By John Walker on March 4th, 2010 at 11:55 am.
Edit: we are informed by an anonymous tipster that the DRM is indeed removed. Apparently the 1.1 patch released by Ubi today was cracked within minutes.
The rumours are circulating that Ubisoft’s new draconian always-online DRM has been cracked only one day after the release of Silent Hunter V. At this point we cannot verify if this is true, but the reports are that it is already possible to play the game without connecting to Ubisoft’s servers, storing save games locally. While Ubisoft never claimed that their DRM was impenetrable, it was possible to infer they had long-term hopes for the system.
If this proves to be true this is clearly a huge blow to Ubisoft, bt certainly not one that they weren’t loudly warned about. It highlights the most serious problem with increasingly prohibitive copyright protection: you inevitably end up only further punishing your paying customer base.
If Ubi’s system is now irrelevant to pirates, then the consequences of the DRM are now that only those who pay for their game will suffer from the game refusing to play when your internet’s down, or when away from a reliable signal. Those who illegally download the game will be the only ones who do not have their privacy invaded every time they play. This is incredibly serious.
We are looking forward to when Ubisoft backs down and removes this DRM so we can enjoy their games again.
04/03/2010 at 11:58 Dave says:
It was never about piracy though was it? It’s about killing the second-hand trade. The DRM is just hung on the piracy band-wagon and the death of second-hand is an unfortunate side effect that means they can’t be held responsible for breaking the First Sale Doctrine.
04/03/2010 at 12:01 Jim Rossignol says:
Wasn’t PC second-hand trade already dead? Most retailers round here only take console stuff.
04/03/2010 at 12:02 LewieP says:
CEX take PC games, and there is a big section on eBay full of them.
04/03/2010 at 12:03 James G says:
Not convinced by this argument. PC second hand sales have never been as pronounced as those on the consoles, and yet it is the PC that falls under attack. While I’m sure that second hand sales are welcome collateral damage in this battle, I’m not sure they are the main drive. If they were, then the battle lines would have been drawn against the consoles as much as the PC. (Although obviously some moves, such as Bioware’s day one free DLC are an attempt to discourage second hand sales, while at the same time ensuring a potential revenue stream from them. This was implemented on both PC and consoles.)
04/03/2010 at 12:03 user@example.com says:
$15 DLC that’s free with the game is a far less aggravating way of killing second-hand sales, especially if it’s still kinda optional.
04/03/2010 at 12:05 suibhne says:
In most parts of the world, second-hand trade in PC games is exceedingly minor compared to second-hand trade in console games. No, piracy is definitely the main target of this – aside from consumers’ privacy and enjoyment, of course.
04/03/2010 at 12:07 pkt-zer0 says:
If all they wanted was to kill second-hand sales, using Steam’s DRM would’ve sufficed. And they also said in their FAQ that it didn’t.
04/03/2010 at 12:08 Dave says:
I could never believe that Ubisoft had any hope of their DRM remaining uncracked for very long. That’s why I can’t see why they went to all the trouble to aggravate people by implementing it if it was mainly for piracy.
04/03/2010 at 12:10 Dave says:
@pkt-zer0 The FAQ says that your game is tied to your uPlay/Ubisoft online account so you cannot resell it
04/03/2010 at 12:12 pkt-zer0 says:
@Dave: I meant that their FAQ says that Steam’s DRM is insufficient.
04/03/2010 at 12:23 Sarlix says:
@Dave Also they would rather you be buying the console versions of their games, another ‘side effect’.
04/03/2010 at 12:38 meeper says:
Isn’t there a reasonable chance that this DRM/save-online system is merely being rolled out on PC as a prelude to its introduction for some console games? It’s pretty clear that Ubi thinks fairly low of the PC market and I wouldn’t put it beneath them to roll something like this out on us as an experiment.
04/03/2010 at 12:49 Hypocee says:
I’m convinced it’s ‘suicide by cop’, as Bill Harris puts it. Some executive team is sick of dealing with the PC, the console side’s more profitable; so, ‘accidentally’ commit the company to killing or selling off the beardy-weirdy sim studios and port teams, since as we can see ‘the PC stuff just doesn’t sell anymore’.
A random thought I had a couple days ago: UbiProbe versus Beyond Good and Evil 2. How’s that for a hypothetical!
04/03/2010 at 12:05 Seniath says:
They (Ubi) have put out a statement on the matter; http://www.edge-online.com/news/ubisoft-no-drm-crack. Not cracked, apparently.
Allegedly.
So they say.
04/03/2010 at 12:18 Haywire says:
and i had such high hopes. still, could be damage control as it states “their version is not complete” not that it isnt cracked.
04/03/2010 at 12:40 meeper says:
It’s pretty easy to release a crippled version of their game on torrents simply to imply that it’s unhackable.
04/03/2010 at 12:51 Hypocee says:
Well, of course it isn’t complete; it lacks, for example, Ubi’s awesome server-based savegame backup system!
04/03/2010 at 13:34 l1ddl3monkey says:
Well it certainly appears to be legit (not that I’m using it) but you can find enough forums full of Warez kiddies who are apparently using it with no problems.
I just realised that I stopped using Ubi games when Rainbow 6 Vegas made me wait for a fuck-off massive patch to be downloaded so it could advertise the launch of The Kingdom on DVD on billboards plastered all over Vegas (prior to that I think it was Axe deodorant; the US branding for what we Blighty’s call Lynx – which is more aptly named as most of it makes you smell like a large cat has pissed on you).
Evil Turr’ist Killing War Porn and deodorant chiefly marketed at 12-18 year olds? Is that what you think I’m buying games for now? How about you fuck right off, Ubi?
04/03/2010 at 13:37 Kakksakkamaddafakka says:
Sure, Ubisoft. Why don’t be even more vague about it, I’m sure people will start believing you then.
What a farce this is turning out to be. If only this whole debacle would end in heads rolling in the upper echelons of the industry. Sadly, nothing of the sort will happen.
As a sidenote, can someone in the know check this out? I’m not on Usenet or on the right IRC-channels, but someone reading here is bound to be.
04/03/2010 at 12:05 rocketman71 says:
Good.
Now if only they recognized what a failure they are and removed this POS with a patch, I *MIGHT* buy again from them.
Sadly, they’ll say piracy is bad and also the cause for all those people not buying (because of the DRM, doh), and will roll 2.0 of their POS DRM which will be even worse and drive even more customers away.
04/03/2010 at 12:07 chaosgasket says:
This is the same thing that happens with every DRM. The pirated version always ends up removing the irritating restrictions that the publisher adds in and the only people who suffer are those who pay for the game. Which doesn’t make piracy right but sure does make DRM wrong.
04/03/2010 at 12:07 Clovis says:
And, luckily, someone has already written the “patch” for them!
04/03/2010 at 12:08 Demon Beaver says:
They already nudged a bit, with their latest patch for AC2 (yes, patched way before release…). Now your gameplay will restore from exactly where you were cut off by the internet, instead of the last checkpoint. It doesn’t make it any better, but I’m sure they’ll get rid of the whole tirade soon… what a waste of money, I hope the stockholders will give them hell for it.
http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx?pId=7731&tab=download&dcId=63
04/03/2010 at 12:41 meeper says:
That’s a pretty big deal — if they’re storing the game state locally between sessions in the case of interrupted connection, then that’s a vector for a possible hack.
04/03/2010 at 12:09 robrob says:
“We are looking forward to when Ubisoft backs down and removes this DRM so we can enjoy their games again.”
The lack of DRM still won’t make AssCreed 2 enjoyable.
04/03/2010 at 12:09 tapanister says:
Silent Hunter is already out on numerous torrent sites, cracked and ready to play. Ubisoft decided the best course of action was… To actually save the game after a player disconnects at the exact point they disconnected instead of throwing them back to the last checkpoint. I’m not even kidding, this is what the jackasses did.
I mean, personally, I’ve never played (neither bought nor pirated) a ubisoft game in the last 10 years or so, so I really don’t give an F. But still, their idiocy is astounding.
04/03/2010 at 12:09 fuggles says:
Interestingly there is a game on the PSP called SOCO Firestorm Bravo 3, or some such, which comes with a one shot activation code that you register to get your game online. However, should you not have a code because you have say bought it second hand or torrented it, then you can pay $20 to get a new one generated by Sony.
In relation to the Ubisoft statement:
““Please know that this rumor is false and while a pirated version may seem to be complete at start up, any gamer who downloads and plays a cracked version will find that their version is not complete.”
Why of course it’s not, you don’t have the DRM or the experience of not being able to play your game when the server crashes.
04/03/2010 at 12:10 MrBRAD! says:
…and down they fall.
04/03/2010 at 12:13 Gap Gen says:
I wonder whether by considering the time it took music executives to realise that their DRM policy was ruinously stupid, we can work out when game and film executives will realise the same thing and stop hurting their own businesses. Since DRM was removed from most online music, I haven’t bought a single physical CD that I could buy via mp3. Before, I wouldn’t touch iTunes with a shit-covered barge pole.
Sure, selling information online is a tricky business, but it would help if the industry’s upper echelons was at all clued in on what they were actually selling. I think this is one of the biggest arguments against the current model of business – it doesn’t punish the incompetent nearly enough in many cases.
04/03/2010 at 12:56 jarvoll says:
I still won’t buy music online until they offer everything (and I mean EVERYTHING: King Crimson, Watchtower, Wintersun, Einsturzende Neubauten, etc…) in FLAC, DRM free, and with uncompressed images of covers and inlay booklets. Well, I’d possible settle for Oggs of black metal, since the loss wouldn’t really make much difference to the sound, but in general I can’t stand lossy codecs, and I will never touch an mp3 or other proprietary codec ever again.
04/03/2010 at 18:58 Stu says:
http://boomkat.com/downloads/genres/137/formats/140/summary might tickle your fancy.
04/03/2010 at 12:16 Sarlix says:
‘Uhm’ linked to this earlier and in another post, it seems fairly conclusive.
http://www.infoaddict.com/ubisofts-new-drm-cracked-in-under-25-hours
04/03/2010 at 12:17 Ffitz says:
Let’s hope so. This is an incredibly stupid idea and one that only guarantees to sabotage everything it aims to achieve.
Personally, I’m simply going to avoid buying Ubi games until this has gone. It’s a shame because I was really excited about SH5, and AC2. But really, they’re just games, and it’s Ubi’s loss.
I do have to say that when I first read this, my reaction was along the lines of “excellent, I can buy the game and download the crack”. On reflection, I’m not going to do this because a) buying the game sends the signal to UbiSoft that I’m prepared to be treated like dirt, and b) I don’t trust that cracks et al. won’t introduce nasties onto my PC.
Option c) of just pirating it was never on my list, because I believe in paying those who make things that interest me, whether it’s books, games, music or films.
04/03/2010 at 12:29 Sarlix says:
1 Buy it from Ebay then it won’t count as a sale for Ubi
2 There are sites that make sure cracks are virus free etc before publishing.
04/03/2010 at 13:21 Ffitz says:
I’m not going to ebay it, because I’d like to give Ubisoft my money for Sh5. I’d like the devs who did all the hard work on it to get paid.
Onviously I’m not going to, while this insane system stays in place.
04/03/2010 at 14:23 bill says:
developers should really all put up paypal donation buttons on their website. ;-)
04/03/2010 at 12:18 Spatula says:
ubisoft PO-DRM = Fail.
Morons, utter morons. I was actually looking forward to Silent hunter, no way in satan’s ice skulpting classes will i be buying it now.
I will simply not buy anything with DRM like this- or anything with limited activations.
04/03/2010 at 12:18 Turin Turambar says:
Nope, still not.
04/03/2010 at 12:19 Melf_Himself says:
““You have probably seen rumors on the web that Assassin’s Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 have been cracked,” Ubisoft told us in a statement this morning.
“Please know that this rumor is false and while a pirated version may seem to be complete at start up, any gamer who downloads and plays a cracked version will find that their version is not complete.””
Lol? They just confirmed for us that the torrents that are doing the rounds actually work. Usually I just assume that if it’s not legit, it’s several GB of granny porn. Now I know different and will download immediately, thanks Ubi!
04/03/2010 at 12:19 Tei says:
The piracy groups are predictible to the extreme. If you want something to be cracked before the dinner, label it “unhackable” or raise the awaresness of such protection.
On the other hand, copyright protections are temporal. You are supposed to give to the society your intelectual production after a number of years. If you put meassures that block that, you are cheating, and I doubt you sould be protected by the law. These people say that will release a patch once the product become public domain, but is all lies, we all know by the time something enters public domain, theres not way to contact the owners of the product, since the original company has disbanded. Ubisoft is “abusing” the law to cheat society, killing rights like first hand doctrine, and the whole reason copyright has a protection.
Google is tryiing to with the idea “opt-out copyright”, I will copy all stuff available, If you don’t want to, tell me it. Of course, some people is angry, but If you are angry, you can contact Google and “opt-out”, only people dead will be “abused”, but the notion that dead people sould be protected is dumb.
Ultimatelly is the Hackers that have the control of the Information Technology and (sadly) the ones that understand the nature of information. Everyone else seems playing in the digital world with the old analogical rules. Putting round block in square holes. :-/
04/03/2010 at 12:19 DollarOfReactivity says:
I feel like, as a more hardcore sim, SH has a dedicated fanbase that will be particularly vocal about their unhappiness with the new Ubisoft DRM. I can only hope that as the vangaurd of their new DRM scheme that cracks, bad press, and unhappy series fans will help Ubi change their minds on this going forward.
Unfortunately I assume the people making that decision are so far above the development houses that we’ll have to wait for bad quarterly reports or year-end reviews before this really gets their attention.
04/03/2010 at 12:22 Clovis says:
I’m actually quite surprised about this. If you have the requirement of a constant internet connection then there are all kinds of things Ubi could have done to make this system extremely hard to crack: bits of game code held server-side, encrypted bits of whatnot, etc. They must have known there would be a terrible outcry against this. So why did they do it if the DRM wasn’t even that strong??
04/03/2010 at 12:30 DollarOfReactivity says:
One thought would be that the programmers just didn’t try that hard; they would realize what a difficult task it would be to make it super-secure (meaning it takes just a little longer to crack).
Or more realistically, Ubi has some guess of how the pirated game market is broken up. There are hardcore pirates who will pirate your game no matter how difficult. But then there is some segment of “casual” pirates who will do it if it is easy and fairly seamless (including not breaking DLC, introducing instabilities). Maybe they think this will dissuade the casuals, and that’s a big enough group.
Plus, this is just super-DRM version 1. They see the response and they adapt.
05/03/2010 at 01:48 Boldoran says:
I don’t think thats how it works. The Cracker groups are out for “respect”. They will try to release a cracked Version of the game that is playable out of the box.
There is not really a hardcore pirate only a hardcore cracker. The pirates just have to wait for the cracked version to be handed out.
04/03/2010 at 12:27 Wichtel says:
I think that there was never a case where so many people were informed about a pirated version of a game. :D
04/03/2010 at 12:29 The Diddler says:
Problem, UBI Soft ?!
*smirk*
04/03/2010 at 12:31 DRM is fail says:
Not only is the original release cracked, but also the 1.1 Update.
This is not a rumour.
Their (Ubi) spin is not that it isn’t cracked. It is that it’s “not complete”, as was I believe the spin for Spore and Sims 3.
“any gamer who downloads and plays a cracked version will find that their version is not complete”
Well yes. Obviously the “feature” of saving in a cloud and having to be online is removed.
Man, the pirates sure are going to curse when they find out they are missing THAT feature!
Propaganda and lies.
Obviously they are simply trying to scramble to prevent everyone from realizing their giant self-rape ploy has worked perfectly, and their whole “Anti-piracy, pro-consumer feature” lie has been exposed as what it is, a sophisticated way of scaring off customers while not even briefly pausing the piracy juggernaut.
I say let them go broke NOW. Lies, damned lies and videotape.
04/03/2010 at 12:32 Ginger Yellow says:
“I could never believe that Ubisoft had any hope of their DRM remaining uncracked for very long. That’s why I can’t see why they went to all the trouble to aggravate people by implementing it if it was mainly for piracy.”
If I remember correctly, the comparison made in the PC Gamer follow up interview was that some games’ DRMs had held up for several weeks. Ubisoft implied strongly that they would be satisfied with that result, although obviously they hoped if it lasted longer. It does seem that publishers’ main concern is with Day Zero piracy, and then first week piracy, which does make some sense – after all, those are much more likely to be lost sales than people pirating long after release. Of course, that doesn’t justify what Ubisoft did to their legitimate customers , and the DRM’s apparent failure makes that even more obvious.
04/03/2010 at 12:37 Nimic says:
“We are looking forward to when Ubisoft backs down and removes this DRM so we can enjoy their games again. ”
And I’m looking forward to the day I sprout wings and fly. And I’m not a religious person.
04/03/2010 at 12:37 Adam says:
It’s not even a complicated crackfix:
1. Unpack release
2. Mount image or burn it
3. Install
4. Copy the content from the SKIDROW folder on the DVD to your installation directory and overwrite
5. Play the game
Additinal Notes:
Don’t install/use Ubisoft launcher, or simply block any connection to internet. Install game and copy crack, it’s that simple!
