17/02/2010 at 21:01 Evo says:
@stormbringer951:
The DRM on Bioshock stopped the game from being pirated for 13 days, but there’s no way we can tell how many people actually bought it because they were unable to pirate it within the first 13 days of its release. You also have to take into account people who didn’t buy it specifically because of the DRM. If draconian DRM methods were very successful at reducing piracy their use would be much more widespread.
17/02/2010 at 21:10 Chobes says:
Kind of makes me wonder if publishes would be better off releasing their games with some strict DRM restrictions but promise to remove them within a week or two. That way people can buy the game knowing that they won’t have nasty DRM to keep them from playing it in the future and it’ll create a time gap for people to cave and buy the game instead of waiting for the crack.
17/02/2010 at 21:15 kromagg says:
@stormbringer: As far as I recall the copy protected games get the exact same numbers for pirating. Demigod was one recent one that did have DRM on it I think, but I’m sure there’s better examples out there. DRM is simply a nuisance to pirates. The people that go online and download games of torrent sites are usually not the ones breaking the DRM. All they care about is whether they can or can’t download the game and whether it is good. As most DRM is broken rather quickly, it’s unlikely there’s much of an impact beyond the first few days and even then. I actually very much doubt that someone who was going to pirate a game will suddenly buy it because he can’t wait the 5 days it takes for others to break the DRM on it.
In any case, I’m sure the game companies know this. If the claim really is that it helps prevent losing sales on the first few days or release, then perhaps they should institute a new system where DRM is automatically removed a month after release, say. Now that I could live with.
17/02/2010 at 21:24 DJ Phantoon says:
@Kromagg
That’s a even worse idea than the draconian DRM for one reason:
I’m not going to buy the game until it doesn’t have the DRM. Watch first day sales vanish as you can get a much improved experience a month down the road, or whenever pirates do it first.
That’s not only a bad idea, it’s a step in the wrong direction, one that will only let them justify DRM.
17/02/2010 at 20:42 Nameykins says:
Not buying any games that feature this insane copy protection system. Simple as that. Yet at the same time, theres a creeping feel of dread that Ubisoft will rationalize all lost sales with piracy.
17/02/2010 at 20:43 Harper says:
Damn, I feel like an asshole for buying this on PS3 now. I can’t believe I supported these d-bags.
Fuck you UBI, fuck you…
17/02/2010 at 20:43 jarvoll says:
I look forward to pirating the hell out of this game and getting a great experience.
17/02/2010 at 20:44 bleeters says:
The mind boggles, it truely does. What level of thought process makes this seem like a good idea?
I wasn’t especially tempted about buying assassins creed two, or the new splinter cell to begin with. I’d honestly consider just pirating it now anyway out of sheer bloody minded spite.
17/02/2010 at 20:45 Jaedar says:
If the game sells well, they will amp up the DRM because people don’t care. If it does poorly they will blame it on piracy rather than their incompetence, and amp up the DRM.
Either way we’re screwed.
17/02/2010 at 20:47 stormbringer951 says:
I agree. It’s an amusing situation we PC gamers have gotten ourselves into, isn’t it?
17/02/2010 at 20:55 Clovis says:
@storm: Yeah, that’s a real good point you keep making; it is really the gamer’s fault for all the pirating we’ve done. Like with music. Those durn pirates stole so much music that we are now stuck with super draconian music DRM because it is impossible to make money without DRM.
Oh wait …
(That World of Goo you keep mentioning was such a big financial failure too, btw)
17/02/2010 at 20:46 Eric says:
Not. A. God. Damn. Chance. In. Hell.
ACII was going to be a day-one purchase for me, even though I’ve also played (and bought) the 360 game. I was just going to sell my 360 copy, like I did with Red Faction Guerrilla. The original AC was better enough on PC that I figured ACII would be worth doing that with as well.
Not anymore.
17/02/2010 at 20:48 LionsPhil says:
“…it’s the most valid reason yet for PC gamers to call a massed boycott.”
PC gaming is dying. Boycott -> sales reduce -> fuck it, why even bother? Console excusives for all future Ubisoft titles!
Given that the “PC gaming” scene increasingly resembles one big pixel-shaded circle-jerk these days, I will mourn its passing naught.
17/02/2010 at 20:50 stormbringer951 says:
I agree with you on the “Boycott -> sales reduce -> fuck it, why even bother? “. But I think they’ll keep on releasing games. It’s as big a market as the PS3, Wii and 360 put together.
Instead, I think we’ll see more games like Combat Arms, Battlefield Heroes and so on. Free to play, ad-supported and lowest-common-denominator. Relatively cheap to produce, piracy is pointless, the publisher wins. PC Gaming can’t die, it’s too big. Everyone has a PC. It’ll just change.
17/02/2010 at 20:48 Stupoider says:
OH NO THEY DIDN’
17/02/2010 at 20:49 Xugu Madison says:
Cancelled. Bioshock 2 DRM didn’t bother me overly (although the original install limit might have pushed me to cancel), but this is just something else. Seriously, what the heck was going through their head?
17/02/2010 at 20:52 Xugu Madison says:
Quickly want to add…
DO NOT pirate this game. Pirating does not show Ubisoft you’re annoyed, or you care about DRM, it says you want free stuff.
Don’t play the game. Don’t buy it, pirate it, rent it or borrow it. Just ignore it. It’s the only way they’ll ever learn.
17/02/2010 at 21:08 jarvoll says:
@Xugu Madison:
Yeah, I can definitely see that side of it. This decision just makes me so frustrated and angry, I feel like I need to publicly declare an intent to steal it as a way of expressing those feelings, and of giving Ubisoft the finger for this undeniable dick move. In reality, I had close to zero interest in AC2, and probably won’t end up wasting my (very limited, Australian) bandwidth on it. Anyway, I’m certainly 100% behind the RPS policy of ignoring Ubi’s games from now on – probably the strongest statement that can be made without a kind of incriminating taint that might weaken one’s arguing position.
17/02/2010 at 20:50 Finstern says:
This must be some huge scheme on Ubisoft’s part –
They will be monitoring all the torrent traffic and then sue the hell out of anyone who had as much as half a byte in it.
It’s genius – the profits will be so much bigger!
17/02/2010 at 20:50 Tim Langdell says:
Edge games don’t have this crappy DRM. ¡Muahahahaha! (evil laugh)
17/02/2010 at 20:51 Namos says:
Ubisoft also owns Heroes Might and Magic, which a lot of people love… Then again, it seems they were going all browsery with it, so maybe this is for the better.
Damn you, Ubisoft. You’ve taken leave of your senses. Won’t see a penny of mine so long as this bullshit goes on.
17/02/2010 at 20:52 tomhet says:
This is appaling, I’m appalled.
17/02/2010 at 20:52 Eggy says:
RE: all the people warning that future UBI titles maybe console exclusives if a boycot/masspirate happens
Ubi has not released a genuinely great game on the PC for years now. I for one wouldn’t even care. Maybe I’m alone though
17/02/2010 at 20:52 Mr_Day says:
I had the same problem as Tom with Dragon Age yesterday, which was a pain as I had FINALLY beaten a boss I had trouble with.
Woo, I shall continue my trek through stuff! Oh noes, my clothes are unauthorised.
17/02/2010 at 20:53 Duoae says:
Is it okay for me (and all the other DRM haters) to say “Told you so!”, yet?
Seriously, this sh*t really only ever hurts loyal/paying customers.
17/02/2010 at 20:54 stormbringer951 says:
Nope. As far as I know, it’s a great time to say it.
Just bear in mind that no matter how shit DRM is, games without DRM tend to sell even worse. So unless a publisher wants to do a kamikaze rush into bankruptancy, I think we’re shafted anyway.
17/02/2010 at 21:05 Uhm says:
“Just bear in mind that no matter how shit DRM is, games without DRM tend to sell even worse.”
Oh?
17/02/2010 at 21:13 qrter says:
We’re patiently waiting for the statistics to back that one up!
17/02/2010 at 21:15 stormbringer951 says:
2DBoy posted that 90% of people playing World of Goo were pirates. That’s a pretty high rate. This website’s got a well-written study of it, with statistics: http://www.tweakguides.com/Piracy_1.html
17/02/2010 at 21:20 itchyeyes says:
Um… source? That’s not the kind of thing you can just throw out there without at least some source to back it up.
Also, even if you’ve got numbers that show correlation, you still need some sort of control for causality. Otherwise, there are plenty of other arguments that can just as easily fit the data. For example: games that are expected to sell more copies have more to lose to piracy, so publishers apply stricter DRM to those games more often than they do to games they don’t expect to be as popular.
17/02/2010 at 21:27 itchyeyes says:
That is a pretty high rate. But it tells you absolutely nothing about how it compares to games with DRM. Nor is World of Goo a good example for the rest of games out there, as it’s phenomenally popular for an indie game. Keep grasping at straws please.
17/02/2010 at 21:30 stormbringer951 says:
Well, economically speaking I’d be happy to get something for free. If there’s less hoops to jump through, it’s more likely.
I’ve got more circumstantial evidence than anything else. World of Goo is
a) indie made
b) cheap
c) a good game (high metacritic score)
d) no DRM
The developers, 2D-Boy, reported a 90% piracy rate. Source: http://2dboy.com/2008/11/13/90/. Granted, some of those will be false positives (reinstalls, people installing on more than one home machine etc.) but it’s still pretty high for the sort of game where everyone comments that they DEFINITELY DEFINITIVELY will buy them.
The other piece of circumstantial evidence is that, believe it or not, every single big games developer packs some sort of digital rights management. I think that unless they really are in a pact with the evil space ants to fleece the common gamer, games with DRM sell better. Unless of course, the DRM hasn’t been very well thought out, integrated into the game code or is just rock stupid.
I’m not defending DRM. See my original post a few pages back for an example. This Assassin’s Creed DRM is stupid. So is every single system where they require you to authenticate before you play. I still play games from 1999 (Thief, for example) and I would be angry if in a decade’s time I couldn’t play any of my past games because FutureGameCorp took over the companies and shut down all the authentication servers.
I’m guessing my message is that DRM is here to stay, but the companies could, and should, find a logical and reasonable way to sort it out. The thing is, at the moment, both sides are in a “NO COMPROMISE!!!” state of mind.
But yeah, I may have exaggerated a little there. My bad.
17/02/2010 at 22:21 Hidden_7 says:
This is regarding the World of Goo 90% piracy rate thing, if the reply messes up.
You keep mentioning the 90% piracy rate of World of Good (which is very high, no one is denying that) as some sort of proof that it didn’t sell as well as games with DRM. I don’t have sales figures handy, and frankly I don’t dispute it probably didn’t sell as well as a lot of games with DRM because it’s a little indie title and not a giant blockbuster mega-title, which all tend to have DRM, but one quick exercise in remembering why stats don’t mean much without context.
Game A has 100 users playing it, 90% of which pirated it. It sold 10
Game B has 10 users playing it, 10% of which pirated it. It sold 9.
Game A was vastly more pirated than game B. It also sold more.
Just saying that a game has a 90% piracy rate doesn’t say ANYTHING about how well it sold. It is not even circumstantial evidence for DRM-less games selling more poorly than DRM-afied games. Because, again, it doesn’t say anything about how well it sold, just how many people who are playing it, paid for it.
17/02/2010 at 23:06 invisiblejesus says:
Even the guys who created World of Goo and who gathered that data say that they think the overwhelming majority of pirates are people who never would have bought the game no matter what, and that they’re sticking with a no-DRM policy. I’m fairly certain they have more information, more insight into the product, and a hell of a lot more motivation to get this right than you do, dude. Thanks but I think I’ll listen to them.
17/02/2010 at 20:54 Agrajag says:
Not buying this. Not pirating it either. Screw you Ubi and your failed logic. When will they understand that DRM does not increase sales, or that pirates wouldn’t have bought the game in the first place anyway.
17/02/2010 at 20:54 Aemony says:
I’m looking forward to see how long this DRM will be uncracked. Bioshock probably has the longest running record as of yet, but as soon as one game using a new DRM is cracked all games using the same DRM is equally cracked.
Seriously, can’t they see that DRM only hurt us legit customers? I was looking forward to buying this on Steam but as of now I will probably spend my money on Bad Company 2 instead.
17/02/2010 at 20:54 dadioflex says:
Aren’t there still a bunch of Americans in the ass end of nowhere using dial-up internet?
17/02/2010 at 21:13 Arathain says:
Yup, there are still some pretty remote areas of the US without broadband. My mother-in-law only got DSL last year, and she’s pretty close to civilisation.
17/02/2010 at 21:18 Psychopomp says:
I’m in the same situation as Arathain’s grandmother. Best part is that I live not even ten minutes from downtown Fort Worth, but the only people who offer anything past dial-up around here are the worst ISP ever to exist.
I hate Charter with every fiber of my being. Anything that requires an internet connection to play is a roll of the dice. Ubisoft can fuck right off.
17/02/2010 at 21:31 Thiefsie says:
They’re called Australians!
17/02/2010 at 21:43 jarvoll says:
@Thiefsie: To be fair, it’s not that our (Australian) internet connections are necessarliy all dial-up and totally unreliable; most people, as far as I know, are on some form on broadband. The real problem is that I’m paying AU$80 per month for 10Mbps and a 35Gb download limit, and I’m with the country’s unequivocally *best* ISP, Internode. Our ex-national provider, Telstra, charges upwards of AU$200 for 8Gb limits at ADSL 1 speeds (theoretical maximum; in practice a lot slower, natch). No, I’m not even slightly kidding.
18/02/2010 at 00:23 Lilliput King says:
I find it hard to be sympathetic considering despite my location in leafy Surrey, not too far from London, my speed is a frankly unhealthy 0.15 Mbps.
My friend across the road gets 0.5 Mbps, but his connection drops a couple of times an hour.
Internet is still a pretty shit service in a lot of places you wouldn’t expect is I guess what I’m saying here.
10/07/2010 at 05:50 Gnasher says:
I’m about a two-hour drive from Ubisoft’s Montreal offices, yet this area has :
- phone lines as old as my grandpa, so no DSL.
- too many obstructions (hills, trees), so no wireless.
- that leaves (you guessed it) dial-up… (and even that is limited/unreliable)
My gaming PC doesn’t even have a modem in it — what would be the point? I only buy single-player games because they’re the ones that work here, and if I have the urge for something multiplayer, then I invite friends over for a LAN party. ;)
Ubisoft’s “online-to-play” BS for a single-player game only means one thing to me — no sale. I’ll buy something from Activision, THQ, or any of the other publishers that still realize the value of a single-player campaign that can be played in the absence of Internet.
17/02/2010 at 20:54 The Innocent says:
It makes me sad that thanks to the recent overuse of the word “boycott” amongst pc gamers, and the pathetic abandonment of said “boycotts,” has rendered the term essentially a joke. I wasn’t one of those who boycotted L4D2 or MW2, but this is an abuse that I feel compelled to resist.
Thus (courtesy of thesaurus.com), I plan to ban, refrain from, avoid, bar, blackball, brush off, embargo, exclude, ostracize, outlaw, pass by, pass up, prohibit, refuse, reject, snub, spurn, and strike all UBI products from now on. And when I say that, I mean it. Oh yes.
17/02/2010 at 20:55 Ravenger says:
Recently I had major problems with my net connection. It turns out that my area was oversubscribed so I was getting massive pings and packetloss, and frequent connection drops.
I was unable to play multiplayer games for weeks, so I had to rely on single player games. With Ubisoft’s system I’d have been booted out of their games every few minutes making it impossible to progress.
And they think this is going to make me want to buy their games?!
17/02/2010 at 20:57 Devan says:
Well, I won’t be buying any games that do this. I won’t pirate them either; they’ll just fall to the side. It’s not like there’s not enough quality, consumer-friendly entertainment out there to take up every spare minute of every day anyway.
17/02/2010 at 20:57 Heliocentric says:
Ass creed 2, Settlers 7, Silent hunter 5, Ghost recon future soldier, Sc conviction, Endwar 2 and trackmania 2.
All were 100% certified purchases before this drm, not anymore. I won’t pirate them, but I’ll download the demo and pray ubi see sense.
17/02/2010 at 20:57 t3kn0ph1L3 says:
Okay, we need to take a stand. This has gotten out of hand. The solution is not to pirate the game.
We need not only formally boycott the game, but write Ubisoft letters of appeals showing them why their system just does not work and is completely unfair to the average person. This is borderline criminal what they are doing. They are just as bad as the pirates.
17/02/2010 at 21:37 Hattered says:
@ t3kn0ph1L3:
An organized letter-writing campaign sounds like the right idea. As long as the contents indicate the signees aren’t going to pirate (under penalty of death), it could provide a decent counterbalance to whatever pirating data they have. I had been a fan of the “ignore it and it’ll go away” strategy, but this madness is getting to be somewhat untenable. (The reasoning on their end makes sense though, in a limited way; when your product pulls in multimillion dollar returns, going after every small percentage point seems profitable.)
17/02/2010 at 20:58 dreamhunk says:
your better off taking this court or make elgal
17/02/2010 at 20:59 Hmm says:
My only hope is that Ubisoft plan to make this DRM protect their products only for a certain period of time and release patches after, say, approximately a year after release.
Let’s face it, fellow PC gamers – some of you (you know who you are) brought this shit upon yourselves and screwed up honest gamers in the process. If you have an internet connection good enough to steal, you shouldn’t be bothered as much. Sorry, pretty much everyone I know has an internet connection much better than mine and pirates every PC game that comes out. That’s what’s hurting PC gaming, NOT Ubisoft’s new copy protection.
No, I don’t appreciate what Ubisoft are doing. But if it’s going to make cracking this game incredibly difficult – so be it, as long as a patch removing DRM is released.
17/02/2010 at 21:08 Gomsink says:
Wait… so you’re pissed at people pirating games because you don’t have a fast enough internet connection to do it?
17/02/2010 at 21:11 itchyeyes says:
The point that you’re missing is this doesn’t stop piracy. If you’re a game producer, and people are pirating your game, and you want to put a stop to it, this does nothing to help you with that problem. The game file still gets cracked and still ends up on torrents. The only people that this impacts are people who have legitimately purchased the game.
There is no logical connection between a DRM scheme like this and piracy.
17/02/2010 at 21:13 Psychopomp says:
You still think DRM is about piracy? I refuse to believe that anyone, including publishers, is stupid enough to think that any DRM scheme will ever stop a noticeable amount of pirates.
It’s all about second hand sales.
17/02/2010 at 21:25 Hmm says:
@ GOMSINK
“Wait… so you’re pissed at people pirating games because you don’t have a fast enough internet connection to do it?”
NO GENIUS, please don’t put words into my mouth.
My internet connection isn’t the best, but I’m willing to put up with such a copy protection IF a patch removing it is eventually released.
What I said is that certain people I know have a kick-ass internet connection, so should this DRM prove to be ridiculously hard to crack, they’ll buy the game since they won’t be bothered to wait. They purchased some games with strong multiplayer components after all, because they can’t pirate them. Single player titles are another story – “lol why should I buy it if I can get it for free?”.
17/02/2010 at 21:38 Hmm says:
@ITCHYEYES and PSYCHOPOMP
Second-hand sales have been killed on PC a long time ago. Ironic that pretty much everyone here loves Steam and chooses to ignore the fact Valve were among the first douchebags to shove intrusive, second-hand-butchering DRM down everyone’s throats. VALVE started this “internet activation required” bullshit. Someone was bound to take the next step.
And yes, it’s about stopping piracy. Sorry, but keep telling yourselves that developers haven’t been showing PC gamers a middle finger for the last couple of years because of miserable sales. That’s how it is – we’re lucky to get console ports BECAUSE millions of douchbags are too cheap to buy a game they like.
17/02/2010 at 23:26 Psychopomp says:
As I said before, no one running a corporation is stupid enough to think that any DRM scheme is going to stop pirates.
Honestly, the second hand market can die for all I care. You might as well pirate the game for how much money the devs see of it. Unlike, say, cars or household appliances, a used game normally functions exactly as well as a new one. There is no innate incentive to buy new for most people, so developers have to create one. Will the average streetshop sell used PC games? No, but there’s still, you know, Amazon and whatnot. The problem here is that it completely fucks over legitimate customers.
18/02/2010 at 20:15 Rited says:
@ Hmm
I think you and several others here have this entire situation completely backwards. We’re not lucky that developers / publishers release PC games, they are lucky that we are giving them our money. That’s how business works – companies produce products that they hope people will want to buy. If they make sub-standard products that don’t satisfy those who purchase them, people will naturally tend to spend their money on their competitor’s products or even other products entirely, and ultimately these organisations lose money, power, influence and ultimately the ability to sustain their business models.
It’s all about money, and they are trying to get ours. Forget that you care for these gaming products, because I assure you; these companies care for your money a hell of a lot more. Unfortunately some developers / publishers aren’t trying hard enough to win our sales of late, and they are suffering as a result.
I don’t know where all this fear is coming from lately, but the PC gaming market isn’t going to disappear because of piracy anymore than the music or movie industries will. Even if every major player pulled out in some collective hissy fit, the demand for PC games would still be there and smaller developers would start fill the supply gap, creating a whole new generation of companies dominating the market. This is a simple and inescapable economic reality.
As with the inventions and ubiquity of the news paper, railway, telephone, radio and broadcast TV, the internet has radically changed the status quo and the physical media cartels of old are getting completely dicked on as a result. They certainly won’t go down without the kind of messy fights we are seeing today, but ultimately if they don’t adapt to the fact that their historic notions of IP and copyright are utterly meaningless in a world where any and all information can be shared, globally, at near the speed of light, they will wither and die whilst businesses who are able to operate in this environment will prevail.
This has all happened before and it will all happen again. I’ll grab the popcorn.
17/02/2010 at 21:00 the wiseass says:
That’s why I love RPS for having the balls to protest against this. I simply wish more game journalists would stand up against this kind of crap. Yes customers may have the power to vote with their wallet, but otherwise their influence is pretty limited. Game journalists on the other hand can really move something by making a stand, together with their readers.
RPS made the call, I will follow ;)
17/02/2010 at 21:00 Petrushka says:
This is pretty horrific, easily on a par with the stupidities that surrounded Bioshock and Spore. I specifically delayed buying Bioshock until a patch finally did away with the DRM. (And Spore, as we all know now, was crap.)
This is a shame because I quite enjoyed AC1 (more than most people, I think), and the changes in AC2 sounded promising.
I have also delayed buying Dragon’s Age, not primarily because of DRM, but because of all the stories about DLC being flashed in your face constantly. Dragon Age has now moved from my “Wait for the GotY edition” list to my “Definitely not” list.
17/02/2010 at 22:59 Half says:
Here is my recommendation, not buying Dragon Age because of DLC add is completely ridiculous. Their is a single NPC in the entire game, he doesn’t follow you around, in a corner. He talks about a castle, and at the bottom it says [buy DLC], that’s about it.
17/02/2010 at 21:00 Alexander Norris says:
I’d just like to take this moment to laugh at all the people who act like their relatives were insulted whenever someone voices concerns about Valve, Steam and the future of digital distribution.
I very much doubt it’s going to get any better any time soon, either.
17/02/2010 at 21:19 jarvoll says:
@Alexander Norris:
The difference is that Valve and Steam, aside from a small amount of ‘background radiation’ problems (that seem to me at least to be as seldom as one would expect from the general you-can’t-please-everyone-ness of life), have shown no signs of being Evil, indeed, have rather shown many signs of being very Good. The only things I can think of are that the two founders came from that Great Evil, Microsoft, and that the whole L4D2 could be taken by the more cynical to be a sign of Evil. But they did *quit* Microsoft, and it seems to me that the problem with L4D2 was caused by naïvité rather than Evil. I’m very happy entrusting Valve with my game licenses for the time being, while being sure to keep a careful eye on the way they go (if you remember the frog-into-boiling-water metaphor from Dante’s Inferno, I mean trying to tell that the water’s slowly heating up BEFORE it starts to boil and kill me). They’re still a Far Cry (ha!) from this madness, at least.
18/02/2010 at 00:00 Alexander Norris says:
@jarvoll; you’re right on both the count that Valve seem to be good guys, and that L4D2 could have been a fiasco born out of naïveté rather than ill will… the problem being that we have no way of knowing for sure.
