By John Walker on January 26th, 2012 at 5:34 pm.
Well here’s a thing. The absolutely superb platformer, Rayman: Origins, is making its way from console to the PC on the 30th March. Michael “Beyond Good & Evil” Ancel returned to the 2D side-scroller he created, and the result is genuinely splendid. You can pre-order it now at the UbiShop for £20, which is half the price it launched at on 360 and PS3 (although the price most places are selling it at by now). Of course, the big question is: Woah, Ubi, what DRM will it come with? We’ve asked, can tell you that the digital download versions will only have a one-time activation, and retail copies, according to Ubi, will have “no DRM at all”.
You can see the trailer below.
26/01/2012 at 17:37 Lewie Procter says:
One time activation you say?
That’s strange, because this Ubisoft employee seemed to imply there would be no DRM whatsoever.
https://twitter.com/#!/NateHawke/status/162581481074601984
Were this any other publisher, I’d take that at face value, but Ubisoft do have a bit of a history of getting confused about DRM. Hmm.
“although the price most places are selling it at by now”
Cheapest it’s available for on 360/PS3 is £15, and has been since before Christmas.
26/01/2012 at 17:40 diamondmx says:
I believe you’re misreading the article, Retail has (supposedly) no DRM, downloadable has (supposedly) 1-time activation.
26/01/2012 at 17:44 Lewie Procter says:
Well a one time activation is DRM. I’m fairly confident they mean it activates once during install, but they’ve been unclear about this in the past (referring to a game that requires authentication with Ubisoft servers every time you launch as “One time” too).
26/01/2012 at 18:02 John Walker says:
Lewie, read what I wrote, dear.
26/01/2012 at 18:03 diamondmx says:
You would think (hope) that after the fiasco with From Dust, they would be very careful with their claims of DRM this time.
They can’t claim it was all a terrible mistake, and do it twice.
26/01/2012 at 18:32 Lewie Procter says:
I wasn’t disagreeing with you, I was adding more information. You’re indeed correct that most places are selling it for around £20.
26/01/2012 at 19:16 LionsPhil says:
This is Ubisoft. When they say “no DRM”, they probably mean “SecuROM/SafeDisc/etc. installing a rootkit to ensure the CD is in the drive doesn’t count, right? We were doing that before the term ‘DRM’ was bandied around all over the place”.
26/01/2012 at 19:26 Khemm says:
@Lions
Calm down, DRM does not bite.
The digital version will probably use a one-time Tages activation according to Gamersgate. That’s the least intrusive DRM I can imagine. Knowing some people here though, they’ll STILL complain. Sigh.
http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-RMO/rayman-origins
26/01/2012 at 19:49 D3xter says:
Uhm… TAGES is not “no DRM”, TAGES (especially if it comes with limited “Activation Limits”) is a dealbreaker actually. I’ll get the Retail version if it doesn’t have it then, although I’d prefer Steam (and nothing else).
26/01/2012 at 20:21 Khemm says:
@D3xter
Deal breaker? Why? It’s a simple activation, what is wrong with it? Gamersgate, Direct2Drive etc.have no DRMs of their own in place.
26/01/2012 at 21:00 D3xter says:
Cause it’s bad? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag%C3%A8s
First I don’t want any kind of DRM on my products that can potentially limit the way I play e.g. installing it on 2 PCs at home and for instance using my Steam account over at a friend for the purpose of CoOp play on his TV with 2 Controllers would already make 3 Activations, anything beyond that or changing Hardware slightly inbetween and I’m supposed to call customer support?. lol
Secondly I have bad experiences of games using TAGES in the past, I don’t know how the new iterations work but it installed an additional device driver by default on your PC when you installed a game, refusing to work under certain circumstances or if you had certain programs installed. I then had problems trying to get TAGES-protected games to work on systems newer than XP, Beyond Good & Evil for instance is a good example as the device drivers it tries to install aren’t compatible with Vista and it REFUSES to install the game. Fortunately the digital versions are free of that plague…
Not to say that there are people out there for whom TAGES broke their DVD-ROM drive, never happened to me but I know someone who had that happen and you can research it on Google too if you like. It’s just a categorical no.
On the other hand, I’ve never had any big issues with Steam, own over 350 games on it and can change between playing them on my PC or laptop etc. even with Saves being transferred between the two, can take my “game library” with me everywhere I go etc.
26/01/2012 at 21:16 LionsPhil says:
(Psst. Khemm is one of our local trolls. You’re wasting your time.)
26/01/2012 at 22:02 CMaster says:
TAGES (with no install limits) is the reason I can no longer play my boxed copy of Beyond Good and Evil. I’d very much hesitate to knowingly buy any game featuring it again.
26/01/2012 at 22:44 Tams80 says:
@ D3xter
“although I’d prefer Steam (and nothing else)”
Eh?! So you’d prefer DRM?
I just don’t get some people. Anyway, I’ll be buying it when it comes out; it’s just too lovely to miss.
26/01/2012 at 17:38 mcnostril says:
Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes.
Yes.
The first 3d rayman was a pleasant surprise, but it didn’t really capture the magic of the original, and it just went downhill from there. But now we are getting magicked again. Or something.