Support the companies, which software you actually enjoy!
from Silent.Hunter.5.Battle.of.the.Atlantic-SKIDROW
I said it previously in the BioShock2 release, where pirates were playing the game a week before EU/UK users could. Now it’s the same for this release, and Ubi are living in a dreamworld if they think their game is uncrackable.
04/03/2010 at 12:42 tssk says:
Fat lot of good it’s going to do me though. If I buy a Ubi game (and no I’m not going to crack it) I’m going to abide by their conditions.
And in this case…the conditions are too onerous. I won’t buy the game. Or yarr it.
They can p*iss up a rope as far as I’m concerned. I’ll play games by their competitors by companies who treat me as a valued paying customer.
04/03/2010 at 13:08 Torgen says:
The problem is, Ubi is the *only* one putting out naval sims, and any potential backer of another dev house is only going to look at the retail numbers, not the reasons for them.
04/03/2010 at 12:42 itsallcrap says:
Why doesn’t CliffyB chip in on RPS DRM debates anymore? I miss seeing him insisting that it was only fair that gaming experiences be ruined in the vain hope of reducing piracy and then being called an idiot by everyone.
Ah, happy days…
04/03/2010 at 13:06 jarvoll says:
Because he abandoned the PC to make mediocre, power-fantasy-filled, testosterone-poisoned trash on children’s toys. He has no business on a PC blog any more, and I for one don’t miss him.
04/03/2010 at 16:39 arqueturus says:
I think you’re referring to Cliffski of Gratuitous Space Battles fame. To my knowledge, CliffyB has never replied on here.
Cliffksi does chip in now and then but I’m sure he’s sick of debating with cock-ends and/or he’s too busy with making excellent games with no DRM at all.
04/03/2010 at 12:49 terry says:
So Ubi’s implementation was to blame – the game was feature complete a week or so before the DRM was hamhandedly shoehorned in at the last minute, necessitating only a minor fix to bypass entirely. I daresay future games will have some sort of nasty FADE-type stuff or checksumming going on, but meantime it looks like the grand test case ended up exactly the way Ubisoft wanted – cracked within a couple of days, proving their point neatly. Exit PC platform with heads held high (up own asses). PC gamers spawn of satan, moral imperative to concentrate on consoles, blah blah blah.
I can only hope that the implementation was deliberately shoddy as a sort of passive resistance to this idiotic scheme, but knowing Ubi’s level of “polish”, chances are good it was just incompetence.
04/03/2010 at 12:51 faelnor says:
Good, the games are out. Now, dear journalists, do what you have to do with the review scores.
04/03/2010 at 13:47 Kakksakkamaddafakka says:
Agreed. This is a golden opportunity to show the world some backbone. Unfortunately, I’m pretty sure all the games using this ridiculous DRM will get acceptable scores from pretty much every major site. The only ones who will be vocal are the guys whose voices are already drowned in the littered world that is gaming journalism.
04/03/2010 at 12:53 sfury says:
Inconceivable!!! o_O
/s
04/03/2010 at 12:54 Meat Circus says:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
etc.
04/03/2010 at 13:09 Cheezey says:
^^ what he said.
04/03/2010 at 12:59 Ashen says:
As far as SH5 is concerned, it’s fully cracked and works without a hitch.
AC2, not so much yet. A russian version has leaked and it’s been partially cracked, but isn’t working completely. It’s not an “official” release yet.
04/03/2010 at 13:02 Eamo says:
Since the game did nothing except constantly poll the server before quitting of course it can be easily hacked. All Ubisoft have to do is make it so that some vital part of the game logic can only be done serverside and this problem goes away completely. This could be as simple as only storing all in-game text on the server though that could, eventually, be brute forced and a fake server constructed. Go a couple of small steps further though and store not only the game text but calculate how characters will react serverside and suddenly it is very very hard to remove the DRM.
It is the oldest rule of network design, you never trust the client. As long as the client doesn’t need the server then the server is redundant. If however the game sitting on your PC is incomplete with some vital game logic or content stored serverside then it becomes pretty much impossible to hack the game.
04/03/2010 at 13:11 jarvoll says:
And in that case, you REALLY wouldn’t be buying a game, you’d be buying bits of a game. Ugh, no thanks.
04/03/2010 at 13:11 Torgen says:
It’s a sad day when we’re speaking of a single player game as the “client” which can’t be trusted, and using MMO design tactics.
For a single-player game.
04/03/2010 at 13:18 Sobric says:
Shhhhhhhhhh!
05/03/2010 at 00:40 Schmitzkater says:
Didn’t Alone in the Dark 5 already do that; and got cracked in a couple of days just as well?
04/03/2010 at 13:10 Out Reach says:
I loled hard.
But i doubt Ubisoft will ever admit it was a mistake. It’s going to go down screaming and on fire, thinking its awesome to the very end.
(but if it does admit it was a mistake, I’d be very pleasantly surprised and might go buy one of their games)
04/03/2010 at 13:17 toni says:
sorry for all bold, there’s no edit-function ;(
04/03/2010 at 16:44 Mac says:
Go to forum and look this post up there – you can edit :)
04/03/2010 at 19:13 Vinraith says:
@Mac
If you make an account and login you can also edit on the front page.
05/03/2010 at 14:31 SheffieldSteel says:
I’m just impressed that these comments are still at the end of the list
04/03/2010 at 13:21 squirrel says:
I read from Wikipedia that Half-Life 2 is the first single player game to implement online activation requirement. With this commercial success it’s not surprising other game publishers would follow suit…… until EA got burnt in 2007. The correction taken by EA in the following years to remove such nasty DRM then restores confidence to me that EA actually really cares about PC gaming market, not intending to kill it off.
While UBI removed DRM for Far Cry 2, I was mistaken that they learnt, and it turned out UBI didnt……
04/03/2010 at 14:28 cheal says:
And Half Life 2 was the first game where I argued against DRM of this sort for any singleplayer game. It’s a ridiculous concept.
04/03/2010 at 21:31 Gorgeras says:
The important thing is that Valve didn’t use the DRM on Half-Life 2 to stop pirates; much of HL2 had already been leaked. They made a good service out of it eventually. Steam titles are not uncrackable; what they do is provide excellent value for legitimate customers.
Steam is different because of a very subtle emphasis that Ubisoft made a transparent token gesture towards with the talk of ‘oh it’s a benefit because of cloud saving etc’ which no one bought. They couldn’t polish a turd. Ubisoft’s DRM has nothing to do with good service and everything to do with their own irrational self-interest. Fine if it’s rational self-interest, but it ain’t: it’s completely obtuse and irrational.
04/03/2010 at 13:25 DF says:
Why imply that you would need to setup external servers at all.
You could just run local / LAN servers and use DNS / IP redirection.
And if they start chopping up games so that part of them remains on the server, then basically as long as it is a “fixed” game and not a constantly evolving one like WOW, you could still manage to “leak” the server side, patch it around a bit and locally host / emulate that other side as well.
Sh*tloads more work perhaps, but anything that is programmed can be unprogrammed, anything that is digital can be manipulated..etc. You get the idea. It’s just a time, access and effort equation.
I also never understood the time argument.
A DRM doesn’t fail if it staves off the first 2 weeks of pirating?
Dunno, I honestly believe that those pirates that pirate will pirate, and those customers that want to buy will buy, regardless of whether they play the pirated version for a week first because it was out before official launch..
But maybe I’m just guessing wrong.
04/03/2010 at 13:28 Spartan says:
I can confirm it has been broken. I have secured a pirated version and it in fact works. Yeah for the pirates! DRM is pure evil and should be stomped out! It is the bane of legit users.
04/03/2010 at 13:30 cliffski says:
I don’t see this as a great victory for anyone. A few warez kiddies get erections because they cracked the DRM, w00t. And now ubisofts shareholders if they have any sense will say “See, the PC is a lost cause. fuck it. make xbox games in future”.
So we now get less high quality PC games in future, or nothing but MMOs.
How exactly should anyone on the PC be celebrating this?
No doubt that even after this, a lot of children will vote down the game on sites like amazon, so actual pc gamers, rather than internet angry men will have no idea if the game is good or not…
04/03/2010 at 13:51 squirrel says:
I understand your concern, but we also have a point to not worry about this. If game publishers push it so far to this, maybe they really no longer PC gaming market, or they are trying to kill off the currently existing one and reestablish one which they can manipulate as they want to. Have you notice that they speak so often in the last few years against 2nd hand game market? Let’s not be naive to think the spreading of this DRM disease and the above opinion is just a coincidence. To think it further, would it be ideal to continuously profit from a single player game for years by manipulating the gaming pattern? Say, regularly releasing expansions (so-called DLC). In that way you pay more than USD50 to a game that they say would only cost you USD50. There are also other kind of manipulations, such as price discrimination over regions, which are no strangers to us.
Gaming industry is interesting to the fact it is competitive, and at the same time it is monopolistic. You have so many different games to choose from. But for a particular game, you can only buy from a particular producer. We can easily say that let it be to lose the access to a certain game, but by doing so we lose it forever. However, it’s not hackers’ and pirate games’ fault. It’s corporate greed’s fault.
04/03/2010 at 14:08 jackflash says:
PC gaming isn’t going anywhere. PC gaming as we know it, is. I don’t think that’s really a bad thing, do you? Is it a bad thing that the mega publishers are dying by their own hand, and independent studios are filling the void (albeit slowly)? No, I think not. Granted, no two-man team could make a game like SH5. But some of the big guys (see EA) seem to actually understand that their DRM systems only lost them sales. Dragon Age’s DRM was acceptable, in my book, though its back-door implementation via DLC is frustrating and implemented in a crass manner.
04/03/2010 at 14:12 pkt-zer0 says:
Ubi claiming to release a virtually unhackable DRM and it getting cracked day one should be a fairly clear message to the shareholders: “The people who made this decision are morons.”
That could be considered a victory.
04/03/2010 at 14:17 Clovis says:
Honestly, cliffski, you are your company’s worst advertisement. I love supporting indies, but I always pause before considering a Positech game. I suppose you aren’t defending Ubi’s DRM here, but you are still being rather harsh. Why is it so childish to give a game a low rating because of the DRM? What’s wrong with using Amazon’s system to make it clear to the possible buyer’s what they are getting? It is one of the few things gamers can legally do to make a tiny difference.
I guess what annoys me is that it always seems like you’d be happy if they could create a draconian system that actually works, even though it is terrible for consumers, destroys first sale, and turns all game purchases into rentals. Awesome.
Oh, and this is a “great victory” for legitimate buyers of the game! What’s wrong with me removing their idiotic DRM after I pay for it?
04/03/2010 at 14:17 Robin says:
“So we now get less high quality PC games in future, or nothing but MMOs.”
It’s funny how it’s never Blizzard or Valve implementing DRM systems that overstep the line of punishing users, but always second-tier publishers trying to shuck out poorly optimised console ports with the absolute minimum of marketing creativity, effort or engagement with the PC community.
You’re right that cracking it achieves nothing though. Ultimately it will take continuing bad press and the threat of class action lawsuits to get Ubi to back down.
04/03/2010 at 14:35 bill says:
if it had gone the other way it wouldn’t be a great victory either. But at least this way it’s funny.
04/03/2010 at 14:39 Mythrilfan says:
The main arguments have been presented before but to put it bluntly – we don’t actually need Ubisoft. It’s true that they publish many nice games for the PC, yet we would be perfectly okay with all of their future releases canceled. People would obviously complain, but there are many other studios publishers who do a nice job as well. They would not hurt the market by leaving the platform. They are currently hurting it. As for the studios they own – they’ll eventually manage. Some will leave the company, some will migrate to the consoles.
04/03/2010 at 14:40 cheal says:
I do think this is a good day. One of two things will result. Ubisoft will remove this DRM system for something more sensible, or Ubisoft will leave the PC market and the profits it provides them. This will only serve to reinforce the message that DRM will not protect mediocre games from pirating. There are plenty of occasions where good games get pirated and they shouldn’t, but there has also been success stories in overcoming piracy without restrictive DRM.
Personally I would have never bought another Ubisoft game if it included this particular DRM, so I couldn’t give a monkey if they leave the PC market, and if the numbers who still would buy their games aren’t enough to justify continued development for the PC then that is a business decision. Eitherway the breaking of their DRM has probably made very little difference toward them staying with the platform or going, but it does send out a negative message regarding the business sense of DRM.
04/03/2010 at 14:43 DF says:
Just would like to add / reply to the post above me:
What is wrong with cracking a game you bought is simply the fact that this is illegal.
Because the sad state of affairs is that we all like and endorse the idea of being able to use whatever we bought any way WE would like to, while it’s the other way around for the publisher side.
And, sadly enough, the law is on the side of the copyright holder and THEIR rights, not the consumer.
There is no more fair use, fair balance ideal, there is just “Swallow it all down and hand over your money NOW” in the last 20 years of IP / Copyright development.
I would rather have a completely dead and annihilated music / movie / game industry and start with idealistic people on both sides from zero than retain a model that essentially says we can tell you how to consume and what and we could actually care less about the writers, actors, programmers, talents involved in this.
Publishers and corporations need to go away again..they came from a boom that was caused by INDIVIDUALS, and in turn as a “reward” went and took all the individualism out of music and art(this includes gaming to me).
It is little wonder the indie scene, where this individualism is still alive, is getting more and more attention.
IMHO the “industry” and their respective law/government lobby can go to hell and never come back.
Again, I would be perfectly content if this meant not a single new game, movie or album for years, first.
Better than eventually having to implant TPM chips into your neck to play a game or something eventually(Syndicate anyone?).
I have paid for music, movies and games before, in case anyone is wondering and I have also created creative content myself.
04/03/2010 at 15:23 LintMan says:
@cliffski: I completely disagree about value of people slamming the game for its DRM at Amazon, etc. It is absolutely fair game, and I think it’s one of the very best things that gamers can do to voice their unhappiness. I believe that the Spore controversy on Amazon had a lot to do with EA’s turnaround on DRM – it raises the awareness level of those who might not otherwise understood the issues with DRM.
Offensive DRM like activation limits, UBI’s crap, etc are anti-consumer and the best way for consumers to respond is not through piracy but through tried-and-true consumer responses:
- word of mouth
- bad publicity
- don’t buy the product (ie: boycott)
@Clovis: This crack is NOT a “great victory” – it’s just another step in the escalation. The end result of which will be single player games we have to log into online like MMO’s. If you don’t like UBI’s DRM methods, don’t buy the game and then get the crack:
Just dont buy the game.
If you buy it, you’re telling UBI that you’re OK with what they’re doing. You bent over for them: they’ve got their sale and they’re happy. And then they count all those downloads of the crack as lost sales – even those for people like you who bought the game – so they resolve to make their next DRM version tougher.
Honestly, what I’d like to see is some mediocre “major release” game come out with obnoxious but uncrackable DRM – and then have it *flop*. Massively. Then there’d be no excuses, no way to claim “pirates cost us eleventy-billion in sales this quarter alone!”.
04/03/2010 at 15:32 JKjoker says:
@Robin: what are you on about ? Valve released one of the first few online activated games forcing Steam down the throats of everyone who wanted to play their games and Blizzard is about to smite gamers with their Bnet2.0 that is apparently very similar to Ubisoft’s DRM including a DLC store that will keep trying to force crap down your throat (not yet known how annoying it will be)
04/03/2010 at 16:47 Urthman says:
I don’t see this as a great victory for anyone.
It’s a great victory for the game developers, because it removes the stupid DRM that was standing between them and their legitimate customers like me. I’m not buying an AC2 that won’t work without an internet connection, but I would buy AC2 if there’s a crack that removes the DRM.
04/03/2010 at 17:16 Robin says:
@JKjoker There is a vast difference between online activation and requiring a constant connection whenever the game is running.
I don’t know anything about BNet 2.0, but if it was as similar to Ubi’s system as you claim I’d expect to have heard outcry from beta testers (or indeed from RPS) before now.
04/03/2010 at 17:18 Grape Flavor says:
It’s a psychological victory. Sure, it might be ruinous for the actual interests of PC gamers, but in their minds, they’ve “stuck it to the man”, so they don’t care.
Guy 1: *blows hole in ship’s hull with C4*
Guy 2: “WTF are you doing?”
Guy 1: “I’m blasting this fucker!”
Guy 2: “But we’ll all drown!”
Guy 1: “lol, who gives a shit? The important thing is we showed the goddamn greedy cruise line they can’t tell us what to do!”
And no, there are no life boats on this one.
04/03/2010 at 18:27 Clovis says:
@LintMan: Oh, I agree. I will not buy ANY game from Ubi (even older ones) until they remove this DRM, and even then only from the bargain bin. And sure, it is no “great victory” I guess, I was just using cliffski’s words. It will be helpful to people who bought the game without undersanding, or fully understanding, what they were getting. Some might want to support the developer and so they’ll buy it anyway and they can use the crack. I’d say that’s the wrong thing to do, but it is not completely unreasonable. Piracy is obviously also wrong, especially if you want to sent a message to Ubi.