I would love to believe that Valve are the second coming of Christ and that they’re secretly only pretending to work with mega-publishers long enough to gain their trust and a monopoly so they can turn around and force consumer-friendliness on said publishers; I truly would. The thing is this: if I acted as if this (largely unsubstantiated belief were true, what would the consequences be? A single-retailer monopoly of the digital distribution format with invasive and obstructive DRM measures which panders to publishers exclusively (since they exert no pressure on prices and regionalised their prices) and which has none of the impetus towards consumer-friendliness found in retail stores because there’s no competition to deal with. Even if Steam remains the biggest player on the block like it is and other digital distribution retailers arise to compete with it, it will still be a very bad thing for the consumer: unless there’s a substantial shift in the way digital distributors behave towards prices, publishers will continue to dictate prices, which means they will have absolutely no reason to sell games at a discount, except when competing against similar games from different publishers; in fact, they’ll be able to price games at whatever the hell price level they want. The current political and judicial spheres understand nothing of computers or video games so it’s not like they’d be fighting for consumer rights; and gamers have demonstrated time and time again that they are too damn lazy and frankly, stupid to do anything in their own defence. Endgame: we’re all fucked.
If I’m correct in assuming that Valve aren’t fluffy bunnies here to save us all, though? Well, they’re held accountable for any fuckups (as they should), and maybe pushed towards a little more transparency (also a good thing)… and that’s it. Nothing terrible happens if we’re sceptical about the whole thing.
Scepticism is a healthy attitude, and one we could all do with having a little more of.
18/02/2010 at 00:44 Lilliput King says:
@Alexander Norris
Is your main concern on Steam the pricing, then?
There’s a lot to hate about Steam. It restricts access to the product you’ve paid for, has an infuriating and above all unreliable offline mode, and ultimately, to my eyes, wields too much power over our games, in that it can (and has, in the past) completely removed access to games from users, often wrongly. There’s also the problem of future-proofing (one day those servers are going to go off). There’s the lack of pressure put on publishers to remove their local DRM from games placed on steam (ala GTAIV), and the poor regional prices.
But general pricing? This isn’t a monopoly situation, and it isn’t even in danger of turning into one. There’s high street and online retail to consider, as well as the other DD platforms. I can see how if Steam was in a position where it could dictate prices, the publishers would be in a worryingly strong position as opposed to the consumer, but Steam isn’t in that position.
18/02/2010 at 10:08 Alexander Norris says:
@Lilliput King; the main issue I personally have is with the software-license style of false ownership that’s been in place for at least a decade and isn’t going anywhere until someone with knowledge about software, licensing and video games gets into office with a consumer-friendly agenda (which will take a minimum of a decade, I reckon).
The lack of competition is simply the issue that I’ve found people can most easily relate to, since it concerns pricing (and as you pointed out, DRM, but most people don’t actually give a shit about that). Keep in mind, I’m talking about a probable future where digital distribution has become the mainstream games are hardly ever delivered via retail anymore (thus crippling the stores’ powers of negotiation as well as their ability to take a hit on their profit margins so we can buy games at a discount).
17/02/2010 at 21:03 unangbangkay says:
Christ in heaven.
This is a disaster!
And the second worst part about this is that console owners will be crowing and crowing for the next few days “PC GAEM DED LOLOLOLOL”.
They don’t realize that they won’t be immune to this bullshit for much longer. EA’s online support shutdowns? Uplay? The Cerberus Network? All those thinly-veiled proprietary DLC channels are one day going to hold the games they’re associated with hostage, regardless of the hardware they’re on.
17/02/2010 at 21:10 jsutcliffe says:
Off-topic, but I’m a console owner and I don’t talk like that, not do any of the other console owners I know. It is disingenuous if not downright childish to characterise them as illiterate bumpkins. Part of the supposed rivalry between console gamers and PC gamers is perceived elitism from the PC gaming crowd. I don’t like it.
17/02/2010 at 21:24 unangbangkay says:
I apologize if I’ve offended you, but there ARE console owners (AND PC owners) who DO talk like that, and for better or worse, they’re vocal in the commentariat, and end up as part of the “evidence” some analysts like to use to sound the death-knell of PC gaming.
18/02/2010 at 00:49 Lilliput King says:
I’d just like to point out that I’m a console owner and I do in fact talk like that.
18/02/2010 at 16:07 jsutcliffe says:
@Lilliput King
Don’t you see you’re ruining things for the rest of us!
17/02/2010 at 21:06 Dreamhacker says:
Any kind of opinion like “this is unfair to the people who had no influence on the decision” is rendered moot. If they really, honestly, care about their own handmade game, they should resign in protest and go indie.
Me? I’m off to the boycott crowd, stopping by the ‘tracker on the way. I was looking forward to buying AC2, as I did with AC1, but hey, principles are principles.
17/02/2010 at 21:06 Demon Beaver says:
Great… and, YARR!!!
17/02/2010 at 21:06 subversus says:
I’ll wait and see if servers are stable. But going back to last checkpoint isn’t a big deal for me. It’s not Demons Souls, checkpoints will be frequent.
Also it will be fun if the system sustain crack attempts for a long period of time.
17/02/2010 at 21:28 Demon Beaver says:
I think you’re missing the point of why game crackers do what they do… it’s mostly for the challenge. So, while the passive pirates wait on torrenting sites, the active crackers just got a game within a game… and everything is cracked in the end.
17/02/2010 at 21:11 Okami says:
I think you’re all a bunch of communists who love Osama Bin Laden and Hitler and hate freedom of market and Jesus. You also most likely eat vegetables.
17/02/2010 at 21:13 StalinsGhost says:
Good to see RPS making their stance clear on this one by the way.
It makes me wonder if a ballsy move by 1 or 2 high profile PC publications to actively put a specific warning against games with such a piss poor attitude to their target audience would prove far more useful than even the most organised boycott. Hell, maybe even refuse to review it until they got it sorted?
Though I’m probably naive to think that they’d be willing to slight the publishers who ultimately pay half the bills – not that I’m implying direct financial incentives for good scores or anything, but it would be quite hard to remain popular if Ubi blankest refused to let non-conformist publications in on previews and review copies…
17/02/2010 at 21:18 stormbringer951 says:
But they are paying direct financial incentives for good scores. Remember Gamespot and Kane & Lynch and that business with advertising?
17/02/2010 at 21:14 Tom says:
I’m not interested in AC2 or Settlers 7, but I’m soooo gonna pirate them
17/02/2010 at 21:15 faelnor says:
I wish developer studios would all put up donation options on their webpages so that gamers with morals would be able to do the right thing.
17/02/2010 at 21:25 jarvoll says:
@faelnor: I actually contacted [a developer that EA swallowed] once because I refuse to give money to that disgusting machEAne, but I had played one of the developer’s games and wanted to give them their due for that (amazing) experience. They didn’t reply; I assume(d) they’re contractually obliged to ignore “hey, do you guys have a paypal account I can put $50 into?”
17/02/2010 at 21:16 rxtx says:
And then there’s of course the question of what happens when they take the servers off…
17/02/2010 at 21:16 piri_reis says:
Nope, I will not be supporting this!
In my case, SH5 is a single player game, and the ‘always online drm scheme’ is ridiculous.
I’ll wait until the DRM/OSP is removed.
17/02/2010 at 21:17 lethu says:
Gamers pirating games may push the developers into the DRM direction, not always, but often enough. But this, in the other hand, is what pushes the gamers into the pirating direction even more. Can you see the vicious circle ?
No DRM, no vicious circle, less pirating, everybody’s happy.
17/02/2010 at 21:20 clippa says:
I wasn’t going to get this game anyway, but now I’m DEFINITELY not going to get it.
In fact, no, I AM, I’m going to illegally download it, and THEN delete it without even installing it. That’ll show ‘em.
17/02/2010 at 21:20 TooNu says:
Angry internet eh? well I marked it with 1 star out of 5 on Amazon, yea that’s right 1 star! take that internets.
17/02/2010 at 21:21 Mackan says:
It’s like they want to make more pirates. Pirated versions of their games have none of these problems.
17/02/2010 at 21:21 Hunam says:
I’ll just wait for the 360 version to end up at 17.99 at Zavvi/The Hut I think.
17/02/2010 at 21:23 LordCiego says:
Settlers 7 will have this DRM…
and TrackMania2…
and HOMMVI…
I wont play any of them :_(
17/02/2010 at 21:23 ChampionHyena says:
Good lord.
Even once-monstrous corp-o-behemoth EA has backed down on DRM a few times when people freaked out. Can anyone cite a publisher besides Ubisoft who has taken gamer protest and then gone SOCIOPATHIC with it?
No sale. It’s not even about “making a stand” or whatever at this point. I, as a consumer, simply do not have the patience for this shit.
Oh, also, everyone who’s yelling “HAR-DEE-HAR I’MMA PIRATE IT AND SHOW ‘EM,” good luck on shooting yourselves (and the rest of us) in the foot. Thanks for becoming part of the problem. We all appreciate it.
17/02/2010 at 21:23 wererogue says:
I will continue my nonformal emergent policy of only ever buying games from GOG.com, indie websites, steam, telltale games and the like. Not because I like their DRM policies (although I do like GOG’s DRM policy. A lot.) Not solely because they are cheap (although they are rather reasonably priced, in general.) But because it is less hassle than going to the store for a game that might not be there, or waiting half a week to play a game that I just decided I want.
For the record, I think this scheme is pretty dumb. I wouldn’t mind DRM so much if it worked, but it makes me sad to see the industry that I love and work in pour so much money into tech that doesn’t have an effect. I still want to see more figures on sales vs. piracy on day 0 with/without cracked versions available, but for now, my position is both “why waste your money on this?” and “why would you do that to your customers?”
17/02/2010 at 21:25 Swingydoodoo says:
Meh. Plenty of other games out there. Can’t even be arsed to pirate this to be honest.
17/02/2010 at 21:27 sebmojo says:
Is it actually a given that it will be pirated? If you’re relying on an always on internet connection to do constant cryptographically whatnotted call and response or whathaveyou, doesn’t that ramp the security up hugely?
17/02/2010 at 22:49 D says:
Yes, at the moment it is a little unclear what the crackers will do. They have already shown it’s no problem to remove DRM triggers from games, but the problem is then: how do you save?
Removing the communication parts of the program and creating an “emulated server” for it to talk to is theoretically possible, despite whatever encryption used. It may however not be feasible for a crack group to implement such a solution. This is more territory of emulation groups working on WoW servers, PS2, etc. If they’re lucky, it’ll be possible for them to rip out the entire framework of “encrypt, send”/”receive, decrypt” and replace it with file writes/reads, but I doubt it. Lets hope for the best, it would be a shame to have AC2 go unplayed by everyone, I hear it’s quite good.
17/02/2010 at 23:05 ascagnel says:
Yes.
All the various pieces of code need to be on your system at some point, since they need to be executed. They may be encrypted, but you’ll also have the key in memory since the system needs to decrypt these bits before they can be executed.
Essentially, all the various bits and bobs need to be on your system (for example, to tell it what to save and how to handle the save data coming down from the cloud), and anyone skilled in reverse engineering and disassembly can do it with enough time.
I’m a CS student, and an understanding of assembler is an absolute requirement for such a degree. Once you get down to per-instruction stuff, there’s no way to sneak in encryption, you can only hide those lists of instructions from users, rather than actually protecting them.
18/02/2010 at 00:01 Daniel Klein says:
What ascagnel said. Basically, this’ll be cracked, same as every other game ever released. There is no security if all the sensitive pieces rest on your system. The only way you can force unbreakable DRM on the user is by running CRITICAL parts of the game on an environment you control. If basically you had an MMO type setup, with local input being interpreted remotely and results sent back. That is retarded for a single player game for a hundred reasons, but it’ll happen too, at some point.
One reason I put up with Steam (and pretty much Give Them All My Money) is that I can always rely on getting to my games, even in offline mode if need be. I’m a little worried about games that save in the cloud; will my Torchlight savegame from playing offline be synced properly with the steam cloud once the net comes back up? But that’s a minor problem, easily checked and worked around. (I don’t need to save in the cloud) This, however, is ridiculous. I was on the fence about buying this, having heard a LOT of good stuff, but I have just leapt off the fence. Into a haystack.
18/02/2010 at 00:45 Baf says:
There’s a fundamental problem with using crypto for DRM. I think Cory Doctorow described it most clearly: Cryptography assumes that you have an intended recipient, who you want to be able to read your message, and an attacker, who you want not to be able to read your message. Now try to apply this model to DRM. Who is the intended recipient? Clearly the customer. And who is the attacker? Also the customer. That’s simply not how crypto works.
17/02/2010 at 21:28 sinister agent says:
Christ.
Give it five years, and they’ll start charging customers money to be spat on and punched in the face.
17/02/2010 at 21:30 theleif says:
Reply to stormbringer951
“They work. Bioshock kept off the pirates for 13 days with it’s DRM.”
I’ve see that information a couple of times, and it’s just not true. I remember i found torrents of the game just some days after it was released.
Just to avert a flaming, yes i bought the game.
But this sort of DRM is just awful. I know i would never buy a game with these restrictions at full price. Couldnt the Hivemind try to get in touch with someone at UBI thats not a press spokesman? It would be really interesting to hear their reasoning behind this.
17/02/2010 at 21:47 stormbringer951 says:
Ah, sorry. I had that information from a interview with a developer, over at Gamespot I believe. Interesting to see, if it’s false.
Anyway, the DRM on these sorts of games is getting ridiculous. I’m beginning to fear that in a couple of years, if the status quo is maintained, we’ll look back on Assassin’s Creed 2′s DRM and think that it wasn’t actually all that bad.
17/02/2010 at 22:56 Kieron Gillen says:
theleif: I’m not sure those torrents actually worked. I can’t remember details, but I remember there was something about it not actually being cracked after all or similar.
KG
17/02/2010 at 23:08 Koozer says:
I concur with and endorse this message.
The early torrents were of a clean copy of the game, uncracked, so it didn’t actually work. The crack came days later, so the pirates had to wait longer than us legitimate buyers to play it.
17/02/2010 at 23:08 ascagnel says:
It worked because the actual EXE wasn’t made available until launch day. Usually piracy groups have inside access to spots like pressing plants and can steal media while the game is in post-production. They normally have a few days (sometimes a few weeks) to get a “head start” on cracking the release. Since they didn’t have that lead-in time, BioShock was essentially a race to see who could do it first.
Wired magazine has an awesome article from a few years back about how “the scene” works.
18/02/2010 at 00:05 Daniel Klein says:
Ascagnel: you can’t say something like that and then not provide a link! -10 internet points for you.
18/02/2010 at 00:21 Drew says:
You don’t really need to guess, the interwebs provides all. Search for the NFO’s. You can find the history of that particular release. The final proper release was by Fairlight on Sept 29th 2007 (with a crackfix on Oct 1st), a full month and 8 days after the 21 Aug 2007 North American release date of Bioshock.
Of course, if it was so wonderful and important why did they abandon it for Bioshock 2? Bioshock 2 was officially released on Feb 9th 2010, the final proper scene release was by Reloaded on Feb 10th, although there was a messy version by Razor 1911 as of Feb 8th.
What changed that made them no longer care about the month of lead time?
18/02/2010 at 05:01 ascagnel says:
@Daniel Klein: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.01/topsite.html. I think that’s it. May I have my 10 Internets back now?
17/02/2010 at 21:33 Out Reach says:
I’m starting to wonder if these people are just purposely trying to kill the PC gaming, and try and force us all onto simple consoles, which are easier to Copy Protect, and Easier to make games for >>
I’d rather they just admit it and quit making games for the PC all together, instead of these monstrositys. Will serve them right when all the sane DRM publishers and indie developers become billionaires.
17/02/2010 at 21:36 Muzman says:
Bizarre.
I like the idea that something this draconian can only exist to justify cancelling the PC versions of games altogether. Isn’t it said that the current console generation has peaked and is on the wane now, with the PCs superior power becoming more and more obvious and more typical, but a new console generation is a couple of years away at least? They don’t want people jumping ship just yet and fear of piracy is easy for security software firms to sow, thus expect to see PC versons avoided or ever more hamstrung like this from here on.
(I’m not saying AC2s DRM is part of some great scheme, but evidence of an attitude. maybe.)
17/02/2010 at 21:37 Zeus says:
I wonder how many people downloading these cracked torrents are actually legitimate customers who, having bought a legal copy, would honestly just like to be able to play the game they paid for?
17/02/2010 at 21:40 Flusquil says:
So they’re stopping people with no internet connection (and thus less likely to be downloading and pirating games) from being able to play they’re games. Yet just frustrating the people with internet (who can pirate games) who decide to buy they’re games….. brilliant.
17/02/2010 at 21:43 PixelCody says:
There are 2 locations where I could possibly be playing games.
1) Home, where my wifi connection craps out at least once per hour.
2) University, where the network goes down way too often.
*shakes fist*
17/02/2010 at 21:43 Manuel says:
As it has been their decision to attach this type of ridiculous continuous authorisation on their software; it is my decision to ignore any and all titles published by this developer that have this ‘ball-and-chain’ authorisation.
Plenty more enjoyable fish to be had in the ocean that don’t treat their paying customers like common criminals who need constant monitoring.
17/02/2010 at 21:44 Sad PC Monster says:
Christ, what is happening to PC gaming? As someone who hasn’t bought a triple-AAA game since Bioshock (‘cos the ancient gaming rig only just handled that) I’m starting to wonder if I should even bother planning to buy a new one to catch up with all these amazing new DRM’d experiences. Sure, there’s an Indie scene now but they’re hardly worth splashing out over £800 for new hardware, are they? The games now…man, it really bites deep to think how screwed everything is, how anti-consumer this landscape has become.
I wish I had a time-travel machine so I could nip back a few years and kill Valve before they got so big they invented Steam. That’s where the rot set in, folks. The geek posse adopted this digital hand-holding shit on the back of Half-Life and Counter-Strike and before you know it they had gaming utterly transformed for the worse. Everything since then has been a step further along the road to the PC’s eventual demise.
The more the pirates fight back, the harder the DRM becomes until these opposing forces have polarised so far that business in this hostile space simply becomes untenable and we only have the consoles left to remind us of what was.
Thanks a fucking bunch, Steam, Ubi, EA et al. Thanks pirates. Thanks for slowly torturing to death a pastime I have loved since the ZX Spectrum appeared on the scene all those years ago. It’s sure been fun watching the blood slowly seeping out of its increasingly-mangled and rotting flesh.
17/02/2010 at 21:52 Senethro says:
srry m8 but ur pretty out of touch if you’re blaming one of the few implementations ofdrm that isn’t irredeemably shit
17/02/2010 at 21:47 Merli says:
I’ll probably just download a crack or something.
I regularly don’t have internet connection available to me so I just tend to have a crack for these kind of games when I don’t or when the installs have expired.
When I do have internet again I simply put the original files back.
It makes me wonder how much copies borderlands sold considering they didn’t have any kind of DRM and then compare it to any DRM heavy game.
17/02/2010 at 21:48 A-Scale says:
I wonder how long it will take pirates to crack it? An extra week? Was that worth all the lost sales, Ubi? Now you naysayers who have apologized for draconian copyright see the light. Copyright is like surveillance- you can’t fight it bits at a time. You have to take a stand and draw a firm line that cannot be crossed if you don’t want this to devolve into something awful.
17/02/2010 at 21:54 aaron says:
Hey now, don’t get all up on Steam about this. Steam never hurt anybody.
Pity, because I’ve heard AC2 is very good and wanted to play it. I’m not going to be all “Oh I’ll just pirate it” or “I’ll just download a crack” because I don’t like those things, so I guess I just won’t be playing. Oh well. Plenty of other games to hold my interest.
17/02/2010 at 22:10 Mike says:
The real problem is that whilst everyone is talking about ‘lost sales’ – they won’t lose sales. Everyone will buy the game. They’ll just be miserable and won’t enjoy it. It’s not something to (just) get angry about, it’s sort of saddening more than anything. Why would anyone want to do this.
17/02/2010 at 22:17 Nero says:
Why will companies never learn? Give the consumers the product they deserve and not do this bullshit. Oh well, any interest in this I might have had is now completely gone. Companies that does things like this isn’t worth my time.
17/02/2010 at 22:17 Po0py says:
Ubisoft are shooting themselves in the foot. They are restricting their customers rights to play a damn game the way they want to play it. They know there is going to be a fallout. And they know there is going to be lost sales and increased piracy. I can see Assassins Creed 3 being a console only affair and Ubisoft announcing that it is a game that is more suited to a controller and a comfy couch. Or some such bullshit excuse.
17/02/2010 at 22:19 wererogue says:
To highlight a couple of good points made in the thread that some of the commenters seem to have missed:
- Valve may well be playing nice with their service, but they *did* start the online activation for single player games movement with HL2, and people weren’t happy about it at the time.
- Companies may well be comfortable with losing customers if it means that free copies aren’t available at, before, or shortly after launch. Sales are highest at launch, and so is piracy, and there is a stronger link between the two at this time (it’s easy to imagine that a customer who wants the game at launch would pirate the game if that’s an option, but buy it otherwise rather than wait for the torrent.) However, if that’s the main concern, a pledge to drop the DRM after a set time period would do a lot to clear the air.
17/02/2010 at 22:46 Brilhasti says:
You’d have more of a leg to stand on if pirated versions of games weren’t generally available before the retail version of the game.
I have pirated a game a few days before its release so that I could play it early, then go and buy the full version when it’s release. As I said in another post, I believe in paying people for their work.
I will fight draconian DRM until the end though. I have zero issue with pirating things like that to make a point. I absolutely believe in paying for products that don’t treat me like I’m a criminal though.
17/02/2010 at 22:22 Sagan says:
I think, I might still buy Assassin’s Creed 2. I will wait until there is a crack out and then I will buy the game.
17/02/2010 at 22:24 Heliosicle says:
Is it illegal if I sent Ubisoft an envelope with £30 in it and then download Splinter Cell Conviction (If it has this)
17/02/2010 at 22:27 silentcorp says:
DRM is easily cracked. I pay for all my games, and crack them each.
17/02/2010 at 22:34 Po0py says:
I’d do the same if I could find a trusted source to download a crack. But unfortunately there are none. You simply can’t verify it’s source and weather it’s packing malware or not no matter where you find it.
17/02/2010 at 22:55 D says:
This is not true. There are plenty of trustworthy places. The trust is simple and comes from other people risking their neck trying it first, and going “yes, this is not malware.”
17/02/2010 at 22:28 unclelou says:
Yup. Which is why pirating the game is just as foolish – if not more so – as what Ubisoft is doing here. “Shooting yourself in the foot” indeed.
I’ll do what an adult should do if he doesn’t agree with the terms of sale, I’ll spend my money elsewhere.
17/02/2010 at 22:28 Thiago says:
Eh, whatever, Ubisoft. You don’t want my dollars, that’s fine, I’ll just spend them somewhere else. Your games won’t be missed here.
17/02/2010 at 23:55 Stromko says:
They’ll blame the poor sales on ‘PC games are dying’, they don’t care if the port is horrible and paired with a ghastly and criminal DRM, never mind the PC market is healthier than ever compared to this economy. The industry has their heads too far up their asses to realize that they are their own worst enemy.
17/02/2010 at 22:28 Wulf says:
So… I’m thinking of starting a betting pool on how long it’ll take clever DRM crackers to get past this, considering that it seems an incredibly flimsy system that could be spoofed… hm, they may still run into some problems. I’m saying 8 days from now.
Also, hooray for crackers! They’re not just for piracy, they save the sanity of people who pay their hard-earned cash for games, too. They’ll save every one of us, they will. Yep, crackers, just like Flash Gordon. That makes Ubisoft Ming the Merciless, and do you really want to be Ming, Ubi? Is that what you want?
17/02/2010 at 22:29 Flimgoblin says:
@stormbringer951 I was about to ask “ok 90% rate, but what’s the rate on e.g. Bioshock 2?” But the blog post you linked to from 2D boy compares their piracy rate to another indie studio, and came to the conclusion that: “preventing 1000 piracy attempts results in only a single additional sale. ” and also “ricochet shipped with DRM, world of goo shipped without it, and there seems to be no difference in the outcomes”
The case for DRM is not as cut and dry “DRM increases sales”. Certainly there’s a case that these people would not be buying your game in any case, and if the DRM isn’t cracked (though it will be) they just won’t buy it. I’m not saying that reducing the number of parasites playing your game for free isn’t a bad aim in and of itself mind you, but if it comes at the cost of pissing off the people actually buying your game….
