Ubisoft require that all of their games need an always on internet connection, as part of a new DRM and online services platform. We put your questions about their always-online DRM to Ubisoft in a phone interview last night. Their answers are below the link.
What's the problem this DRM is trying to address? Ubi are increasingly concerned about piracy on the PC. "It's a huge problem - you know it, I know it, other people know it. It really is a very important issue that all serious companies need to address," says their spokesperson. But they also believe that their online services will make PC gaming better. "The real idea is that if you offer a game that is better when you buy it, then people will actually buy it. We wouldn't have built it if we thought that it was really going to piss off our customers."
So what's in it for gamers? Ubi say there are three advantages to their online services. The first: you don't need a disc. The second: that you can install the game on as many PCs as you like, as many times as you like. And the third: the automatic uploading of savegames to Ubisoft's servers.
Do Ubisoft understand that we don't want to be permanently online? They've spotted the outcry, yes. "We know that requiring a permanent online connection is not a happy point for a lot of PC gamers, but it is necessary for the system to work.
Which PC games will require an always on internet connection? All announced Ubisoft PC games will include the online services, whether sold online, or from brick and mortar stores. That includes Splinter Cell, Silent Hunter 5, Assassin's Creed 2, Prince of Persia and the newly announced Ghost Recon. "It's hard for us to say, yes, from now until the day that we all die all of our games are going to include this," says their spokesperson, "but most will."
If my internet connection goes down during play, will I lose my progress? That depends on the way the systems have been implemented. The two examples we have now, Assassin's Creed 2 and Settlers VII, show differing implementations. In Assassin's Creed, if your connection cuts out, you'll be taken back to the last checkpoint. "With Settlers, your game will resume exactly where you left off," says Ubisoft's spokesperson.
How will I know what I'll lose? "You'll have to wait for the reviews, and to hear what your peers are saying."
What happens if Ubisoft take the DRM servers offline for maintenance, or suffer a technical breakdown? In the case of a server failure their games will be taken offline, and you'll be unable to play them. "The idea is to avoid that point as much as possible, but we have been clear from the beginning that the game does need an internet connection for you to play. So if it goes down for real for a little while, then yeah, you can't play. "
Are Ubisoft trying to kill PC gaming? One theory states that piracy is such a problem on PC that they'd prefer to move their customers to the Xbox or PS3. Their spokesperson disagrees. "No, we're not trying to kill the PC market. Are we frustrated by the PC market? I think everyone is. In the end it all comes back to one single truth: piracy is a big, huge, hairy problem. It's a market that suffered a lot because of piracy, and we're all just trying to figure out what we think is the best way to deal with it."
Do Ubi believe this DRM is unhackable? They accept that it's all DRM's fate to be eventually hacked, explaining that internally, they've already talked of a timescale for how long their games will be protected by it. But, they believe that it's secure enough for them. "We wouldn't do it if we didn't believe in it. The guys who designed it believe in it. Do we think that it's the one system that God has sent onto earth that will never be cracked by anybody ever? We can't guarantee that, but we believe in it. "
Does this mean that Ubi are dissatisfied with other online rights management platforms like Steam? There's a hint of that, although Ubi are keen to praise Valve's online platform. "We think what Steam has done is amazingly valid, but aren't Steam games cracked amazingly fast? It's not a question of dissatisfaction, it's a question of 'we've got another idea, another way of implementing it, and we're going for it'."
What happens when it becomes economically inefficient to run the servers for these games? Will Ubisoft take the servers down? And will that mean we can't play the games we bought?
The first point Ubi makes is that they intend for the servers to stay up. "Say in 5 years someone who bought Assassin's Creed 2 wants to go back and play it, the hope is, the plan is that we'll be on Assassin's Creed, I dunno, 3, 4, 5, and the servers will still be there to serve those new games," explains their spokesperson. "They'll also be able to serve the old games." But Ubisoft have the ability to patch the DRM out of their games. "If for some reason, and this is not in the plan, but if for some reason all of the servers someday go away, then we can release a patch so that the game can be played in single-player without an online connection. But that's if all of the servers are gone."
Will Ubi make a firm commitment to removing the DRM if the servers are to be taken offline?
We'll paste the straight transcript here:
PCG: What I think a lot of us would really like is a firm commitment that you understand our worries that the servers are going to go down and suddenly we've just got some trash data on our hard drives that we've paid for.
Ubisoft: The system is made by guys who love PC games. They play PC games, they are your friends.
PCG: So you can commit to saying that those systems will be patched out?
Ubisoft: That's the plan.
PCG: It's the plan, or it's definitely going to happen?
Ubisoft: That's written into the goal of the overall plan of the thing. But we don't plan on shutting down the servers, we really don't."
It's a real shame. I haven't pirated any type of media in over four years now. I buy a significant number of games but, due to travelling lots with work, I frequently don't have an internet connection when I play them. If this happens I will never buy another Ubisoft game. Ever.
I like your questions, PC Gamer, but it would have been nice to ask on behalf of us gamers who do NOT have a constant internet connection, thanks to my location.
Ubisoft has refused to answer that as well.
After all, WE are the ones who CAN'T just pirate the games at any time we want. We're the ideal target audience for selling single-player games to.
And I'm not even going into the whole issue of the general usefulness of copy protection and how non-copy-protected games can make great sales, too.
I still don't like this. Why do pirates have it easier than paying customers? Take for instance EA's DRM on Mirror's Edge, I've had my key reset request ignored and delayed so long I've had to resort to getting a crack for a game I paid good money for.
Pretty good questions. All the confirmation I needed that I was already right. They genuinely think that this DRM will be the one, that they've made it draconian enough that it can STOP piracy, at least for those important few release weeks. And their lack of dedication to ensuring these games run in the future, as illustrated in their evasive answering at the end, made me laugh. They aren't going to care in 5 years' time, especially if their anti-piracy antics have destroyed their business model anyway. (I hope consoles don't think they are free of all this. Console piracy will probably get worse too. As will the retaliation.)
Again, I plea that you reflect the revelations you've uncovered in reviews and review scores for Ubisoft games. Just because this might be a non-issue whilst you are reviewing the game, it's still a grotesque elephant in the room that needs to be observed.