26/01/2012 at 18:30 zaphod42 says:
Yeah, I remember the original fondly, and I actually did enjoy the first 3D one a good bit too. Hm, I’ll have to go dig that one out of the closet and give it a go, haven’t thought about it in ages.
26/01/2012 at 18:37 Bhazor says:
Yes
Rayman 3 is excellent, certainly better than the second game but always seems to be forgotten about. I think it’s even better than the original and nails the sweetspot on the FunxChallenge axis. But yeah this is possibly the first console game I’ve lusted after since Dark Souls.
26/01/2012 at 19:03 Suits says:
What? Rayman 2 is obviously the most acclaimed. But the original had the best art and characters.
26/01/2012 at 19:18 Acorino says:
Oh, I LOVED the second one! Shame about the shoddy camera system though. Makes the game teeth-gnashingly frustrating in parts. It’s not like it wasn’t hard enough without the camera pointing in the wrong direction!
I started playing the first one after falling in love with its successor, but it just isn’t the same. It lacked the ingredients that made the sequel so charming to me. The world, the characters, the surreality, the barely sensical plot, the perfect difficulty curve, the great music.
Never got the third one to run. There were some weird graphic glitches that made it unplayable. A shame. It looked good.
26/01/2012 at 19:52 Bhazor says:
@ Acorino
This is the version of 3 I played and it ran perfectly well in Vista though haven’t tried it in Windows 7 yet. It’s better with a controller natch.
http://www.gog.com/en/gamecard/rayman_3_hoodlum_havoc
26/01/2012 at 20:08 Howl says:
I agree completely. The original Rayman was a gamer’s game with some brilliantly devilish platforming sections if you wanted to find all the hidden Lums. It sort of went a bit button mashy-y from Rayman 2 onwards and the move to 3D lost some of the hand-crafted appeal of the art.
I have Rayman Origins on the plastic baby game box and it’s a return to top form although there is nasty slowdown and I can rarely get anywhere near my telly. I’m looking forward to this PC version for the 60fps consistency.
26/01/2012 at 17:39 JackDandy says:
FUCKING YES.
I really wanted to play this in a legit manner.
Looking forward to it.
26/01/2012 at 17:41 Makariel says:
Absolutely delightful game. Already got it for my console, thus won’t buy it again, but great news to get drm-free awesomeness.
26/01/2012 at 18:04 Snidesworth says:
Seconded. A PC release at that sort of price will hopefully lead to more games like this along with a concurrent PC release to go with the console one.
26/01/2012 at 17:41 Phinor says:
That leaves them roughly three months time to add four layers of DRM and delay it twice. Sounds about right.
But if it actually ships with no DRM and shows up in Steam (I know, I know, Steam itself is DRM), I’ll definitely pick this up.
26/01/2012 at 17:44 Javier-de-Ass says:
RETAIL version with no DRM
26/01/2012 at 17:41 Outright Villainy says:
Excellent news indeed. I was pretty bummed out when I saw it was only on console boxes, and the lack of DRM is some sweet sweet icing. Definitely picking this one up.
26/01/2012 at 17:42 Nevyrmoore says:
Wait, no DRM? Really?
Has the 1st of April come early, or something? Snowing in hell? Any signs of flying pigs, anywhere?
26/01/2012 at 19:51 Navagon says:
Maybe you’re forgetting that in late 2009 Ubisoft were calling the impending UbiDRM “no DRM whatsoever”.
That and they’ve lied repeatedly about DRM ever since.
26/01/2012 at 17:42 DeanLearner says:
Retail version will be a box containing a fortune cookie containing a URL to the digital version. You need to quote the whole thing “no DRM at all” was actually “no DRM at all of our in house machines, if you have an Ubisoft in house machine you’re good to go! If not terms and conditions apply. And by terms and conditions we mean tUBIs and conUBIs which are special Ubisoft specific terms and conditions that chance when/if you move the keyboard slightly, or clean the mouse ball… assuming your mouse still has a ball, if not it’s one activation per mouse click.
26/01/2012 at 17:42 diamondmx says:
If this turns out to:
1) Be completely true
and
2) Be a sign of future change in attitude
then maybe Ubisoft will find out that PC isn’t, in fact, dead and/or 99% piracy.
But – I’d not pre-order it, those of you who want this game, wait and see what actually hits the shelves.
26/01/2012 at 17:47 Museli says:
If it was any other publisher I’d probably pre-order, but Ubisoft has blotted their copybook in recent years, so I’ll be following your wise advice and waiting until release to see what DRM actually makes it in.
26/01/2012 at 19:26 PostieDoc says:
Apparently if you pre-order from the Ubisoft site you will get a downloadable copy of Rayman 2 for free.
26/01/2012 at 19:55 Wabznasm says:
Contract law has your back.
You’d be safe to pre-order a retail copy on the basis that there will be no DRM.
If it turns out to have DRM, then you could rescind the contract (return the game and get a full refund) under the doctrine of misrepresentation.
(Disclaimer: I’m a law student, not a lawyer)
Of course, persuading any company to return your money can be a massive pain in the arse even when the law is on your side. It might still be best to wait and see.
26/01/2012 at 21:47 paterah says:
I will buy this for 2 reasons. First, I’m a rayman fan and I heard extremely good things about this iteration. Secondly, I want to help Ubisoft get their head out of their ass.
