Ubisoft's Draconian DRM

[bangtail 0]

Please note, this is a discussion of UBISOFT'S NEW DRM and not protection in general.

Please do not discuss anything to do with the OFP/ARMA games or their protections in this thread.

Thanks in advance :)

Here's the article :

http://www.guru3d.com/news/ubisoft-assasins-creed-2-drm-require-internet/

I, for one, will never buy anything with this sort of protection. If your connection (or their server) goes down, you lose all progress and the game boots you out.

Edited March 13, 2010 by BangTail

[Baff1 0]

What does it matter since they don't sell any games worth playing?

[bangtail 0]

What does it matter since they don't sell any games worth playing?

Well, that's one way of looking at it but the danger is that it could spread to other companies whose games you might actually like :(

For me at least, this type of protection automatically precludes me from buying ANY game that uses it no matter how much I want it. I'm all for companies protecting their games, I even make an exception with ED and Black Shark because I don't like Starfarce, but I buy their games anyway as they are so good. Unfortunately, the current UBI DRM is where I draw the line. I'm not having my gameplay controlled by their master servers in an SP game. Not now, not ever.

Edited February 18, 2010 by BangTail

[Pathy 0]

Aside from the pure retardation of single player requiring internet, what happens in 5 years time when they no longer support the master server. Can you imagine if old replayable games like Deus Ex had this kind of DRM?

[Deadfast 43]

ENN on The Escapist had a good (albeit short) "coverage" on this in this episode at 1:57.

My personal opinion?

The suits got it all wrong again.

"Hm, we really need to decrease the piracy!"

"True, I have an idea. How about we make it nearly impossible for the customers to play our games?"

"Oh, that is such a great idea! That will surely show the pirates!"

[mr burns 132]

In a perfect world only the most uninformed hillbillys would buy a game with this DRM. But the huge sales numbers of Warfail2 and Sales Rising stay as a reminder for us that a perfect world isn´t nowhere near at all.

SH5 will get enough sales to justify the UBI bosses in their decision. Case closed.

[Clavicula_nox4817 0]

Aside from the pure retardation of single player requiring internet, what happens in 5 years time when they no longer support the master server. Can you imagine if old replayable games like Deus Ex had this kind of DRM?

It's funny that you mention Deus Ex because I just restarted a game the other day. I would be mightily upset if I couldn't play because some asshat decided to turn the server off.

[bangtail 0]

ENN on The Escapist had a good (albeit short) "coverage" on this in this episode at 1:57.

My personal opinion?

The suits got it all wrong again.

"Hm, we really need to decrease the piracy!"

"True, I have an idea. How about we make it nearly impossible for the customers to play our games?"

"Oh, that is such a great idea! That will surely show the pirates!"

What's even funnier is that these boneheads haven't realised that the more you "fly in the face" of pirates, the quicker they circumvent your "unbreakable" protection scheme.

All things like this DRM do is inconvenience paying customers.

[dm 9]

Aside from the pure retardation of single player requiring internet, what happens in 5 years time when they no longer support the master server. Can you imagine if old replayable games like Deus Ex had this kind of DRM?

This. Its something that comes up about steam a lot too. Its all well and good now, but what happens in a few years time when its all gone? I have games from 1996/7 which I still play now, but what of the new DRM-raped games? Will I still be playing them in 14 years time, or will they be long forgotten whilst I'm still playing Red Alert and TA?

[echo1 0]

The old clichés are really true - pirates will get around this stuff in the end, and only the honest customer will suffer. In fact, it will probably drive more people to piracy rather than deter them.

At the end of the day, DRM will get to a point whereby if it was any more draconian, it would be blatantly illegal (moreso than it already is) and they'll have to give it up. Hell, it could even kill the games industry as we know it.

Anyways, I echo Baff's sentiments - Ubisoft are shit. I never forgave them for what they did to Rainbow Six...

[JdB 151]

Aside from the pure retardation of single player requiring internet, what happens in 5 years time when they no longer support the master server. Can you imagine if old replayable games like Deus Ex had this kind of DRM?

EA has started pulling the plug on games that aren't even 2 years old.

[Pathy 0]

EA has started pulling the plug on games that aren't even 2 years old.

Really? Christ. Maybe i'm just old school but a 2 year old game is plenty playable for me. Hell, I regularly go back to stuff like Fallout 2, Thief 1 & 2, Deus Ex (as mentioned). 2 years is nothing. I even played some Unreal Tournament Multiplayer not so long ago.

Pulling the plug is not a major drama in most cases, because the SP is still accessible with these. But for instance, AvP2, the master servers went down, and a still reasonably active MP just instantly died (although there is a fan made patch that resolves this). Now if you were to tie everything, MP and SP, into these master servers and well, you'd be screwed...