04/03/2010 at 19:43 the wiseass says:
Cliffsky on his anti-piracy crusade again. Don’t worry mate, I never pirated any games of yours simply because I do not like them.
04/03/2010 at 23:30 JKjoker says:
@Robin: you said “It’s funny how it’s never Blizzard or Valve implementing DRM systems that overstep the line of punishing users”
at the time Stream was released disc check + program blacklisting was the worst kind of DRM, and then online activation each time you ran the game (there was no working offline mode at the time either) felt just as bad as Ubisoft’s new feels now, you are just used to swimming in that level of crap now (and they have sweeten the Steam deal a little bit since then), some ppl suffer PTSD so bad after swimming in it that they claim disc checks are not DRM, sigh…
the beta users of SC2 are not using the final version of bnet2 or have final game features to play with, Blizzard betas have always been bnet multiplay only, there is no point complaining about having to be online for that, it will supposedly force you to connect to bnet every time you run the game which is a little worse than Steam (no offline mode) but better than Ubisoft’s madness, not sure if it keeps rechecking periodically while you play tho, you will of course get kicked out if the connection drops during the beta but who knows what happens during single player
05/03/2010 at 14:19 pkt-zer0 says:
@JKjoker: Considering that it seems all the SC2 beta single-player loader does is boot you straight into a map, you only need to be online to log in to access multiplayer/achievements/community features.
04/03/2010 at 13:31 Clavus says:
My usual download spots are already filled with tutorials for cracking AC2; yes, even with the possibility to save your game.
04/03/2010 at 13:49 cliffski says:
“my usual download spots”
downloads purely for backups of legit bought games surely?
04/03/2010 at 14:59 Joe says:
You would win any unpopularity contest Clifferton; as long as Ubi doesn’t participate as well, that is.
04/03/2010 at 14:59 Ozzie says:
Yeah, funny, cliffski… :-/
04/03/2010 at 16:46 cliffski says:
*sigh*
People wonder why game developers don’t join in on debates like this?
04/03/2010 at 16:52 Joe says:
And you wonder why some people wouldn’t take you serious as a game developer if you created the next “The Sims”.
Going by the amount of public posting and forum / comments / torrent site trolling you do, it’s actually a miracle a single line of code ever gets written.
04/03/2010 at 17:46 Lilliput King says:
He’s always seemed fairly reasonable to me.
And he’s got a point. Since this Ubisoft debacle began there seems to be a gathering movement proclaiming pirates wise prophets and piracy the messiah, come to lead us to a better plane of gaming existence.
04/03/2010 at 18:03 terry says:
Did you pay for your copy of Photoshop? If so, you might want to read the manual.
edit: no, lilliput king, sorry that was a josh aimed at that guy who’s name I can’t see because of the edit window but began with C’s original comment. This comment system is a game all of its own (or is it DRM?)
04/03/2010 at 18:13 Lilliput King says:
Who, me?
04/03/2010 at 13:31 Inigo says:
There is no DRM crack.
We have always been at war with Eurasia.
04/03/2010 at 14:16 WildeAnarchist says:
“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”
04/03/2010 at 13:32 Ffitz says:
Anyway, next up is the DDoS attack on Ubi’s servers. Any bets on a timescale?
04/03/2010 at 13:39 Grey! says:
darn. drm won’t last forever. silent hunter 5, assassin’s creed 2. wake up ubi!
04/03/2010 at 13:40 Steve says:
UBI’s leet DRM has officially been torped and Sunk!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
etc.
04/03/2010 at 13:42 Will Tomas says:
While I don’t endorse piracy, I think this sort of thing is only to the good. Companies need to learn not to be so insanely punishing towards their customers, and the fact that this stuff isn’t picked up in the wider media given the implications for other forms of content is genuinely scandalous, and a sign that for all their success, the wider media still doesn’t treat games as ‘serious’ or worthy of proper coverage.
However, it did remind me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSIjlUMV6Is
04/03/2010 at 13:45 Hentzau says:
Ubisoft were a lost cause as soon as they implemented this DRM; it was only ever going to end in tears for both them and their potential customers. The one good thing that might come from it is that it’ll hopefully dissuade other companies from attempting to implement equally dumb DRM measures.
04/03/2010 at 13:46 Azradesh says:
How would you propose sending the message that we will not accept this? They are not like you, they will not listen to feedback like you did.
P.S. I really want to buy your latest spacey awesome game, but the back will not let me have a crebit/debit card and it’s not in retail. How can I give you cash money in exchange for the game?
04/03/2010 at 13:50 cliffski says:
bmt take all sorts of payment methods, paypal, mailed in checks etc,,, its an option of the order form.
05/03/2010 at 02:11 Azradesh says:
Really cool, I shall have to have a look.
My orignal post was meant to be a reply to your earlier post with the many other replies. but it’s seemed to have died.
04/03/2010 at 13:52 fiftyfour says:
pc gaming dead?!..no way…YES WAY!
04/03/2010 at 13:57 Myros says:
The only thing they have accomplished is to make there failed attempt front page news on games sites around the web. With their claims of a ‘better’, harder to crack DRM they just painted a big target on their backs with ‘please crack us quickly’ written on it. Hackers love a challenge, of course it turns out there was no challenge at all ;p
Sorry ubi …. FAIL on all fronts.
04/03/2010 at 14:06 Sagan says:
I am going to say, that this might just be a crappy implementation of the DRM. For example, the only way that I can imagine that they got saving on the local computer to work is, that it was in there already and they just had to enable it again.
So maybe the next game will be much harder to crack.
04/03/2010 at 14:06 Tei says:
I think advertising theres a crack about the game will produce more sales of the game, since honest people aware of the evil DRM will buy the game anyway, with the idea to crack it to play it alone (off-line).
04/03/2010 at 16:25 Aemony says:
That’s probably true. When I read through the post I responded by immediately reevaluating my opinion on whether or not to buy the game.
Since I in that case would buy it on Steam the new reevaluated opinion was a negative since I’m against cracking my own games on Steam.
04/03/2010 at 14:09 Diogo Ribeiro says:
I’ve had a stupid grin on my face all morning after this.
04/03/2010 at 18:50 Wulf says:
You too?
I keep pointing out how well known game cracking groups are the heroes of the Internet, that’s never been more true than now.
Let’s see how quickly Ubi acts.
04/03/2010 at 19:35 Bonedwarf says:
This is absolutely fantastic. I had friends who when this was announced saying “Well that’s it then. No choice but to buy and put up with this now or give up on PC gaming.” I said it was a red rag to a bull and it would be cracked very quickly.
I wasn’t, however, expecting it to be cracked THIS quickly. I wrote a piece on my blog a few months back about how we should praise the pirates because it’s thanks to them that in 5-10 years we’ll still be able to install games like this and play them.
It’s not about IP protection. This is entirely about control and building a built in expiration date into software. What better way to force people to buy Assassins Creed III than shut down the Assassins Creed II servers meaning people can’t play it anymore.
04/03/2010 at 20:30 jonfitt says:
That is brilliant. Boo to pirates, but hooray for proving the point everyone makes about DRM.
04/03/2010 at 20:55 archonsod says:
“I was putting forth that if no one actually pays for (merely pirates) AAA PC games, the developers will be unable to recoup their investment, and will simply stop bothering with the PC altogether.”
And when was the last time anyone released an AAA PC game and not some crippled cross platform one? When was the last time an AAA developer released something that wasn’t yet another by the numbers third or first person shooter or adventure?
I don’t care if AAA developers abandon the PC platform. I abandoned them years ago when they stopped making innovative, interesting and fun games.
04/03/2010 at 20:56 archonsod says:
Doh, that was at Grapeman in the next post down. Reply function strikes again!
05/03/2010 at 00:53 Fumarole says:
Portal.
04/03/2010 at 14:11 Latterman says:
I want to imagine a super daring heist of breaking into Ubi’s Headquarters to hack into their extremly secured central superserver complete with a protection of lasers, ninja robots n’ stuff.
Hell, in a twist it could even turn out that this DRM-server just became aware of it self and now completly controls Ubisoft.
But it the end, Ubi’s low-paid trainee who was whip-forced to program this thing probably just didn’t give a shit.
04/03/2010 at 18:52 Wulf says:
Or purposefully left in an easy means of entry, a backdoor of sorts or general weak point, just so s/he could sleep at night.
04/03/2010 at 14:11 Mario Figueiredo says:
Given everyone is basically saying the same thing, I’ll link you guys to… err, another opinion.
Now, I don’t agree with him on many fronts. In fact I think he’s flat wrong on some of his statements (like his total disregard for the fact that games without any form of DRM still sell like water on the desert, if they are good games). But overall he does have a point. Although more than pirates, I blame downloaders because they are the ones who justify the continued existence of pirates.
There’s a lot more I’d like to say about this. But this comment box is constrains me and I’m too lazy to have a blog. Anyways, happy reading.
04/03/2010 at 14:20 Latterman says:
“PC gamers are slowly killing the hobby they profess to enjoy.”
Ah yes, my sweet love of paying for things.
This statement would be true if companies would actually serve the purpose to make good games in the interest of “pc gamers” and not produce games primarly to make a profit.
That’s just the way it is in this kind of economy. But stop telling me i’m destroying things i enjoy by not buying them. That’s the first level economics crap of supply and demand that’s proven wrong all the time.
04/03/2010 at 14:25 phuzz says:
I’m going to take issue with:
“Ubisoft’s new DRM appears to be relatively unintrusive and does not affect system performance or stability in any way.”
Well, SecureROM has never caused any problems for me, does that mean it’s good?
04/03/2010 at 14:48 Mythrilfan says:
Phuzz, his site mainly concerns itself with exactly that – performance and stability. As gamers aware of Tweakguides, we already know what to think of it. But I don’t think that many sites have commented on the performance aspect of things.
04/03/2010 at 14:56 rocketman71 says:
I’m with phuzz.
And StarForce DID cause me problems with a burner. Demonstrable ones, as in before and after install in a fairly clean OS. As in reinstalled the OS just to be completely sure.
Did I go to Moscow to show them?. No, they already knew, the terms of their BS competition already had enough holes to let them claim it wasn’t SF’s fault, plus that meant you had to pay for travel and expenses.
I’m disappointed with the tweakguides guy. A POS DRM like this should be totally indefensible for a gamer. Too many people defending it are like “I have a wonderful net connection so nobody should have problems”. Not everybody lives in central NY, you know?. Try living in Romania, 20 km from Bucharest and then tell me about the reliability of your connection.
04/03/2010 at 14:59 J says:
“I blame downloaders because they are the ones who justify the continued existence of pirates..”
Not that it changes your point, but the scene doesn’t exist to provide the public with cracked software.
04/03/2010 at 15:36 Ryuga says:
“I blame downloaders because they are the ones who justify the continued existence of pirates..” sounds very much like “I blame my wife for making me so angry I have to beat her”. Sorry, but acting like an ass is acting like an ass, and any amount of bad justifications aint gonna make that go away..
04/03/2010 at 16:54 Grape Flavor says:
@Latterman
Wow, you are an absolute idiot. How exactly are they supposed to fund the development of games if they don’t make any money? It costs millions of dollars to make a modern AAA game, you know. You clearly have no understanding of, or even desire to understand, basic economics and sustainable business models.
“stop telling me i’m destroying things i enjoy by not buying them” No. No, we wont. Because it’s a plain fact. And on top of that, you’re ruining it for the rest of us as well. Some of us understand basic cause and effect and frankly we’re tired of irresponsible little twits like you jeopardizing our hobby. If making a PC version of a game incurs a massive financial loss each time there is NO REASON to expect them to continue. I’m not even going to try to bring the moral side of things in here with you.
YOU are the enemy of PC gaming. Not Ubisoft, or whoever else’s pissed you off lately with their desperate measures.
04/03/2010 at 16:59 drewski says:
@ Latterman – the only thing supply and demand has proven, over time, is entirely correct.
How, precisely, video game sales and piracy can be modelled with regard to it is an interesting question, but that doesn’t make it false.
04/03/2010 at 18:12 Clovis says:
@Grape: Stop with the ad hominems.
Ok, what the hell are you talking about? Are you saying we have to buy AAA games, even if we don’t want to, or otherwise PC gaming dies? That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. If you like a film by 20th Century Fox, do you then go see all their movies to make sure they can keep making movies??
And below, you indicate that you are mad that we are driving away AAA games. What do you want us to do? I’ve never heard an argument like this before. I’m really mystified.
Anywho, I’m going to continue buying games I want to play when they are on sale … because I hate PC gaming apparently.
04/03/2010 at 19:06 Wulf says:
@Fig
I’m sorry about this, because I really like you and your posts, but this part really annoys me:
“I blame downloaders because they are the ones who justify the continued existence of pirates.”
This is simply not true! I’ve been buying games since forever, and I have one room dedicated to my games (and literature/comics) collection, they’re stacked a mile high, from disk based games in boxes, to more modern things, and though the PC segment of that room is becoming dusty due to digital distribution, it stands as a testament to my loyalty to the platform, and even older, there’s some Amiga stuff there, even a few speccy tapes, it’s an incredible room.
Now I use cracks, all the time. For every game that has a form of “protection” that I don’t agree with, I’ll use a crack. The problem is is that some forms of DRM are like asbestos condoms, they don’t actually provide any protection to anyone, but they can bring very real harm to their user. …I can’t believe I just wrote that, but you get the point! The problem with most DRM systems is that they’re so full of potential harm and vulnerabilities that I don’t want them on my system. The end result? I know a couple of people from some large cracking groups, they’re good people, they really are, and their reputation matters to them.
They crack to provide the means of playing a game to those who can’t afford it, sure, that’s a nebulous thing, but they encourage anyone who likes a game to buy it. And I admit, I’ve been guilty of trying a pirated game where a demo doesn’t exist, and then even buying multiple copies for myself and friends when I’m convinced of the game’s worth, things like that allow me to properly distribute where my money goes to, to ensure that the right people do get my money. And this is very important to me, as I’ve stressed elsewhere with my indie concerns, but I’m getting off topic, here.
The point is this: When I buy games (and I buy games to my own detriment sometimes), I will often take umbrage at the DRM used, because that DRM is an asbestos condom, it doesn’t help the people I bought the game from, it doesn’t help me, and it’ll usually only end up hurting me. I like that pirates — or specifically, cracking groups — exist because I can get cracks, and I trust the known groups, I trust them with my computer. And that my computer is still the beautifully clean and well maintained thing today that it’s always been shows that that trust was well placed.
It’s easier to trust people you know, whose intents you know, rather than nebulous DRM which is very questionable from the outset. And believe me, StarForce wasn’t the only bad form of DRM, if you believe that then you need to read up on the problems that plague even the most recent sorts. You should read up on SecuROM and the horrors (with supporting evidence) that people have witnessed thanks to that. SecuROM is as much of a rootkit as that Sony thing or StarForce, RING0 access and all.
So I’m glad that pirates exist, or at least crackers, because without cracks I’d probably go insane. I just don’t trust DRM, I never will. The only thing I’ve learned to trust even marginally is Steam, because I’ve not read anything particularly bad about Steam, and there’s no evidence to say that it’ll hurt me, it’s not the asbestos condom that other forms of DRM are. So Steam I’ll let slide, but I always read up on DRM and if there’s any evidence it could hurt my computer, I’ll turn to cracks.
Unlike most people, I care about what happens to my computer, it’ll last longer that way, and usually outperform other computers even of a higher spec (something I love showing people).
04/03/2010 at 19:23 Grape Flavor says:
@Clovis
I was putting forth that if no one actually pays for (merely pirates) AAA PC games, the developers will be unable to recoup their investment, and will simply stop bothering with the PC altogether. No, I’m not suggesting you have to buy all games or at full price. There’s plenty of games I wait to drop to $20 before I buy.
I just get the feeling sometimes that people are taking PC game development for granted, that they think everyone can pirate games endlessly and that somehow this is going to be sustainable long term. Basically the “piracy is harmless” attitude.
Sorry for the psycho tone. PC gaming is important to me so I don’t take kindly to what I see as grave threats to its future.
04/03/2010 at 19:40 Xugu Madison says:
For the record; I spend about $1,000/year on games, most of the PC, and don’t pirate. I’m also not buying AC2; y’know what, I can live with the daft drive-invasive CD checkers. I don’t mind Steam… at least if I’m getting a good deal on the games I’m buying (so, nothing full price).
Required Internet connection on a single player game is too far; my connection is not stable enough, and it’s not that uncommon for me to want to play a single player game because the connection isn’t in a good enough mood for me to do anything networked.
Halve the price or make the DRM sane, and I’ll buy AC2.
04/03/2010 at 19:40 Latterman says:
wow.
@Grape Flavor
-”@latterman
-”Wow, you are an absolute idiot. How exactly are they supposed to fund the development of games if -they don’t make any money? It costs millions of dollars to make a modern AAA game, you know. You -clearly have no understanding of, or even desire to understand, basic economics and sustainable -business models.”
where did i doubt that it costs “millions of dollars?” where did i say that i actually LIKE modern AAA games? (in fact: i don’t like most of them, i neither buy nor pirate them)
my whole post was aware of the fact that they NEED money to make modern games and to sell them to make more money to produce more games and so on. yes, “base economics and sustainable business models”.