26/01/2012 at 22:05 MellowKrogoth says:
Why not Gog.com, Ubi? They said they’d introduce newer games pretty soon, like they did for The Witcher 2. Get on the bandwagon!
Otherwise, I’ll get it from Steam if it has nothing else than Steam attached to it. Tagès smells like “limited activations” and “can’t change your hardware” and has an even worse reputation than Securom so… no thanks.
26/01/2012 at 17:42 Viper50BMG says:
Aww, and I just bought this for the Console-Toy, too… Ah, well. Utterly excellent sidescroller, and the score (http://kotaku.com/5871220/the-best-game-music-of-2011-rayman-origins) is to die for. Fantastic game. Oh, and 4-player co-op.
26/01/2012 at 17:43 Bugamn says:
The people have arms in that video!
Heresy!
26/01/2012 at 17:43 Drew says:
Really exciting! Does pre-ordering from the UbiShop mean getting charged right away?
26/01/2012 at 17:44 ffordesoon says:
I have the console version.
I’ll be buying this anyway, because I want to support this decision.
Also, Michel Ancel deserves my money again. :)
26/01/2012 at 17:45 Paul says:
Friend of mine plays this emulated from Wii and insists it is great, but very very long and hard.
Anyway, this is great news. With Ghost Recon being reannounced, maybe Ubisoft is finally becoming sane again. I hope!
26/01/2012 at 18:13 Snidesworth says:
The demo certainly had some hard bits, and where I am now is getting pretty tough too. The checkpointing is almost always quite sensible though, and if you play co-op it makes the game much easier (you can revive your pals if they get beat up).
26/01/2012 at 17:45 Shooop says:
I’d love to try this game out, if only because of the art style.
But I’ll believe Ubisoft making anything unchained to DRM when I see it.
26/01/2012 at 17:46 des0lar says:
1 time activation? Can’t be Steam right? Right guys?
26/01/2012 at 17:46 Gnoupi says:
Great news! I was not expecting it to be released on PC.
Al reviews I have seen are really positive, from consoles, so I can’t wait to try it as well!
26/01/2012 at 17:54 wccrawford says:
I was actually looking forward to this, but had written it off because it would have DRM.
I’m not about to drive to a store for it, though, when I’ve got a perfectly good internet connection. Once we find out what this ’1-time activation’ means, I’m going to consider buying it online. If that means it phones home when I install it, but I can install it over and over on my machines without a problem, then I’ll buy it.
If I can’t reinstall it, and pirating is actually easier than buying it, then I won’t be playing the game at all. That’s been my stance for a while, and I’m going to stick with it. You listening Ubi? You’re going to lose sales if you don’t pay attention to your customers, and you can’t blame it on piracy.
26/01/2012 at 17:57 QualityJeverage says:
Cheers to you for actually taking a stand, instead of the usual “I hate x practice so I’m just going to pirate it, because I’m obviously entitled to play the game on my own terms.”
26/01/2012 at 18:10 diamondmx says:
It’s the best stance to take, and one I wholely agree with. But I actually understand the people who pirate it in ‘protest’ of a company much more than those who strongly disagree with what a company does, yet purchase it anyway – since these people are saying one thing and voting with their wallet in another, not only does it prove that they are willing to accept it, but it makes any other protesting people look like they’ll probably cave too – I mean, think of the MW2 protestors and that steam group picture that floats around – it does real damage to the idea of a protest/boycott regarding games and strips what little power the consumers have here.
They’re both part of the problem.
26/01/2012 at 17:55 hap says:
Excellent I’ve been hoping this would be released on PC.
With the DRM news I wonder if open-sourcing the game engine is still in the cards.
26/01/2012 at 17:56 QualityJeverage says:
This game is absolutely terrific. Got it as a gift for my 360, can definitely see myself paying for the PC version.
I don’t even know how to deal with this information: Awesome console exclusive getting PC release. It’s only $20. It’s from Ubisoft and has (Almost) no DRM.
What’s the catch? Where’s the rub?
26/01/2012 at 17:58 Luk 333 says:
Yay, another good console game coming to the PC. I hope that the current trend continues; we already got Costume Quest, LA Noire, Alan Wake, Earth Defense Force, Sonic Generations/Episodes and Limbo.
26/01/2012 at 18:00 Asskicker says:
Oh god, this is amazing! Can’t wait to add this to my steam collection :D
26/01/2012 at 18:00 CaspianRoach says:
My opinion is platformers should stay on consoles. They’re more welcome there.
26/01/2012 at 18:03 QualityJeverage says:
Why not have them on the PC in addition to the console versions?
26/01/2012 at 18:05 Hoaxfish says:
You might as well claim FPSes are more welcome there.
There’s certainly no reason not to put platformers on the PC. And if you have issues with using a keyboard, you can always plug in a gamepad (I would agree that gamepads are usually better for platformers).
26/01/2012 at 18:07 Khemm says:
Super Meat Boy outsold its console counterpart, which proves many people disagree with you.
26/01/2012 at 19:22 Acorino says:
Well, platformers are certainly welcome for my part! And I only play on the PC! Too bad we get a good one only sporadically.
26/01/2012 at 23:10 ffordesoon says:
You know, CaspianRoach, I agree.