(edit: bloody reply thing, it was to stormbringer951 in the whole thread about World of Goo and its 90% piracy rate)
17/02/2010 at 23:37 Flimgoblin says:
re-reading that, I’ve come over quite anti-DRM ;) not the biggest fan of it tbh, but I’m quite happy using Steam*, so…
I do wonder what the difference in, say, small amount of DRM (install key) vs more DRM (Bioshock 2) vs silly DRM (current ubisoft insanity) actually is in terms of piracy prevention and conversion of pirates to purchasers (as opposed to their conversion of purchasers to ANGRY ANGRY non-purchasers, of course)
*apart from Steam games that ALSO REQUIRE THE DAMNED CD, ARGH!
17/02/2010 at 22:31 Ahmed says:
Lol, hackers are gonna have a freaking field day with this now. This game will get hacked, played offline, and maybe even played online just for the hell of it. Ya know what? I hope this game gets hacked just for MORONIC decisions like this. When will they ever learn.
17/02/2010 at 22:40 Wulf says:
Cracking is the correct term, but yes…
The thing is, it seems like such an easy system to spoof. It probably works on a system of simple checks. ‘Am I valid?’, and ‘Yes you are.’ All you have to do then is spoof where the validation is coming from (this is super easy) and make sure it gets the right sort of validation. I can see people playing this online just for shits and giggles to show how poor of a concept it is.
The only people this is going to inconvenience/piss off are legal buyers. Crackers will have this thing busted open and they’ll have a mock server to respond to game requests in no time. In fact, I can even see this eventually becoming a generic thing, needing only simple updates.
I vote that they call the server Noobidaft.
17/02/2010 at 23:07 D says:
I think you’re underestimating the system. If spoofing an authentication procedure was so easy, there would never be any fuss about online activations and such. Crack groups would just create an “emulated server”, and yet nobody has done this so far, always opting instead to rip out the communicating DRM parts of games. The problem is when the messages are not simple “yes/no” answers, due to encryption. It’s theoretically possible to spoof despite any encryption yes, but nobody has done it yet. In addition to this, the Ubisoft system has the additional advantage of communicating critical data, ie. the save games. What would a cracker do if the Ubi servers restructured the data inside the save games, and sent them back in a different format than it was originally received? You would have to create an elaborate server to parse the savegame data for each game released. Ubisoft has the resources and documentation to do this easily, but attempts from outside groups are suddenly a lot harder.
17/02/2010 at 23:28 Wulf says:
@D
“I think you’re underestimating the system.”
I think you’re overestimating the ingenuity of western DRM developers.
“If spoofing an authentication procedure was so easy, there would never be any fuss about online activations and such.”
Is there fuss about online activations and such?
Bethesda? Cracked. Bioware/EA? Cracked. Borderlands? Cracked. And so on…
“Crack groups would just create an “emulated server”, and yet nobody has done this so far, always opting instead to rip out the communicating DRM parts of games.”
You fail at reading comprehension.
The thing is, there hasn’t been a system thus far that has need for anything beyond a handshake, therefore simply removing the need for the handshake would do, which is what most cracks do. However, with this system of checks, it might be a little easier to just create a simulated response.
FYI: Emulation is not the correct term.
“The problem is when the messages are not simple “yes/no” answers, due to encryption. It’s theoretically possible to spoof despite any encryption yes, but nobody has done it yet.”
If you base your reasoning on a base fallacy then all following reasoning is flawed.
Again: There hasn’t been a need to create such a server, thus far.
Again: You’re underestimating how incredibly clever crackers are.
It can’t be too complicated anyway, it probably uses the CD registration as some sort of encryption key, or something of the sort. The point is… if the same key is used to register the game, then providing it doesn’t go online for real then the same system can likely be used to respond to any number of games using that key. It has to go by the key, otherwise how does it know that the user has a valid copy of the game in the first place? Both Bioware and Bethesda’s systems are based on keys, and for good reason.
But the flaw with that system is that if the game requires a key, then you can feed it the same key every time and the game will require the same validation every time. They just have to figure out how to simulate that validation, just copy the packets and toss them at the game when the server spots that the game is asking for validation. I’m trying to keep this as simple as possible, here…
“In addition to this, the Ubisoft system has the additional advantage of communicating critical data, ie. the save games. What would a cracker do if the Ubi servers restructured the data inside the save games, and sent them back in a different format than it was originally received?”
This is a ludicrous concept because it would require more bandwidth than a dialup user can muster.
Even Ubisoft isn’t THAT stupid.
…
Okay, you may have me here, Gods damn it.
They may actually be THAT stupid.
But if they are THAT stupid then this whole thing is going to fall flat on its face. A lot of people in the world still have dialup or slow connections (bottlenecks).
“You would have to create an elaborate server to parse the savegame data for each game released.”
This is assuming that they’d be THAT stupid. x.x But yes, you’d have me here.
It’s just… guh, the bandwidth requirements for that would be ludicrous, to say it again. I really can’t see this. It’s illogical to the point of pure absurdity. It really is THAT stupid.
I’m thankful that you’re not designing DRM, let me tell you that much.
“Ubisoft has the resources and documentation to do this easily,”
Do you work for Ubisoft? You seem to talk from the position of a corporation a lot whilst not actually ttaking into account the resources of the user.
People have limited bandwidth. Ubi might be able to do this easily, but the Internet would DIE. Ferrying around savegames frequently? FFS…
“but attempts from outside groups are suddenly a lot harder.”
This is ONLY assuming that your insanely bloody stupid savegame idea is even realistic. x.x
Ferrying around massive savegames would be the only way that crackers couldn’t get around it.
But that’s just so… STUPID. Guhhhh… I can’t stress it enough.
Thousands of people with low bandwidth concerns are going to buy a game they can’t play!
…they’re not that stupid, they can’t be.
You’re breaking my mind… STOP THAT! D:
17/02/2010 at 23:33 Wulf says:
@Me/D
And and and and… what about people with bandwidth caps?
No, I’m sorry D… I can’t buy it. That’s TOO idiotic, even for Ubisoft.
17/02/2010 at 23:58 Uhm says:
Considering that’s what they’re doing. I’m afraid …they are that stupid.
18/02/2010 at 00:21 Ging says:
Actually, it may not take as much bandwidth as you’d think – I’m not sure how big the AC2 saves are on the 360 (I could go and check, but you know, it’s a whole room away) but there’s no particular reason for them to be huge, a couple of meg a pop is distinctly possible (it doesn’t store exact details about location for instance, just drops you back at the closest safe house so it just needs the basics on your inventory and progress in collectibles and missions, none of which requires a massive load of data)
You’d only ever have to transfer one save at a time, the one being saved or loaded at that point – someone on dialup will feel the hit at that point, but odds are the box will have big old warnings on saying “broadband connection required” so they get out of that one as they’ve warned the consumer. With that in mind, the average consumer will have a broadband connection that ranges somewhere between 1 and 8 mbps, so say somewhere between 50 and 800 KB/s, in the worst case scenario it will take 40 seconds to bring down a 2 meg save file, in the best case you’re looking at 5 – 10 seconds.
So 40 seconds is pretty long to sit around staring at a downloading screen (which is going to lead into a loading screen), which certainly steps towards the unacceptable side of the scale, but a 10 seconds wait? I can live with that, even with the loading time on top. The impact on my bandwidth usage probably won’t be too severe either, depending on how often you save it would be no worse than an evening of MP play or watching a couple of funny cat videos on youtube.
I’m not defending the rest of the DRM system, it’s a piss poor move – but if it does store your save games in the “cloud”, than that aspect may not be as bad as you think and it would be a reasonable way of extending the life time of the game as an uncracked entity for better or for worse.
18/02/2010 at 01:04 Lilliput King says:
@Wulf
It’s infuriating/silly/ridiculous, whatever, but also official ‘n straight from the horse’s mouth.
“What are the key elements of this platform for PC gamers?
Although a permanent online connection is required, this means that a CD/DVD is not required to play the game after installation. The protected game can be installed as many times and on as many computers as you like. Saved games are also synchronized online so the user can continue playing from any location with the game installed.”
18/02/2010 at 03:31 Uhm says:
I have saves ranging from a few k to around 30meg, I have save folders of a few hundred meg. That’s no small amount of bandwidth and storage multiplied by many thousands of users for every game they release from now on.
Will they only need to crack it once then apply a similar method for the other games using it? So they could end up going through all this for a delay in piracy on one game?
17/02/2010 at 22:34 SheffieldSteel says:
Who’s actually going to pay for these games?
People who…
- are somewhere on the continuum between unhealthily optimistic (my internet connection will not go down, no sir) and so desperate to buy that they don’t care about the inconvenience (zomgzomgzomg etc.)
- are too lazy to wait for the cracked version, and too weak-willed to actually get involved in a protest (no one will know if it’s just me who buys this… this online-only single-player game… um)
- know that a cracked version is available, but want to support the developer anyway (hello!)
Nice to know that Ubisoft thinks so much of their fans
:-/
17/02/2010 at 22:36 Tim says:
Huh. And I was going to look into Settlers 7. The nostalgia will be ruined if I can’t play it on a laptop during long train journeys.
17/02/2010 at 22:40 Tacroy says:
You know why you can trust the warez cracking groups? Because they, unlike EA, actually care about their reputation.
17/02/2010 at 22:52 Wulf says:
Exactly.
I tend to crack legally bought games because I trust the cracking groups more than huge companies (not more than the indies, mind you, as the indies have just as much to lose with a bad rep). The thing is, cracking groups provide ways to make sure that one has a valid version of the crack they released. And if news got out that a valid crack from them caused a significant amount of users harm, then they’d be ruined.
That’s why this has never happened. One just verifies that their crack is indeed from one of the most prominent cracking groups and then they’re good to go. The worst I’ve ever seen from a crack is that it can make a game slightly buggy, but even that is more tolerable than the DRM one would find in most mainstream PC games.
I’m not advocating piracy here, but there are some things that most would consider grey line that I do advocate. >.> For example: Second hand Mass Effect 2, crack it with a trustworthy crack, then get a warez version of the DLC you’d otherwise have to pay $15 for just because you didn’t buy it new. Heh. That I could think of as ethical. Quite easily.
The point is though… a super-huge company doesn’t care if they trash your HDD, but a cracking group does. Does that sound screwed up? Way of the world.
18/02/2010 at 01:07 Lilliput King says:
For example: Second hand Mass Effect 2, crack it with a trustworthy crack, then get a warez version of the DLC you’d otherwise have to pay $15 for just because you didn’t buy it new. Heh. That I could think of as ethical.
Madness. You’ve paid for it, but who are you paying? No better than pirating it outright.
18/02/2010 at 01:29 Thants says:
Buying a used game is no more pirating than buying a used car or a used book.
18/02/2010 at 01:37 Lilliput King says:
I’m not saying the two actions are interchangeable.
I’m saying ethically speaking, buying a used game is no better than pirating it.
18/02/2010 at 02:19 Thants says:
What? That’s crazy. Are you also against libraries and used-car dealers? A used market is a standard part of pretty much everything that is sold. It’s not a problem, it’s how the economy works.
18/02/2010 at 02:23 Psychopomp says:
Difference:You don’t keep something from a library, and there’s a quantifiable advantage to buying a new car over a used one. You buy a used game? Bar free stuff for first time buyers, It either works or it doesn’t. Should it not work, you take it back and get one that does.
18/02/2010 at 03:33 Thants says:
Just like a used book, or music CD.
18/02/2010 at 03:55 Psychopomp says:
Which I am also against.
18/02/2010 at 10:37 Lilliput King says:
Are you also against libraries and used-car dealers?
Sometimes and sometimes. Not helpful to be quite so absolute about this, but I suspect I’ve lead you there by being so terse.
Allow me to elaborate. I’d argue what’s important for a purchase to be ethical is that the artist gets their due, both monetarily and more abstractly (higher sales – more respected development house – better career prospects). Given that, you have to approach purchases with a little bit of care. If the developer has separated, fine, buy it used. If the author is dead, fine, get the book from the library. Otherwise you’re depriving him of the fruits of his labour. Doing so is unethical. Whether that’s how the economy works is beside the point, and completely unimportant.
Pragmatically, though, Psychopomp’s points stand.
17/02/2010 at 22:43 Zwebbie says:
I generally launch games whenever my Internet connection drops, because that’s when I don’t have any alternatives left to do on the computer. Obviously, that means I’d only play AC2 in the rare moments that I’d actually rather be playing a game than that I’d be strolling the Internet or doing some CG.
But it’s okay! I can think of a million other things to spend €50 on. Like books!
17/02/2010 at 22:44 Grey Cap says:
@SheffieldSteel: No, I think most sales are going to be people who don’t know about the DRM. Gamers who read gaming news are a tiny minority, (or so I’ve read!) so the majority of sales will be to people who GET SURPRISED by not being able to play their 40-pound game. Ubisoft are hardly going to announce the scheme prominently on the box, are they?
17/02/2010 at 22:49 cjlr says:
For those who’ve mentioned EA’s latest scheme (as present in Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2)…
It’s retarded, yes, but I can confirm that those games require only a handshake to load. I’m not 100% on whether it’s logging in to EA-Online-thingy, or the actual loading process, or both, which requires a connection, but past that initial pain in the ass you can play indefinitely with no connection.
17/02/2010 at 22:57 James G says:
@Cjlr
’tis actually a bit more lenient than that… sometimes. My net connection was playing silly buggers recently upon loading ME2, although was active, and the game couldn’t connect to the Cerberus network. It notified me as such, but proceeded to grant me access to my DLC anyway. However on other almost identical occasions I’ve had it inform me that I wouldn’t be able to access my content, and sometimes it would refuse to load my saves entirely (Usually when I’m not connected.)
No idea how it decides what its going to do.
17/02/2010 at 23:43 cjlr says:
@James G
I was basing that off my worst-case experiences – that is, so long as you can scrounge thirty seconds of internet time, you’re good to go. I, also, had times when I did a cold boot with no internet connection and could still merrily play away. I have no idea what checks they actually use. I could break out the packet scanner, but I am really not that concerned.
Well, unconcerned so long as we can expect deactivation of all the checks whenever the authentication servers are taken down. ‘Course, by then, there’s no doubt a cracked redirect or spoof or other workaround.
17/02/2010 at 23:59 Lilliput King says:
It’s a little bit weird. I needed to be online to log in and download the DAO and ME2 DLC, but subsequently had no problems playing or booting the game when offline, using the DLC content and my saves.
Which is weird only because I could’ve sworn the game warns you against doing so.
17/02/2010 at 22:55 Hans says:
Well, I’m not going to buy the game. Thanks for the info. It is indeed unbelievable.
17/02/2010 at 23:08 Mad Penguin says:
I was going to buy this but Ubisoft has really gone too far this time. If I bother with this game at all, I will buy it used for my ps3 so Ubi will get no money from me.
17/02/2010 at 23:10 Davie says:
No. No. You sons of bitches. Words cannot express my rage. Freaking hell gosh darn. See? Didn’t work. I want to punch a baby in the head.
Well, I was all set to drop fifty on this, but now, I have a perfectly valid excuse to download the DRM-free pirated copy that will no doubt be out in a couple weeks. Nice work, Ubi. NICE WORK.
17/02/2010 at 23:12 DJ Phantoon says:
Strangely enough, a lot of Ubisoft’s games are aimed at the casual market. While that may not be a problem on consoles, most of us here know about and have dealt with DRM. What happens when someone randomly picks up Settlers because they think it looks interesting and they don’t have Internet to find out that Ubisoft is fucking them over like this?
Honestly, I don’t think they could have handled this worse without literally blowing up a building.
(Sidenote, apparently Internet is a proper noun.)
17/02/2010 at 23:16 Tyraa Rane says:
Well, damn, and here I was looking forward to AC2. This is just absurd. My WiFi connection is surprisingly stable, but when it craps out, it craps out in truly epic fashion…and when it does, since I can’t browse the Internet? I’d much rather play games.
…Oh wait.
I suppose it’s too much to ask that the Steam version (being that Steam’s a DRM unto itself) not have this lunacy. Given that 2K Games seemed to think we needed GfWL on top of Steam, I’m not too hopeful. (Meanwhile, at least Steam lets me play my games when the WiFi craps out.)
17/02/2010 at 23:17 mgk says:
just wanted to say that i love steam. it lets me install my games on different computers without having to have a physical copy of the game, which for me is a MAJOR bonus. i really love that feature, and its made me a steam fan.
am also completely unforgiving about this drm boolshiatz, however. fuck buying a game and then not being able to play that shit. this is utter fucking discrimination against players without internet. FZCK that.
17/02/2010 at 23:19 Neoky says:
All I have to say:
I’m not buying it now.
17/02/2010 at 23:19 Generico says:
These morons will never learn.
Every single DRM scheme to date has failed to prevent piracy or show any causal link between its so-called effectiveness and an increase in sales. Yet these companies waste truck loads of money on intrusive, unreliable, performance robbing DRM software. Not because it’s measurably effective, but because some idiots in the publishing department have been wined and dined by some company pushing a DRM solution. Almost the entire gaming industry is willfully ignoring the mountain of evidence that DRM is a waste of money, and customers pretty much universally hate it.
Since Ubisoft is basically just assuming that all of its customers are dirty software pirates, I recommend that everyone actually BE a dirty software pirate and pirate this game. Might as well reap the benefits of the crime if you’ve already been convicted. Aaarrrrr!
17/02/2010 at 23:35 The Bottom Bandito says:
what the gaming press should do is knock 30-40% off the review scores because of this..
the drm in say bioshock 1 / 2 and witcher etc is ok by me (i’ve been lucky by all accounts) but this is just a bridge too far
fuckin non-gaming money men morons!
17/02/2010 at 23:38 David says:
Ever since I got digital phone it comes from the same box as my internet does. That is I have coax from the wall to my Verizon FIOS box and that box powers my internet and my phone. Everytime my phone rings, I lose my connection to Steam. Fun!
17/02/2010 at 23:41 gp says:
‘The scene’ is a collection of gibbering manchildren whose only redeeming quality is that they’d all go apoplectic and self destruct if any part of the chain between manufacturer and end-pirate became for-profit
17/02/2010 at 23:42 Lanster27 says:
And the next thing you know, you’ll have to be connected to the internet to watch a movie or listen to your music cds.
17/02/2010 at 23:47 FRIENDLYUNIT says:
Wow. I actually thought they weren’t serious.
(I still half think this is a funny joke you RPS guys are playing on us)
Dammit. I WAS going to pay actual money to purchase Assassins Creed 2. However I have now most firmly decided I will not.
17/02/2010 at 23:48 Frank says:
Now that I’m laptop-bound, they can do whatever they want to their big shiny games.
I guess I’ll try Ubisoft games again only when I get a console and learn how to use a controller. There’s no reason to buy/build another gaming rig.
17/02/2010 at 23:52 the wiseass says:
I just wanted to say: “Thank you RPS for having the balls and standing up for us gamers!” I wish more games journalists would do this.
17/02/2010 at 23:55 clive dunn says:
It’s late and i really am too tired to read 300+ posts, so just incase no one has posted this,http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31QUOUxqz2M, yet. Here you are!
18/02/2010 at 00:00 Dudette says:
Preshared keys… Done… Encryption would be permanent in that case, and one way. Only loosing the private key that Ubisoft would defend to the death would cause it to be broken.
18/02/2010 at 00:02 Acidburns says:
Oh I am simply too stunned for words. I’m amazed the RPS folk managed to summon enough coherent thought to post as much as they did. It took me 20 minutes to get this far. Rolling my face across the keyboard is about as much effort as I want to waste on this madness.
Well I hope everyone faired better than I did, I fancy this will spawn RPS’s biggest threadnought yet, and rightly so. I can’t think of a more deserving idea for a Hitler / Downfall parody than this Ubisoft insanity.
18/02/2010 at 00:03 Caiman says:
I thought it was ironic that I’ve been having various internet connection problems this morning to get online and read RPS. You bastards! How dare you restrict your content to those online!
Of course, it would be more analogous to have the page go blank every time my packets dropped with a big “NO PEEKING!” sign every time it did so.
The whole Ubisoft DRM farce might not seem so bad in 5-10 years when the world is finally on a super-reliable 1Gb fibre optic connection, but right now it’s about as realistic as those OnLive guys expecting their sooper-dooper new streaming tech to replace consoles anytime soon. In other words, don’t be ridiculous Ubisoft – the infrastructure can’t support this nonsense yet.
18/02/2010 at 00:06 subedii says:
I like the fact that this post has a unique tag all to itself of “you maniacs”.
Grief, I know it makes no economic sense, but sometimes it genuinely does feel as if they’re trying to kill off any chances of their game selling.
I mean lets see here:
- Release the port months AFTER the main game release? Check
- With no real advertising or effort to make the port known? Check
- During the busy period when the other major hitters are coming out? Check
- Price it up by an extra $10 even though PC games don’t have license fees for platform use? Check
“I’m not sure, do you think we’ve screwed up this game’s chances eno… Hey wait I have an idea!“
18/02/2010 at 01:27 Sweedums says:
i think the next logical step for them with DRM is making it so you can only play your game if you go into one of their offices with the hard copy in hand, show it to them, and then give them the reciept so they can jizz all over it while you install it on one (and only one) of their computers and play it when the machine in question is not in use.
18/02/2010 at 03:20 Caiman says:
Have you seen their release schedule? Their next game is called “Fuck You PC Gamers: The DRMening”
18/02/2010 at 00:09 Mac says:
I actually held off buying this on the 360, as I was hoping the PC version would have the levels they cut from the 360 version, that they had the cheek to sell as DLC.
How on earth is this offering the customer an enhanced experiance – as I believe the bullshitting PR man said of their new system.
Look, it’s possible to emulate MMO servers, so i’m sure that this system will be cracked at launch, and anyone downloading the game will not have to worry about this craptastic idea.
Just wait until next year, when Ubisoft do an EA and start to close down servers too. You won’t even be able to play the game!
I’ll save my £25 – hoerfully Ubsoft will go out of business with this crap and put other people off from being so daft!
I’ll keep an eye out for an “evaluation” copy which works even is there are network issues!!!
18/02/2010 at 00:11 Lambchops says:
Oh dear . . .
18/02/2010 at 00:13 Phil says:
I have not pirated a game in over 3 years, and was planning on purchasing this game.
I will pirate it. The moment it’s cracked, which it inevitably will be.
18/02/2010 at 01:41 army of none says:
Same. Will pirate it, then encourage everyone I know to pirate it.
18/02/2010 at 04:55 Stromko says:
I wasn’t even interested in AC2. But now, it’s just a matter of principle. Revenge for making Far Cry 2 (a game I bought) impossible to mod (which rather devalued my purchase– seriously, an FPS that doesn’t get modded? Et tu Far Cry?).
18/02/2010 at 00:14 Trousers says:
Well, shit on them then. Perhaps I’ll actually play and finish Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2.
BAD FORM UBISOFT
18/02/2010 at 00:17 Blather Blob says:
I think the scheme is named “Ubisoft Orbit” (the name is used in the file name too) and is being developed at least in part by Ubisoft Massive, based off of their Massgate launcher from World In Conflict.
18/02/2010 at 00:24 dragon_hunter21 says:
Well, goddamnit. I was really, really looking forward to this game, too. Oh well- I suppose another game I won’t be buying this season due to DRM.
There’s always Bittorrent, after all…
18/02/2010 at 00:32 Phil says:
I sincerely hope PC Gamer rate this game into the ground.
0%!
I refuse to aid ubisoft in perpetuating this FARCE, by giving them my custom.
I’m actually furious.
How can they not see this chain of events.
Why buy a gimped legit version, when you can have an all-singing-all-dancing SUPERIOR cracked version for NO MONEY AT ALL
Yup. this is going to help stop piracy.
Groups are going to have this thing cracked zero-day. And I for one support them in their efforts.
Maybe then Ubi will never develop for the PC ever again.
Never thought I’d wish for that.
18/02/2010 at 00:33 Javaguy says:
I’d also suggest this expression: http://it-crowd.cz/images/postavy/denholm.jpg
18/02/2010 at 00:35 Jad says:
The only good way to send a message is not to buy Assassin’s Creed 2.
In fact, the best possible way to do this would be to:
1) Not buy AC2, or some other Ubisoft game.
2) Buy another publisher’s game that is DRM-free or contains whatever you consider acceptable DRM (such as EA’s Dragon Age)
3) Send a letter to Ubisoft stating your reasons for not purchasing their game, and note that their DRM has pushed you towards buying a competitor’s product
4) Send a letter to EA saying that you bought their game because of its lesser form of DRM and did not buy their competitor’s locked-down product
18/02/2010 at 00:38 Hunam says:
I keep telling people I know to write an e-mail to a company to explain why they aren’t buying it and all I seem to get from people is that they think it wont change anything.