Needless to say, the idea of a SP game you can only play connected to the internet is stretching things, but the more I think about it, the more sinister this gets.

It seems that the games companies these days just want to push us from shiny (& overhyped) bauble to shiny bauble - which makes perfect sense, as good as Deus Ex may be, nobody gets any money when I do my annual playthrough later this year, whereas if I buy a new game, well, thats a different story. Games Companies don't want us to linger on a game it seems, and with good reason - they'd prefer we're buying something brand new. It's also not like EA don't have a long track record of pushing out a slightly updated version of old games (FIFA series, for example). Whats a more ideal way to prevent gamers lingering than to effectively control how much longevity a game has through controlling the master servers. Pushed from bauble to bauble.

Lets say you're happily playing Uber Leet Snip0r Warz 1? Well, Uber Leet Snip0r Warz 2 is out tomorrow, and by co-incidence the master servers for #1 are closing in 2 weeks......See where i'm headed? Call me cynical, but games companies are getting more and more mercenary in thier approach, and I wouldn't discount this as the natural conclusion to the path EA are taking. Now, whether they'll succeed or not is another matter. A pissed off gamer can be quite something!

[von_paulus 0]

Call me cynical, but games companies are getting more and more mercenary in thier approach, and I wouldn't discount this as the natural conclusion to the path EA are taking.

No, I'm afraid you're not being cynical at all. The corporate world is filled with this. And this isn't happen only with big corporations. I've seen this approach being used in my daily basis experience. :mad:

[bangtail 0]

A pissed off gamer can be quite something!

SWG anyone :p

In all seriousness, it's total BS and a way to control what we buy. By shutting down "Game Number 1", they are effectively forcing you to buy the recently announced "Game Number 2" (or just not play at all).

The greed on this planet is spiraling out of control I'm afraid. Very sad :(

Edited February 18, 2010 by BangTail

[mr burns 132]

Call me cynical, but games companies are getting more and more mercenary in thier approach, and I wouldn't discount this as the natural conclusion to the path EA are taking.

No, I'm afraid you're not being cynical at all. The corporate world is filled with this. And this isn't happen only with big corporations. I've seen this approach being used in my daily basis experience. :mad:

True. As long as any business estimates their worth through stock markets this trend will hold on. They´re going hysteric for loosing minor values (pardon my non existant knowlegde/usage of specific terms) while still being in a good plus and start firing employees or closing down whole studios - just because their sense of worth has come down to "oh shit we´re not making plus´" instead of "hey, we´re writing black numbers, let´s reinvest!".

[TangoRomeo 10]

SH5 will get enough sales to justify the UBI bosses in their decision.

I sincerely hope you'll be proven wrong, though looking at Anno, makes me believe otherwise. Seeing how publishers are willing to alienate an established fanbase, does speak volumes about the market and where it is heading to.

b0yEo0UdKJs

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Lets say you're happily playing Uber Leet Snip0r Warz 1? Well, Uber Leet Snip0r Warz 2 is out tomorrow, and by co-incidence the master servers for #1 are closing in 2 weeks......See where i'm headed!

While that might seem like a great idea to milk money effectively at first, if it became a common and known practice, I'm pretty sure it would eventually either result games dropping in price massively or a decline in customer numbers.

Right now it's out of the spotlight so I think nobody notices or cares about such issues. Until something radical happens, like master servers go down for a popular game for a week/month, and you can't do anything with the game during that time, it won't really get the attention it deserves. I'm pretty sure creating a hype on the scale of 'No Russian', to get media attention would do the trick.

[dmarkwick 261]

Doesn't Steam already run this sort of system? There might be small differences in detail, but if I lose my inet connection, I cannot play any of my Orange Box games.

But having said that, even Steam's system is overly draconian IMO. I also hear that SH5 (which I am looking forward to BTW) has a 30install limit. Not even any reclaimable installs after an uninstall.

Aside from Steam's online verification method (which seems to work), I don't know that there's any evidence that limiting installs is in any way effective. In fact, I believe Steam allows you to reinstall any number of times right? At least that's a result of genuine logic, whereas the limited install method only has to appeal to some goon in a suit with no idea.

[Emberwolf 0]

Steam has an offline mode. I've been able to play singleplayer games through it on the occasion that I couldn't get online. Even when I was playing a singleplayer game on Steam and Steam itself dropped, my game didn't screw up or shut down. I haven't tried Valve's own games this way, I'm guessing they misbehave since they require Steamworks.

Hell, playing multiplayer games purchased through Steam which didn't use Steamworks networking weren't even interrupted when Steam went down.

With UBI, if the connection goes, the singleplayer game stops, and you can't even save your game. Kinda sucks if you were three hours into a patrol from your last save in SH5.