A new Mario game exclusively for PC would in no way ever bring a new audience to the PC. I mean, Mario platformers have never helped Nintendo turn a flopping system into a roaring success, nor have they ever even sold well. And it’s not like games in established console genres underrepresented on the PC ever sell enough units to turn a profit. And it’s not like any good platformers have ever come out on PC and done well. And console players are in no way hostile to paying sixty dollars for an amazing platformer.
Oh, sure, maybe in some insane world where all of those things were true, I’d feel comfortable posting a scathingly sarcastic reply to your comment wherein I pretended to agree with you while simultaneously freighting my veiled criticisms with hyperlinks to articles that unambiguously support my assertions and undercut yours. It’s a good thing we don’t live in that world, huh? :D
EDIT: Hmm, my comment appears to be awaiting moderation. Which is either because it was too mean or because there were enough links in here to ping the spam filter. Good to know either way.
27/01/2012 at 02:47 TotalBiscuit says:
1) Genres are not platform specific. PC can play anything and use any peripheral to do so.
2) Origins was not in fact welcome on consoles and sold poorly. This could actually be a case of PC outselling console. Origins only sold 50k copies in it’s first month. It can sell more on Steam and the pricepoint is pretty good.
26/01/2012 at 18:02 Hoaxfish says:
It’s nice to see them adjust the somewhat bizarre price they originally released it at. Not so good original release time either (vs skyrim, assassin’s creed, etc). It was looking like the game would’ve just disappeared under all those bad market decisions… even though the game itself looks wonderful.
Hopefully, no/minimal DRM will remain true when it actually arrives.
I also hope multiplayer can happen via the internet… and maybe I can find a shop that actually sells PC games.
27/01/2012 at 02:22 ulix says:
Why was it a bizarre price they originally released it at? Sure, 40€ (or whatever it was) is a bit strange, if only because its 20€ cheaper than the average console game of similar quality. Now it costs only 1/3 of a new game of similar quality, so this is in no way “adjusted”, while of course it’s still awesome.
26/01/2012 at 18:04 D3xter says:
FUCCCCCCCKK YEEEESSS xD
I raged a bit on their forums about it (in an eloquent way) along with several other people requesting it, and honestly it’s the only UbiSoft game in the last few years (or coming up) that I really really wanted :P
Especially if the “no-DRM” bit proves true, let’s see if we can do something about those bad sales numbers it had on the console-toys, shall we?
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-12-10-rayman-origins-sells-50-000-in-debut-us-month
26/01/2012 at 18:04 Khemm says:
What the hell, is this an alternative universe I’ve found myself in? What happened to all those posts like “Imma NEVAR gonna buyaah Ubi gaemz eegain waaah Ubi EEVIL!”?
Anyway, PHENOMENAL news! Totally buying this, preferably the boxed version if it indeed doesn’t have any DRM.
26/01/2012 at 18:18 Joof says:
I’m confused to as where you got that? 99% of the talk about Ubisoft has been , “I’m never going to buy a Ubisoft game while it’s using always on or once per launch DRM.” When the article says they’re releasing with a one time activation and have another no DRM launch, that’s exactly in line with what everyone has been saying the whole time.
26/01/2012 at 18:21 diamondmx says:
Perhaps you need to realise that gamers _don’t_want_ to hate on the companies that make the games, but there are certain issues they feel they need to take a stand on. When a company shows even small signs that they acknowledge this and respect the consumer rights we as gamers expect – then we are more than forgiving.
Should Ubisoft drop their DRM down to a more acceptable level, and gag the PR people who keep making them look like arseholes, then the Anti-Ubisoft anger will disappear pretty quickly.
Look at EA, they were the ‘Evil Empire’, then they started putting out some games that supported innovation and stopped dicking about their customers – they started getting some really positive PR. Of course, then they started dicking around their customers again…
Activision isn’t getting as much flack lately, because Bobby Kotick shut the hell up.
26/01/2012 at 18:38 Khemm says:
@diamondmx
EA has recently become “that evil one” because they DARED not to jump on the “Valve should rule the world, we are the Borg, accept Steam or we’ll destroy or whatever” bandwagon.
Many people are just looking for an excuse to pirate sth so they might quell their guilty conscience or are merely tools – when it’s “trendy” to hate on something, they do it, just to earn “internet cool points”.
Sometimes it’s perfectly fine to protest again something, but gamers have double standards – companies like Valve can get away with anything, ANYTHING, while companies like EA can become public enemies no 1 overnight when they try to do the exact same thing.
It’s now a chance for those “Ubi sux because DRM blah blah” people to put money where their mouths are – if Ubi sees Rayman enjoys good sales, they might change their ways (they recently have, none of their games used always-online DRM of late) for the better.
26/01/2012 at 18:46 Pointless Puppies says:
What the hell, is this an alternative universe I’ve found myself in? What happened to all those posts like “Imma NEVAR gonna buyaah Ubi gaemz eegain waaah Ubi EEVIL!”?
That’s because people aren’t as irrational as you. See, they don’t have an irrational hatred for companies regardless of what they do like you do (*coughValvecough*), rational people are instead focused on the issues. Is a game coming out steeped in shit DRM? Shame on Ubisoft. Is a game coming out with no DRM whatsoever? Good for Ubisoft. It’s that simple.