It does have an effect, people do read e-mails that are sent (I can attest to this first hand in some cases) and it does a damn site more than sitting around an moaning about it to people who aren’t Ubisoft.
18/02/2010 at 00:37 John says:
Urgh. So annoying. It strikes you in the worst time possible. Sometimes, i feel like i should just give up and go on my day, surfing the regular shores of the web. But this time i must say something.
It’s written in-cre-di-ble.
18/02/2010 at 01:20 Antsy says:
That is, in fact, how it’s spelled. If you’re going to spend your days spell checking the internet be less ironic. Also, your sentence structuring could be improved. Goodness! Internet pedantry is easy!
18/02/2010 at 01:57 Nick says:
You should capitalize your I’s too.
18/02/2010 at 00:38 jeebus says:
ummm, Steam?
18/02/2010 at 03:17 radomaj says:
@jeebus Steam has an offline mode. This doesn’t. Case closed.
18/02/2010 at 05:18 user@example.com says:
And it doesn’t requir a constant connection.
18/02/2010 at 00:41 Bluebreaker says:
Making harder to play for legit players than pirates, does NOT make piracy go down.
18/02/2010 at 00:46 Isometric says:
I’m only going to say what has already been said but i need to vent.
If a mass boycott would help then where do i sign up?
I won’t be buying this till they remove the DRM. I just don’t feel comfortable purchasing it or any other Ubisoft produce that uses this. It’s a bloody shame.
18/02/2010 at 00:52 Buemba says:
That’s just… Jesus…
I was already planning on waiting until the price dropped since I refuse to pay $ 60.00 for a PC game, but after this I doubt I’ll get AC2 even if I found it under $ 15.00.
My connection is generally very stable, but if I ever lost even ten minutes of progress due to that DRM I’d go mental.
18/02/2010 at 00:53 brrrrcold says:
Ok. So I understand that people who have paid for the game have the right to play it, and what Ubisoft is doing here is horrible. I don’t understand how that translates to piracy as a response. Ubisoft isn’t under contract to provide you with a game called Assassin’s Creed 2 with X features until you enter into such a contract with them by giving them money. You are not entitled to play AC2 simply because you exist, it exists, and a machine that can run it that you have access to exists. Given Ubisoft’s current DRM course, I don’t think anyone should ever enter into such a contract with them again, but all piracy seems to do is give Ubisoft the sense, however misguided, that the game has a higher demand than its sales, without giving the ability to distinguish between sales-missed-because-of-horrible-DRM and sales-missed-because-of-people-feeling-entitled-to-have-things-for-free. And as far as Ubisoft is concerned, it is all missed sales. That they are wrong about this doesn’t matter; they will act according to this belief. But pirating also seems to undercut something in the spirit of a boycott: that you, as a consumer, find something about the service or product (or the people behind the service or product) that you would otherwise use and enjoy so onerous that it’s worth sacrificing the use of that service or product to send a message to the people responsible for it, not only by not giving them money, but also by denying them the comfort of thinking that whatever they’ve created is so valuable that it can’t be done without.
So how about instead of pirating AC2, or buying it and then playing the cracked version, how about we put our too-rare time and hard-earned money toward a more deserving game, one with little or no DRM, and one which we may not have otherwise bought or played if we hadn’t saved ourselves some money by not buying AC2? It’s not as if there aren’t plenty of excellent games out and coming out. It’s not as if AC2 is essential. When it comes to accepting Orwellian DRM, no game is. And in the meantime, we can reward a publisher for not going the Ubi route, and perhaps discover a game we wouldn’t otherwise have played. Better still, if any of us can take the time to comment here, we can take the time to send off an email to Ubisoft “I bought [Game X] instead of AC2 because of your DRM” and make sure they know where the missed sales are.
18/02/2010 at 03:30 Joey says:
I could not agree with you more. Thank you for saying this, and I will be downloading Interstate 76 tomorrow from GOG.com. After this I will write an e-mail to Ubisoft about how they will not be getting my business due to the worst DRM I’ve encountered and their price gouging.
18/02/2010 at 04:56 Kakksakkamaddafakka says:
People don’t pirate this game and throw the money saved in the trash. They use it on something that deserves their money. Like another game, for instance.
If the big publishers can’t figure this out, and think they can bully their way everywhere, it’s not a case of us needing to investigate if we deserve anything from them, it’s them needing to investigate if they deserve anything from us. We are the contractors. We are the ones paying their salaries. We are the ones who are supposed to make the demands. They’re not in the business of art. They’re in the business of making entertainment with mass appeal. They’re supposed to make us want to spend money on them.
If they really want out of the market so bad. Let them go. Good riddance. As long as there are people like Amanita Design, Cryptic Comet and Zombie Cow, to name a few, increasingly catering to the PC, why are we even caring about huge corporations mass producing mediocre titles like this? Let the so called triple-A production convert exclusively to consoles. They’re not making titles good enough for the legacy of the PC in any case. This is a industry that produces almost exclusively shite, reaping a killer profit on it, while heroes in basements are churning out quality. Why are we not celebrating that it has come full circle? Once again we have creative people in charge of their own games making something likening to art, and we’re complaining about Assassins Creed 2? This should be a day of celebration. Ubisoft just started hammering the nails in the coffin while all around the graveyard flowers are springing into full bloom. I predict the rotting carcass that is the PC gaming industry anno 2010 would not have been missed, if Ubisoft would have managed to complete the service. They probably won’t, though; and we’ll be stuck in this limbo for years to come.
18/02/2010 at 00:54 Phil Wells says:
I own a PS3 but play the vast majority of my games on PC. Until now, the only games I have bought on PS3 that have also been released on PC are driving games, which I think benefit from the big screen. Assassin’s Creed 2 was the first exception to that. I chose to buy it on PS3 because (1) I refuse to pay $60 for a PC game (Amazon had it on PS3 for under $40), and (2) this ludicrous DRM. I have to wonder why they’re bothering releasing it on PC at all.
18/02/2010 at 00:57 dmangstars says:
Dear Self-Entitled Morons,
Pirating a game is not the same as boycotting it. I too will boycott this game, as in not play it, ever. I disagree with this draconian DRM polcy, therefor I will not buy the game. However I am not entitled to play the game for free just because I don’t agree with Ubisoft. I don’t understand where you people suddenly felt that you are entitled to free entertainment that people put working hours into making and are expecting to return a profit from. You know what happens if the game doesn’t sell but is still popular (via pirating)? People lose jobs because budgets get cut, and they continue to impose stricter DRM to ensure a profit on the next release. How about you goto work tomorrow and say, nah, don’t pay me today, you are owed my serves for no reason at all. Personally I think the industry should boycott the users. You don’t want to pay for it? Fine we are going to just stop making it. How would you like that?
18/02/2010 at 01:09 jarvoll says:
@dmangstars:
To play devil’s advocate: one reason I can think of to pirate a game rather than buy it, to demonstrate that it’s popular, is so that the developers know they did a good (i.e. popular) job and that they should flee their corporate masters (in this case clearly the source of a gigantic problem) as soon as contractually possible.
But yeah, an email stating that you’ve bought a competitor’s product over theirs because of the DRM issue, without mentioning piracy at all, seems like the only sensibly practical option for improving the future.
18/02/2010 at 01:18 Kadayi says:
@dmangstars
Well put. Effectively this move makes me think that I’ll probably wait until the game is in the bargain bins before chancing it (who knows by then the whole issue might be moot) rather than making it a day one purchase. It’s not there aren’t plenty of other games out there, or ones to catch up on.
18/02/2010 at 01:22 dmangstars says:
@jarvoll
Sorry dude, but you know who pays for those developers to eat and have a home while they are making a game? Oh…there evil corporate masters aka publishers.
Not many developers are independently wealthy, nor can 50+ people live with no income for the 3 years it usually takes to make a blockbuster game. Also many of them have no idea how to market, promote, or do any of the other stuff that the “evil” publishing corporate masters do in order to get people to buy a game.
Notice what happened when a publisher Corporation (Valve) bought Counter-Strike…you went from 50,000 players to 100,000+ players…thats double! Plus you got that original 50,000 players to BUY the game. They didn’t do anything with the game other then advertise it…that is the power of marketing…and corporations are VERY good at marketing (as they have a budget to do so).
What im trying to say is developers need publishers and publishers need developers.
People seem to think that corporations exist just for the sake of existing…but sometimes being an entity with a large NOP that can be thrown around to fund projects is useful.
18/02/2010 at 01:26 Antsy says:
I agree. Deciding that this sort of DRM is something you can do without and so not purchasing games which feature it is the reasonable response. Piracy only validates their need to think up nonsense like this.
18/02/2010 at 01:36 StarDrowned says:
Get off your high-horse, this has nothing to do with “entitlement.”
Do thieves generally think they’re “entitled” to their takings? Do they care? No. They just don’t want to pay/ jump through hoops. I really doubt most pirates feel “entitled” to the games they download. I know I don’t care in the slightest. I don’t play games to support developers, or make a point. I don’t play games for any reason except to enjoy playing the damn games, and whether I pay or not doesn’t come into that. I enjoy the game either way.
I do believe in supporting good developers, and I spend more money on games than I probably should, but that’s not why I play. I play because I have fun.
I know damn well I’m not entitled to the games I pirate. I also don’t care in the slightest. I’m going to play them anyways though, and I’m going to enjoy it. Thoroughly.
You think the industry should boycott users? What is that even supposed to mean? They should stop selling games? Yeah, putting yourself out of a job because you think your customers will do it anyways makes sense. That’ll show those nasty pirates what’s what. Not big on logic, are we? No, like most of the self-righteous anti-pirates, this makes no sense.
You want to prohibit yourself from playing fantastic games (for free) so you can feel better about yourself, go right ahead. Just know that it’s not going to make a lick of difference.
Enjoy being morally outraged, I’m going to go play something I probably didn’t pay for.
18/02/2010 at 01:52 Lemon scented apocalypse says:
Well considering that my internet dies as often as Wild E Coyote, it looks as if piracy may well be the only option. And as a rule im in the anti-piracy camp, so congrats UBI! youve succesfully broken my moral compass & passed up my patroninge. I hope that felt good.
18/02/2010 at 03:44 jarvoll says:
@dmangstars:
You misunderstood my meaning; I probably could have been clearer. I meant that developers ought to run as far away from the few completely evil publishers (previously EA was my only blanket ignore, but Ubi just added themselves) and go to one that will not only treat their paying customers with even a modicum of respect, but also treat them like the creative humans they are instead of bottom-line-raising sequel factories. Knowing their work is loved by a reasonably-sized public might help convince them to make this move. I’m perfectly capable of understanding the pub-dev economic relationship; I’m also certain that, were I a member of the AC2 development team, I’d be face-palming just as hard as we all are right now, and begging my boss to terminate our contract with Ubisoft as soon as legally possible to allow us to search for greener pastures (at this point, pretty much ANYWHERE else).
19/02/2010 at 07:09 Nalano says:
@Antsy:
“Piracy only validates their need to think up nonsense like this.”
What’s that saying about insanity? How insanity is doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result? It’s plain to see that this DRM doesn’t hurt pirates. It never has. Even when they’ve come up with something new and fantastically overwrought that practically functioned like a trojan and was prone to bluescreening your machine and broke all burning software and all sorts of horrible stuff, it just took hackers a little longer to break it.
DRM hurts customers. And the more they punish customers while the pirates continue unscathed, the more the customers and potential customers will see those companies as the evil, stupid bastards they are and side with the pirates.
18/02/2010 at 01:01 ryan says:
So much outrage in here…
Are you all outraged at STEAM too?
If not, you’re HYPOCRITES!
18/02/2010 at 01:07 Phil Wells says:
I don’t believe Steam kicks you out of a game if your internet goes down after you’ve started playing. You only need to be online when you first start it up.
18/02/2010 at 01:09 Antsy says:
Oh piss off. Steam games don’t boot me or otherwise punish me because my phone line has a fault and disconnects me.
18/02/2010 at 01:10 Bret says:
And it has an offline mode. Which works some to most times.
And there’s actually value added.
…And I’m betting you’d hate Steam if it gave free puppies and money every time you used it, so I’m wasting time.
18/02/2010 at 01:10 Lilliput King says:
And only the very first time you start a particular game up, too. Subsequently you can use offline mode.
It’s a very different system from Ubi’s.
18/02/2010 at 01:15 Kadayi says:
@ryan
You do realise that Steam offline mode actually works yes?
I’d hate to think you’re suffering from the delusion that Steam offline mode doesn’t.
18/02/2010 at 01:37 Frank says:
Now that’s some pithy trollery!
18/02/2010 at 03:50 Rocky says:
During this recent winter storm here in the midwestern U.S. I was without internet for 2 days. However, I was still able to play STALKER Call of Pripyat, off of Steam of course, while still technically *online*.
18/02/2010 at 01:08 David says:
I swear, the game industry will soon turn into the Fine Art Gallery scene where really good games (maybe once every decade) cost 1,000,000$ and then all the rest of the games are free or cost little. It’s already happening. There are a ton of independent developers in the global market, selling their games and getting noticed. And it seems PC games just keep costing more or developers try and find ways to make gamers spend more money. Not to knock on EA, because I don’t want to knock on any other developer that makes similar free-to-play games, Battlefield Heroes has a ton of real money purchases that can be used to change the experience of the game. I mean, even with Bad Company 2, all the unlocks from the pre-order that change the game drastically.
It could be that the amount of independent developers has changed little over the past couple decades and that new means of distribution have opened the opportunity for them to distribute their games to the market. I don’t believe that.
I believe that the amount of independent developers have grown exponentially in the past couple decades and so have the means of distribution. And the number of independent developers is only going to grow and grow. The quality of their games have gotten better. The genres and creativity is getting so much better with independent developers. But, when is it too much?
Just as Flash games were really unique and new back in the day and now there are possibly millions of them, big titles like Assassin’s Creed II and Mass Effect 2 will drown out in the same manner in the years to come by the influx of professional independent developers. And then there will be no reason not to pirate games. Eventually there will be 1,000,000 iterations of Assassin’s Creed II (maybe not AC2 specifically, but it suited for my point).
We are seeing develop before us a caustic commonization of media, where pirating spurs on DRM, DRM spurs on boycotts (if they actually have been successful yet…the one for MW2 wasn’t much of a boycott, but I haven’t bought it yet….and it wasn’t over DRM either, much like the boycott against L4D2 wasn’t about DRM).
Eventually, no developer is going to want to support DRM or implement something that will make PC gamers boycott. Eventually, no gamer is going to want to boycott. And pirating will never end. And now I’ve rambled on for far to long.
Anyways, be optimistic ye PC gamers. There will be peace between developers and gamers and all things shall be free and you’ll still have to work to pay rent and heating or whatever.
18/02/2010 at 01:08 Alaric says:
I don’t believe in boycotts as a means of achieving an end or teaching anyone a lesson. I will simply not purchase a single game from Ubi because I find them overwhelmingly revolting. Too revolting to even spit in their general direction.
18/02/2010 at 01:09 Ben Abraham says:
I so really, really want to play Assassins Creed 2 BUT ONLY ON PC! And this DRM crap means I’m sure as hell not going to by it – maybe I actually will have to torrent it now just to get a product that works! How’s that for anti-piracy measures, Ubisoft? You’re making me want to pirate your game that I would otherwise be happy to give you money for!
Well done RPS chaps for being so unambiguously down on this stupid measure.
18/02/2010 at 01:10 Jay says:
Fuck off, you’re retarded, John.
18/02/2010 at 01:16 Bret says:
See, this sort of thing is why the comment system gets tricky.
Which John are you referring to? John Walker, writer, bearded man, and poor healer?
Washington DC photographer John Harrington? The earlier John Harrington who invented the flush toilet and the epigram “Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.”? John the Evangelist, major religious figure?
We’ll never know. What a shame.
18/02/2010 at 15:22 SheffieldSteel says:
Perhaps this refers to Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke? I seem to remember he mismanaged the proceeds of the South Sea Company rather badly. Of course, that was back in the 18th century, so I might be wrong about that.
18/02/2010 at 01:12 Barry Shitpeas says:
Well, I’ll just keep giving my money to Bioware then… it’s their loss.
Maybe in a couple of years we can read their moaning about how piracy made them unemployed and not these sorts of stunts… yeah…
18/02/2010 at 01:23 Alexander says:
I must say this is a major turnoff for me, and if it really gets implemented, there will be little choice but to pirate it. It’s practically the better version of the game.
Real dilemma: Are the saves to a server or local? If they’re to a server, what if that runs out? Will there be a savegame limit? And if they’re local won’t this just be cracked out anyway?
18/02/2010 at 01:27 Fatrat says:
Terrible mistake they’ve made here.
I already own this on the xbox though, but if it had been PC exclusive, i’d have bought it, then cracked it… it’s a damn fine game, i don’t know why they insist on tacking this crap on when it will only affect legitimate copy owners.
As much as i hate DRM, AC2 is still a game i wouldn’t want to miss. And so lands the predicament of do i buy it and say whatever, or miss out of the game to ”make a stand”. I chose the 3rd option, Xbox. I’m kind of fed up of playing shitty ports on my PC anyway.
18/02/2010 at 01:29 Chris D says:
I feel I should comment just so as not to be left out. It’s MADNESS! Grrr!
Actually I’ll be interested to see if the DRM is represented in the review scores this gets, and whether that might go anywhere towards changing their minds for future releases. I’m not massively hopeful but you never know.
18/02/2010 at 01:33 neems says:
Still on the fence about whether I actually want to play this or not… I guess I’ll either buy the PS3 version second hand (I’m not putting money in Ubisoft’s pocket over this, you have to suspect they basically want people to switch to consoles) or I’ll rent it.
The first game actually had something similar – it wouldn’t quit out, but if you didn’t have the internet running you would get periodic freezes (probably a glitch with the disc check rather than drm, but still). I thought it was my pc until I realised it only happened when my (extremely dodgy) internet connection dropped out.
18/02/2010 at 01:35 Ed says:
It’s true what they said in their FAQs then:
“We hope that customers will feel as we do, that signing up for an account will offer them exceptional gameplay and services that are not available otherwise.”
What this means of course is that getting to play the game is the exception.
18/02/2010 at 01:47 bbb says:
This needs to be stopped, people need to refuse to buy the game, instead of buying it and complaining about it!!
18/02/2010 at 01:51 Alaric says:
Yea… that’ll happen…
18/02/2010 at 01:52 SirKicksalot says:
Posting in epic thread.
I can’t wait to see if this DRM scheme will end up like the Ubi/Starforce marriage a few years ago.
18/02/2010 at 01:54 Alaric says:
What I wonder is why do these cretins not learn?
18/02/2010 at 01:52 Ozzie says:
I dunno.
There are so many excellent games out there, even alone from the past year, that I’m actually relieved that UbiSoft makes it easy for me and cuts down the choice of titles I just have to play.
There are also so many old ones I still need to catch up on, like Tex Murphy and Baldur’s Gate, so I won’t go out of game fodder any time soon, even without UbiSoft.
Even from this perspective it’s unnecessary to pirate AC2. Just look at all the other awesome games out there and play those. Really, for me it’s already hard to decide between them. So, thanks UbiSoft!
18/02/2010 at 01:53 Kirian says:
I’m with RPS on this one. I have to say that what RPS does will make no difference to Ubisoft. They’ll just call it a ‘vocal minority’ and refuse to release statistics if that isn’t true. It’s a shame that companies think of people who complain about corporate policy this way, but it’s the way they’ll handle it. They don’t care about people playing games already ’cause they know too much.
The more interesting situation, and the one that may cause Ubi to back down, is when people who don’t know about the scheme find out about it. The Germans who buy lots of Settlers games and haven’t heard about this or the people who buy Splinter Cell for their computer and find it doesn’t work. How that plays out is much more important for the result. Sadly. I do hope our complaints don’t fall on deaf ears and get something done. Otherwise, Ubisoft, I’ll take your DRM, put a little beret on it and ram it up your shitter with a lubricated horse cock.
Oh, I wonder if Ubi have checked the legality of this in every country they release in. Does anyone know if this is legally fine everywhere? I thought the EU were doing or had done some work to protect digital-sales consumers.
18/02/2010 at 02:02 Kirian says:
Um….
That was suppos to be an observation that Germans do tend to buy Settlers games. More than any others do. Fuck it, I LOVE GERMANS REALLY. TAKE ME ANGELA YOU GLORIOUS LEATHER-CLAD BASTARD.
Also good call on Ubi making lots of casual games. That’s where this may well bite them hard in the arse.
18/02/2010 at 01:58 Papa Voodoo says:
This is the kind of extreme measures that will lead people to pirating games, and who’s to say they’re wrong when these measures can only be applied to those who legally pay for the games, whilst those who pirate them are free from such ridiculous actions.
Ubisoft (and other publishers who would use such extreme form of DRM) need a kick up the arse, and the best people to give it to them are the people who play their games.
I, for one, will not be purchasing this game, not because I am forced to use an intermittent internet connection due to my geographical location, but because I believe these kind of security measure are invasive, unnecessary, and is truly ruining what it means to be a gamer and to be a part of a gamer culture.
18/02/2010 at 02:02 Lemon scented apocalypse says:
Its also worth stating that dmangstars argument makes no sence. If you boycott a game, youre not paying the publisher (or makers) and ditto with piracy – the only difference is that as someone has already mentioned is that piracy will simply encourage the publishers to impliment even more brain-dead beatdowns on their consumers, insted of actually learning from the experience as they would is they were not all dumber than a box of rocks
18/02/2010 at 02:06 gildron says:
So, who would it be best to contact in order to state our displeasure with this decision?
18/02/2010 at 02:10 Aionflight65 says:
Lol @ StarDrowned
I think u single handedly proved dmangstars point. U should look up entitlement before you spew more idiotic dribble. Wanting to have fun? Ya, that’s entitlement bro…u mad? You sound mad. Thanks for the laugh, maybe when u move out of mom’s basement u will have a better perspective on paying for services rendered, as I see u ignored that part (about working for free)
18/02/2010 at 05:42 Stromko says:
Hello. We speak English here, I don’t understand your Trollish.
18/02/2010 at 02:11 Ricc says:
Lending my voice to this thread, whatever it’s worth…
This. This is nuts!
18/02/2010 at 02:16 Javier-de-Ass says:
Heheh. While I won’t pirate these, or maybe I will and see what the pirates did. But I’ll probably jump on a crack solution as soon as they’re available from the crack groups for my bought copies. I’ve already bought Assassin’s Creed 2, and I’m not going to go back on that, but might not get Settlers 7 or Silent Hunter 5 depending on how badly this thing works. I honestly don’t see a big difference between this and steam either, I’ve never seen the steam offline mode work. and I also decided against getting Supreme Commander 2 (Supcom1 and TA being some of my most favourite games) and Natural Selection 2 because they’re steam only. Know what, there are so many games to play on PC, even with some of my favourite things on the platform I can easily direct my attention and time elsewhere if the morons that want money screw up badly enough.
18/02/2010 at 02:18 gildron says:
I made a steam rage group- This is a bigger deal then Valve making a sequel to a good game, so I expect this group to become huge. If it doesn’t then I will be disappointed in the internets.
18/02/2010 at 02:19 gildron says:
Crud. Link.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/boycottassassin
18/02/2010 at 02:24 Alaric says:
Wasn’t there an image being circulated a while ago, with a bunch of members of “Boycott MW2″ being marked as “In-Game” playing the very MW2 they were boycotting? That’s the problem with these things. People hardly ever put their money where their mouth is.
18/02/2010 at 02:26 gildron says:
Yeah, that was rather funny.
But in this case… I think it’s a different group of people (In other words, not CoD players) that would be interested in getting this.
Maybe ones with more self respect/control
18/02/2010 at 02:26 G_Man_007 says:
I’ve been of the opinion for the past however-long-since-this-was-announced, that this would be a kick in the cock for us, and when this issue started to gain all this recent momentum, I decided to boycott Ubisoft, which is a damn shame as Assassin’s Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction were games I wanted. Inspite of the fact that I’m always connected to the internet, and I have quite the fat pipe, I find the saving of my games online, and the fact that I can’t access a game if not online anathema. I’M NOT RENTING THESE F*CKING GAMES DAMNNIT!!!! HOW DARE YOU REMOVE MY CONTROL FROM THESE GAMES!!! I’M THE ONE PAYING THE MONEY, I’M THE ONE PLAYING THE GAME, NOT YOU, YOU MONEY GRABBING BASTARDS!!!