(I almost respect Ubisoft for having the honesty for sending preview code that includes the DRM, but perhaps they are just trying to prevent a DRM-free version being released into the wild by a disaffected writer. Hm.)
Are the manages at UBI thick or somthing, they say that there doing this DRM for the consumer, But look at theses threads and in interview, the consumers and the reviews do not like it, there for there not doing it for the consumer, there going against what the consumer wants, which will just increase the piracy.
I wonder sometimes how these people get so high up.
They really don't get it. There's no added value here for a PC customer. - Plenty of games run without discs in the drive. For that matter, needing to put a disc in is zero hassle compared to this. - Again, removing install limits sounds great, until you realise this used to be the norm before limited activations were forced on us. It's like fixing a problem of your own making. - Cloud save backups is also nice, but I'd always want local saves as well, and the means to back them up myself.
The real kicker is that this will be cracked in an amazingly short time frame. For piracy to be the primary motivation behind this new system is lunacy, and really shows Ubi have little understanding of piracy beyond download numbers.
My internet connection is good, but prone to the odd wobble. During peak times, 5-11 pm every day, traffic is also throttled and it'll usually have a couple of hiccups in that time. It only loses connection for a few seconds, but from the sounds of it that's enough. Forcing players back to the last arbitrary checkpoint because of this is just stupidity.
I'll be doing the only thing I can: Not buying Ubisoft's products.
Thanks for posting this, though I'm really not convinced.
There's a petition at: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?ew15dl94&1 for anyone who would like to sign.
The point is people don't want it, and they've admitted that it's going to get hacked. And its more of an inconvenience for everyone; good internet connection or not.
Besides, I would hardly call the ability to install MY game on any computer an unlimited amount of times a benefit.
I used to be able to do that all the bloody time.
Piracy is much like the war on terror: its stupid, because you can never win it. The best you can do is give the people who aren't pirating better service, so that they don't turn to piracy.
I'll just add Ubisoft to the list of companies that won't be enjoying my business just like Activision.
When will they learn that such methods of these just annoy PC games and only affect those who actually pay for the game not pirated copies. Give games with this protection a day a most before this nasty DRM is removed..
Cant help thinking that UBI soft are making a big mistake bunging this crap onto Silent Hunter 5.
The simulator genre is not the biggest selling anyway and to p**s off 70% of their loyal userbase (as polls in the Silent Hunter and Subsims forums suggest) is stupid.
I would suggest to UBI that most of the people who pirate the Silent Hunter series dont even give the sim a 2nd glance. Once they have looked at it and had a go at sinking a couple of ships, that will be it, into the never to be used again box it will go.
Never mind, screw UBI, I will just get back to playing some of the excellent mods out there for SH3 and SH4 instead of buying this always online intrusive crap.
"But we don't plan on shutting down the servers, we really don't."
I wonder if you'd interviewed EA about their plans for the Mercenaries 2 servers 18 months ago, what answer they would have given. I'm sure they didn't "plan" that either.
Wow, sometimes a thing turns out to be exactly as bad as you thought at first glance.
The question of whether Ubisoft can commit to removing DRM when the servers go down is very important, and Ubisoft's response is inadequate. I don't care in the slightest what a company intends, I only care about what they've committed to.
The requirement to always be connected to the internet simply will not fly. I won't even bother pointing out the arguments against it, it's so stupid.
I've waited so long for SC:Conviction and Ubisoft go and pull a stunt like this...
I bet most people tolerate STEAM because even if you lose connection you can play games offline. I bet STEAM will be around far longer than this new DRM.
Also if Ubisoft can patch out the DRM from their own games, surely they must realise they'll be hackers/pirates who can do just that as well.
If Ubisoft sales don't drop drastically I'll be surprised.
The list of publishers worth buying games from is growing increasingly shorter
Ubisoft I have bought over 100 games on steam. 2 are yours, Dark Messiah and POP, they will be my last. Theres many many many other great games out there to choose from. Why would I choose yours over others that aren't so restrictive. I bought Mirrors Edge and Mass Effect when they removed their limited installs (steam versions).Theres plenty of games I would buy right now if they did the same, one of them yours. Think about it, its so stupid.
ps I actually think SC looks poor but Assassins Creed 2 looks great and I would like to buy it.
I disagree with piracy on general principle. If I like something, I WANT the people who made it to be successful and, in theory, make something else that I'll like even more. But this? I won't down- load a pirated version of the game but I won't be buying any of these either. Ubi has the right to take whatever steps they feel necessary to protect their investment... and at this point I'm just unwilling to sacrifice the convenience of something that is supposed to be fun and relaxing to massage their insecurities. So, I make the only choice left open to me which is to no longer buy any of their products.
If a game my company was trying to ship periodically quit to the desktop, losing the player's unsaved progress, we would call that a category 'A' bug and people would be working night and day to track it down and fix it.
The reason we would be trying to fix it is that if we released it as was, and word got around via reviews or word of mouth that it had such a bug, sales would suffer and our investment in the product would be squandered.
Does UBI think the end-user gives a good god-damn whether it's their network connection or a category 'A' bug that keeps losing their progress for them?
If more games offered demo's then I feel that piracy would go down. Gaming companies are afraid to do this though because they know that, generally, their games suck and the hype they can put on the box is > than whatever is in the box for a good number of buyers.
I think that it's incredible that gamers are "not allowed" to return products they were unsatisfied with to retailers or to the publishing companies. Hell, I can return books to the bookstore! I can give them back a half eaten plate of food when I discover that they didn't cook the meat all the way!
I refuse to pay for a game that I don't find enjoyable, or pay more for a game than I feel it is worth, and due to industry practices the best way to do this is to pirate a game and then buy it if you like it. What happens if you don't like it? You stop playing the game almost immediately. But the publishing companies refuse to refund your money for selling you a bad product. The last game I bought before trying it either at a friends, at a store, or through a download, was Empire: Total War.
Some games I trust the company enough and/or love the IP enough I know I don't need to test it out first. If Bioware ever releases a second DA, bought. GW2, bought. FF13 and 14, bought. Hell, Aion gave me a 2 week access to their game for only $5 and then gave me the option of buying the rest, which I did.