The fact that there was a resounding outcry for Ubisoft the past few years and there isn’t one this instant should speak to that fact quite clearly.
26/01/2012 at 18:52 Khemm says:
@Pointless Puppies
Irrational? So wait, if people hate Ubi because they consider DRM bad, they’re being rational. If I hate Valve for inventing DRM which downright prevented my games from even installing, I’m behaving irrationally. They have the right to bitch about DRM and be happy when it’s dropped. I don’t have the right to bitch about DRM in the first place.
Your logic is facepalm-inducing.
26/01/2012 at 18:58 Brun says:
if people hate Ubi because they consider DRM bad, they’re being rational. If I hate Valve for inventing DRM which downright prevented my games from even installing, I’m behaving irrationally.
All DRM are not created equal.
26/01/2012 at 19:00 Khemm says:
@Brun
Lies.
All DRMs are equal, but some are more equal than others.
26/01/2012 at 19:05 Rikard Peterson says:
Ubisoft are behind some of my favourite games (yes, that includes earlier incarnations of Rayman), so I’m delighted to read this! Both that what looks to be great game is coming, and that it’s low on DRM. Yes, I’ll buy it.
26/01/2012 at 19:06 Brun says:
Lies.
All DRMs are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Whoosh. I was not, in fact, trying to make a cute reference to 1984 – that would be too pedestrian, even for a philistine like me. I was pointing out that some DRM is on the level that people are, in general, willing to accept (Steam). Other DRM (Ubi’s fiascoes) is clearly not.
As JOURN3Y correctly states, the reference is actually to Animal Farm. See what I mean by philistine? I’m so uncultured.
26/01/2012 at 19:24 JOURN3Y says:
Close but its actually Animal Farm not 1984 :)
26/01/2012 at 19:31 SkittleDiddler says:
I can’t comment for anyone else, but I’m sticking to my guns and I’m not buying Rayman Origins or any other Ubisoft game, no matter how much I might enjoy them.
Once any company screws me over, they go on my permanent blacklist.
26/01/2012 at 19:37 Khemm says:
@SkittleDiddler
Just a question, which companies do you STILL support? Pretty much every single publisher/developer screwed its customers (YOU) over in one way or another at some point.
Don’t tell me you buy Valve games, they screwed CS fans and HL2 players like no other company before it.
26/01/2012 at 19:47 Shooop says:
If you actually read posts (which you’ve proven you almost never do many times before), you’d have caught the complaints are actually along the lines of, “I’m not buying any Ubisoft game they’ve crammed full of insipid and customer-punishing DRM.”
And yes it is good news. If they’re going to actually do it remains to be seen though. Remember From Dust?
26/01/2012 at 20:08 Joof says:
@Khemm
“EA has recently become “that evil one” because they DARED not to jump on the “Valve should rule the world, we are the Borg, accept Steam or we’ll destroy or whatever” bandwagon.”
What? Or because they went back to mid 90s/ early 2000s EA that destroyed studios and produced yearly updates of dreck instead of the more recent EA that was getting praise for being willing to give games like Mirrors Edge or Dead Space a chance. What kind of crazy person world do you live in?
26/01/2012 at 20:14 Khemm says:
@Joof
What are YOU talking about? When did EA start closing/destroying its internal studios again?
Besides, what happened to Westwood, Bullfrog happened over a DECADE ago. The EA logo might remain, but the management, the people behind it aren’t the same as they were back then.
You never know what might happen once Gabe quits his job, Valve might as well become the new Activision. What will you do then?
26/01/2012 at 20:44 Joof says:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandemic_Studios
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visceral_Games
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/05/ea-origin-bans-update-edition/
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/14/ea-forum-bans-are-still-affecting-games/
And just for fun:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Age_II
And if Valve becomes the next Ubisoft/EA/Activision if Gabe leaves, I’ll stop using them.
26/01/2012 at 21:00 Brun says:
@Khemm:
The more recent EA criticism has happened because of Origin – what you perceive as “Steam or gtfo” criticism about Origin is really down to two issues:
1) Market fragmentation that NO ONE wanted. How many digital distribution platforms do we have now? 4? Market fragmentation is bad for the consumer, no one wants to deal with accounts and clients for 4 services.
2) EA shamelessly pulling all of its games from Steam. This really ties back into #1, it’s more of an attitude/customer perception issue which is why I listed it as a separate item.
The remaining criticisms have to do with faults in Origin and their management of user accounts that tie into it (i.e. bannings).
Item #2 above is especially important and ties into why so many people hate Ubisoft and love Valve. As Iceman says to Maverick: “It’s not your flying, it’s your attitude.” Valve and Ubisoft both attach DRM to their games. Without even going into the technical differences between those DRM schemes, Ubisoft’s attitude toward PC consumers has been condescending if not downright confrontational. In the past Ubisoft has demonstrated (through various interviews and/or statements by its executives or leadership) its complete lack of shame for treating PC gamers as second-class citizens. Valve, on the other hand, either doesn’t say anything (typical), or gives PC gamers the benefit of the doubt. BOTH responses are better than publicly announcing that you’re intentionally screwing the PC, and that’s why many PC gamers give Valve (and Steam) the benefit of the doubt.