I buy it, I own it, I want to play it when and where and how I like, even if that’s ten years or more in the future (Windows compatibility notwithstanding). If I wanted to rent games I’d get a console and pop off to Blockbuster (if the one up the road hadn’t closed down), or, if I wanted to rent games and get shafted, I’d sign up to Onlive lickety split. All this Digital Rape Marmite is fast turning me towards piracy, and is that what it was created for? There’ll always be pirates wanting everything for nothing, but I’m happy to pay (as cheap as possible mind, but willing to pay all the same). Why are we spending all this money for a technology platform where the games are released with pieces cut out for sale later, where code is put in to retard our usability options, and where draconian controls are being used to control our enjoyment of the game? It’s enough to make you stop playing games full stop. VIVA GOG AND CD PROJEKT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why are they treating us PC gamers like shit? Why Mummy?
18/02/2010 at 02:40 Corbeau says:
It looks like Ubisoft decided that the poor sales of Prince of Persia for PC (which was released with zero DRM) was due entirely to the lack of DRM. Not, y’know, the fact that it was a casual game with high system requirements marketed as part of a non-casual game series. So now they’re going as far in the opposite direction as possible with the most draconian DRM scheme to date.
The worst part is that this’ll almost certainly still sell better simply because AC2 is a better game (probably; haven’t played it myself, and definitely won’t play it now), so Ubisoft will think that more DRM means more sales. Hence why I’m almost certainly never buying a Ubisoft game ever again. Not out of outrage, but because I’m not going to put up with their DRM and they’re not going to give up on it.
18/02/2010 at 03:40 bhlaab says:
Say what you mean: Prince of Persia 08 was a string-bound pouch of shit
18/02/2010 at 02:45 Shalrath says:
I normally sneer at people when they say they are pirating something ‘out of principle,’ but my God I am so tempted to download it, and never play it, just so that I’m one of the number pointing out that the game is BETTER and EASIER TO USE if you DOWNLOAD IT ILLEGALLY.
This is insane – why must companies PROVE they despise their customers?
18/02/2010 at 03:02 castle says:
This poses an interesting dilemma: if (er…when) a crack for Ubisoft Game X becomes available, do you buy the game and crack it into a playable state, despite knowing that your purchase supports something so unabashedly antagonistic to PC gamers?
I’m gonna go with no. Any Ubi game with this kind of nonsense doesn’t get a purchase from me, period.
18/02/2010 at 03:22 squirrel says:
Hell with UBI! I remembered that I decided not to buy FAR CRY 2 since they implement that stupid DRM or 5 activation limits and online activation, and rushed to buy one when they removed them all together with patch 1.03…..and by that time the price has dropped to USD20. I am glad I didnt pirate Far Cry 2 and look forward to the great excitement by AC2, and now we have this?
I will not buy this game and furthermore, will definitely not pirate it! It’s amazing to find that pirating actually help promoting the publisher itself. If you find the game exciting and do not like the restrictive PC version, you would tend to like for its console port. But hell no. Publishers with corporate greed to this level must be punished by free choice of consumer market. No, I will not touch games from companies like this. I dont loss much with one less game to play, right?
From what I heard EA is doing sth funny with Bad Company 2 by offering the choices of DRM with disc check (no online activation) and online activation (no disc check). However, the recent EA’s decision to shut down servers for a one year-old game worries me much. Bad Company 2 with single player mode is not worth much. Besides, they implicitly implement online DRM by tying DLC to online activation, though not the main game itself (and I am too lazy to check out the DLCs after winning the main game). And who knows, one day some publishers (I am not pointing to any particular publisher, I AM NOT!) would require their gamers to pay for playing the ending part of a pure single-player game, and advertise that their games do not require online activation for the single-player part of the games. What are we going to do about that?
18/02/2010 at 03:25 wyrmsine says:
Nalano said -
“I’ve also bought a lot of games, for various reasons: Because it got legitimate acclaim from gamers. Because the price went down. Because it was easier to buy than pirate. Because I wanted to see that company succeed.”
What he said. I’m looking forward to buying more good games for these reasons.
Seriously: easier to buy than pirate. How can a company the size of Ubi screw that up and still expect my money?
18/02/2010 at 03:39 destroy.all.monsters says:
This will bite them in the ass hard. The question becomes – will Ubisoft leave the PC or will they pull their heads out of their collective asses.
18/02/2010 at 03:41 Soobe says:
It would seem to be the irony of this move was that the system was designed not at the behest of a corporate suit, but by a developer or two who loves the PC and needed to get the ok from said suit to publish the game on PC.
I’m sure it was this way or the highway.
Oh well, I just left a message for the Frisco office and told them how I felt. They lost a sale because of this. Simple as that.
18/02/2010 at 03:48 J. Edgar Hoover says:
Hey that’s cool EA. DRM all you want. Make it next to impossible to play a game without an internet connection.
Pirating just became the “in” thing.
18/02/2010 at 03:50 Deuteronomy says:
Some people here comment that cracking this will be simple and straightforward . . . listen to the network traffic and reimplement the server as a client side process. If Ubisoft does what they should – and essentially implement the .exe half on their side and half on the client – I will be extremely impressed to see AC2 on torrents within 12 months. Yes it may be possible to reconstruct server side code – but if you can do that why don’t you just decompile UE3 and sell the source code.
I’ve been wondering when a publisher would grow a pair and implement something like this. By showing the way to other publishers, Ubi just might turn out to be the savior of PC Gaming.
18/02/2010 at 04:31 RobF says:
Yes, I’ve often thought that making people not want to go near your product with someone elses 12ft barge pole is the ideal way to salvation.
18/02/2010 at 17:46 jalf says:
How would that even work?
You’d have two options:
1: the code is actually executed on the server
2: the code is downloaded and executed on the client.
In case #2, the end result is that all the code is available on the client. No reconstruction of server-side code is necessary.
In #1, well, you’d have to find some part of the game code that can be executed with 100+ms latency without wrecking the gameplay and the experience.
I can’t really think of what that’d be. Input handling? Graphics? Sound?
And of course, what would happen when the server is down? Where do I get my refund?
18/02/2010 at 03:50 Blackberries says:
Good god.
I am absolutely never going to buy any game with this DRM on it.
Never.
18/02/2010 at 03:52 Deuteronomy says:
Wah wah! I’ll never watch a streaming movie online!
NEVAH!
18/02/2010 at 16:24 Blackberries says:
Sorry, what are you trying to say? Claiming not to watch a streamed movie online is like claiming you won’t ever indulge in chocolate: a filthy, pious lie.
Saying I won’t buy a game with this DRM is like saying I’ll refrain from getting kicked in the balls.
Unless you’re trying to imply I’ll pirate the games? There are none coming out that I care enough about for to do that.
18/02/2010 at 03:50 Qwiggalo says:
LMFAO! Make the pirated version better then buying it why don’t you EA, oh man… shits hilarious.
18/02/2010 at 04:13 Spiffy new comment system says:
It’s Ubisoft, not EA. I know it is confusing, we are so used to hating EA, but they have actually gotten reasonable (and more clever) with their DRM schemes.
It is almost like Ubisoft and EA switch managements.
18/02/2010 at 03:55 Wulf says:
So, I had an interesting thought…
A lot of the problem with Ubisoft (and mainstream games creators in general) is that they’re not willing to admit that the games they make aren’t proportionate to what they charge. They won’t admit this to us, but more importantly they don’t want to realise it for themselves.
If they were really interested in trying to combat piracy, they wouldn’t be interested in DRM, so there has to be something else going on there (stopping casual piracy a bit, maybe?) but they first need to realise is that their game is out there on the Internet the day they release it.
The only way to combat this would be to provide their full game for download via their own services, but then take a sort of Burnout Paradise approach. Have a part of the game which is freely playable (like a demo) and then section the game up into other parts, like a cake, and charge a set price for each part, and make it so that when they add up they equal the desired amount of money they want to make (hopefully in the £25-30 range, not the £35-40 range).
This way, the player is enticed to buy a cheap slice, and then another cheap slice, but if they decide that the game isn’t worth their money then they can stop buying slices. What the publisher can then do is realise that the slices don’t have a good price/content ratio, so they can lower the fee for each slice, and then with their next game they can try and offer a better deal per slice, such as offering more quality within that slice.
Also make it as easy as humanly possible to pay. Have a way in game to pay for the next slice, have it payable via credit card, debit card, PayPal, or a number of other online services. So that way the player can just plugin their credit card details to buy a slice, not unlike Burnout Paradise. They know that the entire game is on their hard drive, so that’s enticing too.
Then it’s a matter of worth to the player, and ethics. They know that cracking it is no better than warez, and illegal, so they’d just have to call it quits if they wanted to stay legit. It’s then up to the player to decide whether they want the whole game, or to decide whether the last slice was the straw that broke the camel’s back and they just aren’t interested.
What would all this achieve? It’d stop publishers shovelling dull, boring old shit at us, that’s what! Piracy is a symptom of an average game that’s got far too massive a pricetag. And the publishers need to understand what a good price/content ratio is, and how to deliver that content quickly and easily to the player. My method would teach them this and provide a quick method of payment and content access.
Just a thought, anyway.
(THE CAKE DELIVERY SYSTEM IS COPYRIGHTED! >_>)
(Yes, that was a joke.)
18/02/2010 at 05:09 ascagnel says:
Piracy is even more of a problem then — get the game from a legit source, and then download a crack to unlock it all.
The best way to beat piracy is the same way iTunes beat music piracy: be better than free. Steam does this (to a degree) with its policies on SteamWorks and redownloading, but DRM like Ubi’s is just stupid.
18/02/2010 at 06:47 dadioflex says:
“What would all this achieve? It’d stop publishers shovelling dull, boring old shit at us, that’s what!”
It really wouldn’t. You know how 99% of people’s kids are above average? About 75% of games are below average, no matter what review scores they get. You don’t even hear about most of them. The business model relies upon uninformed people handing money over before they know what a POS they’re getting.
BTW I think you re-invented Shareware there.
18/02/2010 at 06:52 Bret says:
75% below average?
That math does not work. At all.
Should I explain averages to you?
18/02/2010 at 07:12 MD says:
Bret, that was intentional; a sort of joke. The “99% of people’s kids are above average” line was a clue to this.
(Anyway, you can’t be sure that dadioflex was referring to the mean! 75% could well fall below the median, or the mode.)
18/02/2010 at 07:15 MD says:
Also, I’m an idiot! Flip median and mean in my previous comment. Which means that, yes, even going by the most common definition of ‘average’, it is quite possible for 75% of games to be below average.
18/02/2010 at 09:39 Ozzie says:
I’m not sure why so few realize this but: this DRM won’t be easy to crack! Yeah okay, it might be relatively easy to remove all the online checks, but then you still won’t be able to save, since all the save games are stored online and not on your local hard drive! I doubt that any crack will be able to implement an offline save system…
18/02/2010 at 12:48 radomaj says:
Hey, Bret, guess what. You kind of suck at math. If a have series of number like 1,1,1,4 I get an average of 1.75 Hmm, it looks like 75% of the numbers in this series is below average. If it was median on the other hand, then it would split numbers 50-50 like you wanted.
18/02/2010 at 21:46 Wulf says:
@dadioflex
…you actually got the point if not the humour, I’m mildly impressed.
Yes, that was a stab at mainstream entertainment today for being below average, I was also making a case for piracy being symptomatic of that. Back when shareware existed we had a better cost/content balance, and more games got bought (imagine that!). These days it’s hard to get a demo, and games are riddled with DRM, and I think that logically the problem isn’t anything other than the games and those that create them.
Furthermore, it seems that indie devs do well enough in regards to their games, because they often have reasonable prices for their games. Considering the quality I even felt that £15 was a reasonable price for VVVVVV, however you wouldn’t get me to say that £35 is a reasonable price for Assassin’s Creed 2. In fact, I’d be more inclined to say that around £25 is a reasonable price-point. The cake system would teach publishers this.
Brilliant graphics do not a good game make. Having had a poke at BioShock 2 this iis all the more evident, and I’m willing to bet that Assassin’s Creed 2 is going to remain true to this as well. Sure… brilliant graphics, but an exceedingly average game. Personally I’d be happy if they set their graphical expectations at around the HL2 era (Source) and concentrated on the game.
But yes, mainstream games are rarely worth the asking price, these days. Hence the cake system analogy, which would fail as a business model because the worth of the game doesn’t match the amount of money that publishers want for the game.
Bottom line: Piracy is symptomatic of a problem, the problem is greedy publishers who’d sooner make the lives of paying customers harder than actually stowing their own greed in order to offer a more fair price point for their games. If they instead concentrated on offering a fair price, and an easy way to get the game DRM free, then they’d have more paying customers. It’s logical.
18/02/2010 at 22:06 Lilliput King says:
Wulf, that just doesn’t make sense. Consider WoG with it’s 90% piracy rate. Consider the very, very low piracy rate on consoles.
Piracy isn’t symptomatic of mainstream media being dull.
Piracy is symptomatic of people being cunts.
Dispel whatever illusions you’re harbouring.
19/02/2010 at 02:13 Wulf says:
“Wulf, that just doesn’t make sense. Consider WoG with it’s 90% piracy rate. Consider the very, very low piracy rate on consoles.”
WoG: The numbers were washed away in a rain of hilarity as the statistics were proved to be not very solid.
Consoles: Consoles harbour incredibly difficult encryption which requires buying hardware to circumvent, despite this I know of at least five people in my neighbourhood who’ve farked around with their 360 and download 360 games frequently.
In other words; meaningless quoted sentence is meaningless.
“Piracy isn’t symptomatic of mainstream media being dull.
Piracy is symptomatic of people being cunts.”
The thing is, I could say that piracy is symptomatic of magic salmon but it wouldn’t change a bloody thing, this is what opinions are about. You haven’t changed my opinion about what piracy is symptomatic of. I think piracy is about as symptomatic of people being cunts as it is symptomatic of magical, reality-altering salmon.
The thing is is that neither opinion can be proved, because the only evidence lies in laughable statistics. Also known as: Lies, damn lies, and statistics.
“Dispel whatever illusions you’re harbouring.”
No U.
But yes, overall that was an incredibly meaningless reply to a subjective opinion on a situation which can’t be quantified as easily as you’d have people believe.
19/02/2010 at 02:27 Wulf says:
Oh and furthermore regarding World of Goo, I remember various people analysing the data in different ways and coming up with anything from 30% piracy to 99.9% piracy, and it was particularly funny to watch.
This is the problem with statistics, some people live on them but ultimately they mean nothing, they signify nothing, and they are nothing. It’s like surveys. 98 of 100 people reckon statistics are factual, as has been pointed out by many a thesis and book on the subject, it’s just nonsense, and you can use numbers to prove or disprove anything, you could use numbers to argue over the existence of God, but at the end of the day numbers without any factual basis are the most ridiculous thing to bring into any debate.
And that’s what statistics are, they’re not math, they’re just numbers without a real basis, it could be any number, and it could be portrayed to signify anything (even though it actually doesn’t). And though statistics might pull the wool over the eyes of the everyday couch potato, one would hope that the more enlightened mind would be more educated than that.
Point in fact: Piracy numbers, like all numbers, are imaginary.
Point in fact: WoG’s piracy numbers were largely imaginary and based on consequential data, data which could’ve been twisted to mean any number of things.
Opinion: World of Goo is a good game that probably wasn’t pirated much at all, and likely had a piracy rate of around 5%, but it wasn’t advertised well enough and the field-of-interest for it wasn’t broad enough for it to be a great earner, despite it being a fantastic title. How many brilliant games have we seen that have turned out to be underdogs? Beyond Good & Evil for one, surely. This likely changed when it was released for the Wii, where it had better advertising and coverage, and a broader base of customers who’d be into what it offered.
But yes… statistics are silly, they’re good for a laugh, a joke, and a bit of silliness, but for the love of decent education, don’t take them seriously.
19/02/2010 at 02:32 Wulf says:
Bah, I meant to say that piracy numbers, like all statistical numbers, are imaginary.
But I’m hoping that that’ll be picked up on, anyway, the meaning was clear.
19/02/2010 at 09:29 Lilliput King says:
Consoles: Consoles harbour incredibly difficult encryption which requires buying hardware to circumvent, despite this I know of at least five people in my neighbourhood who’ve farked around with their 360 and download 360 games frequently.
Yes, Wulf, that’s the point.
Because it’s hard, people don’t do it. Because pirating WoG was easy, people did. Even if the piracy rate was 5% for WoG, this would hold. It’s not an idealistic choice – it’s not a reaction to a supposed lack of originality. People just do it because they want things for free, and we know this because if they have to go to lengths to get stuff for free, they won’t bother.
This isn’t subjective opinion time, Wulf. This is fact time. Welcome.
P.S. To devalue the WoG figure you’re calling statistics as a whole meaningless? You’re reaching a little here. They aren’t fact, but neither are they imaginary. They’re indicative. To say that isn’t meaningful is a pre-Hegelian misunderstanding of knowledge as a whole.
18/02/2010 at 03:56 Morberis says:
I can absolutely tell you that I will not be buying any game that uses this method of DRM, and anyone that does I will immediately be demonstrating how to crack the game – thus teaching them how to pirate.
18/02/2010 at 04:02 fickblix says:
DAMN! Ubitsoft beat me to my massively single player online action game idea. :(
18/02/2010 at 04:03 Wulf says:
That is both equal amounts of horrible and hilarious.
18/02/2010 at 06:14 Davie says:
An excellent way to describe the current fiasco.
18/02/2010 at 04:12 drewski says:
Fuck Ubisoft.
18/02/2010 at 04:12 Chalkster says:
Fucking great plan.
I like to play my single player games without fearing they will cut out due to a jitter in the EA-Ubisoft crap divide. I do not like to be treated like a criminal, to have my hand held at all times while playing.
Cloud saving is all well and good, but this super restrictive DRM really isn’t helping my liking of games lately.
Nothing is going to stop pirates.
They are clever bastards, and they will get past your DRM. They always have. These guys have no lives, and every security program has a way through… Or else no one would be able to get in.
What this will stop is customers.
Hell, I’m halfway tempted to actually pirate this game, just because of all the steps they’re making to keep us from using it like normal people. I use rogers internet, and it’s not very dependable. I do not want to be locked out of the ability to play a single player game when my internet is out.
That’s when I’m probably most likely to play a single player game.
18/02/2010 at 04:12 Jake says:
Maybe I’ll buy this game in a year or two when it/s 7.50 on Steam. Maybe.
Assholes.
18/02/2010 at 04:24 Mike_in_Ohio says:
This makes Steam look a lot more palatable.
18/02/2010 at 04:33 Zombat says:
I wonder if anyone high up at a publisher has ever realized that a new DRM is just seen as a challenge to cracker groups?
Hell, there’s probably a team of crackers in their basement, neckbeards at full bloom, ankle deep in pizza boxes, sweat stains down to their hips working feverously away at unraveling this turd of an idea.
18/02/2010 at 04:42 JHB says:
Ubisoft, you are dead to me. I will now only play one of your games if it is cracked and comes via a torrent. Fair is fair; if you don’t trust me, I don’t trust you.
18/02/2010 at 04:48 EaterOfCheese says:
Not going to buy this game now. No way.
18/02/2010 at 04:49 ⬡ says:
For a long time, pirated games and media have been better than the real thing, for their lack of annoyances such as registration and potentially invasive tracking or fingerprinting. When you copy a DVD you have the chance to remove the region coding and the instructions that the player not allow ads to be skipped. Cracked games can remove the need to dig out the disc all the time, load from a hard drive (much faster than from disc), etc. Copied CDs can be transcoded to your favourite audio format and played on any portable device you like.
This is the first I’ve ever heard, though, of a game that will require a crack just to PLAY. Any game that will just quit, without allowing me to save, because of an unreliable Internet connection is not something I’d consider playable at all. After all, no connection is 100% reliable, and you can certainly bet on it wiping out a lot of progress while you’re hunting for a save point.
Let’s not even get started on the potential issues this constant communication will have when it comes to privacy (just what are you transmitting all this time?), bandwidth (limit exceeded? but I wasn’t downloading anything!), and extra processing power that could be used to make the game better.
18/02/2010 at 11:14 drewski says:
The other day I fired up a copy of Fallout Tactics, only to find that in transferring it to DVD the publishers had fixed the installer but not the executable, meaning it couldn’t find a CD for the CD check.
I had to No-CD crack my legitimate game just to play it. Pirates 1, Publishers 0. If I hadn’t known about the existence of such things, I would have had a pretty coaster for all the good it would be to me.
18/02/2010 at 04:50 Mike says:
Good, all you PC thieves will finally have to pay for a computer game.
18/02/2010 at 04:53 Stromko says:
That’s flamebait if I’ve ever seen it.
I wouldn’t pay 1$ to get a handjob from a diseased transient, same concept here with Ubisoft’s DRM. It might be briefly enjoyable if you can forget who it’s from, but in the longterm it’s definitely not. worth. it.
18/02/2010 at 04:55 ⬡ says:
Obvious troll is obvious. Do we pay for an intentionally defective product, or pirate a copy that actually works? Hmmm.
18/02/2010 at 12:49 Uhm says:
If you think the alternative to buying a game is to pirate it, you’re helping his point more than yours.
18/02/2010 at 04:56 Sandra says:
Upsetting, to say the least. I’ve still got friends who don’t have an internet connection AT ALL.
18/02/2010 at 04:57 JKjoker says:
its not about piracy its about control, they want to secure users into their own “content delivery system”, all big publishers want this and will try to insert it into our … PCs, they all want to own their own Steam, Activision-Blizzard, EA, Ubisoft, Microsoft, etc
oh and those thinking that consoles are safe, think again, the next generation of consoles will have something like this, they might even go as far as patching the current generation with it, they *want* to be able to kill your awesome shooter 67 when awesome shooter 68 comes out
18/02/2010 at 04:59 Norskov says:
Hmm.. This really do suck. I had planned on buying AC 2, but now it seems I just have to talk a friend with a 360 into buying it. It would be nice to see what happened if all major game reviewers gave this a terrible score.
18/02/2010 at 05:07 Robbie Khan says:
Mike says:
February 18, 2010 at 4:50 am
Good, all you PC thieves will finally have to pay for a computer game.
—————
^^^
Actually quite the opposite, this kind of DRM doesn’t affect piracy at all, the game will be out and cracked without limitations within days like every single PC (and console) game for that matter.
DRM hurts legitimate gamers, never downloaders.
18/02/2010 at 09:46 Ozzie says:
I want to see the save system server-side code replicated offline in a crack. Doubt it will happen so fast. I’m sure UbiSoft thought well through how they can implement a DRM that’s not easy to crack without any loss of functionality. And if the game is only saved on the server, then I guess you’d have to play through the game in one sitting with a crack. Sadly. :(
18/02/2010 at 05:08 Mocker says:
The anti-piracy advocates are just as full of logic failure as the execs who decided on the drm. If you lose customers who were willing to pay (profit) due to abusive drm, then how does increasing the drm make any sense? The fact that those lost customers go on to pirate the game just means the game itself is good and other factors (drm,price etc) are the issue.
Here’s what your actions mean to the execs:
You pay for the game: The game, drm and price are fine. They make money from you which is the goal.
You don’t play the game and say nothing: The game isn’t good or you aren’t their target market.
You don’t play the game and complain about drm: They’ve lost profit based on DRM. The game is fine.
You pirate the game: People want to play their game so other factors, like DRM or price are the problem.
You pirate the game and complain about drm: They’ve lost profit because of DRM.
Now what part of that makes them want to go and add more DRM? They won’t regain the lost customers, and pirates who weren’t going to pay for it in the first place will simply play something else instead of paying for it.
This has nothing to do with entitlement. That’s just an argument with no logical backing used by people who want to feel morally superior to others.
18/02/2010 at 09:47 Ozzie says:
Good points! :)
18/02/2010 at 05:11 petey says:
they will probably shut the server down in a years time, stopping the game from being playable and pushing everyone onto the new version.
18/02/2010 at 05:25 DarkNoghri says:
But that doesn’t even make a modicum of sense (none of this does). Assassin’s Creed 2 is a SINGLE PLAYER GAME. There won’t BE a new version unless someone remakes it on the holodeck 20 years from now.
This isn’t Madden.
Still, after a stunt like this, it wouldn’t surprise me.
Then again, my vote doesn’t really count. “I was totally considering purchasing this in a year when the price was about 10$, but now there’s no chance at all” isn’t really going to win any arguments on the subject.