My personal hope for the industry, that instead of using EA's $10 scheme, (which honestly is a valid process IMO especially compared to this ridiculous thing by UBI) that gamers are sold 30% of the game for $10, and then if they liked it and wanted to keep playing, they could pay the other $40/$50 because they actually ENJOYED the game. Or hell, just bring back demo's and suck it up already. Seriously though UBI, EA's $10 scheme is a hell of a lot better than yours.
My sole prediction about all of this is that within a week of AC2 coming out, Ubi's servers are going to be DDOSed to hell and back, be down for days and no one will be able to play anything.
So! Settlers VII will let you rejoin right where you left off. Fine. That doesn't seem to take into account that I wont be able to play it to begin with because I only ever play RTSs (of which the Settlers series has always been my favourite) on train journeys, when I don't have internet connection.
Thankyou for making great games in the past, Ubisoft. But if I'm not going to be able to play my games legally, I'm not going to play them at all, and I'm going to have to look around for a new RTS to play when I travel across the continent. I'm hearing good things about Starcraft.
Thanks for this PCG, its nice to know someone is still out there fighting for us.
Hasn't changed my mind, I will still be ignoring most Ubisoft games (with the exception of any truly elite titles), and playing other games instead. There are plenty out there to keep me happy.
Ubisoft's "benefits" are useless for me. I don't mind having to insert a disc, as it takes about 5 seconds. I only have one PC which I play games on. And the third point relates to the second point as well. I won't need uploaded saves unless my harddrive failed.
But the potential negatives are too much. My net connection is stable for 99% of the time, but I don't want to risk losing progress if it drops for a second. It might not be an issue in a game like AC2 which autosaves ALOT, but other games might not autosave so frequently. And when I'm getting a new game in a series, I often play the last one just before, for example I re-played Mass Effect a couple of weeks before ME2 came out. Ubisoft's evasiveness in answering the final question makes me wonder if that will be possible. I also don't want to find out that I can't play if their servers are down for maintennance or something.
How long till they do an EA and close down servers for certain games to make way for the newer versions. Not long I would think. PR Bull**** from begininig to end.
Its a shame i was looking forward to silent hunter. Wont be buying it or any ubisoft games now.
There loss I guess.
Im sorta hoping that the pirates do crack them not because i want to download them cant be bothered doing that, but because it will show how uterly pointless it is.
Stupefying beyond belief. I thought the whole MW2 thing was as pathetic as a company could get but this is a new low. I run a gaming cafe and get to hear a lot of kids talk about their fave upcoming titles. You would not believe how many of them have already decided to pirate Assassin's Creed purely on principle. I don't support piracy in any way but this is the closest I've come to agreeing with people that are going to torrent the hell outta this.
This really makes me wonder when these publishers are going to realize that the more draconian the DRM, the more it hurts THEM and not pirates. Why blow all this time and money on developing this DRM and the accompanying servers (which are expensive to run and maintain) when they have admitted that the protection could be easily "patched out"? If Ubisoft can remove the DRM, so could anyone else with a debugger and half an idea of what they're doing. Like always, this can only end one way: Paying customers experience downtime and lost progress when they lose connection and pirates keep on playing. It seems to me that this system is focused more on punishing paying customers and incentivizing piracy. Pirates get a better experience for free while paying customers shell out their hard-earned cash for a big stack of frustration. This happens over and over and over and over. Publisher pays large sum of money for new DRM, crackers remove DRM and leak the game early, a percentage of customers can't play their game due to DRM problems, publisher gives customer the finger because they already have their money, publisher loses more customers to piracy. Stop digging your own graves. You're wasting your money, frustrating your player base and giving everyone more and more reasons to not purchase your product. Even if the game was "uncrackable", I can assure you pirates would still not purchase it. You're wasting your time and ours.
With all that being said: I give 'em two months before they shut down the servers and patch out the DRM. Should be enough time for them to go over their numbers and see the negative impact on their bottom line.
So all he really told us, once again, is all the ways that we won't be able to play the game.
Cloud savegames are a terrible excuse, too. Who plays a single player game on multiple computers? And mobile laptops are out, because you would need an internet connection.
jonny_hermit - damn straight. All of those "benefits" are either available with Steam or should be the norm anyway (unlimited installs).
If I nudge my internet cable accidentally it can go offline. I'm on a laptop in China, so obviously internet isn't perfect. Hell, on my PC back home, my wireless internet can disconnect at any time too. There's no such thing as a perfect, stable internet connection - mine or Ubisoft's.
Not only am I worried about Ubisoft discontinuing support for these games or going offline so I can't play, but also I'm worried about 'net speeds. Do you need a fast connection to play?
In my 15 years or so of PC gaming I've never been interested by piracy, instead buying everything - often including ridiculous special editions and art books. And I do this because I love PC gaming and I want to have made an investment into its future.
When the DRM falls to the hackers, Ubisoft need to realize that not only will the hackers be experiencing a smoother gaming experience than their customers. But that the customers know it too.
It's ironic because what they don't seem to grasp is that the "harder" the DRM is to crack (and to be honest I'm far from convinced it actually is), the more hacker groups will be interested in cracking it. It's a challenge for them. It also means a day-one torrent is inevitable.
The "PC problem" is self-made by the publishers. Instead of making quality games, they pour millions into flash and leave no substance, then bar their games with insanely restrictive DRM. It's really as if I had a car that could only go through certain areas of town, only at certain times, and that if there was a storm it'd stop dead. Just look at Sins of a Solar Empire! It barely cost a million to make, yet sold a million copies in an extremely niche genre (which, may I add, was done with zero DRM). Maybe it'd be time for developers and publishers to rethink their scope and goals.
I'd really love for some game to be released as an experiment with no DRM whatsoever and see the piracy rates on that game. I can bet you won't see much of a difference. Oh, maybe you should consider something called a demo, too! It's nice to be able to know whether the 60 bucks you'll be forking over is for something you really want.