26/01/2012 at 21:01 SkittleDiddler says:
Khemm: there are varying levels of screwtitude for me. What one company does may not necessarily equate with what another company does. Overall I’m not a big fan of DLC, for example – THQ really gets my goat with their insipid DLC model, but 2K get a pass from me because they release DLC that actually add meaningful content to their respective games.
It’s not all “black or white” for some of us.
26/01/2012 at 21:32 dahauns says:
@Khemm: How could you forget Origin!
The company, of course, not the…waitaminute. Maybe that’s why Origin (the platform) has such a bad reputation among gamers. We might joke about the naming choice due to its obviousness. But the pain is still there, subconsciously, tainting our attitude towards the platform..
26/01/2012 at 22:35 Pointless Puppies says:
Irrational? So wait, if people hate Ubi because they consider DRM bad, they’re being rational. If I hate Valve for inventing DRM which downright prevented my games from even installing, I’m behaving irrationally. They have the right to bitch about DRM and be happy when it’s dropped. I don’t have the right to bitch about DRM in the first place.
Your logic is facepalm-inducing.
The mere fact that you’re twisting your logic beyond recognition proves that you’re thinking irrationally.
Honestly, I don’t care if Steam prevented you from installing games. I never spoke about that, nobody talked about that, you just brought it up for absolutely no reason. The only thing I’m talking about here is Ubisoft’s DRM and how poeple react to it. If there’s no DRM, people react favorably. If there is, people react unfavorably. Simple. There’s no conspiracy against Ubisoft, most people simply act on a case-by-case basis. Some people might still go “LOLNO” despite this news, and in this case they’re loons. If we as gamers continue to bitch about Ubisoft because of their DRM, the least we can do is have the decency to give them credit if they exclude DRM from a game they release. If we still go ‘YEAH UH WELL THEY’VE BEEN SHITTY BEFORE SO IGNOOOORE!” there’s no progress made for either party.
The fact that you couldn’t install games you already own on Steam is a perfectly legitimate reason to not react favorably, and you have every right to bitch about that, but unfortunately for you it has absolutely nothing to do with what I’m talking about. It would be nice if you could go two seconds into a conversation about DRM without blabbering something about Steam, but it appears you’re physically incapable of doing so.
26/01/2012 at 18:04 Teronfel says:
Why? The game sold pretty bad on consoles.
26/01/2012 at 18:07 Hoaxfish says:
That may be at least one reason… if they can’t sell something they’ve made on consoles, they can at least palm it off onto PC users.
I don’t think the original sales were down to the quality of the game at all, but much more how and when they tried to release it.
26/01/2012 at 18:25 Snidesworth says:
The cost had a bit to do with it as well. £40/$60 was a steep price for something that arguably isn’t AAA quality and discouraged a great many people. I was among them, but then I scooped it up for £22 from Tesco. Don’t regret a thing, but I’d be leery about paying £40 for it. Then again I wouldn’t pay £40 for most games.
26/01/2012 at 19:04 Suits says:
Yeah, they squeezed it in November lol.
26/01/2012 at 23:30 ffordesoon says:
Yeah, it did sell poorly. Because, you know, it released during the middle of Novembergeddon, right before Skyrim, and on the same day as Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, at a sixty dollar price point.
Because Ubisoft really goddamn hates Michel Ancel, as far as I can tell.
27/01/2012 at 02:25 ulix says:
“arguably isn’t AAA quality”
How? Played the demo, and it was the most gorgeous and exquisit 2D game I have ever seen, both in terms of (incredible hi-res) art, as well as animation, as well as sound.
So how, in any possible way, is it not AAA quality? Apparently it is quite lengthy, too.
26/01/2012 at 18:04 foda500orama says:
I feel that the word ‘splendid’ is somewhat overused in this website, however it’s completely appropriate here.
26/01/2012 at 18:13 sinister agent says:
Argh. I’d like to buy this on principle, just to help prove to Moobisoft that DRM is a Bad Thing for everyone. But there’s no way I’m paying £20 for a genre I almost never enjoy. Oh well. Let’s hope this all works out well for them. At least they’re trying, I suppose.
26/01/2012 at 18:13 Lambchops says:
Ooh, jolly good. I’ve been looking for something to scratch my fun, bright, platformer adventure itch and this looks like it will do the trick nicely.
26/01/2012 at 18:16 johnpeat says:
Rayman Origins is the best Sonic game since Sonic 3 IMO – it has exactly the same approach (learn the levels, build-up your speed to get more points) and it’s controls are tight (even on the Wii, oddly enough).
If you like proper Sonic games – this should scratch your itch as-well or better than Generations did.
26/01/2012 at 18:39 Walter Heisenberg says:
Game boner achieved March 30th feels so far away
26/01/2012 at 18:22 Buemba says:
That’s pretty cool, but from what I played at a friend’s house this game shines brightest in local co-op so I think I’ll go with the PS3 version.
Plus, buying a DRM-free Ubisoft game to “send a message” is nice and all, but last time I did that I ended up with a crappy game (Prince of Persia 2008) and my 50 bucks didn’t do squat to convince Ubi to go with more lenient DRM on future releases.