18/02/2010 at 05:16 bill says:
How’s the vista/windows7 wireless netcode? I hope it’s better than XP, because that used to reliably drop the wireless connection every 20 minutes, on 3 different PCs, with more than one router and wireless card/usb stick.
I’m on wired and vista now, so my net connection only goes flakey for a few seconds a day… but it sounds like that’s enough to lose your progress.
You’d think it’d at least do some kind of quicksave…. geez
18/02/2010 at 05:38 Robbie Khan says:
That’s not the fault of the OS but the fault of the driver from the manufacturer of the wireless adapter. The wireless stack on Vista and 7 are far beyond anything on XP anyway.
18/02/2010 at 05:17 ascagnel says:
I say this on every piracy and DRM thread, and I’ll say it again: the only way to genuinely defeat piracy is to make the paid product better than a pirated product.
The best examples are iTunes and Poland Spring. iTunes, now that its DRM-free, is the better of the two. They cache your credit card info, provide a functional search, and make sure their pricing is as fair as the recording industry will allow it. Add to that their constant deals and easy ways to discover their new content (iTunes Weekly Rewind is a great music podcast, especially if you’re willing to sit through hour-long version).
Poland Spring, in the US, literally competes with a ubiquitous commodity and does it great. You can get tap water anywhere, but Poland Spring makes sure that its portable and filtered more than tap water usually is. It may be overpriced, or a waste of resources, but its still incredibly popular.
I’m hesitant to include Steam in this list, because their acceptance of 3rd-party DRM only makes the customer’s life harder. They have the discovery and search tools down, but the library isn’t quite on the level of iTunes’ when talking about how comprehensive they are.
The best way to defeat piracy is to make the paid product a genuinely better product than a pirated version. Give me multiplayer, give me something I can share with my friends (a la Starcraft Spawn), give me something that says “I should buy this.”
18/02/2010 at 05:22 Stabby says:
Beat the system by buying the game and then installing the crack to get rid of the online garbage. I’ve certainly done that with a number of my games, especially when CD checks used to be all the rage.
18/02/2010 at 09:50 Ozzie says:
I’m sure Ubi bets that this system won’t be crackable very soon. That’s probably also the reason why it’s so draconian.
18/02/2010 at 05:23 Santiago says:
I will not even pirate this shaitze.
18/02/2010 at 05:31 tssk says:
I lost faith in the PC gaming market in the early 90′s. I was an Amiga user and in a sea of piracy I sought out and bought originals. The last straw for me was the excellent Alien Breed 3D on my (modified) CD32. Despite the game being on a shiny disc (and back in the early 90′s burners were almost non existant. Certainly unaffordable. So the disc was (back then) pretty priate proof.
So what do Team 17 do? They stick in the old copy sheet protection method. But being sadists/fans of Hitchiker’s Guide to the galaxy the sheet is black. With black raised numbers and letters. Oh and even better due to the printing the letters/numbers would peel off the sheet. That was it for me. Pirates were getting a better deal (at least those that were playing the pirated floppy disc version.)
I was sick and tired of having to prove I owned my purchase.
Then the Playstation came along and it was a thing of beauty. Stick the disc in. Power on. Play.
When I buy a game that’s all I want to do. Play. Not play 20 bloody questions.
I won’t pirate AC2. I’ll just play through Mass Effect 2 again. Or play something else. Yeah, I deal with Steam but for the most part it’s pretty invisible to me. And living in Australia I like the fact it can deal with the odd net hiccup.
Beyond Good and Evil 2 if it ever comes out will be a harder decision but in the end I could stop buying new games tomorrow and be fine with all the games I already own. And even if they bored me how many great freeware/indie titles are out there now?
We’re spoiled for choice.
18/02/2010 at 05:33 squirrel says:
All UBI has to do is to make public statement to admit the fact she no longer sells PC games. She will only lease them.
18/02/2010 at 05:37 anon says:
So what happens when Ubisoft’s servers get hit by a weeklong DDOS?
18/02/2010 at 05:41 tssk says:
Won’t the mass of customers having their machines sending save games to their servers do that anyway?
18/02/2010 at 05:46 squirrel says:
I remember playing the free version of the Midway Area 51 (not Blacksite) sponsored the US Air Force. This version also requires online connection for even single player mode so that the USAF can stream advertisement during gameplay. Interesting no single US government advertisement was sighted during my game time. Maybe by the time I installed the game the US government server for this game has been shut down. Afterall, the game does require one to be online to run, even if it is not connected to the US government’s server.
So even if the server is offline, it is still possible to play such games requiring online activation if the publishers permit you to go for it. Of course, obviously this is not the case for the UBI releases.
18/02/2010 at 05:42 Forscythe says:
What we are experiencing is the primal scream of a dying publishing model. It’s the tantrum of a child who is about to learn that he can’t always get what he wants. It’s the confusion of a fool who can’t accept that there are some problems that have no good solutions.
Heck, I empathize with them. The music industry is rapidly abandoning DRM and discovering that it still has a profitable business, but that business isn’t as big and isn’t as profitable as it was before napster. It probably never will be. That’s hard to accept.
What surprises me is that the game industry is years behind the *record studios*, of all people, on DRM, and they still think the DRM model is going to triumph for games.
Message to Ubisoft:
We get it. Piracy hurts game developers. It hurts publishers. It hurts you. It’s a huge problem. There, I said it. We all agree. It sucks.
There are some things you can do to help. Building community helps. Building trust helps. Good service and high quality help. Steam helps. DRM doesn’t help. At all. It doesn’t work. It won’t ever work. You can’t win. You’ve long ago passed the point that your DRM is costing you more customers, and better customers, and more money, than you could hope to scrape back from pirates. Your business might never have quite the profit margins it had when games came on shiny discs. There’s nothing you can do to regain that control. It’s an new world. The old one isn’t coming back. Live with it. Grow up.
18/02/2010 at 06:09 pistolhamster says:
Yes, piracy hurts. I buy my games. Not a whole lot of games, but I buy them. Loyal pc gamer for 20 years. Dont do this to me. Tell me why I would want to buy a game that does like this? Exclusive content? Sorry, it doesn’t bite.
I am sad that this new dlc-business model is such a gold mine, I am sure that we wouldn’¨t have seen this DRM-scheme if DLC (cursed be it) had been invented.
18/02/2010 at 05:42 mandarke says:
I quit WoW in 2008, dban’d my hdd and installed linux on it. feels good, man.
18/02/2010 at 05:42 luminosity says:
Contacted my local ubisoft branch to let them know that they’d lost sales on a whole bunch of games this year, and won’t get anymore from me till this system is dropped. I’d encourage others to do the same. If their support gets flooded with tens or hundreds of thousands of people complaining about it, they will take it seriously.
18/02/2010 at 05:50 Reality says:
Reality paging Mike, please note that the complaints are coming from people who generally buy games, while the pirates are busy chuckling waiting for the glorious puzzle that is unraveling Ubisofts DRM scheme.
18/02/2010 at 05:55 gribbit says:
You’re being sarcastic, right? The “thieves” will have a better play experience than the honest, paying customers.
These days, I don’t bother keeping my home systems very up-to-date; they’re file-serving and media rigs, not gaming machines. I keep a new laptop and sell the old one annually, and I do my PC gaming on it wirelessly. Funny, every now and again, maybe once every few days, I lose signal when I’m in the den. Dunno why; the router’s only two rooms over, but it happens. Maybe I need to move the thing, or make one of those DIY antenna upgrades, I don’t know. Anyway, temporarily losing signal will apparently be enough to kick me out of a certain single-player game that’s due for release. Guess what? I’m. Not. Going. To. Buy. It. Nor am I going to play it illegally, as I am generally the type to hype good games to friends, and these jerks do NOT deserve my word-of-mouth.
I’m forced to agree with a more succinct earlier poster. Fuck you, Ubisoft. It’s time some of these companies remembered that The Internet, an amalgam entity made up of hardware, software, AND biological wetware, sees things like this as damage and finds ways around it. If a producer wants to control that fluid stream, they’ve got to remember that it flows downstream and along the most direct path. If the legitimate path they’re offering is some ridiculous uphill dogleg, they’re begging to have their route cut out of the equation.
My advice to others is to not play this game. Don’t buy it, don’t torrent it, don’t talk about it. Pirates generate positive PR. With many social networks reporting game usage in various ways, the pirate in question may not even need to mention their current gaming preferences or write reviews to encourage friends to play. Leaving aside “Now Playing” lists, game review and walkthrough sites track what games are generating traffic, and you’d best believe pirates hit GameFAQs as much as anyone else. Gaming communities draw from the pirate crowd, as well — all that “viral” advertising on message boards, wikis, and blogs, twitter, and facebook comes from net-savvy (or at least net-active) people, which many pirates are. If Ubisoft loses money on a faithful sequel to a AAA title, they may tone back the DRM a bit. If they make money and generate a lot of secondary press, they’ll consider it a win and start rolling this tripe out elsewhere. Draw the line and hold it.
18/02/2010 at 05:55 TheSombreroKid says:
i regularly use the net while traveling and it’s rare for the connection not to drop for a bit when it switches cell towers, sometimes this can be a 5-10 minute period.
18/02/2010 at 06:05 pistolhamster says:
I’ve never complained much about DRM. I just lived with it. Once I had problems with Silent Hunter III, but overall nothing got in my way, ever. This, however, irks me.
Anyways, why are game developers supposed to be immune from 2nd hand market? Fuckssake that happens to all manufactured goods. In the future will Couches have drm too? “This ottoman can only be furnishing one (1) home.”. They should quit their whingeing they should.
18/02/2010 at 06:06 cris says:
So don’t buy it. Good lord, it’s so simple. Yet all you gamers will rush out there and get it anyway. You get what you deserve…
18/02/2010 at 06:16 Metric Stormtrooper says:
seems like Ubisoft didn’t learn anything from the “Spore” copy protection disaster not to long ago…
18/02/2010 at 06:25 squirrel says:
No, I dont think so UBI doesnt learn. Compare carefully, this time they are doing to a game that has console version, while EA were non-discriminatingly imposing restrictive DRM all PC game published in that critical period disregarding of whether console version released for a particular game (as I recall Crysis Warhead had, and is not going to have, a console port).
18/02/2010 at 06:33 cpy says:
I only play WoW / Cities XL but this will make me wanna shoot myself. I mean you get DC without net? So or you get crack for that or you will curse the hell out of them.
Sometime i wonder why companies put insane prices for games – like SC2 – 3x 50Eur… or make really stupid annoying DRM protections…
I like steam for it’s cheap games and discounts. Screw this i’m for the steam.
18/02/2010 at 06:36 the_fanciest_of_pants says:
No real need to reiterate this but this is a seriously bad idea. Does ANYONE actually like this? Besides Ubi I mean.
18/02/2010 at 06:40 QauNuckShin says:
Just another great reason to pirate games.
18/02/2010 at 06:40 Moot (at work) says:
MikeThe point
18/02/2010 at 06:43 12kill4 says:
You sir, are an idiot.
The basis for much of the outrage surrounding this unfathomably dim-witted decision is that it makes the pirated version of this product infinitely more desirable and effectively superior to the legitimately purchased one.
So please, before you flatulate your shit onto the internet, remember:
You are an idiot.
18/02/2010 at 06:45 12kill4 says:
reply hates me….
this was in response to Mike’s spout of wisdom near the top.
18/02/2010 at 06:45 v.dog says:
Thanks Ubisoft, I’m trying to save money. Now I’m going to save at least a couple of hundred buy not buying AC2, BGE2, or any other game you happen to release. :D
@all the people who are going to pirate the game- don’t. It will merely justify their position. The only winning move is not to play.
18/02/2010 at 06:45 Jayt says:
You really want me to pirate your games that badly Ubisoft? Well… ok then.
18/02/2010 at 06:47 Dussk says:
I have decided to obtain a DRM free copy of this game,
Thank you Ubisoft for making me feel less guilty about this.
18/02/2010 at 06:55 jti says:
I wonder who comes up with this stuff? They certainly don’t know anything about the realities of internet connections, that’s for sure. Wont be buying their games until this madness is over. I truely hope that their sales will plummet because of this.
18/02/2010 at 07:01 v.dog says:
What gets me is that I still can’t figure out why there even needs to be such a system; what am I going to do, get halfway through a level and suddenly decide to pirate the game?
Ludicrious.
18/02/2010 at 07:02 Tyler says:
Nintendo doesn’t make PC games and it doesn’t seem to be hurting them any.
18/02/2010 at 07:17 DJ Phantoon says:
Nintendo is far different, Tyler. Name a proprietary character on either the Playstation or Xbox that still has a decent fanbase. Master Chief does not count, as Halo is PC too.
Also, the Wii actually does something PCs don’t really do yet.
18/02/2010 at 07:11 Toeofdoom says:
I filed a support question at Ubisoft regarding this and crossposted to my blog – not really sure if it will do any good but I doubt it will hurt.
The highlight was where Ubisoft’s support server disconnected me as I was typing the message!
18/02/2010 at 07:12 DJ Phantoon says:
I am confused. Why do people think pirates are Machiavellian schemers with impressive Snidley Whiplash mustaches to twirl? Pirates can, and are, anybody that’s tech savvy to be one. This is not to say everyone is, just that any geek that can recover a hard drive (note! No one at Best Buy can do this. Learn it yourself.) can probably crack DRM. Some do. And honestly, with the actions of Ubisoft here, no one could have done more to build support on the side of piracy. Anyone that could have done more, obviously refuses to. Even EA backed down, and they’re notoriously bad.
18/02/2010 at 07:13 MaxNormal says:
I couldn’t play Doom 3 at launch due to the DRM not letting me play when Nero was installed.
Nero – the suite that came with the CD burner I had at the time. I contacted activision support and got the runaround about videocard drivers etc. When I finally fixed the problem it was with the help of gamecopyworld. Download a new exe and everything worked fine. I was Soooo angry that I wasted 2-3 evenings going back and forth with useless tech support that I started getting cracked exes for every non-steam game I bought from that moment on.
I refuse to jump through arbitrary hoops about what software I have on MY COMPUTER just to play your games. Ubisoft – say goodbye to my money till you wise up.
18/02/2010 at 07:15 cjlr says:
Never attributing to malice what can be explained by incompetence is one thing, but when you’ve got a situation like this, man, I just don’t know.
I find it very hard to believe that the people responsible for this decision could not only have failed to predict the reaction but also not noticed the shitstorm of negative reactions they got when it was actually announced… Is there a soul alive (besides Dave Tosser, bless his little heart) who thought this was a good thing? No? Then, er, Ubisoft, hey, yeah, listen…
What. the. FUCK. were you thinking?
18/02/2010 at 07:23 ShadowNate says:
This is bad. This is torture for the paying customer, that’s what it is.
And the paying customer buys something for fun, not for getting a massive stroke from all the frustration this DRM will cause him/her.
But, I’m glad for something. There’s going to be a shitload of complaints and refund demands once the game hits the market.
Personally, I’d like to throw some raw eggs at some Ubisoft person sometime soon.
18/02/2010 at 07:26 MarkMarsh says:
This is a step too far.. I have just cancelled my pre-order.
I am sick to death of being punished for being a legit customer.. They can shove it where the sun dont shine. Im so annoyed I think im going to boycott ubi alltogether.
I suffer it from every dvd and blueray with notices and anti piracy crap I cant skip e.g. a Pirate version would be better, no adverts and no 10 minutes of shite I have to wait for before I can play the movie.
Same goes with this.. why pay for single player game I can only play some of the time because its 100% reliant on a decent internet connection.. answer is I wont.
18/02/2010 at 08:44 Fitz says:
You know what? A DVD I rented the other week (can’t remember what) had something that I’d been muttering to myself about for years.
No “PIRACY IS THEFT!” warnings, no unskippable crap, just a simple title card that read “Thank you for renting this film and supporting the industry”.
That I like.
19/02/2010 at 06:03 tssk says:
I saw an even better one on a DVD the other day. One of my friends had a new Family Guy DVD and instead of the usual anti piracy bollocks it had a splash screen that said “this DVD comes with a digital copy that you can load onto your ipod or other personal device.”
How good is that!
18/02/2010 at 07:29 Reno Brainz says:
Highly doubt that, I think theyre laughing their asses off and will crack it in the pee break between games of Counter Strike (or whatever they play …)
18/02/2010 at 07:46 Gabbo says:
Thankfully, Ubi has almost no titles in the upcoming year that I want, so I’ll be able to avoid this atrocious DRM scheme. I don’t know if I’d pirate any of the ones that seem interesting (AC2 perhaps), but knowing this will be cracked rather quickly and be much easier to run doesn’t hurt.
Even if sales drop, they’ll just push harder of course, that’s Ubi thought process on DRM: the consumer can always give up more.
18/02/2010 at 08:13 bhlaab says:
beyond good and evil 2
18/02/2010 at 09:59 Ozzie says:
@Bhlaab: I doubt this will come out now that they have turned officially evil…
18/02/2010 at 08:14 Sami says:
In fairness: Pretty much any actual progress with objectives is immediately and automatically saved, at least on the PS3 version… which I’m now glad I have (for a certain definition of “glad” that includes “I feel somewhat guilty now for having given them money at all”), since no way would I touch this festering rot even though I really wanted to play Assassin’s Creed 2.
That’s the closest I can get to mitigation, but it’s still not even close to enough, since, well… basically I agree with every single criticism in the original post wholeheartedly. I like playing games on my PC, but the concept of being unable to do so unless I’m online rather defeats the point.
18/02/2010 at 08:36 Lars Westergren says:
@MarkMarsh
Yes, I have more or less stopped buying films and series now on DVD even though I used to buy loads. I gave them my money, and yet every time I want to watch a favourite I have to sit and be called a dirty thief at loud volume. Bonus points if they make it unskippable!
18/02/2010 at 10:23 bill says:
me too. I had an entire series of 24 that had that very-high-volume-scary-music anti-piracy ad before EVERY EPISODE… and I’d always forget about it, be watching late at night and scare the pants off myself each time.
Exactly why they feel the need to put anti-piracy ads on legitimate products is beyond me…
18/02/2010 at 08:23 frags says:
Does this mean RUSE is also going to use this DRM? Just great.
18/02/2010 at 10:29 Baboonanza says:
GODDAMIT, not RUSE?
I actually wanted that game!
18/02/2010 at 08:26 Igi says:
Recently I have purchased Bioshock 2 from Steam. I managed to play 2 levels until I received the infamous “region is not supported” error in the idiotic Games For Windows Live (even though I managed to connect before). Now I cannot save my progress, so I don’t play it.
I bought it instead of downloading to support to PC gaming (which is the ultimate gaming platform for me and always will be, even though I have a PS3).
Redundant to say how frustrating it is to buy a game and not being able to play it due to some connection problem to a server that I don’t need to begin with.
The bodies in the gaming industry, and in my case Microsoft, bury PC gaming with their own hands. They do, not piracy.
Ironically, now I find myself downloading a cracked Bioshock 2 from Rapidshare, after paying for this game. “Outraging” is not the right word.
Before I thought I’ll by Assassin’s Creed 2. Not anymore, I will download it piratically, and with a clean conscious.
18/02/2010 at 08:37 Pemptus says:
I think you can just make an offline account with GFWL – it saves there without any hassle. Worked for me, anyway. Haven’t tried Bioshock 2 yet, maybe it’s different and more idiotic there, I don’t know.
18/02/2010 at 08:48 qrter says:
From what I remember of my GFWL palaver playing Fallout 3 on Steam, you can indeed create a new GFWL account and keep it offline – you’ll have to start the game from the beginning and never go online with that account while playing the game, or you’re back where you started (having to be online to load the save, make saves, etc.).
18/02/2010 at 09:12 Pemptus says:
Yeah, or use a crack that bypassed this crap altogether, If I remember correctly. Sigh.
18/02/2010 at 10:52 Igi says:
Right, before there used to be an option to create an offline account in GFWL, not anymore. Microsoft crapped the only workaround which existed.
18/02/2010 at 11:18 frymaster says:
mine works fine offline – the MS live servers managed to crap themselves yesterday and I didn’t have problems playing the game at all, it just moaned that it wasn’t online and that was that (yes I could access my previous saves)
18/02/2010 at 08:28 Lars Westergren says:
I have been pretty patient with DRM the last year or two and bought games that had more DRM than I was really comfortable with. I was willing to overlook it because it has been *fairly* unintrusive and the games were just so damn good (Bioshock, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age).
But still, I occasionally get in the situation that I can’t start a Dragon Age save because my 3G connection is very flaky. It feels like I am being punished for having supported them by buying the special edition or additional DLC. And this…. this is really a step too far. It doesn’t matter how good the games are, I refuse to accept this. I don’t like piracy… so I guess I will just have to do without any Ubisoft title from now on. :-(
18/02/2010 at 15:23 twincast says:
play it offline with a profile that was online! works totally fine. the DLC stuff only is a hassle when you’re (trying to go) online, but can’t (re-)connect to the servers for whatever reason on your or their side.
18/02/2010 at 08:29 Alexander says:
You sir, are the conclusion; and damn straight. If anything at all the unaware masses will smilingly purchase their new copy and deal with the DRM. The lowest denominator you will find by ignoring the vocal minorities who will set themselves the highest standards and stick to their ivory tower moral premises until day zero to look at the average joe who simply notices that a new settlers or assassin’s creed has been released. Then consequently, pays up, plays. If average joe can’t play, not until then will we run into sudden change. The vocal minority’s majority however will pirate it and never tell.
Since it’s impossible to educate average Joe on every pc game’s drm scheme (especially the game that will surely give you much pleasure), we are simply talking about a general problem of contemporary society and our hilarious perception of fair, democracy and ethics in general.. you go ahead and vote with your wallet on the greater good, it has worked perfectly up until now.
18/02/2010 at 08:29 Asskicker says:
Guess I’ll have to pirate it then?
18/02/2010 at 08:29 vagabond says:
Ignoring the fact that my internet connection isn’t perfect in terms of it’s reliability and occasionally drops out and needs the ADSL modem reset to bring it back, interrupting my theoretical DRM laden Ubisoft gaming session for 5 minutes plus lost progress every time that happens, I have also had a number of times where I’ve had to pause whatever I was downloading at the time in steam, or with my browser, in order to connect to the Dragon Age servers and start my game.
While I can simply restart my download and go back to playing Dragon Age after it has loaded, that says to me that I won’t be able to download anything in the background if I want to play an Ubisoft game.
Oh well. I’ve just sent Ubisoft an email, listing the 20 Ubisoft PC titles that I own, and telling them “no more”. I doubt they’ll listen but at least I can say I tried.
Oh and to anyone that says these games shouldn’t be marked down in reviews because of their DRM, Demigod’s netcode and servers were accidentally messed up and they got crucified for it. Ubisoft did this to their game on purpose. If there are issues because of it on release, I think scores below 50% would be well justified.
18/02/2010 at 10:32 Ozzie says:
Agreed.
18/02/2010 at 08:30 Mahel042 says:
Will demos of these games have the DRM? so that one can check it out, seeing as it’s apparently the biggest selling point of the game.
18/02/2010 at 08:32 Bad Person says:
It would be ironical if they made a crack for this that removed all the DRM and had a DOS attack against UBI s server built into it :)
18/02/2010 at 08:35 mrmud says:
No that wouldnt be ironical, that would be stupid as fuck.
Because you would hurt legitimate consumers more than you hurt Ubi.
18/02/2010 at 10:15 FluffyPanda says:
You don’t know what irony is.
But part of me thinks that this isn’t actually such a bad idea. Not the ‘built into the crack’ part, since that would just allow Ubi to claim that piracy had destroyed their game. But if the auth servers were taken offline for a day or 2 at launch then it might be the kick in the ass that is needed to wake people up to how bad this DRM scheme is.
Still, it’s an illegal act, so not something that you can really recommend, but I think I would laugh if it were to happen.
18/02/2010 at 16:08 SheffieldSteel says:
I think that the first working cracks for this game will be ones that spoof the servers into thinking you’re running a legitimate copy of the game. In other words, you don’t have to pay, but you do still have to be online. It’s quite possible that these could overload the servers and prevent legitimate users from enjoying their games.
18/02/2010 at 08:34 mrmud says:
I think the anti DRM sentiments here might have been a bit to much in the past. Sure I dont like it when publishers put activations on games but I can sort of understand why they are doing it and sympathise.
But this takes the cake, this is to far. If there ever was a line in the sand it has been thoroughly crossed.