As an aspiring game developer, I understand entirely Ubi's concern with piracy. That's hard earned money that the company's workers deserve from years of labor and care taken away by people who have the time to not only make a crack, but the gall to distribute it. It is only fair for a company to think of its own workers as much as they should think of their customers.
Sad to say, Ubi has overstepped a fine boundary and thought too highly of their workers without the consideration of their customers.
Look at Blizzard, for example. All one has to do to find a working crack for that is to type in 'Starcraft Keygen' and voila, the first link they probably click has a working keygen. Yet Blizzard made enormous amounts of money from it to lavish their workers with and enough to buy all their workers cars for Christmas. And even still, the sales for Starcraft are continuing to go on, raking in more surplus to fund the monster known as Blizzard Entertainment. According to a few people I know working, currently, the concern lay not within the dangers of piracy, but in how well they can tempt their players to buy their games.
Someone has wisely suggested a percentage of the game for a smaller-priced demo as a bait-and-lure tactic. When a person walks into the store, there are two determining factors to whether or not they will purchase the game. The first being whether or not they have heard of it beforehand or through viral means of distribution, meaning their friends told them to get it. The second being a 20 minute demonstration of the game. It only takes 20 minutes to get through the repetitions enough to apply further skills and to know if the game is worth it.
Only 20 minutes of the game and we, the customers (who are more intelligent than simple sheep who buy whatever we're told to buy), can figure out whether or not it's worth the $50.
Through the use of this newDRM that Ubi has presented, they are not stopping piracy as much as they are stopping their customers from enjoying hard work. In truth, I would much rather have my game pirated but enjoyed than to be hated for a limitation on the customers. To me, a potential customer, I see it as being punished for the fault of others. Not all of us are trying to steal hard-earned wealth. Most gamers, strangely enough, understand that in order for a company to make more and better games, they need money. To get them said money, the customers need to buy the game in a show of support.
What of the customers who don't have stable internet connections?
What of the customers who don't have any internet at all?
What of the customers who are traveling with laptops?
Once again, I understand that pirated PC games are unsettling, but the fact of the matter is that people hate being told 'no' when they have paid hard-earned money on it.
Just because some poindexter code-junky decided they wanted to spend time cracking a game and distributing it, doesn't mean I should get jailed up for them.
We call that being framed.
And Ubi, we, your once-loyal customers, are being framed.
Actually with Starcraft all you have to do is enter a key made up of entirelya certain digit. My copy came with no CD key on the back and I found this out (thankfully).
Hahahaha. I, for one, am always amused when businesses in brutally competitive industries forget that they're actually in brutally competitive industries and instead start thinking that people will put up with any crap from them and their success is predetermined. Such monumental arrogance. Does Ubi really think people love their games so much that they will put up with this draconian nonsense, this harassment of people who are actually paying for their games? The market will quickly disabuse them of that notion, because people won't put up with it, and will instead buy games from their competitors. Now, I only took an intro business course in college, but I'm pretty sure that angering your customers and driving them to your competitors by some misguided attempt at spiting the entire customer base just to get at the pirates is bad business. I don't know what's in the koolaid over at Ubi, that they think that the marginal benefit of several more days or weeks until the game is cracked somehow outweighs the much more significant negative of p**sing off your entire customer base and making many people literally unable to use their product. Frankly, I hope the pirates crack this in record time just to spite Ubi (and they probably will). It's like they've put some abstract anti-piracy ideology ahead of business fundamentals, namely, never p**sing off all your customers for no good reason. And be assured, this is no good reason... this will get cracked and all their effort at making the DRM, all the ill will they have created and had to endure, will be for nothing. They will have accomplished nothing except p**sing off the people who actually pay for their games! Just sheer idiocy all around.
This seems extremely draconian. I don't think I've bought a Ubisoft game before, certainly not on my PC. My preferences tend towards games made by the likes of Stardock or Paradox Interactive, both of whom manage to survive with minimal DRM on their games.
The worst bit is they don't even seem to have tried other methods to reduce piracy. How about cutting £5 of the price of a new game and see how that affects sales/piracy. Even if it failed it would do less damage to your long term profitabilty then this idea.
I think i might cry, i prefered assassins on PC than console. its a real shame that they are clearly leaving the PC market and heading for consoles. And all this talk of Piracy being a bad thing, the music industry has had a rise in earnings since piracy.
I understand the issue that pirating games deprives the people who made them of the profit. Here's a solution: You download a pirated game and send a check to the dev company address for whatever the game costs. This way you will 1) Get a good game without all that stupid DRM BS. 2) Make sure it's the DEVELOPERS who get your money and not the publishers and other middle men.
Problematic for various reasons, not the least of which would be that by sending them money you are effectively admitting being guilty of piracy thus leaving yourself open for further legal action. I suppose you could try to get around this by sending cash in an envelope without a return address mailed from a different area than the one you live or work in, however cash in post is easily stolen and thus you have no guarantee the money makes it to the company. Even if it makes it to the company you can not be sure that the money ends up in the company's coffers and not some unscrupulous employee's pocket instead.
Do not buy any ubi games with this DRM. Do not even pirate them so they can't have the excuse of saying pirates are the reason they went away from PC gaming. Do not touch in any form these games, ever. Send ubi a message so loud and clear that not only their games were a commercial failure, people didn't even bother to pirate them.
And C&C4 will have a similar type of DRM too where you need to be constantly connected to play the singleplayer game.
As for PC gaming, it isn't dying, merely shifting focus towards the indies and small developer games. And we have a few games built from scratch that promise to rock PC gaming. For those losing faith in PC gaming, look at these games for instance:
Grim Dawn Primal Carnage Natural Selection 2 Amnesia: The Dark Descent Mount&Blade Warband
And those just from the top of my head, all games giving us PC players all we ask for. Mount&Blade will have extensive mod support, dedicated servers and battles online up to 64 players.
Support those who support us and stop giving money to the big companies who keep treating us like crap. PCGamer, please start delving more into the indie scene and start giving more space to small developers. Games like Mount&Blade Warband will revolutionize PC multiplayer for the better .undefined
I'd like someone to ask in an interview, if piracy is such a killer then why do games from Valve, Blizzard, Stardock(Sins of a Solar Empire) and Bioware do so well without this kind of DRM? How come they didn't have to 'solve' the piracy problem?