26/01/2012 at 18:40 Khemm says:
When was it confirmed PC version won’t have local co-op?
26/01/2012 at 19:26 Buemba says:
I didn’t say it won’t. I’m saying I’d rather play local co-op games in my consoles since my PC isn’t hooked to the big screen tv.
Last local co-op PC game I played was Jamestown, and I didn’t find it as comfortable and, say, playing Little Big Planet on my living room.
26/01/2012 at 18:23 tmargul says:
Since this is Ubisoft we’re talking about, I would strongly advise people not to put down their money on it until it has been released and confirmed to be DRM free.
26/01/2012 at 18:32 Gurrah says:
Why, this looks rather lovely – didn’t even know they got Rayman back in action.
26/01/2012 at 18:37 Diogo Ribeiro says:
I disliked just about every Rayman I ever played, but Origins does seem to hit a fair number of good spots, so, mebbe it’s a buy.
26/01/2012 at 18:38 Vagrant says:
This is dangerously close to a prime example of why delaying a PC announcement well past console release is a horrid idea. I’ll always wait for a PC announcement, but if they’d have waited much longer I might not have cared.
26/01/2012 at 18:38 DiamondDog says:
I don’t like being that guy, but…
*dons cynical hat*
Could this been down to poor sales on the console and Ubi looking to get some cash back? Rather than a sudden desire to be nice to us PC folk?
Maybe there were rumblings of this coming to PC a while ago that I missed.
26/01/2012 at 18:57 LTK says:
Doesn’t really matter either way, does it? The end result is we PC gamers get a (possibly) good game and (possibly) without crappy DRM. If it sells well then maybe they’ll get it into their thick heads that going easy on the DRM is good for their sales.
26/01/2012 at 19:54 Deano2099 says:
I’d say poor sales and great critical reception. You can guarantee half the PC reviews will have something like “cruelly over-looked on consoles, this hidden gem…”
26/01/2012 at 21:44 dahauns says:
I’m quite sure the sales situation played at least a role in the decision. And you know what – that’s a good thing.
This could strengthen the stance towards the PC inside Ubi – and give Ancel more weight in his effort to open source UbiArt.
Which would be awesome in itself (when you consider the possible impact UbiArt could have in the indie developer community).
26/01/2012 at 23:16 DiamondDog says:
Oh it’s certainly not a bad thing. I’ve heard fantastic things about this game.
That’s a good point though, dahauns. How often do we say money is the only thing that makes publishers take notice of something? If it ends up selling more than it did on consoles it might give them something to mull over.
27/01/2012 at 17:25 Shooop says:
Probably, but no reason to complain. Unless they end up lying about the DRM again.
26/01/2012 at 18:45 wraithblade says:
Actually, it’s Michel Ancel, Mr. Jean Walker!
26/01/2012 at 18:50 DickSocrates says:
Give me Michael Ancel’s PayPal and I’ll pay him directly. I can’t support Ubisoft. I wouldn’t give money to a mass murderer just because he also did nice paintings occasionally.
26/01/2012 at 19:46 Drinking with Skeletons says:
Tried the demo on PS3 and was immediately impressed by the visuals.
Then I was immediately repulsed by the controls. The characters control like the level is made out of ice, slipping and sliding around like crazy. I understand the idea is that you are generally supposed to be moving around a lot and hitting a rhythm, but it was incredibly easy to miss jumps and have to backtrack, not to mention even the demo asked for some precision moments (like swinging on ropes) that the controls really didn’t allow for. It was basically like a much, much worse version of LittleBigPlanet’s (clunky, unresponsive) controls.
When Ancel said he didn’t care for Mario-style platforming, I didn’t realize he meant he didn’t care for a game giving the player reasonable control.
26/01/2012 at 20:06 Snidesworth says:
Kept killing yourself by going for that coin, huh?
26/01/2012 at 20:19 Lewie Procter says:
Yeah, I didn’t really like the controls in the demo either.
27/01/2012 at 02:33 Drinking with Skeletons says:
So here’s the question: does the game become better or more tolerable? It’s a platformer, so I’d assume that the jumping controls don’t change significantly from the early game.
This may be one of those times when I side with the unwashed masses and let the failure of an ambitious, heartfelt effort go un-mourned.
Interesting fact: aside from the soundtrack, I didn’t particularly care for Ancel’s other masterpiece, Beyond Good & Evil. Maybe I just dislike his work?
27/01/2012 at 12:54 UncleLou says:
I’ve not played the demo, only the PS3 full version, and thought the controls are absolutely fantastic. Super-precise and slick, and the main reason (next to the artstyle) why the game is such a triumph.
Is it possilbe that the demo level is a snow/ice level? Because that’s where you actually *do* slide, and where it’s harder to control the characters.
edit:I’d like to add that I am quite clumsy with pads, and while the game gets pretty hard for me, I never felt it was because of the controls – quite on the contrary.
27/01/2012 at 19:08 Drinking with Skeletons says:
No, it was some sort of swamp level. It featured several pools of water with platforms suspended above them and ropes to swing on. Virtually every time I jumped on a platform I’d just shoot right over the edge into the water because the characters just don’t stop very well.
26/01/2012 at 20:02 Ridnarhtim says:
It’s Ubi. Not buying it.