-“stop telling me i’m destroying things i enjoy by not buying them” No. No, we wont. Because it’s a -plain fact. And on top of that, you’re ruining it for the rest of us as well.
Yeah, and by being a vegetarian i’m ruining your meat too.
I did say “not buying”, not “pirating everything in sight”.
-Some of us understand basic -cause and effect and frankly we’re tired of irresponsible little twits -like you jeopardizing our hobby. If -making a PC version of a game incurs a massive financial loss -each time there is NO REASON to -expect them to continue. I’m not even going to try to bring the -moral side of things in here with you.
And honestly, i don’t get why you are attacking me.
You’re basically paraphrasing me.
I didn’t make any pro-piracy statements. The only thing i said was:
Companies aren’t doing it for the fun or “our hobby”, they are doing it for the money, which we are supposed to pay for our hobby. Like every other company out there.
No one produces clothes so people can wear them, they produce them because people want to wear clothes and will pay for them. No one produces food so people can eat, food is produced because people want to eat and will pay for it. And so on.
And THAT is all i tried to say. Thanks for the insults.
@drewski says:
“@ Latterman – the only thing supply and demand has proven, over time, is entirely correct.
How, precisely, video game sales and piracy can be modelled with regard to it is an interesting question, but that doesn’t make it false.”
I don’t want to start a discussion about economics here (as it would probably be hampered by my lack of english in this case), but supply and demand does not work as it is taught in theory. Hell, the whole theory is full of granted exceptions, just they can stick to the model of supply and demand, which itself is funded on the erroneous belief, that all production in a capitalist society is based on the demand of the masses, who simply express their demand in the form of money. What counts is the solvent demand and that’s a big difference.
04/03/2010 at 20:00 drewski says:
I think you’ve misunderstood the theory (and limitations) or supply and demand, and what it applies to. I mean, for starters, it has absolutely nothing to do with capitalism.
But, as you say, it’s scarcely worth debating here.
04/03/2010 at 21:25 Grape Flavor says:
@Latterman @Grape Flavor @Latterman
Clearly I misinterpreted your post and overreacted. I sincerely apologize.
04/03/2010 at 14:18 V. Tchitcherine. says:
Actually, this is the one Ubisoft game in recent memory that assuredly won’t be shit. They seem to have actually listened to the severe structural criticism of the first and sought to address it in the sequel, much in the manner that Mass Effect 2 successfully rectified most of the faults of the first (I personally detested the first game yet loved the second). From the reviews on the console version, Ass Creed II (I’m an ass-enthusiast) is a game that truly lives up to the promise of the open-world environments and ambience of the first, eliminating the horribly repetitive gameplay among other improvements.
But this prohibitive and intrusive DRM is just a stupidly counter-intuitive and alienating move. One of the developers from Ubisoft made a Slashdot post saying that they did try releasing a game without DRM; 2008′s Prince of Persia, and it was their most pirated. The unfortunate circumstance is that it was an atrocious soulless affair whose artists should have demanded better gameplay to make such a pretty engine and art design for, therefore it was pirated rather than purchased. If a game is rushed, shallow and shit, don’t expect people to pay retail prices for it and certainly don’t blame the modest and ineffectual variable of DRM implementation.
One cannot prevent piracy, a company can only ameliorate the effects and the level of piracy. Valve understand that piracy is a service and to compete, one must merely offer a better service which they do through steam and imaginative, compelling and community-building updates. Ubisoft are presenting a worse offer to a rational consumer, especially for those with connectivity problems.
Buy cannabis instead, that cannot be pirated… at least in my present abode.
04/03/2010 at 14:23 squirrel says:
God I’m looking forward to Far Cry 3. God please bless the PC gaming market so that UBI would listen to us and not implement DRM on the next game they release.
04/03/2010 at 16:12 Urthman says:
One of the developers from Ubisoft made a Slashdot post saying that they did try releasing a game without DRM; 2008’s Prince of Persia, and it was their most pirated.
People are always quoting the piracy numbers as if that’s the figure that matters to the bottom line. The bottom line is how much money did they make from the game and was it enough to make a profit?
Spore was one of the most pirated games ever. It also sold millions of copies and (presumably) was a financial success.
Was the PC version of 2008 Prince of Persia a money loser for Ubisoft? Or are they just crying about the imaginary profits they think they could have made if all the people pirating it had bought it?
04/03/2010 at 19:50 Bonedwarf says:
One reason I love Stardock. THEY get it. There is no point using DRM as pirates will always find a way, so they don’t bother wasting resources, instead choosing to make BUYING the game more attractive. I’ve bought Gal Civ II and all expansions, and Sins and all expansions. I’ve never even PLAYED Sins. I bought it purely to support Stardock.
As for this “There will be no more AAA titles on the PC”. That’s bullshit. Sorry, but most AAA titles are overhyped crap anyway.
04/03/2010 at 20:56 Gorgeras says:
When publishers do experiment with no DRM, they always seem to pick the crap games for it. It’s like they’re really hedging their bets so the experiment goes the way they want: for it to fail and thus justify future intensified DRM.
Prince of Persia on the PC was their weakest release for ages and that’s saying something. As far as I’m aware, it still didn’t sell totally crap, hence they put the focus on the piracy numbers and not the actual sales.
04/03/2010 at 21:30 Kadayi says:
@Bonedwarf
Agreed. The way to ensure good sales is to make legitimately buying it a desirable thing for gamers. Personally I think Ubi need to take a leaf out of what EA has been upto with Dragon Age & Mass Effect 2 and make being a registered owner worthwhile. There are always going to be some people who will pirate, who simply will not pay for anything ever, but I’d say they are a minority Vs those who if they see a definitive advantage to buying will go down that route.
05/03/2010 at 01:04 Fumarole says:
“When publishers do experiment with no DRM, they always seem to pick the crap games for it. It’s like they’re really hedging their bets so the experiment goes the way they want: for it to fail and thus justify future intensified DRM.”
This bizarre statement implies both that crap games will be the only ones to have DRM and that publishers don’t want to make money. Bwuh?.
04/03/2010 at 14:20 Jon says:
“Piss up a rope” – What a phrase, love it.
And um, yeah. DRM is bad.
04/03/2010 at 14:26 Hmm says:
Ubisoft claim the cracked version can only be played until a certain point.
And honestly, why is everyone celebrating? Because PC is once again perceived as a piracy den, which is something that scare everyone away these days?
04/03/2010 at 18:08 terry says:
Checksumming you say? (monocle pops out)
I daresay it’s not unpredicted, and again will be bypassed. Bye bye, Ubi… bye bye.
04/03/2010 at 21:39 Kadayi says:
@Hmm
I don’t think anyone here is celebrating piracy, or indeed promoting it. I think people are merely laughing at the fact that Ubisofts grand plan (whose ultimate goal seemed to be to become more loathed than Activision) is off to a predictable start. This winning DRM scheme of theirs, whose sole purpose was to combat piracy and whose resultant has been to piss off inordinate numbers of legitimate gamers, has failed within mere days of release.
04/03/2010 at 23:38 Wulf says:
@Hmm
I understand where you’re coming from, I do, but the thing is is that wherever the possibility exists for piracy, things will be pirated. The 360 is just as much of a den of piracy as the PC, but somehow Microsoft manages to keep a lid on it, yet their Live bans would paint a different picture. To fight piracy is to fight human nature, and there’s only one, true way to combat piracy: Sincerity. Explain your situation to people and try to be their friend, rather than their enemy. If you piss them off, how can you expect them to use your service?
“Here is my game, this is my game, my game is unprotected, I’ve done all I can to give you a fair price for the content in my game. You have my word that my game will continue to be supported, as I am aware that future purchases will influence that. You have a choice: Buy my game or pirate it. You are at no risk by pirating my game, for it has DRM, and you could probably get it off a friend. However, I sell these games so that I can make more games, the money you give me goes towards costs and becomes funding for new projects. Is my game worth the price I ask? Is the potential of future games worth the investment? That’s up to you. If you’re sitting on the fence and you’re not sure, talk to me and we’ll see what we can figure out regarding the price. I’m honest. Are you?”
Simple as.
What people are saying is that Ubisoft aren’t doing that, they’re just pissing off their legitimate customers. Yes, that’s us. And now we’re laughing at the schadenfreude involved. Is that not fair?
@terry
*cracks up.*
You Sir, are simply wonderful.
04/03/2010 at 14:27 Nando says:
Let’s hope they give up on using it with Assassin’s Creed 2. I was looking forward to buy that one until they came with this stupid DRM idea.
04/03/2010 at 14:28 BIG D says:
Lets just hope that this sends a message to Ubisoft that this will just not work. They need to wake up and smell the coffee and remember it’s us gamers who suffer at the end of all this. Based on the frankly bizarre statements they have made over all this it seems they just don’t give a fuck about the PC end of the market!
Ho-Hum!
04/03/2010 at 14:35 subversus says:
so many stupid people here. How can you celebrate pirating the game? Don’t like – don’t buy it, why so much hatred? If you don’t like DRM – fight the pirates on community basis. Help authorities in convincing them, demand prosecution laws for them from your government or parliament. But no, you’d better blame developers or publishers for protecting their business. Because you know, you don’t have to make money to make the games, they just materialise in a disc form from the mind of game designers.
It’s the worst kind of hypocrisy, because all of you know that if there is no DRM the game will be pirated to hell and back. And no matter how kind and supportive you’ll be to your customers if they can get it free, MOST of them will get for free. It’s just an axiom of business and human nature.
Pathetic. Sorry, I may sound harsh, but couldn’t resist.
04/03/2010 at 14:48 Trousers says:
@subversus
How many times does it have to be said. If the DRM ONLY punishes PAYING customers, all sympathy for ANYONE involved is gone. GONE.
I agree with you, don’t pirate it. It will just make them feel more in the right. The Devs deserve to be fed for all their hard work. Still though, all sympathy..GONE. Ubi may go suck a bag of dicks. Good games that are pirated to hell still sell if they are worth the money. There is no reason to be complacent facing this level of jack assery.
This is like being told to close your book because its raining outside. The sun’s rays are needed to access the new “features” they’ve added to the book.
04/03/2010 at 14:55 JKjoker says:
even without the “without piracy they would make more money or not” debate, they are ALREADY been pirated to hell and back, meanwhile publishers keep adding more and more annoying fluff on top of their games (that only annoys legal users) and wasting a lot of resources that could have been used for something else (like, you know, not releasing a bugged piece of crap with lack of proper mouse support, forgetting “exit to windows” options and so on)
so being happy about their DRM crap blowing up in their faces is completely understandable, dont write about “hypocrisy” if you refuse to accept there is a different point of view than yours
04/03/2010 at 14:59 Clovis says:
We are not celebrating pirating. We are celebrating the defeat of some terrible DRM. Legitimate customers can use the crack to remove the DRM from their game too. Yes, it will be mostly used by pirates, but I don’t care about pirates. They were never going to buy the game to begin with.
Starting your post by calling people “stupid” makes you sound like a troll.
04/03/2010 at 14:59 Ffitz says:
Any game will be pirated to hell and back, regardless of the DRM (or lack of it) that’s used.
The simple fact is that there just are people who will pirate media over any other choice.
IMO publishers are looking at this from the wrong end of the telescope. They’re putting all their energies into fighting piracy, which is like shouting at the sea and demanding that the tide doesn’t come in.
They should be concentrating their efforts into making strong, appealing games that people will recognise as possessing quality.
They should not use systems that make the lives of their paying customers difficult or prevent them from playing their fairly-bought game anywhere or anywhen.
Offer after-sales benefits to paying customers.
Treat your customer as your best friend, not your worst enemy. Something that Valve understand, and seemingly very few other publishers do.
04/03/2010 at 15:16 Spartan says:
We should help authorities to change the IPR laws back to the pre Sonny Bono days.
The current laws are so blatantly against social value it is not even funny. Copyright was created to provide time limited incentive for people to create for society ultimate benefit.
What we have now is a multi generational revenue stream system and what is tantamount to the death of the public domain as well as a massive stifling of creative endeavors.
04/03/2010 at 15:19 JoeDuck says:
Yes, yes, business and salaries and all that jazz, we know… but there is a certain problem with that.
The money they claim they lose does not exist. It’s all in their minds.
I’ll elaborate…
If AC2 sells say 1mill copies of the PC version (digital plus boxes) and it gets pirated say 20mill times, it’s true to say you have been stolen 20 million sales. However, and this is extremely important, you would have never sold 21 million copies of your game.
You can turn the numbers however you want, those 20 mill people will not buy your game. Most of them do not have the money (being 13 and all) and the rest do not care enough for the game.
Furthermore, those 20 million copies stolen from you cost you nothing.
Zero, nada, nothing at all.
They were distributed by someone else, stored in someone else’s server and they have no support.
The amount of extra sales you’d get using an ideal perfect unhackable DRM is wayyyyyyyy lower than 20 million copies. I’d argue that it’s so low that it’ll barely pay for the effort of putting the DRM in the game (and the server cost, let’s not forget the server has to be there forever and ever) but that’s not the point. The point is that the business is losing money, yes, but not so much as they claim and until they realize this, we’ll all be trapped in this cycle.
All of us except Gabe, of course. He realized all this a long time ago and acted accordingly. Today, almost 3 million people connect simultaneously every day to Gabe’s system to play and buy PC games. And his last game sold more than ever before and he’s going to get into Macs… you know why? because he’s chasing the paying customer that really exists, not a figment of a financial analyst’s imagination.
04/03/2010 at 16:03 Heliosicle says:
Grrrr, that kind of thinking makes me angry subversus, you need to actually THINK about what all this stuff means, I’ve tried to write a reply 3 times now and I’ve realised that you’re an idiot so theres probably no point in even replying in a coherent way, so I’ll give you this reply.
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Also, I’m really happy about this, means I can totally buy Splinter Cell Conviction now.
04/03/2010 at 16:20 Urthman says:
I bought Assassin’s Creed One. I’m not going to buy Assassin’s Creed Two unless there is a crack to get rid of the copy protection. I’m not going to download the thing because (among other reasons) my net connection is too crappy to download something that big, as well as too crappy for their stupid DRM to work.
So the Assassin’s Creed developers should be celebrating this news. Pirates aren’t going to buy their game anyway, but this removes a barrier their stupid publisher set up between them and their legitimate customers.
(Joe Duck, those 20 Million pirated copies in your example do cost the publisher a little bit of money in increased support costs. I used to think requesting customer support for a pirated game was the ultimate in chutzpah, but I think it’s probably mostly just stupidity from the sort of people who don’t know the difference between AOL and the Internet. Other than that I agree with you.)
04/03/2010 at 16:49 JoeDuck says:
@Urthman: You are right, I forgot that cost.
Related to that, does anyone know of any big game budget that can be read online?
I’d really like to see how the millions of dollars of investment are divided.
04/03/2010 at 17:09 drewski says:
When I can find Assassins Creed cheap, I’ll probably pick it up.
AC2, however, will be borrowed from a mate and played on 360.
Haha, Ubisoft!
04/03/2010 at 17:55 Castle says:
Wow. OK. How about this:
Ubisoft decides to screw over us paying customers by imposing this ridiculous, anti-consumer DRM scheme.
The first game with this DRM scheme is pirated immediately. It therefore becomes clear that this DRM scheme does not even remotely work. If the case of EA serves as a good example, we can expect Ubi to abandon this DRM scheme now that it’s been proven to be completely ineffective.
Therefore, we celebrate.
A lot of us were expecting to be unable to play AC2 and other Ubi games due to this incredibly restrictive DRM scheme. Now maybe we’ll be able to. We’re “stupid” because we’re happy about possibly getting to play some games that we want to play? I don’t think you’ve thought this through all the way.
No, I don’t like pirates. But you know what else I don’t like? Being screwed out of what I pay for by large companies that don’t realize how much DRM like this affects paying customers and how little it affects pirates. So yeah, the DRM from hell is dead. I’m celebrating.
04/03/2010 at 19:55 drewski says:
It’s more likely they’ll just try to ramp it up.
It took the music industry a good 5 years, a lot of infighting, a few lawsuits over malformed discs and much gnashing of teeth and clenching of fists before they finally gave up and stopped trying to punish their legitimate consumers for the actions of others.
The PC industry (and the film industry, for what it’s worth) are still going through that process. Things are likely to get worse before they get better.
04/03/2010 at 22:41 Devan says:
@subversus
In addition to the points made in all these other replies, I’d like to add a counter to your implication that if we can convince the pirates to stop pirating, the DRM problem will go away. DRM is desirable to the publishers for more reasons than countering piracy (which it doesn’t do well anyway). It presents the opportunity to exert more control over the consumers, to push premium content, to squash the second-hand and rental markets, and to “encourage” users to pay for upgrades by reducing the usefulness of current versions. This applies to more than just games, and even more than just software.
I assure you that even if all piracy miraculously ended today, the DRM in our games, OSs and devices will only continue to get more and more restrictive.