Could it be that they just made great games that people wanted to play and so people bought them?
Is it even a remote possibility that making a solid, fun and interesting game will make piracy largely irrelevant? Because I never see that question get asked at any interviews.
Why do your games need more protection than Valve's? Why do they need more protection than Stardock's?
I'd like someone to ask in an interview, if piracy is such a killer then why do games from Valve, Blizzard, Stardock(Sins of a Solar Empire) and Bioware do so well without this kind of DRM? How come they didn't have to 'solve' the piracy problem?
Could it be that they just made great games that people wanted to play and so people bought them?
Is it even a remote possibility that making a solid, fun and interesting game will make piracy largely irrelevant? Because I never see that question get asked at any interviews.
Why do your games need more protection than Valve's? Why do they need more protection than Stardock's?
This!
Also, as has been suggested previously, PCG please begin to actively cover what sort of DRM scheme a PC game ships with and consider it an integral part of how you evaluate PC games. It doesn't matter much if a game has the best graphics and most responsive in-game mechanics in PC gaming history of the damn game is all but unplayable! Speaking just for myself any PC game purchase I make these days does not take place until I have done extensive background research in to what sort of DRM it uses, and if I'm in doubt then I simply pass the game over completely.
OMG they're head is soo far up their fourth point of contact that all they see is fecal matter... They will kill PC gaming and that's what they want. Consoles are where it's at for them. They should just admit it and move ona dn allow other developers to take over their PC game division...
What makes me laugh is the constant ramblings of PC Piracy when the compaines should be looking at conole piracy as far as i can see the console piracy is much more rampent most of the games that are coming out on the consoles are hacked and uploaded to the net far befoe there offical release date and take 360's its not exactly hard to crack them or the wii most of it can be done with software. I enjoy my pc games but i for one will no longer be purchasing any UBI soft games if the continue to implement this DRM into there games.
I agree with other peeps comments on this pc game should send all of the comments to ubi soft as it clearly seems that they dont care about pc gamers and just want us on a 360 like with microsoft on the 360 with alan wake it just makes me sic how every comany seems to be abandoning the pc market.
Well, it's very interesting to see that Ubisoft has decided to immolate themselves right in front of God and everybody. Let's not forget that EA had to back away from it's Securom DRM monstrocity just last year due to a huge upswelling of anger and resentment in the PC gaming community. Now, we see that this new DRM scheme from Ubi makes EA's old DRM solution look like a kiss on the cheek.
We are not fools, Ubi. We know full well that if you folks ever go under and have to discontinue the servers, you will not be devoting any time, effort, or money to patching a long list of legacy games. That means that those of us who legally purchased your products will be left holding the bag, unable to play games we paid for.
Furthermore, everyone knows that the precious DRM scheme you're so confident in will be cracked faster than you can pull your shorts up after a long, sweaty session of screwing your paying customers. This will mean that the pirates get to play without restriction, while the fools who paid will be stuck with your ridiculous online system.
Ubisoft has now officially crossed the rubicon into the dark side. They clearly hate their PC customers and are behaving accordingly. So shall we.
BTW, Ubi, enjoy your Amazon reviews ... and please try a guess at how many fingers I'm holding up.
While there is no question that Ubisoft have designed a scheme that is over the top, ill concieved, unpopular and garunteed to be cracked within the first day, I don't blame them
It must be increadibly frustrating to watch your game being stolen by millions (literally, some individual download sites will see a million downloads for a single title).
Not only that, but if you dare speak out against it, the "community" will have little or no sympathy, suggesting that downloads don't equate to sales (they don't one to one, but I'm fairly sure they equate to some), that your company is successfull enough to eat the hit (that might be, but why should they) or that the game wasn't that good anyway (irrelivant, it was good enough to download, wasn't it?)
Ubi have made a mistake I feel, but they have been driven to it by a gaming comunity that often seems to feel they are entitled to everything for free. Buy games. The more of us do it the less likely peopl are to pull this kind of trick
Well, it's very interesting to see that Ubisoft has decided to immolate themselves right in front of God and everybody. Let's not forget that EA had to back away from it's Securom DRM monstrocity just last year due to a huge upswelling of anger and resentment in the PC gaming community. Now, we see that this new DRM scheme from Ubi makes EA's old DRM solution look like a kiss on the cheek.
We are not fools, Ubi. We know full well that if you folks ever go under and have to discontinue the servers, you will not be devoting any time, effort, or money to patching a long list of legacy games. That means that those of us who legally purchased your products will be left holding the bag, unable to play games we paid for.
Furthermore, everyone knows that the precious DRM scheme you're so confident in will be cracked faster than you can pull your shorts up after a long, sweaty session of screwing your paying customers. This will mean that the pirates get to play without restriction, while the fools who paid will be stuck with your ridiculous online system.
Ubisoft has now officially crossed the rubicon into the dark side. They clearly hate their PC customers and are behaving accordingly. So shall we.
BTW, Ubi, enjoy your Amazon reviews ... and please try a guess at how many fingers I'm holding up.
While there is no question that Ubisoft have designed a scheme that is over the top, ill concieved, unpopular and garunteed to be cracked within the first day, I don't blame them
It must be increadibly frustrating to watch your game being stolen by millions (literally, some individual download sites will see a million downloads for a single title).
Not only that, but if you dare speak out against it, the "community" will have little or no sympathy, suggesting that downloads don't equate to sales (they don't one to one, but I'm fairly sure they equate to some), that your company is successfull enough to eat the hit (that might be, but why should they) or that the game wasn't that good anyway (irrelivant, it was good enough to download, wasn't it?)
Ubi have made a mistake I feel, but they have been driven to it by a gaming comunity that often seems to feel they are entitled to everything for free. Buy games. The more of us do it the less likely peopl are to pull this kind of trick
Cry me a river. My sympathy for "the establishment" disappeared the instant their cack handed DRM destroyed two of my DVD drives while using legally paid for versions of their games. Don't tread on me! Don't impinge upon my rights and I'm willing to respect their rights, and hell, if their game seems decent and the price seems to match the product we can do business. This? They can go die in a ditch for all I care. Zero sympathy for them and I will be pleased to see them pirated to Hell and back twice just for good measure. Reap what you sow.