26/01/2012 at 20:16 Khemm says:
I give up. Some people are just mindless haters, I guess.
26/01/2012 at 20:30 Faldrath says:
Khemm, not that I agree with the guy above you, but given that you don’t miss any opportunity to trumpet your hatred towards Steam/Valve to the world, I’d be careful before branding other people “haters”.
26/01/2012 at 21:34 Scandalon says:
I give up.
Promise?
26/01/2012 at 20:12 Joof says:
I loved Rayman 2 or whichever one I played. I’ve heard great things about this one, and with the lack of Ubi’s normal brand of DRM, I’ll definitely pick it up.
26/01/2012 at 20:22 SlyTheSly says:
Well, PC people, time to show we’re still worth it…:)
Hope the game will have the success it deserves, and hope pirates won’t fuck everything up…(you know, the “I claim I pirate games cause it’s too expensive and I spit on greedy corporations” pirates, the guys who pay 1 cent for the Humble Bundle and illegally download DRM-free indie games normally sold for only a few bucks)
26/01/2012 at 20:49 Keymonk says:
I loved that trailer.
26/01/2012 at 22:00 Squishpoke says:
They said the same thing for From Dust, and they lied.
26/01/2012 at 22:14 ericks says:
“No DRM” from Ubi means one of two things:
1) They’re full of shit. They’ve done this before and people still give them money.
2) They plan on blaming Rayman’s terrible sales on piracy.
26/01/2012 at 22:19 Fabio Volta says:
The very good game which sold 50k copies across 3 platforms in the first two weeks. If it was a PC release selling 17k (or 170) Ubi would have been publicly blaming pirates and threatened once again to abandon the platform.
It’s funny that they turned to the PC to recoup losses. Will be even more entertaining to grill them if it sells better on the PC, DRM free, late port, less suited genre to the platform and PIRATES YAHRRR, than it did on consoles.
26/01/2012 at 22:27 Khelavaster says:
I might have to buy this just to send the message that no drm = profits. Oh and it might be fun or something, whatever.
26/01/2012 at 22:51 Tams80 says:
I can’t wait! I’ve been playing Rayman 3D (basically Rayman 2 in 3D) on the 3DS recently and loving it, but this seems to have so much more charm (not that Rayman 3D doesn’t have quite a bit). I was actually wondering if there was a PC version as a copy for the first one appeared last night/this morning.
26/01/2012 at 23:01 Shortwave says:
Now if only they’d adopt this ideology to their games that don’t cost 20 dollars.
27/01/2012 at 00:23 cassus says:
Probably DRM free the same way From Dust was DRM free. That is, with a DRM.
27/01/2012 at 07:32 Lars Westergren says:
Yes. They promised repeatedly that From Dust wouldn’t come with DRM. But then it turned out it was just not the “constantly connected to our servers or you get kicked out” type of DRM.
So I’ll believe them when the reviews start to arrive. Maybe.
On a less grumpy note – I don’t know what the heck is going on in the image, but I really like the artstyle.
27/01/2012 at 04:21 deadly.by.design says:
Looks fun. I always like to see co-op games come to the PC.
Also, I think the increase in XBLA/PSN sales is making developers & pubs more willing to try Steam on for size.
27/01/2012 at 07:29 BreadBitten says:
No DRM you say? Not surprised, since Ubisoft doesn’t seem to give two fucks about any of Michel Ancel’s creations (Rabbids does not count). Case in point, the game’s terrible [console] launch window, the constant pushing back of Beyond Good & Evil and the extortion for funding of said game. Mr. Ancel deserves better than to be working at such a confused and under-appreciative publisher.
That said, I’m happy this game is finally coming out in an environment where the general demographic will be more aware of it’s presence.
27/01/2012 at 08:05 Derppy says:
I’d rather buy it from Steam, don’t know if I want to buy the disk.
That’s right, I’d rather have it with DRM than DRM-free. I want to install my games with two clicks, keep them auto-updated and have them all in one library.
27/01/2012 at 13:57 Kefren says:
I wish there was standard terminology in the industry, with clear definitions.
“one-time activation” probably means ‘activation every time you install the game’, which – if you ever reinstall Windows or get a new PC, or install it on the other partition of your dual-boot, means it isn’t really ‘one-time activation’, it is ‘every time you install activation’. And are there limits on how many times you can activate it? Something like a Creative Commons system covering all the different DRM systems would help so much. I often have to contact support at different digital download services to clarify details like that, and in some cases they just don’t know.
“retail copies, according to Ubi, will have ‘no DRM at all’” = great if literally true. If they add DRM to prevent disc copying then it isn’t true, and they really mean ‘no online activation DRM’.
You’d think an industry as big as the software industry would be able to be clear about all this, but I suppose it isn’t in their interests in soem cases.
27/01/2012 at 14:01 Kefren says:
[Deleted, double post - my PC BSOD'd while doing the first one.]
27/01/2012 at 19:35 Voon says:
Sooooo, Ubi have come crawling back to the PC, huh? Well, no matter. Michel Ancel’s getting my money!
08/10/2012 at 08:19 Shadowcat says:
Well I can confirm that the DVD version I bought is indeed DRM-free.
I installed from the DVD, removed the DVD, then launched and played the game, and my firewall stayed silent the entire time.