04/03/2010 at 22:42 Castle says:
I’d say it’s more likely that some other developer will try to ramp it up. The same thing happened with EA: they put highly restrictive DRM on big ticket games like Mass Effect and Spore and caught a lot of bad press. Then, when it became clear that the DRM wasn’t doing anything and the bad press was hurting sales, they did an about face and toned everything down.
Now it’s Ubi’s turn: someone convinces the higher-ups at the company that THIS ultra-restrictive DRM is the answer to piracy, so they push it into all their games. Then they receive a ton of bad press with no effect on piracy. I think at this point they likely abandon the DRM…although how long this takes is anyone’s guess.
At least, that’s what I’m hoping.
The question then becomes, which publisher is the next to convince themselves that they have the answer to piracy? My money’s on Activision.
04/03/2010 at 22:47 drewski says:
@ Castle – you obviously have more faith in Ubi’s rationality than I do!
04/03/2010 at 23:59 Wulf says:
@Helio
O ya.
@subver
Initial reaction: Oh wow, have you ever been hacked, and good.
Thinky reaction: You just don’t understand.
This might sound a bit silly, but sometimes you need evidence to back up words. If one says to Ubisoft that their DRM doesn’t stop pirates, that it only punishes legitimate users, they’ll scoff. But see, we have these heroes, and it’s these people I champion. They’ve cracked the game, I don’t care why they did it, but they did it. That they did it means we now have evidence.
This means we can now say: “Look, your DRM is ineffectual, every stage of your DRM is ineffectual, and any safeguards you have will be brought down within a matter of days. What do you have to say to that? It’s your move, Ubisoft.”
The truth of this is is that piracy is likely a cover for built-in obsolescence, as other have pointed out, it’s there so that they can make people want to buy sequels by turning off the prequels. That’s our stand, you see? We take that stand, and we say “Prove that isn’t the case, turn off the ineffectual DRM.” and then we watch to see what they’ll do. And this is the only way you can deal with them.
What we need right now is major news sources asking that question: Now that the DRM has been cracked, are Ubisoft going to leave it in there? And if they do, why? Is it really a form of planned obsolescence? RPS needs to ask this question, and many other sites do too. This is the only way we’ll get anything done, done for us, as paying customers.
This DRM is ludicrous, and since it’s been cracked the only people who’re suffering are paying customers. Could you feel safe buying a game knowing that Ubisoft can simply revoke your purchase at any point? Doesn’t that just turn your game into a rental? And look at it this way, even if they don’t go back on this DRM, you have the work of heroes — those wonderful crackers — to disable the DRM with. So even if they decide to try and turn the game off a few years down the line, we can just re-enable it with the crack, to get our perfectly legit purchase back.
Once again: Simple as.
05/03/2010 at 13:28 J says:
@Wulf
I just would like to ask you to pass on my sincere thanks to these individuals, for taking both the risk and time to do what they do.
I for one appreciate everything they do greatly and have been ever since the first bitpusher came out.
They are important.
04/03/2010 at 14:37 Trousers says:
GUFFAW
Still though, I beg you men of ARGH, do not touch this download. Leave this game be, with your noses turned up.
04/03/2010 at 14:39 Walsh says:
If this is a means to an end, I’m all for it. I would buy this game in a second if Ubi announced they were patching out the DRM. Hell, I might even buy two copies.
04/03/2010 at 14:44 Mario Figueiredo says:
Anyways, good thing I consider Assassin’s Creed and Silent Hunter franchises (among others) utter pieces of gaming crap meant to milk my wallet and take me from behind, by producing not unique titles and new ideas, but an infinite number of sequels, that basically add new features to the old game at the cost of a new.
So not only I don’t get raped, but I also don’t have to battle with my desire to play these games and thus whore myself for the price of 20 (10?) hours of fun, that I certainly can find on other games.
04/03/2010 at 15:54 Risingson says:
What do you have against the Silent Hunter franchise? Are you really saying, sober, that Silent Hunter 3 and 4 are crap?
04/03/2010 at 16:06 Mario Figueiredo says:
I am saying precisely that. Now, if you like them, good on you. I don’t and I don’t plan to discuss your tastes for games. So don’t you care discuss mine.
04/03/2010 at 16:48 Wisq says:
Er, yes, because it makes perfect sense to come on to a topic and say “these games are crap, don’t try to tell me otherwise, I’m just here to say that I don’t care (although I evidently care at least enough to say that I don’t), and I won’t tolerate discussion of my discussion”.
04/03/2010 at 21:15 RedFred says:
@Fig: Yeah you’re right. The last thing we need is for developers to make good games based on semi obscure topics. I can’t wait for the day that every game is like MW2! Bring on mediocrity.
05/03/2010 at 04:07 John Rambo says:
The Silent Hunter series is actually particularly good. However, it is a 1940s Submarine warfare simulation, so yea… niche product is what you got right there.
04/03/2010 at 14:44 pistolhamster says:
How sad, honestly.
This just means one of two things
1) Worse DRM will find its way to the pc
2) Fewer games will find its way to the pc
We lose. No matter how you turn it, we lose. So wipe off those smirks, please. Unless you ARE active pirates, you’re laughing at yourself as the branch you sit on is sawed over.
04/03/2010 at 14:50 Trousers says:
No..fewer blockbuster waste of money (on both ends) games will come to the PC.
Innovative money making Indie games will most certainly be in abundance.
So screw em, crash and burn UBI.
04/03/2010 at 14:58 meeper says:
I still hold hope that continued DRM functional failures will result in an Apple-like change of opinion of DRM.
04/03/2010 at 14:58 the_fanciest_of_pants says:
1) not necessarily
2) not necessarily
You have no basis for what you’re saying. Some actual argument please, generalization sways me not at all.
The big publishers are going to have to learn that piracy can’t actually be stopped in 95% of cases, hell they are behind the MUSIC industry in terms of DRM (big music learned that invasive DRM doesn’t work what.. two years ago now?).
Companies need to find ways to incentivize actually BUYING games (making your customers actually like you is a good first step). Again, look to the music industry for examples of solutions.
As for the news that this simply flabbergasting DRM has been cracked? Fantastic! Truly, wonderful news; Now legitimate customers and pirates alike can bypass this ridiculous thing, and hopefully ubi will learn that fucking over your customers is probably the worst anti-piracy tactic you could possibly enact.
So I think I’ll keep smirking thankyou very much.
04/03/2010 at 15:02 squirrel says:
Come to think of it. It may be a chance for smaller developers. With large developers moving away, and smaller developers not able to compete in console gaming, not it’s a good time for small developers to show off their creativity.
BTW, the primary function of PC is not gaming in the first place. Maybe it’s time for us to look for more productive use of PC. We can always look forward to more powerful game consoles, right? 512 ram game machines seem rather outdated.
And please remember, DRM is not only adopted in PC gaming. The disease is also spreading in other sector of software industries. We should move on to demand that restrictive DRM be removed from some common applications.
04/03/2010 at 15:03 Clovis says:
Yeah, all this Portal nonsense is just a lead up to Valve announcing that they will no longer be making games for the PC since it is impossible to make a profit because of piracy …
If only Ubi would have perfected DRM before releasing Prince of Persia, it would have been the best selling PC game of alll time. Sure …
04/03/2010 at 17:15 drewski says:
Nonsense. It might change PC gaming, just as digital music has changed the music industry (case in point – ten years ago, a new CD cost A$30, regardless of age, artist or popularity, unless it was on sale. Today, I can frequently find brand new CDs for A$15, and older stock at around A$20. This is due to the legalising of “grey” imports, removing the local distributors de facto monopoly, and the fact physical media now needs to compete with digital media. So despite ten years of inflation (say, 30%), the cost of buying music has dropped by 33-50%.
And it’s just as easy to pirate music today as it ever was – indeed, by and large, the music industry has stopped bothering even to try to shut down pirates.
Sooner or later the games industry is going to learn it’s lesson. It might be the same lesson the music industry learnt – rather than chase every dollar that people won’t spend anyway, get as much as you can out of the people who will by making it easy, cheap and convenient to legally purchase music – or it may be another lesson.
But gaming on PC will never die, it’ll only change, and I’m OK with that.
04/03/2010 at 17:48 Grape Flavor says:
@Trousers, @drewski
“fewer blockbuster games will come to the PC. Innovative money making Indie games will most certainly be in abundance”
“PC will never die, it’ll only change, and I’m OK with that”
See, the problem is some of us AREN’T okay with that. We all like our World of Goos and VVVVVVVVs, but some of us also like our Crysises and our Mass Effects just as much, if not more.
Where I take great offense, is you and others seem perfectly fine with making this decision on my behalf. My being forced to get a console to get those games, and all that entails, is a fundamental infringement of my ability to enjoy my hobby.
If you’re fine with console-only AAA gaming, GO GET A CONSOLE. But keep your grubby hands off of MY PC enjoyment.
04/03/2010 at 19:52 drewski says:
@ Grape Flavor – nobody is making your decision for you. You can make any decision you want.
But so can publishers and developers, and rather than moan because things aren’t turning out the way we’d like, it’s more sensible to adapt.
I like AAA titles on PC. But if people aren’t prepared to pay for them, there’s not really anything I can do about it.
05/03/2010 at 00:27 Wulf says:
@Grape Flavour
Hm, another nick I don’t recognise. Hi new person!
Anyway, as was said, the decision isn’t being made by the gaming public, it’s a decision that rests purely in the hands of the publishers. I think the point that was being made was that if AAA titles did move away from the PC to any degree, due to the choices of the large publishing companies, then money would find its way into the hands of more creative people. The end result would be that more creative people would have greater funds for better projects, and this would lead to an interesting era of computing, where games sold on the merit of how good they were, rather than how easily you’re brainwashed by ad campaigns.
I understand that you don’t like that, but personally I find that a lot of AAA games are quite crap, not at all as good as the indie offerings, and I’m happy for the consoles to keep most of them. Now an AAA title I would think of as something like BioShock 2, where it’s designed to shift big numbers on the consoles. I don’t particularly think of the Witcher or STALKER as AAA titles for that reason, as they’re not on the same level, they’re not developed to make huge amounts of money and they’re better for it. They make their profits and that’s that.
Personally, I’d be more than happy for the sub-AAA gaming development arenas to get more money, such as European development houses, small companies, the indies, and so on, but that’s just me.
Here’s the part of this post you’ll like, though: Corporate minds aren’t entirely stupid. Fairly stupid? Oh, definitely, no doubt about it. Completely stupid? No. And they realise that some profits are better than no profits. Any game released on the PC is going to generate some level of profits, and they’re going to buy into that. As long as that’s true, they’ll just release games a bit later after the consoles and put bloody awful DRM on them. The thing is, they believe that because something sells X units on the consoles and Y units on the PC, the difference between X and Y must be piracy, rather than more realistic factors, such as a different gaming audience which isn’t as into those games. Piracy is a factor, sure, but not as big of a factor.
Valve have pointed out that they’ve never had any problems with simultaneous releases, they make plenty of money, and the same is true with Bioware and the release of Mass Effect 2. And there you have it. It’s not going to sell as well on the PC unless the audience are into it, and truth be told we’re more into more PC-leaning development, such as Valve, indie, and European development houses, that’s not to say that we don’t occasionally enjoy AAA titles, we do, but not as much. There will be people who LURV those AAA titles even more than something like VVVVVV, but I think in general the gaming audience leans more my way than yours, which explains the sales.
The most likely thing that will happen in the future is that publishers will realise this and get over themselves, and stop attributing different levels of shifted units to piracy alone, and they might even start making better ports (hooray!) and PC-focused games (hooray!) instead of shitty console ports. I mean, really, they’re making shitty console ports and they’re surprised that consoles get more sales than computers? I WONDER WHY. DURR. But yes, it’s just a matter of waiting out the shitstorm until they do finally clue themselves in.
Don’t worry, those AAA titles aren’t going anywhere, and it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better, but everything that happens is purely up to the publishers to decide, how amazingly stupid they’re going to be about it, and how long they’re going to keep up that stupidity.
04/03/2010 at 14:49 squirrel says:
What?! DRM has been officially removed? Any confirmed source? If so I will go and buy them!!
04/03/2010 at 14:56 Kyr says:
Rumor confirmed – russian torrent sites already have cracked version of SH5. It doesn’t matter anymore tho – Steam is coming to Mac, Windows is dying as a gaming platform. We are witnessing the birth of new epoch.
04/03/2010 at 15:01 the_fanciest_of_pants says:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OHOHOHO…
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh man, I haven’t laughed like that for a week. Thank you so much.
04/03/2010 at 15:05 Clovis says:
@fanciest: I can’t help buy try to imagine your avatar making those noises. It doesn’t quite work …
04/03/2010 at 15:23 Kyr says:
@fanciest: What’s so funny? I hate to come down to your level of intelligence, so please explain yourself.
04/03/2010 at 15:30 Psychopomp says:
Wait, you weren’t joking? Excuse me, I think I’ll join him in laughing.
04/03/2010 at 15:31 the_fanciest_of_pants says:
@Clovis; I like to think that people read my comments in my avatars voice.
@Kyr: easy there, thought you were kidding. Macs as the future of gaming- I just don’t see it.
-They’re more expensive
-Fewer parts
-Harder to upgrade
I could go on.
04/03/2010 at 15:32 Latterman says:
1. so they did already port left 4 dead, half life 2 and empire: TW to mac too? i’m impressed
2. can’t resist the lame how i met your mother in-joke:
seems like the hot chicks moved to employment in DRM desing
04/03/2010 at 15:52 Kyr says:
Recession and piracy killed russian PC games development industry before it was even born, things are not looking good in Europe and US either. All big games were actually multiplatform for like 4 years now, that means they could easily drop PC versions, but publishers decided to take their chances and lost a bunch of money because of PC piracy on this. Windows won’t be able to survive as a gaming platform if Valve introduces not only a Steam but development tools for Mac – and it’s going to happen soon.
As for expensiveness of Macs – true, but console people do not upgrade their consoles, right? So Macs don’t really need to be upgraded – their performance is great already (like Windows running better on Macs). So you buy Macbook for like $2000 (a price of high-end PC, and half of performance of your rig goes to run WIndows) that serves not only as a gaming platform but you actually use it for your working purposes also – and voila, you have a decent universal platform. Also, people port PC games to Macs via CXS or some other kit by themselves, no development skills needed. So we just sit and wait for the next move from Apple in that direction.
p.s. Only reason I haven’t completely moved to Mac yet is the lack of games there.
04/03/2010 at 16:31 Clovis says:
The “Year of Mac Gaming” will happen right after the “Year of the Linux Desktop”.
04/03/2010 at 17:00 the_fanciest_of_pants says:
Well I think it’s a pretty bold claim to say that the Russian pc games industry is dead, care to back that up with proof? And I’m sorry but;
A) Macs are NOT better performing then PC’s on any level.
B) Mac is not the major work platform for any industry apart from film editing and graphic design(and those industries pretty much just favor mac due to tradition – and before you say anything I’ve worked in both said industries.. working on mac provides zero benefit over a windows system save personal preference).
C) Why you think that all problems inherent with the PC games industry would change in any way on a MAC OS is absolutely beyond me. Games are just as pirate-able on a MAC.
04/03/2010 at 17:15 Army of None says:
“So you buy Macbook for like $2000 (a price of high-end PC, and half of performance of your rig goes to run WIndows) that serves not only as a gaming platform but you actually use it for your working purposes also”
This statement alone made me laugh, so hard, at mac users. I do think that it’s awesome that Valve is going to macs, because more people playing good games is always a plus, but… wow. it’s like some of you guys are on another planet.
04/03/2010 at 17:17 drewski says:
Haha, good joke.
Oh, you were serious.
Which is actually…funnier?
If Mac gaming takes off, Mac piracy won’t be far behind.
04/03/2010 at 18:25 Psychopomp says:
>$2000
Stop buying prefab computers.
04/03/2010 at 14:56 PHeMoX says:
They’re morons if they believe this DRM is going to stop pirates from trying to crack it. Even if it wouldn’t have a DRM copy protection, they would still check.
04/03/2010 at 15:07 HexagonalBolts says:
Went in to a Game shop earlier, asides from being painfully expensive, I noticed that Assassin’s Creed 2 preorder was number 4 in the charts, I don’t think the message about DRM has got through to the general public.
04/03/2010 at 16:47 SanguineAngel says:
@Hexagonal
Don’t be too disheartened mate. I know a few people who work for Game and I gather that, just like a lot of other stores, they often set the chart up to influence sales, not the other way round. So the chart is not necessarily indicative of actual sales.
04/03/2010 at 17:17 phlebas says:
Indeed the Game chart’s nothing to do with sales (sales already made, at least) – I was told this in-store when I went looking for something on release day and couldn’t find it until I looked in the chart section.
04/03/2010 at 21:05 Gorgeras says:
Assassin’s Creed 2 is no longer on the top sales list on Steam, only a few weeks after it reached number 2. It’s gone.