I remember the last time UBI pulled this crap, after the whole Starforce fiasco I thought they had learned...apparently not. Set aside the fact that you are make a deliberate decision to make my enjoyment of your product less. Let it pass that you acknowledge some of the concerns as completely valid, but then discount them will weak meaningless, commitment free statements like "the hope is" and "the ability to patch the DRM." And lets just forget about the most arrogant statement of all when asked why not use the Steam model, that they have something new and 'damn the torpedoes' we're going for it.
In the end it comes down to a list of exactly TWO things that sum it all up:
1) I think my experience will be limited and poorer because of the DRM, and UBI have confirmed this fact, and admit it in what has to be one of the most brazen example of being out of touch with who pays for your salaries
2) UBI has again shown they do not understand that it offends me to be thought of with such callous disregard that its more important for them to feel empowered than it is to make me (the customer) feel like I want to support them and give them MY MONEY.
D igital R estrictions M mess
Keeping me from giving you my money, congratulations.
I buy a lot of Ubisoft games, but not any more and i suggest that you do the same just to boycott there DRM constant internet connection. Sorry Ubisoft you could have used steam like all other game makers instead of killing the platform that made you what you are today. We all understand that you want to prevent piracy of you IP, but you are punishing actual PC games for this. Thanks for nothing guys.
I will give my expierence maybe Ubi&EA will play attention here..
I don't really care if a game has DRM or not. I do care if it effects my game playing.
I purchaced SPORE from EB-Games one year ago. I purchased it before reviewing anything about it's DRM system. I purchased it BASED on the sole expierence playing it for 2 hours on my brothers laptop. I bought it 20minute after he kicked me off his laptop... I installed it then played for awhile... I also play F2P MMORPGs so once in a while my user account gets a lil buggy so i delete it and create a new... (coping save games of course) I had done this not knowing it counted as a diff PC install for sucerom... or whatever the name is... before i knew it i had used 5 installs... at first I thought someone got my key or something... then after researching I was suppose to de-authorize the game each time... HOWEVER this was not made clear on the box in the store NOR while the installer was installing... I would have de-authed and saved myself some time requesting EA chat to remove the used keys which they can not and just gave me another slot...
I also read up on GFWL which I am not buying any ggame with that service nor this one since I don't have internet connection 24/7
Thanks Ubi for ruining the chances of me getting AC2 How ever I was waiting forever after AC1 for it...
While I am skeptical about this new method, I don't think anyone should be surprised about it's implication. Piracy has really damaged the PC gaming market and companies have tried almost everything short of sending representatives to your house to see your receipt for the game.
I really want to see a company succeed in protecting its product. I miss the heyday of PC gaming, and all those people who have participated in piracy brought all this on. It's ridiculous that many peoples response to this is that they will not buy it, just wait until it's cracked and steal it. If you spent millions on making a product, wouldn't you want to protect it? The logic behind this system isn't that far fetched. It doesn't seem crazy to think that people with a system able to play these games also have an internet connection. It may be an inconvenience to some, but considering their investment, and the huge piracy problem, I think that this is just a step in the evolutionary process of game companies protecting their products. If we don't like it, then we should tell our friends to stop stealing games, and support these companies by buying their products.
The logic behind this system isn't that far fetched. It doesn't seem crazy to think that people with a system able to play these games also have an internet connection.
Except this system requires me to have my PC in full working order, my internet connection working, and Ubisoft servers up and running. Now the only one I actually have full control over is my Pc in full working order, the other two are almost completely out of my control. So I can't necessarily play a game when I want to.
The logic behind this system isn't that far fetched. It doesn't seem crazy to think that people with a system able to play these games also have an internet connection.
Except this system requires me to have my PC in full working order, my internet connection working, and Ubisoft servers up and running. Now the only one I actually have full control over is my Pc in full working order, the other two are almost completely out of my control. So I can't necessarily play a game when I want to.
Thats your argument? Really? I have adequate internet service, and maybe twice in the past 8 months have I had problems connecting and the problem was swiftly fixed. If you have more problems with the net than I suggest a new service provider. As for their servers, well, their performance should be a determining factor in your purchase. If they have performed well in the past, then I don't see a problem. No, things will never work for anyone 100 percent of the time. Thats life. We DON"T have to buy their products.
People need to stop acting like these game companies have to bend over for them. All this is a result of thieves and entitled brats.
I don't think this new DRM system is great on paper. I would like to see them create a system that curbs piracy, I personally hope this system works. I'll hold my judgement of it until I pick up AC2, and if I have no problems, then more power to them. If it doesn't, well, my money will go somewhere else. The more money they make, the more money they have to create new IP. If the money is not there, then things will change. Simple economics.
I will never buy a game that I do not own outright. This is more like renting, with a landlord that makes promises about keeping the hot water running - but sells out to another company with HQ in another city, and they choose not to honor the previous landlord's promises. I suggest a boycott of all Ubisoft products until they modify their DRM so that we actually own the software and can use it with or without their willingness to permit us to do so. Game rentals aren't a bad idea, but they should be labeled as such and be a hell of a lot cheaper.
Wishful thinking meet Reality. Reality meet wishful thinking. In the 1990s the UN estimated that roughly 2/3rds of humanity had not even used a phone yet. In more recent years that may have decreased to roughly half the human population. Dependable, fast internet connectivity is not the mainstay for most regions. Even dependable internet connectivity is questionable nevermind it being fast or otherwise, not even in developed nations. Try moving away from large city centers into remote rural areas and see if your tune changes.