18/02/2010 at 08:37 El Walto says:
This may have very well ended civilization as we know it. Soon you’ll need DRM installed in a computer chip in your head to prove you are you, and not some clone. The DRM Police, they live inside of my head!
18/02/2010 at 11:59 Devenger says:
And if your head loses wireless connection, you are temporarily shut down and lose all memories since you last slept.
18/02/2010 at 08:40 ascagnel says:
That doesn’t work. At some point, the machine code that executes needs to be on your system, no matter how hidden or protected, and from there its all reverse engineering and disassembly — just like cracks are made now.
And before anyone goes off on why I know how to make a crack: making a crack isn’t too far from legitimate debugging of a program you’ve written. Especially the more complex programs. I’m not a fan of using debuggers, nor are they my preferred way of working the kinks out of a project, but they are a versatile tool in any programmer’s arsenal.
18/02/2010 at 08:42 papanours says:
Hum… if the game is good I will buy it.
The problem is not the drm it is the piracy.
I think that every people who advertised piracy should be ban of any forum
And if you know someone who pirate a game punch is nose and kick is ass. After that call the FBI and I am sure they will find games and movies and songs and… this fucking pirate will be fuck up .
18/02/2010 at 09:06 mrmud says:
Piracy is a bit of a double edged sword.
I used to be a pirate.
Before I finished school and got a job there was no way I could both buy my own computers as well as fuel my gaming addiction with the funds I had avaliable. The alternatives were not playing games or pirate them. My choice was piracy and because of that choice I still play games today.
Only now I pay for them, and I play ALOT of games and spend lots and lots of money on them. Money that the publishers probably would not have seen were it not for piracy.
Now that doesnt make piracy “OK” or eithical or whatever, it just shows that the subject is slightly more nuanced.
18/02/2010 at 10:19 Guildenstern says:
Hi, David!
18/02/2010 at 10:35 bill says:
Pirates are your customers. pirates are often the biggest buyers, and may well be your future customers.
Almost anyone who now uses Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, 3dsmax, etc.. professionally probably learned on a pirated version, because most people can’t afford that price just to study. But those people become the future professionals whose companies then license your software.
Windows or Dos wouldn’t be the world dominating force they are now if they hadn’t been so easy for people to copy, share, get used to and then later buy.
I’m often surprised how so many people can afford the huge asking price of Flash just to make little games on Kongregate or Newgrounds.
But then again, if you’re right, Ubisoft has it made with Assassin’s Creed 2 PC. It’ll sell 666% more than AC1 on PC, making it outsell all the console versions combined. Since all those 85% of pirates will buy it. PC industry saved!
18/02/2010 at 08:51 Stew says:
(echo chamber)
Ubisoft just guaranteed I won’t give them any money ever again.
{/echo chamber)
18/02/2010 at 09:01 Grey! says:
My opinions, hopes, predictions, and hypothesis:
1. Maybe it’s only a bluff.
2. Or maybe it isn’t, I don’t care. Becase whatever happens, I won’t buy it.
3. AC2 is waaay overrated, IMO it’s too shallow for hardcore PC gamers. I watch my young nephew play it on 360 with his mouth opened like an idiot (Oh come on! That fat bastard is Da VInci!? Ye gotta be kiddin me!). I gotta say I lost my apatite. It’s a virgin-nerdy-geeky console fanboy’s game. The fact that Ubi ported it to PC is a total blasphemy. It tainted PC gaming sacred ground with false-hope, lies, and DRM. I just wish they never announced it on PC. :)
4. (sorry, I have to say it) Somewhere out there, there are groups of pirates named themselves Razor, Reloaded, Skidrow, or whatever. I assure you they’ll provide the crack for everyone. I think we shouldn’t take this DRM too seriously. Buy it if you like it, or don’t if you aren’t. I’m all against piracy here, I buy all my PC games with my hard-earned money. But if I find myself troubled by DRM, I use Google to find the crack. If the crack doesn’t work on my installed game, I uninstall it, then I download it via torrent. Besides, I don’t want my precious little DVD get scratched. See? I own the game, as long as I don’t multiply and pirate it, I own the right to screw it, DRM included. I even have the right to download the same title over, and over, and over again from different sources as long as I keep it to myself. :P
5. If Ubi keep going this way, I’m afraid the piracy rate will be far worse than what has happened to CoD: MW 2.
6. Ubi will stop making PC Games, which is good I think. If someone wants to make something, make it whole-heartedly. If not, don’t make it. Don’t punish the innocents. You may slaughter the pirates (yes sir, I want to see ‘em dead :P), the downloaders, and the seeders, but don’t punish us for things we didn’t do.
7. Assasins are pussy! Barbarians all the way! :D
18/02/2010 at 10:20 FluffyPanda says:
Sorry, but if you live in Europe or America you don’t have the right to screw with it any more. That was taken away when they passed the EUCD and DMCA. Circumventing copy protection is now a crime, even if you only use it within the bounds of fair use.
I know it’s stupid, but that’s the world we live in. Legitimate customers being turned into criminals if they want to actually use their purchases.
19/02/2010 at 03:20 Grey! says:
@ FluffyPanda
Well tbh I live in Asia. And the shipping fee is cost me between 5 to 10 USD. So I spent almost 60 bucks for “$49.99″ games. If that thing’s happen in my country too, I’ll stop playing PC games.
I think the EUCD and DMCA thingie contradict the democratic constitution in my country. If I own something, I have the very right to use it in every way, as long as I don’t break any law and nobody gets hurt. As simple as that. Buying a PC games isn’t like adopting a baby. So I can do this forever as long as American and European don’t conquer us, I should be fine, LOL.
But man, seriously!? Oh Ubi, you scum-sucking PIG!
18/02/2010 at 09:02 Ashen says:
You do not have to create offline profile to work offline. If GFWL can’t connect in online mode, it will log in as offline and saves will work just fine.
Igi’s problem was that he selected an unsupported country for his account which flagged it. It’s a huge fumble on MS’s part it works this way.
18/02/2010 at 09:05 Turi says:
It’s either that or buing the game and putting the crack in. What the hell is Ubisoft thinking, now the definitive version of the game is an illegal one.
18/02/2010 at 09:13 Finstern says:
Way to go Papanours, mister Ubisoft’s-Buzz-poster.
Take your dirty money and go away. We’ll tell them you did good.
18/02/2010 at 09:14 Finn says:
About some comments that this will make the game harder to crack: LOL. Countless games that are supported by Steam and require that platform to function have had their security protocols bypassed; hell, even Steam itself has been hacked (TF2 achievements, for example, you can get them by running a simple file and modifying your machine’s logs then replacing steam’s logs).
Dawn of War 2 with the Windows Live system? Zero day cracked.
All games with the SecuROM technology? (Bioshock, Spore, Gears of War) Zero day cracked.
Tages system? Zero Day.
So, all DRM is doomed to fail, it’s inevitable. Deliver a good product and people will buy it but there will always be piracy, the best way to deal with it is to care for your customers not to burden them with stupid DRM.
18/02/2010 at 10:24 ulix says:
They needed about 2 weeks to crack “Anno 1404″ (also an Ubisoft game, no idea which kind of DRM). Although ALL cracking crews were hard at work at it (and for that reason some other cracks of game coming out at the same time took much longer).
18/02/2010 at 09:18 RagingLion says:
Oh God. I want you AC2 sooooo badly.
I’m going to buy it. It’s my most desired game that I’m able to buy this year so how can I not buy it. So many people have trouble with their internet connection on a regular basis this can just end up being a nightmare.
(Remember Ubisoft removing all DRM off of Prince of Persia was it last year? It seems RPS were right in assuming they were setting up the argument that that didn’t work then weren’t they.)
18/02/2010 at 09:19 Foonoes says:
Actually you don’t need to have all the code executed on your system, you can have a server-side function with an output space sufficiently complex and large to be too big to be stored in a lookup-table or have a simple client-side replacement. You can make it also non-repeateable, sublty non-deterministic in a way that influence the next input to the function. Now suppose this function is used to compute the traversal order of some spatial index, and only return some left/right/down sequence of pointer chasing to do on the data, without ‘explaining’ the way it’s computed. It’s quite difficult to implement, it must be carefully chosen to be used often, be absolutely necessary, but not too big for the network (esp. for a big game), but then I’ll guess some cracker will have interesting time…
Just imagine the server have a randomized quicksort implementation, you give it the permutation index of a list of values, server-side it sort the data, but does not return the sorted order, just a sequence of “swapthis, swapthat” reapplied client-side by a blind interpreter, for an easy example like this, you could understand and see that data manipulated using this sequence ends up being sorted and sort it yourself instead, but try this with something like a 4d hilbert curve indexing an R-tree and you won’t like it.
18/02/2010 at 09:46 Okami says:
Wow I actually didn’t understand a single thing you wrote. Except for Dilbert, isn’t that the guy with the funny tie from the comic?
18/02/2010 at 10:12 gulag says:
Best. Comment. Ever.
18/02/2010 at 10:13 Riesenmaulhai says:
I’ll have fun pasting this the next time someone sends a code-problem via our University-mailinglist.
18/02/2010 at 10:16 Riesenmaulhai says:
Besides: I really liked R-Type. Was a good game. They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
18/02/2010 at 10:28 ChaK_ says:
lol alright :D
18/02/2010 at 10:36 Ozzie says:
I’m still not quite sure if this comment was meant seriously or not, but I think I understood a third of it… :-/
18/02/2010 at 09:20 Petrushka says:
Incidentally, contact details for Ubisoft’s press contacts are available at http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/index.php?p=69 .
Not that writing a letter will make any difference. But those folks at Ubisoft conceal their contact details pretty well, and if you happen to feel like letting off steam, there you go.
18/02/2010 at 10:51 RagingLion says:
Thank you. I might seriously write to them.
18/02/2010 at 09:28 Don says:
This is sad, now I’m in the position of hoping that there isn’t a sequel to Beyond Good and Evil so I won’t have the dilemma of having to choose between a legit copy with DRM way beyond what I’m prepared to stomach or grab a pirate copy and lose karma. As for all the other Ubisoft games they can shove them up their big, fat internet pipe.
18/02/2010 at 09:45 MDA says:
Time to tell the general public know what they are letting themselves in for. Post those ratings and pre-reviews on your favourite Jersey retailer etc. They might get the message then when people look at see AC2 has got 500 x 1 star reviews before it is even out.
18/02/2010 at 09:50 Hélder Pinto says:
This is an outrage…
18/02/2010 at 09:57 Brumisator says:
Hellooooo piracy.
The logic just baffles me, when will the publishers learn that when it’s easier to pirate the game than to buy it, people will NOT BUY IT!
18/02/2010 at 09:59 cheeba says:
This is so bad, you almost get the impression that it’s some kind of extreme double-bluff, so people feel relieved when they implement a less-intrusive yet still fucking ridiculous drm system down the line instead of outraged. Still, I’m not sure I’d credit them with the intelligence.
18/02/2010 at 10:02 Ashen says:
Yes, it will be much harder to crack than usual releases. That’s the whole point. Depending on how much of the underlying code is server-side, it may take a lot of reverse engineering to deal with and the resulting crack likely won’t be just a no-cd exe replacement.
Steam wrappers exist yes, but it took quite a while to break it at first.
GFWL isn’t copy protection (unless you buy the game through GFWL marketplace and no pirate releases target these versions).
SecuRom? Yes, it’s easy to crack since it’s been iterated for so many years.
Tages? Oh boy. It may be zero day now, but it delayed several releases for _months_ when it was new. Similar to StarForce actually.
18/02/2010 at 10:02 Alex Bakke says:
Yarr
18/02/2010 at 10:03 Eagle says:
No wonder they will sell more copies for the consoles than pc if they perform this move. There is barely any reason to purchase the game as a pc-gamer with this sort of absurd drm.
18/02/2010 at 10:07 Riesenmaulhai says:
I really liked what happened to Spore on Amazon. I hope you will do even better with AC2. Go Angry Internet, go!
18/02/2010 at 10:08 Quercus says:
And the sad thing is that most games sites and magazines won’t pick them up on it (or downgrade review scores) because as with MW2, they are too afraid of the repercussions from the bigger publishers.
I don’t mind the online activation, but I shouldn’t need an active internet connetcion to play a single-player game. That is just stupid. Ubisoft have seriously messed this one up.
When will publishers learn that offering carrots to customers is a far better business model than hitting everyone with sticks?
18/02/2010 at 10:25 Jayt says:
Majority of them are probably sponsered/endorsed by Ubisoft anyway.
18/02/2010 at 10:08 Jade Raymond says:
Friendly reminder that upon meeting your uncle Mario in 2009′s blockbuster Assassin’s Creed 2, he greets you with “It’sa me, Mario!” We thought it’d be a subtle little nod to our more hardcore fanbase. We haven’t forgotten about you! Assassin’s Creed 2, in stores now!
18/02/2010 at 10:10 Frosty840 says:
I’ve got a current preorder for this.
I won’t cancel that preorder immediately, but I will cancel it if Ubisoft don’t come to their senses.
And not some “Oh, wait, we’ll respond to the completely justifiable outrage against the five steps we’re taking backwards by taking one step forward.” crap. I want some kind of sensible “Oh, wait, this is vile, never mind, we won’t do anything like it now, or in the future” response.
I’m quite happy to boycott Ubisoft on all platforms because of their actions on one platform. They won’t be seeing a 360 AC2 purchase instead of a PC AC2 purchase; they’re just going to see a lost sale from me.
18/02/2010 at 10:23 Jayt says:
Corporate 1, Consumer 0
Pirates unaffected
18/02/2010 at 10:23 deuterium. says:
Enjoy being treated as thieves whilst pirates have no such concerns.
18/02/2010 at 10:35 Korben says:
Piracy: The Better Choice ™
read: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1043337/hd-disk-format-wars (2006)
18/02/2010 at 10:41 ulix says:
I for one have to thank Ubisoft.
THANK YOU UBISOFT FOR SAVING ME ~80€ THIS SPRING!
I originally wanted to buy the Anno 1404 expansion (100% sure), and eventually AC2 (60% sure), but now I wont. This spring is full of awesome games I want to buy & play (or already own and wnat to play more) anyways.
Still have to get through ME2, Dragon Age, Bayonetta, Brütal Legend,
play more L4D2, Wipeout HD, Fifa 10,
and eventually buy Heavy Rain (100% sure), Drakensang 2 (100% sure), Red Dead Redemption (100% sure), God of War 3 (100% sure), Bad Company 2 (maybe), Bioshock 2 (maybe)…
as well as playing a bunch of great Indie Games (Pixel Junk Shooter: pure awesomeness).
So really and honestly: Thank you Ubisoft wholeheartedly for saving me 80€ this spring, and tons of dineros in the future. Wouldn’t have known how to afford all this shit anyways.
18/02/2010 at 10:46 Ozzie says:
Had exactly the same thought! :D
18/02/2010 at 10:49 Mayec says:
I bought Assassin’s Creed 1. I will NOT buy Assassin’s Creed 2, or any other game that has this kind of DRM. This kind of measure actually encourages piracy. I’d rather use a cracked version of a game which I can play offline at any time, than a legally bought one that imposes such unnecessary restrictions to be online all the time! Yes, getting an illegal cracked version of the game is what I would do, rather than buy it (having the money and will to own the legal copy of the game), if it were not illegal.
18/02/2010 at 10:54 Phoibos Delphi says:
Oh, Ubisoft, we had such a good Time together….we played Oblivion, we adventured through Beyond Good and Evil and killed our share of Mutants in Far Cry… but now it seem as if we have to go separate ways… but f you change your mind (maybe because of horrible sales, if enough of your potential customers are proud enough to ignore all products with this DRM gone mad), you may call me anytime, and maybe we´ll hook up again. Maybe.
18/02/2010 at 10:55 Bobsy says:
Blah blah blah, what everyone said.
And considering I was looking forward to AC2 more than… oh.. anything else coming out in the near future, this stings badly. Won’t be buying until they strip this obscenity of DRM protection away.
18/02/2010 at 10:58 Lisa says:
I <3 Sexyfuckbook.com
18/02/2010 at 12:45 Ozzie says:
Bot! BOT! BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!
18/02/2010 at 11:00 ChaK_ says:
Don’t
Ever
dare to touch splinter cell or BGE2 with that stupid moronic shit.
ever !
I’ll pass until then.
And I won’t pirate it either.
18/02/2010 at 11:07 Marr says:
18/02/2010 at 11:08 Marr says:
Weeee’ve been here before.
18/02/2010 at 11:15 Pemptus says:
Demos? There haven’t been any demos since the nineties!
18/02/2010 at 11:16 Pemptus says:
Pemptus 0:1 reply system
18/02/2010 at 11:16 mbp says:
Who is RPS anyway? It his a kind of collective post?
My two cents:
1. Experience from the mmo market: People are willing to play games that need a constant online connection but servers do go down regularly. Customers get very cross when they can’t play their game because servers are offline. Customers get even crosser if a crash occurs while they are doing something. Customers get absolutely apoplectic if they lose progress due to a crash. MMORPGs go to great lengths to restore folk to where they were after a restart. Ubi has apparently not learned this lesson.
2. Ubisoft are pretty much excluding themselves from the growing laptop gaming market.
Anyway you look at this it seems to be a commercial mistake.
18/02/2010 at 11:28 Eugen Onegin says:
I just did a count … of games by Ubisoft, I’ve got Assassin’s Creed 1, Beyond Good & Evil, the four Prince of Persia titles of the last decade (including two copies of the first one), one of the Splinter Cell games, and XIII. OK, so I’m not very up-to-date with Ubisoft.
Even so, that’s a fair chunk of money.
A couple of these games are among my favourites of all time. They have made me very keen on Ubisoft, and given me a pre-generated interest in any games they come up with.
That loyalty is now deleted. Completely. They might as well be EA mark II. Quite sad, really. Assassin’s Creed II is now a game I wouldn’t waste hard drive space on if Ubisoft paid me. After all, what’s the point of wasting space on a game I can’t play?
So long, Ubisoft. It was nice while you were treating me as a customer. If you want to treat me as an enemy, there are plenty of other places to go. GOG.com and Stardock look like a good start.
18/02/2010 at 11:31 terry says:
I’m kinda torn about this news. On the one hand, abomination of evil and greed, collapse of civilization, brimstone breakfasts etc. On the other, cash for AC2 and Settlers 14 is now freed up for less nefarious uses and Interstate 76 released today on gog.
I am not getting in Ubisoft’s car >:(
18/02/2010 at 11:39 roryok says:
interstate 76 you say… =)
18/02/2010 at 11:44 roryok says:
signing up for gog.com at the moment, they have 19 genders available… guy,dude,gentleman,chap…. etc etc
18/02/2010 at 12:49 Ozzie says:
I’m a bad bwai! :)
18/02/2010 at 11:39 Acidburns says:
Ah, I’ve got my downfall parodies at last.
Hitler talks about Ubisofts new DRM
http://www.youtube.com/watch#v=dtBIRIXi8L0&feature=related
Hitler reacts to Silent Hunter 5′s DRM:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkLCAHk_qW4
18/02/2010 at 11:57 roryok says:
Trying to think of something we can do to protest this, all I can think of is not buying the game. Sadly, poor sales will just make them blame piracy and say they need more DRM, while good sales will make them triumph the DRM as a success. It’s a lose lose situation for us.
Of course we could always start mailing them envelopes full of shit…
18/02/2010 at 12:03 MarkSide says:
I’m not sure I could afford the postage… :(
18/02/2010 at 12:05 Rinox says:
I wonder if it would be possible to take any legal action against this insanity? This must surely breach all sorts of customer protection laws?
18/02/2010 at 12:03 Diogo Ribeiro says:
I played the game in the X360. It’s a neat game, full of small wonders, beautiful sights, arresting moments. It’s also a textbook example of a studio becoming aware of the problems of a game and solving nearly all of them in the sequel.
I’m not even looking at the goddamn box of the PC version.
Amazingly how a dev team gets it so right while the parent company gets it so wrong.
Too bad, really. Unlike some laugh-o-core PCers, I was looking forward to the game.
18/02/2010 at 12:16 Sam Crisp says:
This does not bode well for Far Cry 3.
18/02/2010 at 12:17 Thermal Ions says:
+1 Well if there was such a thing around here.
18/02/2010 at 12:30 Yanko says:
So lemme get this straight: industry biggies nowadays are against you resalling your game, they’re against installing your game in all of your machines and now they’re against you being offline? Why the hell don’t they make it streaming already?
At least Rocketbirds did it legit =P
18/02/2010 at 12:32 Ranaghar says:
Having played setlers 7 beta which used this DRM i experienced one internet fail during play.
Result was as described but after conection went up, the game resumed and fastforwarded the minute of downtime. But i could resume play without “loss” of game progres.
But that was beta not the final thing.
18/02/2010 at 18:04 suibhne says:
Settlers doesn’t use a checkpoint-based save system, does it? This is most detrimental with a checkpoint system, pretty obviously, since it kicks you back to your last checkpoint for even a momentary loss of connection.
18/02/2010 at 12:34 Martin Coxall says:
Hey you! How STUPID YOU WERE not to pirate this game! As punishment, we’re going constantly to kick you in the balls!
18/02/2010 at 12:39 phuzz says:
Hey Ubisoft, see this?
Yeah, that’s my hard earned money, you want some?
Well tough*, you’re getting none of this now*, I might play some of your * games, but I’m not going to be paying you for them, bye******!
*(expletives removed from here)
18/02/2010 at 12:44 Cheezey says:
Wow.
Ubisoft doesn’t appear to want to just shoot themselves in the foot, they also appear to want to swallow a grenade while their at it.
I can only imagine whoever dreamt up this system wears a tin-foil hat and probably spends 24/7 in a padded cell at the local loony bin.
The cynic in me is siding with the notion that they must want to pull out from the PC entirely, I really can’t see any way back for them if they continue down this route.
18/02/2010 at 13:11 Muzman says:
You know, I only just noticed the man with the creed up there in the picture has a letter ‘A’ in his, I dunno, skirt.
So he’s Captain Assassin now?
18/02/2010 at 13:45 Iam12andwhatisthis says:
What is this I dont even.
18/02/2010 at 13:45 rayshine says:
And this is why PC gaming is dead.
18/02/2010 at 18:02 Michael says:
This is why indie gaming has seen a revival.
18/02/2010 at 13:48 Duke Habbington III. says:
I mildly tempted to buy the game just so I can spend my time creating savegame after savegame on UBI’s servers.
You want my data? Choke on it.
18/02/2010 at 13:58 Webster says:
Because you live in a village and your phone lines don’t work properly.
Because you live in a village in Britain and a small amount of wind or rain will break your connection.
Because your phone lines are 60 years old and BT refuse to replace them.
Because the exchange is 60 years old and doesn’t work properly.
Typing this on my phone due to no Internet connection :(
Incidentally… Pleeeease god let them drop this madness before the theoretical Beyond Good and Evil 2 is possibly released…
18/02/2010 at 14:22 Diogo Ribeiro says:
Exactly my problem. I live in a place where not only internet access is erratic, but power outages are frequent – heavy rain and strong winds are the primary cause, and there’s no relief in sight. I swear one of these days my PC and Wii are going to fizzle out because of this but until then I have options like checkpoints, quick-saving or – gasp! – save at my own pace.
None of which seem like an option in this case. Even with the highly unlikely chance I’d be able to quick-save in AC2, and the Ubi servers would register this, there’s still too many variables: power outage or internet connection going bonkers before I hit the damn quick-save button, Ubi server maintenance, unforeseen problems on their server side, corruption or loss of data packets across the net, etc.
I wonder. How would they feel if their paychecks were only verified by constantly navigating online bank menus for 10 hours, and they had to manage this with precarious internet connections?
18/02/2010 at 14:14 TheApologist says:
I think piracy is wrong. I buy all my games.
Ubisoft think that piracy = lost sales. But this is a hypothesis and not one they have proved.
Here is a fact. I will not now buy Ubisoft games.
I.e. This DRM system = lost sales.
18/02/2010 at 14:53 Mitch says:
Piracy is equal to lost sales, that is why Ubisoft try to reduce piracy on their games. Not the best way to do that but still, do they have another option?
18/02/2010 at 15:02 Rinox says:
Piracy is not equal to lost sales. The large majority of people who pirate a game wouldn’t have spent money on it anyway if they couldn’t have pirated it. That is what causes the bloated “we lost 90% of sales to piracy” statements. It’s not true. By and large, it’s people who are willing to spend 50 € on a new game who are their market, not people who pirate games. And they’re doing their market up the ass right now.