Now it’s been released on Steam in most places. It’s still not back on the list. It might make an appearance tomorrow, but if it doesn’t, AC2 is fucked. Don’t bother with what retail outlets say it’s at; much of their use of charts is purely promotional and download retailers are large enough now that they can be considered representative samples and they aren’t to my knowledge run by humans but their own database.
04/03/2010 at 22:00 terry says:
It’s also mysteriously unavailable on Steam in the UK, despite having a store entry and advertising on the store…. perhaps this is all an ARG and Bobby Kotick and Ubisoft will actually reveal themselves to be spacefaring Elvis reincarnations, masterfully dancing on strings wielded by David Cage in a monkey suit playing a trombone.
04/03/2010 at 15:14 Gutter says:
So did SH3 use online saves? I can’t find this being announced anywhere. I’m not sure what is the big deal here… Online authentication services get cracked all the time, it’s not that amazing. If Silent Hunter was never made to exclusively use online save, cracking the authentication part of the new Ubi DRM isn’t news worthy.
Assassin’s Creed 2 won’t automagically save games even if the authentication part alone is broken.
04/03/2010 at 15:14 Dreamhacker says:
Justice has prevailed? Or score one to Robin Hood?
04/03/2010 at 15:18 nayon says:
I don’t understand some of the people here saying “More DRM=less piracy”. As long as the DRM is cracked (and it always is), it doesn’t matter at all. If the game is an anticipated release, it will be pirated more.
Make shitty game with no DRM and nobody would pirate it.
Make a really flashy game which is a sequel to a huge franchise with heavy DRM, everyone will pirate it.
Make a good game and keep rewarding customers who actually bought the item, it won’t be pirated as much.
I lived in Turkey, where piracy is the norm and buying actual games is considered weird, because they are so expensive (PS3 games are like $120, PC games wildly fluctuate). For most of my friends, the only game that they actually ever bought was the orange box. Why, because it is value for your money, and you know Valve will support the customer after release.
I own many games on Steam, and around half of them are games I wish I never bought, because they were not worth the money I paid for them. So, I have been very apprehensive towards buying games lately. Developers should stop making bad console ports of copy-paste games. PC is not a console. The audience is different, the controls are different. I don’t want to play castrated 3-button games anymore.
04/03/2010 at 15:32 Theory says:
Yeah, like World of Goo!
04/03/2010 at 17:48 Shalrath says:
How has world of goo ‘kept rewarding customers’ exactly?
04/03/2010 at 23:12 FunkyBadger says:
Dude, you only get to have an opinion when you start paying for your games.
05/03/2010 at 01:01 Wulf says:
@Theory
I know you were trying to be ironic, but yes, exactly like World of Goo. The interesting thing with World of Goo was that the piracy numbers were way off, and as I’ve mentioned before: Piracy statistics are meaningless, invariably so.
What does matter? Sales figures. What I don’t want to know is how much something is pirated, because that’s always a nebulous, imaginative, made-up figure. What I do want to know is how much 2DBoy had in their bank account within two months of the game going on sale. Then I want to know what that is compared to their expenses, after that we can start talking about whether they actually made a decent amount of money off their project.
But sales figures are the only thing that matters, and that we aren’t given sales figures is exceedingly telling of the real situation. If I were a cynical person, I’d say the whole 90~% piracy thing was a sympathy plea, a marketing stunt to boost sales. The funny part is that it probably DID boost sales. Notice that there are people here saying that they’d buy two copies of a Ubisoft game if the DRM was taken away? Yeah. I do that, too, but I do it for people who deserve it.
Every time I see piracy figures I’m going to laugh, and I’ll laugh unless it’s backed up by poor sales figures.
(I found the World of Goo thing especially insulting since I bought three copies of the damn game when it was £15 a pop, due to the pound having gone down and the game being $20.)
– Edited as I have more to say. –
Look at how Wolfire drummed up 1,000 sales just by being awesome. Poor John and his pink beard. And that’s how you do business, by being wonderful, amazing, and befriending people, by being a bit silly, and coming over as sincere. I love Wolfire, I really do.
And this is why I don’t put too much stock into the World of Goo piracy numbers, because despite woowoowoo wishy-washy piracy numbers, I think they still made a good bit of profit.
05/03/2010 at 01:23 Pace says:
Not only are you cynical, but your head is buried pretty derned far in the sand, I’d say.
05/03/2010 at 01:58 Wulf says:
@Pace
Comprehension failure is you.
I used one ridiculous notion to counteract another, I already pointed out that I don’t subscribe to it.
DURR. Really. DURR. Lots of DURR here.
I found the piracy numbers to be pointless, and yet some people subscribed to them and it blew up into this huge conspiracy theory about how if a game isn’t protected by DRM, paying customers immediately transform into pirates. And therefore almost every probable sale turns into a pirated game and you have OMG 90% PIRACY. It’s just… guh. It’s not very bright of anyone involved. I wished to make this point by counteracting it with something that wasn’t very bright, to open a few eyes.
Instead, I’ve just made even more of an idiot out of one Internet person.
More fool me, I suppose, for trying.
– Continuation. –
But yes, the nonsense surrounding World of Goo was one of the few instances where I wish I had pirated a game, to give them some credibility, instead of having bought three copies of it. That they came out with a number like that and no sales figures was pretty insulting to everyone involved, and anyone who bought into it just wasn’t thinking clearly.
Sometimes it takes an idiotic statement made from the opposite end of things for people to realise how unintelligent they’re being. And the World of Goo piracy thing was very, very unintelligent.
05/03/2010 at 06:20 Pace says:
Brevity man, Brevity!
04/03/2010 at 15:24 Spartan says:
For what it is worth, for all the naysayers and proponents of the “death of PC gaming” , there is always Stardock. It is becoming last great refuge for real PC gamers and is actively supporting other independent developers to make high quality titles for reasonable prices. The day Brad sells out to consoles or even one of the “big boys” will be the day PC gaming ends in my mind.
I for one will be glad if Ubi decides to leave the platform. It has done nothing but hurt PC gamers for years, so I say good riddance.
04/03/2010 at 15:34 Latterman says:
you know how all the bedtime stories of the small underdog corporations with their do-no-evil policies end after they’ve grown big and not-so-underdog-anymore?
04/03/2010 at 16:15 JoeDuck says:
Yes, they become Valve :-)
04/03/2010 at 17:55 Grape Flavor says:
“I for one will be glad if Ubi decides to leave the platform. It has done nothing but hurt PC gamers for years, so I say good riddance.”
Yeah, some of us DON’T look at a PC future with less games and more console exclusives as a GOOD thing.
I wish I could live in this Upside-Down-World you all inhabit where sticking it to game companies is so much more important than, you know, ACTUAL PC GAMING, but I just can’t seem to get into the mindset.
04/03/2010 at 21:12 Nobody Important says:
Because, Mr. Grape Flavor, you think in absolutes and slippery slopes. You seem to think that if Ubisoft is disheartened from publishing PC games and making the platform look bad with shitty, half-assed ports of console games that the platform will fall apart. You seem to think that one less box on the shelves will kill of the PC market. You seem to think that one thing leads to another, which is not necessarily true.
There’s a market. If Ubisoft leaves, someone else will come to fill the market. That’s how the PC market has worked for thirty years, and that’s how it will work now.
05/03/2010 at 01:20 Wulf says:
@Grape Flavour
What’s mildly irking about the way you think is that you lay all the blame with the gaming audience, you see this situation and you think “Ah, it is there choice.”, but no, it is not our choice. We have merely sobered to the reality of the situation, whereas you have not. If Ubisoft choose to leave, that is their choice, and so be it. As I said in a previous post, I cannot imagine that ever happening, but if it does then we can’t do anything about it other than accept it.
What we can do is embrace those who’re decent to us and honest with us, for is honesty not a virtue, and should we not value those who would allow us our dignity? It really is just a matter of virtues, and they matter, even in today’s world. People see who’s treating them like shit, like total whores (and no, I won’t drop that metaphor), and they also remember those who’ve treated them fairly. And they look more kindly upon those who’ve treated them fairly, whereas they care not if those who’ve abused them wander off and are never seen again. Is that not understandable?
05/03/2010 at 07:06 Grape Flavor says:
@Woulf
You’ve been making some very valid points. I’m rather impressed at how reasoned and polite the replies are to my (in retrospect) rather insulting posts. Piracy just rubs me the wrong way, you see, so if I temporarily get carried away, try not to be offended. :)
04/03/2010 at 15:53 SheffieldSteel says:
My first response to this was to laugh like a loon. On reflection, though, I don’t see much to celebrate.
Every pirated copy of the game, every sale below forecast, will be seen by Ubisoft as proof of the failure of the DRM implementation, not of the idea behind it. Ubisoft will resolve to make something harder to crack with their next game. Legitimate customers will continue to suffer. Buyers of used copies will be divided into those who pirate and those who cannot play the game. Complaints will increase in online forums, as will the arguments and demands for future cracks.
In short, the cycle of stupid continues.
04/03/2010 at 16:09 Ozzie says:
I think UbiSoft may learn its lesson when AC2 sells less than the last, copy protection free PoP game. I hope this happens, but I doubt it.
I repeat what many already repeated like a mantra here:
DON’T. BUY. THIS. DRM! INFESTED! SHIT!!
Don’t pirate it, don’t buy it and crack it, just plain: DON’T BUY IT!
There are enough great games out there anyway, there’s so much awesomeness that I don’t had enough time to take it all in even I would play all day and night long!
04/03/2010 at 16:30 SanguineAngel says:
@ SheffieldSteel
Well, I celebrate this still because eventually these publishers and developers are going to have to cotton on to the fact that their current methods are not working and are in fact only hurting their sales.
Their only two options are really to p**s off or to offer a better service to compete against piracy.
Everything they have done so far has done nothing but actually raise the quality of the pirated copy of the game in comparison. And generate ill-will among consumers. It’s ass backwards and any competant business brain SHOULD be able to see it.
ALSO, the reason i have never seen this as the “death of PC gaming” is because in truth, the majority of these big name publishers have been, in my view, detracting from real grass roots PC gaming for years. The less we see of them, the better. The Indie scene is on the glorious rise and with some exception in the big name world, is much more appealing.
Personally I would like to see both. But far less quantity on the big budget AAA front and more quality.
04/03/2010 at 16:08 Evo says:
Although it’s fun to laugh at Ubisoft after their bout of colossal stupidity, I think it would have been better if the DRM was not cracked, but the game still flopped. Then they couldn’t blame it on piracy.
04/03/2010 at 17:21 Shalrath says:
I was JUST thinking this. However, of the alternatives, I like this one. If a company is so moronic they actually think Pirated Copy = Lost Sale, they can stay the fuck away.
I’m not saying piracy was or is fine (I have literally never pirated a purchasable game [I got Close Combat 3 because I couldn't even find it on ebay]) I just love that these morons will finally go the hell away, and better publishers (Valve, Blizzard, indie x129394) will come forward.
04/03/2010 at 16:36 oceanclub says:
This story had all the inevitability of a falling rock. Giant Software Conglomerate Taunt Hackers That They Can’t Break Evil Unbreakable DRM; Hackers Break DRM, Do Nelson Impression.
If it was a movie, it would star Hugh Grant and Sandra Bullock and be written by Akiva Goldman.
P.
04/03/2010 at 20:33 Bonedwarf says:
It’s Robocop 3 all over again. (God I love that story.)
04/03/2010 at 16:37 Koozer says:
I don’t think ACII sales will be affected much, but it will surely affect the sales of Ubisoft’s future efforts after the hordes of innocent buyers discover this crazy DRM in their games. In the meantime, Ubisoft can either control the damage by patching out the DRM, or stick with it until the inevitable decline appears on their stereotypical finance-o-graph.A red line graph on a grid background. Possibly on a flipchart.
04/03/2010 at 16:37 Tei says:
Is, of course, a good news that this system is breackable. The bad news is that has been break :-)
Is good news that this system can be break, because we don’t want this system to extend to all other games, banning “offline playing” from existence. The brekatitude of the system make this system not more “safety” than any other system, and still agravant and horrible for honest customers. So make it harder that other people will copy it, and maybe may make so Ubisoft stop use it at any future date.
04/03/2010 at 16:49 Evernight says:
You cannot beat the pirates – and the more attention you draw to yourself the more they are going to beat on you.
I wanted AC2… I would have bought it on PC launch day no problem… but after I heard of the DRM BS I decided to buy BF:BC2….. They lost my business, until they fix their DRM. Oh and no, I didn’t and most likely will not pirate AC2.
04/03/2010 at 16:51 SanguineAngel says:
I would urge you to reconsider this. Whilst I see your point, every sale they do make merely legitimises their use of this crazy DRM in future releases.
04/03/2010 at 16:54 TheApologist says:
Yep. Sums it up for me.
This was the sound of inevitability.
04/03/2010 at 16:55 Robin says:
The confusion is so great on topics like sales figures and state of the industry (pc-wise).
If you try to google something there isn’t almost any data about pc-games sales numbers. Sometimes you read: “The Witcher solds 1 million!”, “Sins of a Solar Empire reach 500k!”, or “Assassin Creed sells poorly”, “One copy of Prince of Persia sold, but it was a mistake!”.
You can’t make a clear picture about the situation, it’ just an in finite loop of “I think…” or “In my opinion…”.
I’d like that someone with connections, like RPS staff, would do a in-depth analysis of the state of the things, backed up with numbers and such.
There are questions which need to be answered with sincerity:
Did that specific game generate a revenue or a loss? What were the sales of similar games in comparison? In the end it performed poorly or not? (If a kind of game usually sells 50~100 it’s unlikely, even with DRM on, to pretend it suddenly sells 1000).
And again: Has pc market ever been as big as the actual console (sales-wise)?
Has it grown or not? How much? (we all know that console market exploded and it’s now ultra-big, but I don’t care a lot, i want to know about pc market).
Sorry for my poor English
05/03/2010 at 01:42 Wulf says:
Don’t worry about your English, it’s just fine!
And heh, I’ve been making the same point. Some bloody sincerity would go a long way, give us the exact sales figures of all recent releases, across all formats, and let us decide whether piracy is hurting sales. To be told that some wibblywobbly piracy number is hurting their sales without actually telling me what their sales were is just insulting the intelligence of anyone who reads it, and they bloody well should be insulted if they want to feel intelligent.
The lack of honesty is so telling though, isn’t it? If piracy was a real problem then people would be honest about it, that there’s so much dishonesty surrounding the topic… well, that tells a different story, that says that there’s more than just piracy going on here, otherwise there’d be more companies willing to be up-front about this. Of course, usually it’s just stupidity, as I’ve mentioned before. A game is designed to sell to a console audience, the PC version gets a shit port, the consoles shift X units, and the PC shifts Y units. Y is less than X, and they immediately assume that the problem is piracy. This is abject corporate idiocy at its finest. It could be that the audience is less interested in the game, or that potential PC gamers bought it for the consoles due to the bad port, or turned their nose up at it because it was a bad port.
Here’s the fun part, though: Despite Y not being as great a number as X, Y is probably still a ridiculously large profit, more than they deserved to make on that game. They sold far more than the game was worth on the PC, but because PC gamers aren’t cut from the same cloth as console gamers, they assume that piracy is why their thirst for money wasn’t as sated by the PC release as it was with the console releases. And then they add DRM, and they delay releases, instead of making more PC–focused games, or offering simultaneous releases of good games with no DRM.
The lack of honesty and the shenanigans surrounding the piracy wobblies thrown by big companies should be enough for anyone to come to the same conclusion. If they want us to believe that piracy is a problem, then stop being so insincere with us. Treat us like people and give us the numbers. But they’re afraid to do that because they know as well as I know that we’d all be disgusted at the fact that they’re not losing money at all, they’re making huge profits and just sulking because we’re not as interested in their games as the console audience are.
05/03/2010 at 19:18 Hamster says:
All free markets have a function of scarcity.
You have limited disposable income.
“Honest” Pirates have near 0 disposable income(after doing such criminal things as, say, buy food, pay rent and/or other attempts at trying to survive in a shit economy or just plain after spending their pocket money on cell phone gadgets instead during their teenage years), so they pirate. No money to spend means no money lost.
People who have both a PC and a console will usually not get a game for both systems, unless they are either suckers(i.e. believe or encourage the special features lie for one version over the other) or far too wealthy, and have to choose what they buy it for. The second version is already the cost of a completely new, different game.
PC and console versions are not seperate entities. They are for the very large part competing with the very same market share. Pretending they are seperate worlds is just plain stupid, as is lining up numbers against one another.
Another point never mentioned – you can have splendid sales and still make a loss because you went over budget, took 2 years too long and fucked up your roadmap overall.
Then it sure as heck isn’t pirates killing the game or revenues, but you’re still going to get it hodgepodged into everything when it comes to publishers making/losing money in a fiscal quarter.
So yea, this would need real scientific AND background research, not just “Piracy kills xxxx” bollox.
04/03/2010 at 17:07 schuubars says:
Everyone can say what they want…but just one thing to point out…
The Game can be priced in any way and can be to most shit game ever released.
But that doesn’t change the fact that no single person on this little planet has the right to pirate a game, and every excuse on that matter is just plain wrong.