Yet all of that pales to this simple truth: A good or service needs to be reliable. It is the bedrock upon which the vital trust between the buyer and the seller is founded which is needed for any sort of business transaction to transpire. Methods such as the one Ubisoft has opted for do not promote a reliable product. Far from it and Ubisoft even goes on the record admitting to that fact. Short of being ignorant (which I'm not on this occasion regarding this particular product), stupid (which I'm also not) or desperate (again which I'm not) why would I or any other customer who is aware of this setup choose to pay for a product which may, or may not, function when and where I want it to? Malfunctioning or useless pap is easy enough to find and doesn't have to cost much if anything. Just visit your local landfill if you're in doubt. And that's how much Ubisoft games, or indeed ANY games, utilizing this method of DRM are worth. It's garbage yet unlike some types of garbage this may not even make for particularly recycle-able material.
If you want to be an apologist and pay good money for a product that does not function when and where you want it to, whenever you want it to because of a conscious design decision that hinges upon the availability of an unpredictable third party service/resource but which isn't technically needed to actually have the game content function, be my guest. I value my freedom and decision making power over my private life and the things I purchase more than this game or any collection of games for that matter. Ubisoft needs the money of gamers like me. I don't need their games. They would do well to remember that. This is war and they are going to lose; sadly in their hubris we may all end up losing if they go bankrupt but at least I will still have the power of decision making in my hands and not theirs. That is priceless and I will never surrender it to a corporation willingly.
I will never buy a game that I do not own outright. This is more like renting, with a landlord that makes promises about keeping the hot water running - but sells out to another company with HQ in another city, and they choose not to honor the previous landlord's promises. I suggest a boycott of all Ubisoft products until they modify their DRM so that we actually own the software and can use it with or without their willingness to permit us to do so. Game rentals aren't a bad idea, but they should be labeled as such and be a hell of a lot cheaper.
Just MHO.
eMKay
Agreed. Yet in instances such as this I wouldn't even buy it for 5 quid. "Internet connection required" is something I can accept for games where I wish to partake in a multi-player experience. For single player games it is a deal-breaker. I will simply go without and buy other games instead. And should the day dawn where all single player games require it, well then I guess I'll be spending a lot less money on gaming and pick up other hobbies. If they really want to push me, I will push back.
What you experience need not be representative of everyone else. Try waking up to the fact that there is a much larger world out there and it does not revolve around you contrary to what you may, or may not, believe.
Thats your argument? Really? I have adequate internet service, and maybe twice in the past 8 months have I had problems connecting and the problem was swiftly fixed. If you have more problems with the net than I suggest a new service provider. As for their servers, well, their performance should be a determining factor in your purchase. If they have performed well in the past, then I don't see a problem. No, things will never work for anyone 100 percent of the time. Thats life. We DON"T have to buy their products.
I live in the part of the UK that has really poor internet services even in big towns and cities. As I live just outside of a town my only option for ISP is BT and the service is shocking in bad weather, though during the worst of the snow this year it didn't really matter as the power was off .
I can guarantee that Ubisofts servers for AC2 won't work properly due to the demand on them, as they never work the first time anyone tries an online product. They are shooting themselves in the foot, as most people aren't going to buy another game from them if the screw up the launch of a big title. Always being online for a singleplayer game is madness, I bought Batman: AA and I'm never going to buy another GfWL game as it F***ing ridiculous not being able to save my game locally and playing on if my internet is playing up. I know I can create another user and make that offline but I shouldn't bloody have to.
Also just for the record I have never pirated a game in my life. Movies/TV and Music yes, Games no.
Who among us like to be forced to do something, that we know will not help stem the pirating of software in any way. If someone wants to steal something thay will. This is just a kneejerk answer that will frustrate more that help. The best thing the gaming coummnity can do is boycot any company using such methods. Forcing us to be online is simply unexceptiable.
The logic behind this system isn't that far fetched. It doesn't seem crazy to think that people with a system able to play these games also have an internet connection.
I can't even begin to tell you how ignorant and self-absorbed that comment is (but I'll do my best). Newsflash: a good computer system does not equal a good internet connection! This is one of the biggest false assumptions that defenders of this kind of crap keep making, and it makes me sick every time I hear it.
Two years ago, I lived less than 20 miles from the capitol of a major U.S. State, one well known for it's advances in technology. I was (and still am) an avid gamer, and at the time had a fantastic rig. However, my internet connection left something to be desired. It's not that I wouldn't have liked a better connection, or wouldn't have paid for one had it been available, but all of the services you could get in the area were dial-up. And not even "good" dial-up mind you, it was limited to a maximum of approximately 36kbps, and was prone to frequent connection failures. Why was this the only option? Because the grade of the copper in the phone lines couldn't handle any more than that (and there were no cable lines). It had nothing to do with my computer or my ISP, just the available hardware in the area. My parents still live in the same area, and the same situation exists today, with no sign of an upgrade to the phone system anytime soon.
If you have more problems with the net than I suggest a new service provider.
Once again, it's not a matter of choosing a new provider, it's a matter of having no better options! You really need to get outside of yourself and realize that not everyone is in the same situation as you, and the rest of the world doesn't have the same experience as you.
No, things will never work for anyone 100 percent of the time. Thats life. We DON"T have to buy their products.
That's the most correct thing you've posted this whole time. But it applies to the games just as well as it does ISP's. If a game company wants to try to sell me this kind of crap, well tough; I'm not in the fertilizer business and I don't have to buy it. That's life, and Ubi and others like them will have to either live with it, change it, or go under. Whatever they do, they won't be doing it with my money.
Ubisoft - I have bought all Silent Hunter titles, Far Cry 2, DMMM, all the Splinter Cell/Rainbow 6/IL2 titles. I figure I have put plenty of money your way. I have never pirated a game, or even borrowed a pirate game. Why? Because I am a law abiding citizen who believes in paying developers for their hard work.
Because of your Draconian DRM procedures, I will not be buying one more Ubisoft game, or any publisher's games that follow the same route. It's not about the internet (although my connection is flaky), it's about personal freedoms. I have about 40 games plus, so if I don't buy a game for a year or two, it won't bother me. Will it bother you?
Did you noticed that he is not answering the question will they patch the game if the servers are going down permanently? He is repeating that that is the plan, but not that they will actually do it. Since we all know how often the plans of game developers change, we can be sure that in 5 or 10 years time we will probably not be able to play AC 2...