18/02/2010 at 15:14 cheezey says:
Viewing all piracy as equalling a lost sale is a far too simplistic way of looking at the problem. There are so many shades of grey on that issue that the points from either camp have some merit.
Basic common sense would tell you that the claims made by some publishers are just outlandish. Basic common sense would also tell you that claims made by some people who pirate games, for “OMG DRM!?, FU!” reasons, are also peddling a load of crap.
I think it comes down to value for money reasons as being the most likely reason that someone who would otherwise pay for a game would pirate it.
MW2 is an example that comes to mind. If you wanted to play the single player game, yet had no interest in the multiplayer game you still had to pay top whack. £35-40 for 6 hours of a game really doesn’t equate to very good value for money, yet had the singleplayer alone been available for a reasonable amount (say £15) would they have captured some of those people who might have pirated it instead?
Aside from that possibility most other causes of piracy are going to be from the people that wouldn’t have bought a legitimate copy regardless.
18/02/2010 at 16:17 Hmm says:
If piracy was equal to lost sales and this DRM works, then they will be reporting sales increased by several hundred percent. We’ll just have to wait on that report and see.
18/02/2010 at 18:11 jalf says:
If piracy = lost sales (and let’s for a moment ignore the obvious holes in this theory, that people sometimes buy games after pirating them, and that people sometimes pirate games they just don’t care about enough to ever pay a single cent for), where would the money come from?
Now, there seems to be broad agreement that the piracy rate for PC games is around 90%.
This means that for every dollar gamers spend on PC games today, they’d suddenly decide to spend ten dollars once piracy was eliminated.
Where would that money come from? I spend a fair bit of money on games already. I can’t afford to spend ten times as much. That’d approach the amount I pay in rent for my apartment. I’m sorry, but no. That’s not gonna happen.
Think about this for a second. What kind of person would you imagine is even able to spend ten times as much on games? What would they sacrifice in order to do so?
Let’s assume someone buys one AAA game per month. Let’s assume they buy from Play.com, which is a lot cheaper than retail. New games are commonly priced around €30 there.
So are you seriously suggesting that such a gamer would be willing to even consider spending €300 on games every month? That’s about what I spend on food and public transportation. It’s about half of what I pay in rent. It’s definitely more than I can afford to spend on games.
Eradicating piracy might get people to buy more games. But it won’t get them to buy ten times as many games. Not every instance of piracy is a lost sale.
18/02/2010 at 19:15 TheApologist says:
Yep – Mitch, my point here is not that there is no relationship between piracy and sales. My point is that they don’t know what that relationship is, because basically they can’t know. You cannot release a game that is impossible to pirate and release the same game into a separate equal population that can be pirated and compare sales.
They only thing they probably could find from research into behaviour of people who pirate is that piracy does not = lost sales at anything like one for one.
(I should reiterate at this point that I think piracy is wrong, and I buy all my games. I am not seeking to legitimise piracy.)
What I can tell them is that they definitely will have fewer legitimate paying customers implementing this system. That WILL hurt their bottom line. How much remains to be seen. But it is potentially significant, particularly over time.
What is frustrating is that there is another way in my view. Whether or not you like Steam, the philosophy of ‘give your paying customer a better experience than they would get with piracy’ has worked for Valve and others (and ironically is Ubi’s publicly spoken rationale for doing this).
Ubi’s wiser competitors must be laughing.
18/02/2010 at 14:25 Evo says:
I sent an email to Ubisoft’s UK PR Executive expressing my disappointment. I listed the Ubisoft games I had bought and said I will not be buying anymore as long as they continued using this DRM. I also mentioned the games I would be buying instead of Ubisoft games. I urge everyone else to do the same.
18/02/2010 at 17:09 The Tingler says:
Can you give us the address?
18/02/2010 at 14:44 Evan says:
Piracy FTW
18/02/2010 at 14:51 Mitch says:
Working in a game company, I must say that pc version of a game are pirated at more than 90%. So I understand why publishers want to make more cash on pc games.
More and more, games rely on servers to gain multiplayer features and content and we pay to host games with pirated games.
I don’t say the always online restriction is good, but how can we be sure you paid for the game we designed and work so hard to release.
Do you know Ubisoft won’t make any cash this year, even with the release of AC2! Continue to pirate games and the whole pc gaming will be lost forever.
People complains that pc games are shitty ports of console games, wake up! They won’t spend a year on a pc version which is 5% of their sales!!
That is all.
18/02/2010 at 15:05 Rinox says:
The last statement (PC sales being only a small % of a game company income) may be true, but imho that’s another discussion than the piracy one. And they’re not exactly helping to expand their PC market with these measures. Self-fulfilling prophecy.
18/02/2010 at 15:11 pkt-zer0 says:
“Do you know Ubisoft won’t make any cash this year, even with the release of AC2!”
Spending less cash on useless DRM that only drives away customers would seem like a nice start towards increased profitability. I know, it’s a crazy idea. (Also, unrelated, but less Wii/DS shovelware might be helpful, too.)
Again, somewhat unrelated, but a funny thing I noticed is that people tend to bring up World of Goo’s 90% piracy rate in DRM-related debates like this one. All the while neglecting to mention that the game sold really well, and avoided 0-day piracy.
18/02/2010 at 15:21 rocketman71 says:
Release dedicated servers and the community will help you and distribute the load, if the game is good.
Patches and content can be easily distributed through the gaming press.
You don’t need to make sure that anyone paid for the game you designed and worked so hard. Usually pirates won’t connect to central servers at all, with few exceptions like Demigod.
Ubi is shooting itself in the foot, punishing their paying customers by fighting a losing battle.
And yes, for these shitty ports with over the top DRM, I prefer that Ubi doesn’t release at all for the PC, thank you. We have enough good games for a company to come, release some overpriced shit with a draconian DRM and the following month come calling us all thieves and pirates.
Ubi soft wants control and money, and they want to take both from us. That’s Ubi’s fault, not piracy’s fault. You won’t make a pirate pay if he doesn’t want to however much DRM you throw on top of the game. They know it will be cracked eventually, usually sooner rather than later. BUT, you can certainly lose a customer by mistreating him with idiot policies like this. In fact, Ubi lost my money because of this, until they grow their heads back.
DRM providers are the only ones happy with all this shit.
18/02/2010 at 16:49 Jad says:
Forget that 90%. They are not your customers. If you somehow managed to make your game completely unpirateable, they would not suddenly buy your game. They’ll go pirate some other game, or do something else.
I am your customer. I am that “10%” that buys games. If you treat me well, I will buy your game. If you treat me badly, I will go buy some other game, or do something else.
If my money is not enough to justify development of your game on the PC, then fine. I’m very sorry about that, as I like PC games, but you have a business to run.
But as distracting as they are, do not focus on the pirates. They will not make you money. Focus on me, because I will make you money.
18/02/2010 at 17:14 jalf says:
Then don’t… It’s not like anyone’s forcing you to remove dedicated servers. In fact, it seems to kick up a mid-sized shitstorm whenever a company announces that their game will *not* have dedicated servers. So you’re saying that in order to be able to remove features that customers want, developers have to remove other features that customers want?
You can’t. I don’t have to pay you a single cent. I didn’t ask you to develop the game, and I never promised to buy it. I think this misplaced sense of entitlement is hurting the games industry much more than piracy: it directly sabotages any attempt at making rational business decisions!
You can’t run a business on whining that people refuse to pay for your product. The best you can do is make people want to buy your product. Intentionally crippling your game might push away pirates, yes, but it also pushes away your paying customers.
You can’t make me pay for your game. Even if you eliminate piracy entirely, I always have the option of just ignoring the game and spending my money elsewhere. But if the product you’re selling doesn’t interest me (whether it’s because the game sucks, or because the DRM on it makes it unplayable), then piracy becomes a non-issue.
I fail to see the relevance. Are you saying they are likely to be more profitable by punishing the few paying customers they have left? Are they going to make more money by lessening the value of their products?
Or is it the sense of entitlement again? That if we’re not willing to personally do what it takes to make Ubisoft profitable, we have broken some kind of contract, and must be punished?
If the PC market is 5% of their sales, and a PC port would cost them more than 5% of the game’s development cost, then they shouldn’t make the PC port, no. But again, how is this relevant to this discussion? The problem at hand is not “no one is making good PC games”, but that Ubisoft has apparently decided that the games they sell should be less playable.
I’m not aware of a company that has ever successfully turned a profit by following that strategy.
Or we could put it another way:
I spend quite a bit of money on games every year. Before Ubisoft announced their DRM scheme, they had one title I was interested in buying. Now, they have announced a scheme that promises to make the games I do buy unplayable. So I’m no longer going to buy that one title.
Regardless of piracy, the company needs to 1) release games that people are interested in, and 2) release games that people are able to play.
Right now, Ubisoft is doing neither. Piracy isn’t to blame. Their business strategy is.
it doesn’t matter that the piracy rate on PC is around 90%, if no one is interested in the product you’re selling.
18/02/2010 at 17:58 RobF says:
I was going to add something here but Jalf has well and truly covered just about everything I’d want to say absolutely perfectly (and more politely than I could manage).
Although I will just add:
“how can we be sure you paid for the game we designed and work so hard to release?”
Don’t you have accountants anymore where you work? Come on, it’s easy. If a game makes money then hey, people have paid for it. If a game doesn’t make money then hey, people haven’t paid for it.
It’s up to the business to work out the whys and wherefors of either outcome. That’s how business works.
18/02/2010 at 14:51 Davee says:
Hmm. Oh well, I guess I might as well torrent hacked version of this one – TO AVOID THE DRM.
[/sarcasm] Good job Ubi! [/endsarcasm]
But seriously, have they not understood that DRM like this promotes piracy rather than repels it? How much time will (has) it take (taken) for the warez-groups to hack it? For an AAA title like this? A few days tops.
The only ones losing out are Ubi themselves and their legit customers (who have to put up with stuff like this).
Also; is it just me or did DRM eat more children today?
P.S: So that is why I could not play DAO a few days ago! Curse you EA. D.S.
18/02/2010 at 14:54 Mitch says:
Humm, Its Ubisoft
Duh!
18/02/2010 at 15:01 Davee says:
There we go, corrected. I just remembered something about EA and went /rage. Sorry.
18/02/2010 at 14:52 Cooper says:
I can’t quite form coherent sentences in response to this.
I liked the Homeopathy analogy in the wirless show the other day – I can’t even imagine where to begin responding to this – Ubi seem to be living with a world view that’s alien to anything I know.
As it is, I rely upon a wifi card in my desktop PC for internet access. It’s a bit dodge and will drop out at least twice a night. This is a mild annoyance playing EVE, but in under a minute I’m back in the game.
This renders a game useless if this dropping connection will lose any unsaved game progress.
18/02/2010 at 15:18 Imadetheuniverse4fun says:
What do you mean EA?
It’s Ubisoft… not EA…
EA looks like an angel compared to Ubi at the moment really.
18/02/2010 at 15:29 cheezey says:
Looks like the Ubisoft CEO will be replacing the picture of Bobby Kotick on the dartboard!
18/02/2010 at 15:34 Ingix says:
What may happen is that so many unsuspecting “average joe” costumers will get burned by this DRM scheme that there is a massive backlash at Ubisoft. The game no longer working in the middle of your play session and you having lost progress is much worse than what happened with “check online when the game starts”-type of DRM, where you may just loose a couple of minutes at the start of the game when one of the conditions for a lost connection (as mentioned in the article) happens.
18/02/2010 at 17:30 cheezey says:
I get a terrible feeling that it has the potential to go beyond just affecting UbiSoft. Average Joe might finally grow so tired of getting his fingers burnt that it’ll be all of PC gaming that will suffer.
18/02/2010 at 15:39 VHATI says:
not really that big of a deal. The games will be cracked that have this drm. and we will all be able to play them once more.
Just remember to pirate ubisoft games from now on. I would rather pirate games and have devs go under than see this kind of drm on my games.
18/02/2010 at 15:45 Twigg says:
at least it’ll make those of us who are British feel better
18/02/2010 at 15:47 Twigg says:
damn reply system, that was in response to writing them letters
18/02/2010 at 15:57 Azradesh says:
Ubisoft! Are you all stoned? What does this have to do with EA?
18/02/2010 at 16:08 bwion says:
I had no plans to buy (or, cough, otherwise acquire, not that I would ever engage in such scandalous behavior) any new Ubisoft games in the immediate future anyway, so I’m not certain that my response to this could be properly called a boycott.
I’m not one to get particularly upset about DRM as such; I don’t think much of it, I think it’s a protection racket (directed at games publishers, not at consumers), I don’t think there’s ever been a recorded instance of it actually stopping piracy, and I don’t really consider “delayed piracy for two weeks” to be a useful metric for a protection system. But up to now it’s never been intrusive enough to drive me away from a game I otherwise wanted to play. (And since I don’t particularly want to play Assassin’s Creed 2, Settlers 7, or whatnot, it hasn’t done so here, either.)
But this is easily the stupidest business decision I’ve heard in recent memory. And I’ve heard some pretty stupid business decisions lately.
18/02/2010 at 16:12 Sp4rkR4t says:
Quite simply I will not now EVER buy another Ubisoft game until this system is destroyed and the management of the company is shot out of a very high powered cannon into a brick wall about 5m in front of them.
I will also punch anyone I know who buys a Ubisoft game that uses this system in the balls.
18/02/2010 at 16:20 Alex Bakke says:
Hey guys, Ubisoft have just released their new DRM, improved over the last version!
“Because of all the people in comment threads endorsing piracy, we’ve decided that the previous, inferior DRM was not up to scratch, as all it did was make more pirates.
The new DRM will:
Demand you hand over £3 each time you play it, otherwise you obviously harbour piracy-loving, communist fondling thoughts. The game will lock the first time you refuse to do this. We do it because we love you!
A week or so after buying the game you’ll be getting a visit from one of our Special Security Relations Team who will take fingerprints, and a small DNA sample before sending it off to your local Police Station. In the event that we suspect you might have pirated any future games from us, we will notify the authorities immediately.
Finally, if at any point we feel that you don’t really enjoy the game, then we’ll disable your account and give it to someone who loves us. Someone more deserving.”
18/02/2010 at 16:26 NMaximvs says:
I have friends who are in the navy and play games while they are out on their long cruises. I am sure there are those that do the same in the other branches. They do not have access to always on broadband connections and play their games offline. I would imagine that this will discourage buying from this sector of the market. These guys need something to fill their off times while they are far away from home. It is too bad that the developers do not think about all the situations of all their potential consumers
18/02/2010 at 16:26 Carra says:
My internet connection isn’t all that reliable. The wi-fi sometimes doesn’t work for a few seconds…
Of course anyone who has pirated the Dragon Age DLC won’t have a problem if their servers go down. Another example where the bought product is inferior to the cracked one.
18/02/2010 at 16:36 SanguineAngel says:
@ Justcliffe
Well, I think you may be missing the principle at work here.
Whilst you are correct that an accurate review on amazon should be based on user experience, that is not what is happening here.
It has been well documented that hitting a developer in this area seems to attract a lot more attention (if enough people do it) and persude them to alter their policies. Like Spore, for example.
This is a form of protest – it is non violent but it is aggressive and attention grabbing and seems effective.
18/02/2010 at 16:40 SheffieldSteel says:
As a videogame publisher, realise that you are in competition with pirates for customers, and you cannot compete on price; only on service.
Many consumers steal stuff. Some steal because they can, or because they think it’s cool, or because they’re incorrigibly cheap. You cannot dominate this market segment, and to attempt to do so is a mistake – particularly if it lowers the quality of your service.
And some steal reluctantly, because they are protesting something, or because they are poor. These are the people who would prefer, all other things being equal, to buy your game. These are the people you don’t want to piss off. This is where the quality of your DRM can make a difference, for good or bad.
—-
As a videogame consumer, realise that the publisher doesn’t care if you pirate their game. They have no reliable way of finding out how many people do so anyway. The only things they care about are sales and market share. If you want them to know how upset you are about about DRM, you’re in a tricky position…
- The worst thing you can do is buy the game on PC. They have made their sale and they don’t care about you after that (although they do pay PR and customer service and tech support people to try to conceal this from you). You may choose to use a crack instead of your legit version. That… isn’t part of the solution, though it will make you feel better in the short term.
- It’s just as bad if you buy the game on console instead of PC. They’ve made a sale, and you’re reinforcing their view that PC isn’t a profitable platform to publish on.
- Using the money to buy a competitor’s game is good. Letting the publisher know directly is also good, but not necessary, since they can see sales figures anyway. You may choose to use a crack of the game you didn’t buy. That’s not good legally or morally but such considerations may not make a difference.
- Waiting until they release a DRM-free version of the game may be the best solution. Not only do they get their money later, they get less of it since prices will have fallen by then. And telling them now that you’re waiting – and why – is also a good idea.
18/02/2010 at 16:41 LionsPhil says:
Wow, eight pages of nerd rage. New record for RPS?
18/02/2010 at 16:53 Web Cole says:
The record would surely be that it’s justified nerd rage, for once.
18/02/2010 at 16:54 Cooper says:
From the Eurogamer forums;
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/acii-pc-requires-internet-connection/comments
Favourite anaology ever
18/02/2010 at 17:01 Cooper says:
Also, anyone remember:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2008/07/18/ubisoft-having-a-crack/
18/02/2010 at 17:09 SanguineAngel says:
@ SheffieldSteel & Jad. You are hitting nails on heads all over the place.
You are both absolutely correct as far as I can tell.
As a side note to Sheff’s post. Please note that buying the game and downloading the crack is helping no one and is actively harming legitimate consumers because although you are using a pirated copy of the game you have still given the publisher the money and told them that what they are doing is A-OK!
Sheff’s solution is genuinely the best option all round. It’s like training a child. You’re punishing them for bad behaviour and when they have learnt the error of their ways and rectified their behaviour, you reward them. Positive reinforcement.
18/02/2010 at 19:29 SheffieldSteel says:
/tips hat
The more I think about it, the more I think we should all write to Ubisoft and say, “I like game X, but I cannot buy it until it is available without this DRM.” That encourages them to do the right thing sooner, rather than later.
18/02/2010 at 17:10 Tom says:
I now have to think long and hard about whether to buy BattleField Bad Company 2 early next month. EA are going to far.
My knowledge may be a little off, but I thought EA are the publishers (so they set the DRM) Ubisoft are the developers so they just make the game before EA get hold of it.
A concerted effort should be made to get people to not buy Bad Company 2 as its one of their flagship games for the year.
18/02/2010 at 17:44 StalinsGhost says:
Ubisoft are the publishers and developers. They have *nothing* to do with EA, who are a competing publisher/developer outfit.
18/02/2010 at 17:15 Pantsman says:
Gosh Durn It, and I was really looking forward to ACII.
Guess I’m going to wait for the unofficial offline-mode patch.
18/02/2010 at 17:50 GRJP says:
I buy my games… and it’s been over 6 years since I’ve even seen any of my friends with a pirated game (we ALL started working and can now cough up about 5% of our monthly pay for a game)
But I’m also one of those people who has no real love for online games (I play eve online, that’s IT! – never played CS, never enjoyed UT… last thing I had a kick out of playing online was diablo II and only because I had a bunch of RL friends who also played!)
Having said that I’m not usually online and I play on a laptop… Add that to the fact that due to my job I keep moving around. Does that mean my future will be bleak and I won’t be playing from now on?
I’m all for stopping piracy and all for funding a good game, etc, etc… but hell, I’m not buying anything that I need to be OL to play, simply because that will mean I will play it so so seldomly it won’t not worth 50€!
18/02/2010 at 18:10 suibhne says:
I was really looking forward to the PC version of AC2. Oh well, screw ‘em.
18/02/2010 at 18:25 neolith says:
Nice move, Ubisoft.
If you don’t want my money, why don’t you just say so?
18/02/2010 at 18:32 The Unshaven says:
As a potentially useful point of discussion, check this out: http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/FileSharing_March2004.pdf
Large statistical study done in 2004 comparing file-sharing rates to the projected/actual sales of music as it was released, done over the course of a year.
Conclusion? The effect of file-sharing on sales is indistinguishable from zero.
I like the approach taken by Introversion and, to an extent, Valve. See pirates as unserved customers, because they Will Not Buy Your Game. Punitive measures will not change that, and only piss off the people who Would Buy Your Game.
As has been repeatedly discussed here, that’s a metric riding in from Cretinville.
18/02/2010 at 18:35 hoff says:
YOU’RE ALL WHINERS AND ANGRY INTERNET MEN!
(see how it feels, RPS, see how that feels…)
18/02/2010 at 18:42 hoff says:
To clarify:
For YEARS us angry internet men have protested SUBTLE SHIFTS in the behavior of game companies. And were accused of blowing up the problem disproportionally. Now you have the RESULT OF YEARS OF SUBTLE SHIFTS. The RESULT OF YEARS OF SAYING OK NO BIG DEAL STEAM’S ACTUALLY QUITE COMFORTABLE QUIT WHINING. There you have it. Enjoy.
In case it’s still not obvious: The reason we complained so openly about these subtle fucking shifts was that we PREDICTED THIS SHIT YEARS AGO. And you all laughed. LAUGHED AT OUR CAPS-LOCK WHILE IGNORING NON-CAPS COMPLAINTS COMPLETELY.
Maybe it’s time to see the purpose of complaining about Bioshock, GTA4 etc, before we get to the Ubicalypse. Whenever you said “It’s not that bad quit whining”, you’ve been paving the way to this outcome.
18/02/2010 at 19:18 Ozzie says:
You’re all caps speech is annoying. Stop screaming at me, shut up!! :P
18/02/2010 at 21:16 Bret says:
Good job. Your paranoid ranting was right. Once.
This does not magically make everything you have ever said right retroactively.
19/02/2010 at 02:16 DD says:
Ubicalypse….. That should have been the title for this article!
18/02/2010 at 18:36 Disgrunted AssCreeder says:
I buy 90% of the games I play, but I only play 80% of the games I buy – so I guess it kinda works out.
Except for Steam Games, I usually run a cracked exe for the games I buy, but I’m not buying it with this restriction. No way.
Where do you write UbiSoft? I wanna tell them this is too much.
18/02/2010 at 18:43 maicon says:
dx9 and now this!? screw this game.
18/02/2010 at 18:49 iainl says:
Thanks Ubisoft. I was wondering if the reason that AC2 was so late on the PC was that you really, really wanted us all to buy a console version instead. Well, now I know for sure.
If they don’t want me to buy a PC game, I’m not going to.
18/02/2010 at 18:59 radio_babylon says:
i too was keenly anticipating this game. if i decide to buy it (which is not secret code for “i might pirate it”, if i dont buy i simply wont play) then ill just crack it or dl the pirate version. ubi gets my money and i get a game that i can play any time i want anywhere i want (as a paying customer should be able to). its sorta win/win… in a sad, laughably absurd sort of way.
18/02/2010 at 20:28 Egoh Rtut says:
And then you’re basically telling the suits at UBI “I’m quite happy to take it up the ass as a paying customer”.
NO, DO NOT BUY IT. ANYONE who buys this game knowing about the DRM is part of the problem and gives up any rights to complain when they can’t play their game, can’t access their saves etc…
18/02/2010 at 19:00 SanguineAngel says:
Actually, hoff, I completely agree with you.
18/02/2010 at 19:00 Harper says:
Why did they even waste their money making the PC version?
They have designed the entire thing to be a console exclusive, why not just stop kidding yourselves and go the rest of the way and make it a console exclusive.
18/02/2010 at 19:03 Harper says:
Ugh grammar fail…
18/02/2010 at 19:13 hairypotato says:
Didn’t read the thread.
Thanks for the news, I’m just not going to buy any of their games.
(If they get good enough reviews, I might seek out a torrent.)
18/02/2010 at 19:27 WickedCobra03 says:
No, each game pirated does not equal a lost sale. Now I wouldn’t call this pirating, but the industry still counts it, but 2 years ago I had to download a cleaned up version of Far Cry 2. Now I bought this game within a week of its release, went home, opened, installed and SecuROM more or less had a pirated version even with a brand new CD key and wouldn’t let me play once I tried to load it up. So after calling Ubisoft support and them asking me about the model number of my DVD-drive, firmware, ect…. they finally told me there was nothing that they could do and should just wait on a patch to hopefully fix it.
Okay, so how many average Joe’s know anything about their firmware of their DVDRW or hell, the model number. That is total BS to jump through hoops. Well I jumped, and still nothing would get it to work. So, I had to get a stripped and clean version. That made me sad because I knew I was adding a +1 to their defense of not supporting