04/03/2010 at 17:49 St4ud3 says:
And whats your point? This news is not about how great cracking the game is for the pirates, it’s about how stupid DRM methods will always be cracked in a matter of hours/days. So it’s just unbelievably stupid to use methods that restrict your customers. A pirate wouldnt buy the game anyway, so they lose much more money because people boycott their games than they make by implementing the DRM in the first place.
Even if the DRM was uncrackable, they still wouldnt make the millions they claim in losses. Publishers should just stop focussing on pirates and start making games that are worth buying and they will make a big profit despite people pirating it.
04/03/2010 at 20:16 Ben L. says:
@schuubars
Everyone can say what they want…but just one thing to point out…
The Game can be priced in any way and can be have millions of dollars poured into it.
But that doesn’t change the fact that no single company on this little planet has the right to deny me access to a game I legally purchased from them and am legally using, no matter what righteous arguments they wrap themselves in.
05/03/2010 at 01:48 Wulf says:
@schuubars
You fail to understand that “I am glad this game was cracked!” != “I am going to pirate this game.”
Simple as. I’ve been saying that a lot this thread, but this is all very simple to me. People don’t like Ubisoft for being dishonest. Honesty sells things. Huge discovery! Not.
The thing is, that this has been cracked is evidence that Ubisoft’s current DRM system is ineffectual, that leaves the ball in Ubisoft’s court, and it means that eventually they might drop these foolish attempts at DRM in their games, and we — the legitimate consumer — would only profit from this. Because ANY form of DRM will not stop a pirate, but EVERY form of DRM will result in suffering for a body of consumers, if not for every consumer.
05/03/2010 at 19:22 L2P says:
Objective morals do not exist (there are no entities embodying eternal laws or codifications floating around in Z-Space somewhere or whatever).
All morality as we know and create it is socially agreed upon reality.
That’s all I am going to say, it’s up to you and your mental capacity to process this properly or not.
04/03/2010 at 17:12 Hat Galleon says:
I would just like to inform you that you just won the comments thread, Inigo.
04/03/2010 at 17:18 Dirtybob says:
Good PC games still sell good. Without any piracy protection.
Bad console ports which can’t really be called a game but an interactive movie where the only thing you do is move around and press one and the same button when the icon on the bottom of the screen appears (latest Prince of Persia) will never sell well on a PC.
Console market (and I don’t mean this as an insult because there are some great games around) is not the same as PC market.
DRMs are a waste of time and money. Every protection has been cracked. Usually very very fast. I remmember when CS:source came on steam, this “brilliant new anti piracy and distribution sistem”. Legit buyers had almost no chance to play online due to bugs and stupid protection checks while pirates were happily playing it online on steam servers from day one. Steam has come a long tho. But thats because games are cheap, good and distribution is fast and easy (thats what developers should aim for).
04/03/2010 at 17:45 Uncle Grandpa says:
While I know we are all frustrated that the market is flooded with dozens of those easy-sell, derivative historical submarine simulations, I think that… wait, what? From that statement, I honestly wonder if you are confused about what the Silent Hunter series is?
Ignoring the Assassin’s Creed side of it, I don’t understand how (or indeed why) “new” and “unique” ideas could possibly be necessary for an extremely niche genre like sub simulations. It is my understanding that a perfect simulation of World War II-era submarine command has yet to be quite developed, which is the whole point of such things, right? If there is room for increased fidelity in the simulation, whether it be in the mechanics or the presentation, surely further iterations are called for?
In fact, this is probably a case where implementing “old” ideas is even more desirable than “new”, as word is the many “new” ideas in this version of the game are (at best) inconsequential to and in many cases detrimental to the purpose of proper simulation, such as the implementation of silly “crew special abilities” like the cook’s “Scientific Diet” while the simulation of creating firing solutions has actually been reduced in accuracy and effectiveness.
04/03/2010 at 17:55 Tei says:
Testing new ideas is always good. What you think is the best way to do things could be a “local optimun”.
I could imagine million ways to make subs games better. Another problem is that maybe the current “style” is good for the fans of subs simulators, but refraing other people to play these. Changing the style a bit may able other people to buy sim games. Like the game “The Sims” made some people that would never played a computer game, much less a Game Simulator play on the PC, a game, with a pink mouse. If you are afraid of change, you will never know what you are lossing.
04/03/2010 at 17:57 Uncle Grandpa says:
Whoops, that was supposed to be in reply to Mario Figueiredo’s comment but the Reply function made a fool of me. Hopefully this time it shows some mercy.
04/03/2010 at 19:34 Mario Figueiredo says:
No worries. I still saw your comment, Uncle Grandpa.
I stated it poorly on my original post. It’s not so much an issue of innovation. As you well put it, some genres can work even better if they recycle old ideas, or keep faithful to a certain idea. It is however an issue I have with the whole point behind franchising that limits development and forces players to own several copies of what is essentially the same game with carefully planned ahead additions to each game. A franchise is essentially a pre-planned series of I, II, III, IV, etc to a game. Most of the time, they already know what they will be doing on IV while they are developing II. By the time a player realizes, they spent $200 to play a game that could have been fully designed and operational 2 or 3 versions before.
So, when I spot a franchise (either because it is openly labeled as such, or because it becomes evident), I immediately back down as a consumer. I refuse to be milked. And on top of that have to put up with all the DRM crap that insists in treating me as a criminal (me, who has a closet full of originals since the mid 80s!). But I digress.
I will have to agree however Silent Hunter is not such an evident case. And it indeed serves a specific niche. The game also has its merits that Assassin’s Creed certainly doesn’t share. Technically SH is a much harder game to achieve due to its historical requirements and it’s sim genre. It also has a much lengthier releases cycle; 2-3 years between versions, which indicates there was thought put into it.
04/03/2010 at 21:02 Uncle Grandpa says:
@Mario:
Thank you for clarifying your point. Although I agree with much of your wariness concerning franchising (Call of Duty being the most current glaringly sad example), I think iterative sequels are probably not just called for but necessary in the sim genre, and increasingly so the more niche that which is being simulated is. All games are always in danger of falling prey to “feature creep”, but sims are perhaps in the most peril as there is always another system you can represent more accurately, another bulkhead that can be realistically-rendered, even another whole ship to control! This thing will never come out! It is only sensible to release the game at a (hopefully) reasonably adequate level of detail, while planning which of those other cool things will go into development in the next iterations.
Of course, there is the classic danger of developers (or more frequently, publishers) releasing yearly updates with a minimal amount of improvements or new features and charging full price for the lot. But to my knowledge, the Silent Hunter series has yet to be guilty of that transgression. The first game to have the name came out in 96(!), so I would say being on only the 5th in the series seems fair. And indeed, this newest release appears to be quite significantly different from the previous ones, although whether the differences are well-implemented or ill-conceived is a whole other question!
Except for the DRM of course. THAT particular difference is pretty easy to qualify.
@Tei:
New ideas are absolutely important and desirable, and of course there are innumerable ways to make sub sims (and indeed any sims) better, many of which do not necessarily directly relate to the technical aspects of the object being simulated. I certainly question if it should come at the expense of other things that may have already been implemented in the past and whose past implementation may even have been more accurate or elegant. Seems antithetical to the whole point of the product. If the series has changed to be more “accessible” and less “simulation” (not that the two are necessarily incompatible) then so be it, but at the very least this would it pretty much a new game. Certainly not just the proverbial “rehash” of a “tired old series”.
04/03/2010 at 17:59 Davie says:
After reading this, I must briefly devolve to the state of Internet Riffraff in order to properly comment.
LOL PWNED!
04/03/2010 at 18:02 SteveHatesYou says:
No, the game has not been properly cracked. Poking around on some warez forums reveals that anybody who uses the crack encounters some serious game-hampering bugs. It’s just as Ubisoft says – their version is incomplete (likely because the game downloads code from Ubisoft’s servers).
Crackers don’t really test games before releasing them.
04/03/2010 at 20:37 Bonedwarf says:
It’s pretty much routine on the warez scene for a first crack to have some issue. It seems I always seem to see “crack fixes”.
And no, I don’t pirate. Just it’s hard to not pay attention to the scene when I was heavily involved 20 years ago on the Amiga.
Given the sales they say that are lost to piracy, given how Starforce wasn’t cracked for so long, you’d think Starforce protected games would have been the biggest selling games of all time. But of course they weren’t, because piracy figures are bullshit.
04/03/2010 at 21:01 Ravenger says:
As I’ve pointed out before, the PS3 suffers from virtually zero piracy. That hasn’t miraculously led to games being much cheaper, or PS3 games selling hugely more than the Xbox equivalents.
Piracy is a huge problem. Every game I’ve ever worked has been pirated, sometimes massively, but once I was asked to put DRM on a game (just a disc check) and I refused because I personally believe that DRM only inconveniences the paying customer, not the pirate.
The best you can do is stop zero day piracy, which Valve has managed to very successfully to do simply by not including the executables with their games and requiring you to download them on launch day.
04/03/2010 at 21:30 SteveHatesYou says:
@Bonedwarf:
They may find a way around it, but until they do the celebration in this thread is premature. If anything, the fact that pirates don’t have a fully-working copy of the game available on the day of release proves that the DRM has been somewhat effective. It also shows that it’s nastier than anticipated – this isn’t just a DRM shell wrapped around a game, it’s built directly into the game itself and affects gameplay systems. Future games may have it embedded even more deeply.
Which Starforce protected games are you referring to? As I recall, Starforce was cracked pretty quickly.
04/03/2010 at 23:16 Ashen says:
Starforce took several months to crack originally.
This took several days (with a few workarounds that make the cracks fully functional).
04/03/2010 at 18:02 Smithee says:
Not really getting much excitement out of this. Sure, there’s the “we all told you so” gloating, but I’m really just disappointed that I still can’t play SH5. I’m sure as hell not going to reward Ubi by buying a copy, even if the ludicrous DRM has been cracked, and I’ve no desire to pirate the latest incarnation of a series that I’ve gotten hundreds of hours of enjoyment from. Dammit Ubi, I just want to play your game and reward the developers for their efforts.
What’s also really unfortunate about this situation is that if enough potential buyers of SH5 stick to their guns and don’t purchase, Ubi might give up on making new sub sims entirely. It’s not like there’s a console version of SH5 to cover losses on the PC.
04/03/2010 at 18:35 Sarlix says:
PC exclusive huh? that I did not know.
I think it’s fair to say there hasn’t been a situation this sticky since the time Sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun.
Oh yes.
04/03/2010 at 19:09 jsutcliffe says:
@Sarlix
Oh no! What’s worse — the Ubisoft DRM or a head full of Blackadder quotes when you’re trying to meet a deadline?
04/03/2010 at 21:29 RedFred says:
@battles: Yes this is a real problem. I want to support a developer who has the balls makes games such as SH that have a very limited appeal to the greater gaming public. But in buying the game I am giving Ubisoft a thumbs up about their DRM which I do not want to support.
04/03/2010 at 18:30 battles_atlas says:
The stupidity of those that run many corporations can only be a reflection of the stupidity of the entire neoliberal gangbang. Just look at Activison running Call of Duty into the ground – desperate to ring every last drop of revenue from a franchise before the next annual report, they’ll do anything except actually nurture their golden goose. I look forward to franchise disappearing into obscurity over the next few years as they churn out increasingly identikit run-and-guns. Hat’s doffed too to Sega’s ongoing crusage against Total War’s noble heritage.
Ubisoft’s DRM is another tremendous example of a mindset that is incapable of processing anything except profit figures. Ignore the futility of your DRM, ignore that its your paying customers you are attacking, ignore the copious research suggesting the link between sales and piracy is weak at best, ignore the obvious notion that a customer which has a positive relationship with a supplier is less likely to pirate that supplier’s goods. Ignore all that because you know someone is getting your product for free, and that must mean lost revenues, and REVENUE IS EVERYTHING.
Someone took a golden egg without paying so I’m wrapping that feathered muthafucka in barbed wire, and as it bleeds to death I can sleep soundly knowing my eggs are safe.
It’s possible for a world in which values other than money exist. Sounds crazy, but its science fact.
04/03/2010 at 18:36 battles_atlas says:
The stupidity of those that run many corporations can only be a reflection of the stupidity of the entire neoliberal gangbang. Just look at Activison running Call of Duty into the ground – desperate to ring every last drop of revenue from a franchise before the next annual report, they’ll do anything except actually nurture their golden goose. I look forward to franchise disappearing into obscurity over the next few years as they churn out increasingly identikit run-and-guns. Hat’s doffed too to Sega’s ongoing crusage against Total War’s noble heritage.
Ubisoft’s DRM is another tremendous example of a mindset that is incapable of processing anything except profit figures. Ignore the futility of your DRM, ignore that its your paying customers you are attacking, ignore the copious research suggesting the link between sales and piracy is weak at best, ignore the obvious notion that a customer which has a positive relationship with a supplier is less likely to pirate that supplier’s goods. Ignore all that because you know someone is getting your product for free, and that must mean lost revenues, and REVENUE IS EVERYTHING.
Someone took a golden egg without paying so I’m wrapping that feathered muthafucka in barbed wire, and as it bleeds to death I can sleep soundly knowing my eggs are safe.
It’s possible for a world in which values other than money exist. Sounds crazy, but its science fact.
04/03/2010 at 18:56 Sarlix says:
Are you some sort of forum mage? you’ve managed to get your post in-between two existing ones and with out the use of the reply function. :()
On a side note, I tend to agree with what you said…Good post.
04/03/2010 at 19:37 Vinraith says:
@Sarlix
When the RPS guys sweep through a thread to remove problematic posts (as I assume they’d done here) it sometimes scrambles the sequence of subsequent comments.
04/03/2010 at 20:19 battles_atlas says:
I’m not a mage but according to the forum software I am spam, at least when I try to edit a typo. So it deleted my original post. Then when I copy pasted it back I guess it got confused…. Maybe I am spam? I should go see a doctor.
04/03/2010 at 19:12 Vinraith says:
I don’t know about the long term implications. This may cause Ubi to do something even more drastic, it may make them wake up and back off. Ultimately, that’s on them. What this DOES mean is that, somewhere down the road, I might be able to play SH5 and AC2 on my PC after all, and that’s a good thing. If this bullshit DRM is actually cracked, and stays cracked, I might pick them up for a few bucks on sale far down the road.
If only there were a way to give the devs money bypassing Ubi entirely, I’d cheerfully pay full price for DRM-free versions of both of them.
05/03/2010 at 19:43 RiseAgainst says:
There are developer team listings / project member listings.
Although I imagine it being near impossible to send (amount of retail price) divided by (amount of employees directly involved) to (amount of employees directly involved) individually, you could just plain send the project leader and creative root and 2-3 of the main coders(or lead audio, lead visual designers, etc, whatever you really liked) 10 EUR / USD checks each via mail and include a note in each stating that you really would prefer buying the game via retail, but given that you completely disagree with their publisher’s DRM policy they should figure out how to divvy up the plunder themselves.
Any kind of signal and statement that actually arrives at the real people involved(no matter how silly seeming) will help change things more than doing none of it.
04/03/2010 at 19:18 OJ287 says:
Can someone clear something up for me…
Is this a small ‘patch’ to remove the DRM from a shop copy (I want to buy the game) or do I have to download the whole game to get a ‘clean’ install?
04/03/2010 at 19:24 Iain says:
FUCK.
DRM is going to get worse. Congratulations pirates, Ubisoft isn’t doing shit on the PC anymore. Well done. Enjoy your pirated submarine game.
04/03/2010 at 20:41 Bonedwarf says:
No, it’s isn’t. It reached “worst” with Starforce. Publishers aren’t going to go to those lengths again as for once the anti-drm message actually made it to the mainstream.
And who cares anyway? Valve titles aside I can’t remember the last AAA I actually gave a shit about on the PC. These days we largely get shitty console ports. (MW2 for example.)
The PC game scene would not be lessened if Ubisoft never put out another fucking PC game.
04/03/2010 at 23:15 Carra says:
@Bonedwarf. They also create great ports like Mass Effect 2 or last years Batman game. Heck, it didn’t even feel as a port.
As for Ubisoft, I enjoyed their Anno 1404 release a lot.
04/03/2010 at 19:29 Quasar says:
The main issue I have is that I REALLY want to play AC2, but I’m not willing to buy it while the DRM is so overblown. I won’t pirate it, because I don’t like doing that. I believe that the game itself is worth the money.
What I might do: Send Ubi a photograph of twenty-seven pounds (the current asking price on Amazon) and say “You can have this if you remove DRM”
Won’t work, but it might be funny.
05/03/2010 at 19:46 RiseAgainst says:
I strongly encourage people to do this very thing or send a letter just like it / to the same effect.
04/03/2010 at 19:39 Feanor says:
Apparently now if you lose your connection you can restart from the exact point you lost it when it comes back on:
http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx?pId=7731&tab=download&dcId=63
04/03/2010 at 19:46 Dan says:
@kyr
The main problem with Apple becoming the dominant format is…there just aren’t ENOUGH.