Too bad the attacks stopped. You can pilfer video games from PCs to Wiis. Perhaps they should instead focus their energies on producing top notch games for their customers to enjoy as oppose to creating draconian DRM countermeasures that punish them for paying. I'm getting so very tried of large companies dictating to me how I should/can spend every aspect of my life. Now, apparently, I cannot even play certain video games without having a constant connection to their server.
I think it's time to raise the pirate flag. Thank you Ubisoft for spending the money and man hours to make these games. I will no longer be paying for them, but I most certainly will be enjoying them. Perhaps one day, when you realize that a customer is a living, breathing individual much like yourself and not a nebulous statistic on a pie chart in a sales meeting will I then take down the skull and cross bones, but until then...
if I cant have the game on my PC and play when I want,how I want,and not connected to the internet,which, by the way, is how I play ALL my single player PC games,then I dont want the game!I have over 200 PC games, bought and payed for with real money,that I can play any way I want, and thats the only way I will pay for,and play, any single-player PC game.If I bought it, then I own it!I also do not like an always-on internet connection. Too bad ubisoft,U will not have any of MY money!
These guys don't care about everyone's comments here. They have already made their profits with these game sales on xbox360, ps3. PC is an after thought to see whether they can squeeze a few more dollars from their products. They are not bothered by the PC World anymore or concerned that hundreds of thousands of gamers may still be on dial up or have no internet connection.
If a game costs $30 000 000 to make and their sales on consoles (which are released before PC) make $60 000 000. Then they can do whatever they like with the PC version, and they don't care if you don't like their system, if they know they are probably only going to make a few million dollars from PC sales to those people who boast uncapped high speed internet. PC gaming although still the largest out there, is not seen as profitable hence all the crappy ported games from console. The object here is to get all you gamers so frustrated with pc games you then go and buy a console.
When piracy explodes one day on console games, which it has not yet. Then what?
While there is no question that Ubisoft have designed a scheme that is over the top, ill concieved, unpopular and garunteed to be cracked within the first day, I don't blame them
It must be increadibly frustrating to watch your game being stolen by millions (literally, some individual download sites will see a million downloads for a single title).
Not only that, but if you dare speak out against it, the "community" will have little or no sympathy, suggesting that downloads don't equate to sales (they don't one to one, but I'm fairly sure they equate to some), that your company is successfull enough to eat the hit (that might be, but why should they) or that the game wasn't that good anyway (irrelivant, it was good enough to download, wasn't it?)
Ubi have made a mistake I feel, but they have been driven to it by a gaming comunity that often seems to feel they are entitled to everything for free. Buy games. The more of us do it the less likely peopl are to pull this kind of trick
The ratio of downloads to "lost sales" (which is just a propaganda term anyway) is nowhere near 1:1. I have three types of games: those I pirated, those I purchased AFTER pirating, and those I bought on good faith. The ones I purchased after trying them via piracy is by far the largest of the three. The ones pirated and never bought are quickly discarded as they weren't even worth the space they took up. The 'legitimate' way to buy pc games is to buy everything on faith. There are no demos, there are only a few videos and screenshots, yet you're asked to shell out nearly the same price as console games which can be rented. The developers have grown too lazy to make demos, and there's nothing resembling a rental system. If I could try out a game in some free form I'd be happy to, but this hasn't been standard practice in PC gaming since shortly after I started playing in the mid 80's.
The biggest mistake these developers make is assuming that every download is a lost sale, and if they can just stop piracy every one of those sales will be money in their pocket. Not even close. A lot of the pirates are teenagers too broke to afford games - no lost sales there. In fact if you don't treat them like gutter trash they could turn into paying customers when financial situations change (happened to me and friends). Many more are just looking for a way to actually try out games without shelling out full price for what may turn out to be some broken POS. These days it's like PC is nothing but ports, and often broken day-one patch ones at that.
Treating PC games as an afterthought or a pay-for-play beta test is what killed many of the companies. Valve, Blizzard, even DICE learned that if you make a quality product people will buy it. I own over 100 unopened PC games, because I pirated the product at first, liked what I saw, and bought a copy to support the developer. It's quality that sells product, not intrusive countermeasures which just lead to more pirates
"What happens if Ubisoft take the DRM servers offline for maintenance, or suffer a technical breakdown? In the case of a server failure their games will be taken offline, and you'll be unable to play them. 'The idea is to avoid that point as much as possible, but we have been clear from the beginning that the game does need an internet connection for you to play. So if it goes down for real for a little while, then yeah, you can't play.'"
Okay, we need to be very clear about this. Blizzard is a company whose very core REQUIRES servers to be up. Whether for their key game, "World of Warcraft", or however many fans of "Starcraft" or "Diablo" do multiplayer stuff, Blizzard NEEDS to have their servers up at all times.
And even they will tell you flat out - servers are ALWAYS going down, often for a long period of time. With Blizzard, servers are being taken offline for servicing on a WEEKLY basis... usually for 8 hours... and we are talking about the middle of the day, here, not middle of the night. On "patch days", servers have been known to go down for over 16 hours. Of course, this doesn't begin to cover the servers that crash or are simply "not up".
They have said that there will be three benefits to the new system. First, there will be no CD or DVD (how does this really help the gamer?); second, they say that the users will be able to put the game on as many computers as they want (as if they don't do that already - their game, their CD, their systems, their right to do so); and finally, that save games will be uploaded to the servers... who the hell carea about that? How is that really a benefit? Honestly???
I have waited for years for a new "Splinter Cell" sequel. I have been a loyal customer since the first game, and have NEVER pirated the game. However, if this is Ubisoft's new way of doing things, I will no longer be providing them with any income.
You hit the nail on the head when you asked if Ubisoft / EA is trying to kill PC gaming. There doing exactly what Epic games has done, there snubbing the PC market for the Console Market because it all comes down to ONE thing..Money. the bottom line is all any Company/Corp. looks at and because of piracy the PC market isn't looking as good/safe as the Console Market. But neither is safe from piracy, PC is just easier. And it seems everybody has this Bill Gates/Microsoft paranoia syndrome. But the smell of money to be made is in the console arena, and any game maker even remotely connected to EA or EPIC will never see a dime of my gaming money again. Bethesda FTW.
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