Regarding subsimming, probably the best thing is to get SH3, install GWX, and cope with not having a first person submarine tour which will likely get old after 5 minutes anyway. I'm really unimpressed with what they've shown in SH5 previews so far, the GUI looks horrendous. The Atlantic has water from the Caribbean. VII-type only, war ends in 1943. Ugh. Still, I'd probably pick it up if it I knew it didn't have the retarded UBI DRM.

The forced online requirement at all times was also why I didn't buy Rise of Flight. I heard that they were removing that requirement, although I couldn't find any official sources. If they do actually remove the requirement, I'll happily purchase it, but until then, Over Flanders Fields gets my WWI playtime, since the people who made it don't consider their customers criminals by default. :)

Edited February 18, 2010 by Emberwolf

[sanctuary 19]

The forced online requirement at all times was also why I didn't buy Rise of Flight. I heard that they were removing that requirement, although I couldn't find any official sources. If they do actually remove the requirement, I'll happily purchase it, but until then, Over Flanders Fields gets my WWI playtime, since the people who made it don't consider their customers criminals by default. :)

That is confirmed apparently on the official website :

http://riseofflight.com/Blogs/post/2010/02/05/LOGIN-OFFLINE-ACCESS-GRANTED!!!.aspx

[dmarkwick 261]

Regarding subsimming, probably the best thing is to get SH3, install GWX, and cope with not having a first person submarine tour which will likely get old after 5 minutes anyway.

You mean apart from the Starforce protection? ;) I only bought SH3 after there was a "solution" for Starforce.

Oh, and I don't think the first person feature is the thing that the Silent Hunter franchise is most valued for ;) like a lot of the best sims, SH is a slow-burner with flurries of extreme excitement :)

[bangtail 0]

Anyways, I echo Baff's sentiments - Ubisoft are shit. I never forgave them for what they did to Rainbow Six...

Amen brother - I still play Raven Shield (some great audio there). Lockdown and beyond are a bloody travesty.

[TangoRomeo 10]

snippets from ubisoft OSP Q&A:

Can I resell my game?

Not at this time.

Can I resell my game along with my Ubisoft account?

Your Ubisoft account features your personal data and cannot be given or sold to anyone.

How does Ubisoft use my personal information? How can I control which data is actually provided to Ubisoft?

Ubisoft uses information provided by its customers only to ensure our services run properly for an optimal gameplay experience - including the customer service. Ubisoft does not use personal information for any other purposes, unless you have explicitly accepted for us to do so.

Why is Ubisoft forcing their loyal customers to sign up for a Ubisoft account when they don't want to give their private data and only play single player games?

We hope that customers will feel as we do, that signing up for an account will offer them exceptional gameplay and services that are not available otherwise.

... nice. I especially like the last one. The honesty in all this is just heart warming. :D

---------- Post added at 10:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 AM ----------

Aside from Steam's online verification method (which seems to work), I don't know that there's any evidence that limiting installs is in any way effective.

Not in context with piracy .. but reselling, give-away, etc. If all activations are used up, i bet you could buy a new set. Customer service :D.

[krycek 349]

These days I'm wondering how my favourite platform still survives,3 factors will continue to damage pc gaming.

1.Pirates that pirate everything they could get their dirty hands on,at least some have the decency to just admit it instead of inserting pathethic excuses like "but it was a bad game anyway",oh yeah?How about you don't friggin play it if it was so bad.

2.M$ that doens't give a shit about the platform and if that is not enough they even actively sabotage it by paying devs to release their games on X360first and then on pc(6 months delay or longer) or just simply cancel the pc version(look at Alan Wake fiasco,GOW2 and many others).

3.Companies like Ubisoft that put very restrictive drm on their games.Seeing this in 2010 I'm wondering if the suits are really idiots or just retards with diplomas.Even a kid will understand that everything gets cracked and with this new DRM I'm wondering if those who still wanted to buy a game will simply run towards the pirate version or simply will not give a fuck about the game.Pathethic enough I believe in this case the pirate version will be better since will not have any sort of this UBI crap.

These are the 3 factors that is killing this platform.Which is actually worse since this is a very vicious circle,people will pirate even more "hey this game is crap anyway and these people stop me from playing their stuff with their nazi drm",UBI and the suits will be like "well damn dude again they're pirating the crap out of our games,we need a new DRM for our already draconian DRM" and the role of M$ in all this story?Well they actually don't give a crap since the big corporations will buy their Windows and that brings them more money than me,you and other average joe will when buying a license.For the games part they have X360.

Let's just hope we don't end up like Mac gaming.Too bad about AC2 and Settlers 7,I was looking forward to these games.Even SC:Conviction made me interested a bit.

[Deadfast 43]

...

Point 3 only further reinforces point 1.

So, people will pay $50 to get more annoyance when they can just click a few buttons and get the same deal for free without it? What are the CEO's thinking with?