Its market share is…what? 3%? 5%? There aren’t enough Apple computers…and given the cost premium, there never WILL be enough Macs until a broke-ass student can buy one for $500…to justify making games available for Apple, let alone ONLY on the Apple.
04/03/2010 at 19:54 Carra says:
From the wikipedia article on Silent Hunter 5:
You can play online? Even a cd key offers better protection.
04/03/2010 at 20:08 Drexer says:
If I hadn’t just removed a tooth, my smile would fill my whole face.
04/03/2010 at 21:45 SteveHatesYou says:
@Ravenger:
I’m not sure that comparison really works, given that the PS3 and 360 don’t have an equal user base. Also, most PS3-released games are also available on the cracked 360 and the perpetually cracked PC, which would certainly eat into PS3 sales. Why would pirates purchase a system they know they can’t play free games on?
04/03/2010 at 21:49 Iain says:
Please excuse me while I spend the next week laughing my ass off. This is just too funny. Not that I was going to buy/crack/pirate any of Ubi’s PC games anyway, but this whole DRM thing is just getting beyond ridiculous now.
Someone needs to tell these corporate idiots who think that DRM systems like this are a good idea that you can’t beat the demands of the market.
Don’t presume to tell your customers that what you offer is what they want. Just ask IBM how well that went when they put OS/2 up against Windows and tried to dictate to the market instead of listening to what they wanted… (That is, VERY BADLY)
04/03/2010 at 22:27 karthik says:
Tweakguides has a bit of a say on the Ubisoft DRM, here.
It’s pretty much of a rehash of the PC game piracy article that kicked up a storm on RPS last year, but he says the DRM is unobtrusive (no background services, no install or activation limits, etc) and manageable except for the unrealistic expectation of an always-on connection.
Oh, and about cracked DRM: Obviously, Ubisoft stands to lose sales to piracy if they publish games without DRM, and lose even more if they publish games with this DRM. People (and by extension, companies) aren’t very good at assessing lose/lose-more situations; the dichotomy in our heads is always between win and lose. It’s just a question of what they count as “win” here.
05/03/2010 at 01:19 Kevin says:
I seriously would have wished that “Les cons sale d’Ubisoft, J’ai baisé ta mere hier soir, bande de sadiques!” had enough sense to remove the DRM from the Steam version of the game. When a company already has a pretty solid record on me buying the damn game, an extra layer of DRM seems awfully superfluous.
05/03/2010 at 14:30 SheffieldSteel says:
That is some quality French you have there, sir
/tips hat
05/03/2010 at 02:05 Colton says:
Is it just me or has no one mentioned that 99% of all DRM laden games have later had the DRM stripped from them after the “release hype” has died down.
Look at Bioshock 1. I didn’t buy the game last year because it had DRM – after the release, which is when a publisher has a small window to sell a game while the advertising is still fresh in people’s minds and get the most money from the most units sold. Afterwords when a game is old they sell it DRM free since now it doesn’t matter.
05/03/2010 at 02:07 Vinraith says:
@Colton
Unfortunately that number isn’t 99%. There are a number of high profile cases, like Bioshock, but many less successful titles saddled with bad DRM never have it removed. You’re totally right that if we could always count on it disappearing 6 months down the line, it wouldn’t matter so much.
05/03/2010 at 02:09 Colton says:
Yea I guess that’s true – I got the “Spellforce” series on STEAM and it still has GameSpy in it – I suppose that doesn’t count as DRM but it was still painfully difficult to uninstall/figure out what was wrong with my internet connection when it started crashing.
05/03/2010 at 02:15 jalf says:
No, no one has mentioned that because it’s not true. If you’d said 3%, it might be a different matter. But there are a lot of games being released. Almost all of them have some kind of DRM. A small handful (perhaps 5-10 games total?) has had its DRM removed. As for Bioshock’s DRM, yes, it can be removed after installing the game, but you still need internet connectivity to *install* the game. If it can’t immediately authenticate and patch the game during install, it aborts and rolls back. (I know because I actually tried installing it to play in the 14 days I had no internet a few months back)
How does that help anyone again? Nice publicity stunt, of course, fooled a lot of people into swallowing an atrocious DRM scheme.
05/03/2010 at 05:57 malkav11 says:
I can only think of a couple of games that have ever had their copy protection patched out, “bad” DRM or otherwise. (Though of course anything with a CD check has had that removed for sale through digital distribution.) Beyond Divinity. Neverwinter Nights. I think one or two other games from Bioware. Um….I know there have to be more, but I surely couldn’t say what.
Bioshock is certainly not one of them. They scaled back the DRM, removed the install limits, but it still authenticates with a server and thus cannot be installed without internet and will be impossible to install if 2K ever shuts down the authentication server. This is a long, long way from “removing the DRM”.
05/03/2010 at 02:54 Soobe says:
I’ll tell ya what, I was’t going to buy this game, but now…well now I am.
Why?
I hate software theft–with a fucking passion I hate it. I hate people who think it’s their right to steal from others. I hate the idea that a studio full of passionate people get’s pick pocketed in such a ruthless way. Fuck you pirates.
So I’ll buy the game so that when the rubber meats the road I’ll be one more number in the column of honest people who actually appreciate PC gaming enough to pay for it.
05/03/2010 at 03:00 Vinraith says:
@Soobe
So you’re going to buy a game you don’t want because some people pirated it? OK, your choice. Keep in mind, though, that the pirates you despise are being treated to a far better game than you are. Your copy will be hobbled by Ubi’s online-at-all-time system, theirs won’t. As an added bonus, your purchase sends Ubi the message that no matter how badly they treat their paying customers, said customers will cheerfully continue to bend over and take it.
Here’s a better idea: don’t buy it. Don’t pirate it either. Just don’t play it at all. Ubi gets no money for actively screwing their customers, there’s no increase in piracy numbers for them to blame the lack of a sale on, and you don’t get a broken game. Win-win-win.
05/03/2010 at 04:00 Nalano says:
Here, let me speak to him in his own language:
Ba-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-ahh.
05/03/2010 at 05:44 Soobe says:
@Nalano
Hardy har : )
But take the long view–the message has been sent to Ubi, make no mistake about it. What I fear though, is that in case you didn’t realize, this was a really, really horrific DRM idea–one so bad that it makes me think not of rational beings but of last ditch effort, ya know what I mean?
Anyway, what I’ve done is to show my support not for their DRM, which has already been proven ineffective and will surly not be tried again–but to show that Ubi can release games for my platform and make money, simple as that.
05/03/2010 at 07:41 Thants says:
Or you could have the best of both worlds and buy a game from a company that doesn’t just consider you collateral damage.
05/03/2010 at 07:58 Stromko says:
I have to reiterate, it just seems like there’s much better places to spend your money. If you’re really in the mood for a submarine simulation, then by all means …
Personally I’ve been enjoying the hell out of Dawn of Discovery and just picked up the Venice expansion. You can get the ‘Gold’ version that includes said expansion for the price of a new retail game on Steam. It happens to be published by Ubisoft, and guess what, ISN’T saddled with this horrific DRM.
If you want to support them releasing games on this platform, I’m just saying they have other games that don’t use this awful DRM.
05/03/2010 at 10:16 Sarlix says:
@Stromko You say there is a gold edition? I can’t find it on steam or anywhere else….Got a link please?
05/03/2010 at 20:00 MM says:
In order to steal something, you have to actually remove something.
If someone had no money left over to spend on the game, what difference does it make if he has it or not?
He had nothing left to give; ergo he was never an eligible customer.
In turn, he can’t be a thief, since only a customer that was a POTENTIAL customer to begin with(i.e. someone with funds) can be lost.
Nothing that actually costs the developer or programmers etc involved any money happens when someone without an income pirates a game.
I always find it odd this is constantly implied by all these “pirate haters”. It’s just a plain case of economy and reality check.
Money that does not exist, cannot be spent.
I know that precious few people understand this concept, which is why we have record household debts both in the private and public sector worldwide and had a financial crisis to top it off, but it IS true.
Someone without cash can’t steal any revenue from you, period.
(Not implying this is the case for 100% of the pirated copies, but I AM saying explicity that the other way around will never work, i.e. that everyone who pirates digital items can actually be considered stealing anything at all – since they don’t have the MEANS to, even if they commit the act as an act..they are unable to cause damage, simply by logic and what is reality).
05/03/2010 at 03:47 uks says:
If you want to play the game then buy it and encourage friends to buy it. I for one, find it amusing, however, that the increasingly “sophisticated” copy protection schemes punish the paying customers more than the pirates. Anyone who doesn’t think there’s something fundamentally wrong with that picture, lift your hands!
When will companies learn that they have not even a snowball’s chance in hell to avoid getting their product cracked if they keep raising the bar as they challenge the crackers? That kind of “security” relies on A allowing B access, but not C; in DRM, B and C are the same person, so all DRM is merely obfuscation. Sure UbiSoft knew that, but it’s hubris to assume that their scheme would buy them any time at all.
I’m a level 0 wanker when it comes to cracking stuff, but even I by-passed the copy protection scheme of Lotus 123 way, way back in the dark ages (mid 80s) in merely 10 minutes using asm.com (gods, I’m an old f, aren’t I?) I got the code, I can trace it, I can figure it out, I can patch to skip over it and laugh as DRM falls flat on its f’ing face. Sheesh. Next, please!
So here’s a tip to those enchanted by DRM: Sell your software cheap and give kickbacks to those who get their friends to buy a copy, too (anyone remember Jim Button or am I too old a fart?) Sell it for $20 and kick back $5 for each friend who buys a copy. Heck, your customers could actually make money by bringing you new customers. Scary concept, but if Jim Knopf (“Jim Button”) could do it …well, the point is that pirated copies would reset that score; and without DRM the challenge is gone, pirates are cut out of the game, and the wind in their sails is gone.
First company to make this work is gonna shiat gold, I think.
But then again, we could all just keep playing this game of “you can’t crack me … yes, we can!” <shrug>
05/03/2010 at 08:02 Stromko says:
Personally, I miss the days of the LAN party. There was a time when it seemed standard that games would only need one or two discs in the drive to allow all your friends to play with you. Once they got home if they wanted to play the game again, they had to buy it, it was great advertising. Now, if you want to throw a LAN party you have to track down a crack or .iso so others can play too.
It’s damned inconvenient, and once you’re already getting a crack or an iso, what’s even the advantage of OWNING and paying for the game? You have to pirate it just to enjoy it to its fullest potential. Unless your friends are all rich, they aren’t all going to buy the 3 or 4 games they don’t already own just so they can join in on the LAN party.
Heck, let those of us who can pay allow our non-money’d friends to play with us. LOVE with its friend account and Neptune’s Pride with its new premium free-for-all options are trying this out, and I wish them the best of luck, but it seems like big developers are completely in the dark about how to build up interest and love in their product.
05/03/2010 at 16:51 Nesetalis says:
in a way, blizzard already does this with their ‘invite a friend’ program.. but instead of cold cash you get a month of free game time plus a unique mount.. and your friend gets a month of free game time as well..
its a sweet deal for some one who was going to pay for WoW anyway. everyone wins out.
06/03/2010 at 00:40 uks says:
Re: Blizzard’s ‘recruit-a-friend’ program … yes, it’s a good idea (and I can vouch for it by experience). For single player off-line games, however, an off-line method would work better, similar to what ButtonWare did back in the day.
Frankly, I’m astounded that virtually everyone in the commercial software business holds onto the us-vs-them attitude as fiercely as they do. Or maybe we only really hear about The Stoopid(tm) rather than the smart ones.
05/03/2010 at 07:13 Lemon scented apocalypse says:
So are we to be treated to a ‘wot i think’ of SH V or are those thrice-damned “moral scruples” cockblocking our fun?
05/03/2010 at 07:40 Lemon scented apocalypse says:
What really shocks me in all this is that ubi is a french company – have any of you been to france (or are french)? The internet connectivity there is TERRIBLE. Very odd
05/03/2010 at 13:25 n0wak says:
I don’t know what France you’ve been to, but I get far better internet connection here, and cheaper too, than I would have if I was back in Canada.
05/03/2010 at 08:16 Ravenger says:
Buying a PC game costs me money. Demos are rare, so I can’t try before I buy, and if a game doesn’t work on my system then by the time I’ve found that out I’m stuffed, as PC games are non-returnable due to DRM and CD Keys.
So adding in even more sophisticated DRM systems that makes the game even more unreliable only adds to the gamble I take every time I buy a PC game. WIll it work? Will I get booted out of my game? Will the servers be up?
The pirates aren’t gambling anything. If the game doesn’t work they haven’t lost any money, just time. If Ubisofts DRM (or any other DRM system) mucks up for me then I, the paying customer, has bought a faulty product and I have no recompense.
So it doesn’t matter to me that Ubisoft are saying the pirated versions are not complete, or deliberately bugged. That’s not the point, as pirates aren’t their customers and haven’t paid for the product. They’ve lost nothing, it’s the paying customers who are getting screwed when the DRM kicks them out of the game because their internet drops.
05/03/2010 at 08:27 pepper says:
Still, this doesnt make we want to buy or download the games just yet, since it would just show ubi that they need an even worse system. What we need is an overall boycott of there games, with the reason them being ass hats against everybody.
05/03/2010 at 08:59 JoeDuck says:
And btw, to all those people who hope a piracy-free world would be the gaming equivalent of My Little Pony, I can only say take your innocence and lock it somewhere safe, because it’s priceless.
If ever big games companies feel safe that you are going to play their rules, then is when they really start to have fun. Because even then the money will not be enough. It’s never enough.
The moment of “monetizing” and “finding new revenue streams” arrives.
And you’d get computers with propietary connectors that are just reshaped from the standard, plastic wrapped standard hard disks that cost 3 or 4 times their prize, you’d pay for cheating in your multiplayer games, you could also pay to change your nickname or the server you play in or for the cloud to store or restore your data, you’d get to yearly pay for extra hardware required to play any new game in the platform and you would even enjoy the privilege of paying monthly to play online.
What fun!
Look on the other side of gaming street and tell me what you see.
Exactly.
05/03/2010 at 13:08 Number47 says:
Why are everyone talking about pirateing games in order to remove the DRM, if you want to support PC gaming buy the games, and then download a CRACK, to remove DRM inconveniancies!
05/03/2010 at 13:24 Magic H8 Ball says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_voting
05/03/2010 at 19:34 RiseAgainst says:
Personally I firmly feel that EVERY SINGLE ONE who has posted here that they would buy the game if DRM just were not in it should write a letter to the sales department at Ubi right soddin’ now.
What good does it do to state it here?
But if they get x hundred / thousand people basically waving money bills in front of their face, pleading “PLEASE let me PAY YOU”, that might have more than at least a 100% certain zero effect that commenting elsewhere has.
06/03/2010 at 01:10 uncle sam says:
lol at paying for software
06/03/2010 at 19:01 Michael says:
I wrote UBI what I think about their rigid DRM system and guess what – did they react? No way. They didn´t. The consequence will be, that I won´t buy any title from UBI anymore because I don´t want to be punished for being a customer.
I only hope a lot other former customers will do the same – and UBI will step back on their “Stay-always-online-because-we-want-to-know-DRM” system.
06/03/2010 at 22:33 tab says:
why not just take the third route? buy the game, then crack it? there are cracks freely available, and if i already paid for it i feel zero guilt about bypassing this crap.
06/03/2010 at 22:35 Vinraith says:
@tab
Because then you’re financially supporting the DRM AND increasing the piracy figures?
06/03/2010 at 22:48 tab says:
@ vinraith
i thought the piracy figures were generally taken from downloads of game copies from places like thepiratebay – there are sites that offer nothing but cracks, with a disclaimer saying that they’re only for people in the exact situation i described. of course pirates grab them too, unfortunately.
but if you buy a retail copy of the game, it seems like you wouldn’t be counted? excuse my ignorance of their method for determining piracy rates.
06/03/2010 at 22:50 Vinraith says:
@tab
Good point, I may be wrong about how they calculate those things myself. Regardless, buying it does signal to the publisher that you’re “ok” with the DRM, which isn’t a great message to send. It’d be nice if there was a way to give money directly to devs and circumvent the problem entirely.
07/03/2010 at 22:53 SirKicksalot says:
Ubisoft’s DRM servers are down… since more than 10 hours ago. Nobody can play the game.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98927-Ubisoft-DRM-Authentication-Servers-Go-Down
So all it took was a weekend with the game not released worldwide.
Ubisoft trolololed a lot of customers:)
08/03/2010 at 11:56 Dave says:
Hahaha, I lived in the US for years and have a connection here in France that is twice faster than the last one I had over, at about 25mbps.
16/07/2010 at 12:00 user08 says:
Make sure that instead of getting a good crack for your game to catch a virus. I suggest using [url=http://www.trustdownload.com/Antivirus-and-Spyware-Cleaners/Antivirus/Kaspersky-Internet-Security-7.0.html]kaspersky[/url] a good and efficient antivirus. Give it a try!
09/09/2010 at 12:02 Yachtcharter Griechenland says:
That’s pretty interesting… That’s great, I never thought about Has Ubi’s DRM Been Cracked Already? like that before.