Ubi DRM: Their side of the story

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polonyc2

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here's a nice interview with a Ubisoft spokesperson answering questions about their new DRM policy...some of the questions answered include: Does Ubisoft understand that we don't want to be permanently online?...What happens if Ubisoft takes the DRM servers offline for maintenance, or suffer a technical breakdown?...Will Ubi make a firm commitment to removing the DRM if the servers are to be taken offline?

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=235596&site=pcg
 
Yeah nonsense answers, they dont care, servers go offline , tough luck u cant play.. lmao what a joke at least steam has an offline mode. so no splinter cell or assassin 2 for me,i saved 100$.
 
So basically its steam with more security and they will patch the games to not need the online connection if the servers goes down. ( Valve stated the same thing )

So many things require to be online these days. I don't really understand the bitching. I mean you have to be online to use your email or send IM's on AOL/MSN/Xfire. You have to be online to reply in this thread. Don't see people bitching about that. If this system means no 3rd party DRM and extra shit installed on your PC like securom i'm all for it. Also anyone who uses steam and steam cloud games should like this system. It saves all your saves and controls on the server so you never lose them.
 
complete joke. so if their servers are down, u cant play a game that u payed them for? thanks for saving me some money Ubishit
 
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.
I think these are 3 good points and things I want.
 
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.

Hey you hear that guys? Due to ubisofts new DRM scheme we can install the game on as many PC's as we'd like!!! Thank god we can finally do that, it's all down to their progress in DRM, thank the lord for new types of DRM that give us free access to install the game as many time as we like. This shows Ubisoft really care about us guys...we should totally buy all their games now!
 
Wait, am I missing something? This is just a worse version of Steam right? Steam already has close to 0 piracy, so what is Ubisoft aiming for?

Oh and I loved this answer: "If you're connection is lost, the game will pause and try to re-establish connection to the server. If it cannot, you will be able to later resume from the last game save." It won't even let you save your game state if the connection is lost. Not buying any Ubisoft games with this system. Thanks but no thanks..
 
I think these are 3 good points and things I want.

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.

1. cant remember the last time i needed a disk to play a game
2. only have 1 pc
3. rather back up my own damn saves. what happens when their servers go down and u need those saves?
 
I don't mind being online, but losing progress in a SINGLE PLAYER game if your internet connection hicups is absurd.

Wait, am I missing something? This is just a worse version of Steam right? Steam already has close to 0 piracy, so what is Ubisoft aiming for?

You must have been under that rock a while :p Steam games have been cracked on release day.
 
I get where they're coming from, and I agree that every time someone downloads a game, it costs all PC gamers in terms of new development. That said, I think that really draconian DRM schemes encourage piracy more than they combat it. As someone who owns a LOT of games, Ubisoft can be sure I won't be buying a single one of theirs while this system is in place.
 
I get where they're coming from, and I agree that every time someone downloads a game, it costs all PC gamers in terms of new development. That said, I think that really draconian DRM schemes encourage piracy more than they combat it. As someone who owns a LOT of games, Ubisoft can be sure I won't be buying a single one of theirs while this system is in place.

Hear hear good man.
 
Well the truth of the matter, is that I'm 100% sure that very soon after release, if not before release, most pirates will be playing any Ubisoft game whenever and wherever they want. If that doesn't happen, someone feel free to bump this thread and call me out on it.

So AGAIN, they're including DRM that will only be a problem for paying customers, and give the thieves a better product.
 
it's true though that everytime a manufacturer implements a new DRM scheme everyone is always quick to put the blame on them but no one ever puts the blame on the game pirates who are the real cause of this

OT: what makes Steam games so pirate proof?...according to the Ubisoft rep Steam games are cracked just as fast as other games

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'."
 
"We saw what happened with Spore, and I'll admit getting hard. But we wanted a more tenuous situation for someone playing our game, at least those who are doing it legally."

This is like a permanent rental that can be taken back at any moment without the internet. We're basically streaming... UbiTube. But we have the 15 GB installed, using our resources to play. Is it that much of a privilege to move some pixels around, especially in single player? Did shareware kill PC gaming?

Do we have to keep a log of our playing time and submit a weekly report? Notarized? Maybe take pictures with our driver's license and a newspaper while we play? Plus the receipt, of course.

They should have just put ads on startup of the game and loading screens, and hackers would probably leave them if it took effort to remove them. It's also ironic that draconian restrictions are going on a game for an assassin against the establishment. It reminds me of Kindle excluding 1984.
 
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Do we have to keep a log of our playing time and submit a weekly report?

A major benefit of online client based distribution systems is the ability to generate real time stats on game play. That kind of information is incredibly valuable, so don't doubt that that information will be collected and stored. I'm not adamantly against that, I'm a big fan of Steam and I'm sure they do the same thing, but Ubisoft's "always online" rule is taking this down a road I'm not personally comfortable with.
 
this is the worse DRM I have ever seen since the limited installation...

what happen if I go on travel with no internet with my laptop, and I still want to play my game...

am I simply fucked? or they are simply discriminating those who have no internet all the time?

Piracy talks again? Looks at The Witcher, simply sells millions of copy on PC exclusively...

it is call.. a good game will sell, a bad game wouldn't...

I don't want to hear any excuses about piracy crap, its a obvious bs answer from saying they want to prevent second hand market...

If they continue to do this, its only making their market even worse, or even law sue over it..

look at Spore.... how bad it is now.....

but somehow they never learn their listen...
 
I'll just pretty much co-sign with everything Oldie posted. He nailed it. :)
 
Here's my side of the story

FUCK YOU UBISOFT

I will not be supporting this company, what a load of bullshit. If I happen to lose connection to my router and I just got a hardcore achievement and i was unable to save . . .

well I'd be very very pissed.
 
PC gaming is dying because of retarded publishers like Ubisoft.
 
People who actually buy the game must be online at all times to play it and if they lose connection they will be booted from their game and cannot play it until they get back online.

Pirates will have zero problems...

and that my friends is the big issue.
 
All of Ubisoft's games from the last few years have suffered from a lot of gamebreaking bugs, freezes and crashes. Some of these aren't even fixed (just recently got burnt on a 360 rental of Far Cry 2 - despite several save files I got the "closed door glitch" on all of them, preventing me from getting any further in the game and requiring me to start a new game completely - thank god I didn't buy it). A friend of mine is stuck on the first AC (for PC) because the game refuses to load the third area of Jerusalem. The Rainbox Six Vegas games still inexplicably crash on all platforms. An Ubi-created HD patch for the original Far Cry disabled mouse input as a side-effect. Assassins Creed 2 doesn't always want to load some of the later stages of the game (sequence 11) and crashes randomly (at least the ps3 version did when I played).

If this developer can't even make stable games or be bothered to fixed huge problems, how can anybody be confident this new DRM scheme isn't going to be riddled with problems like authenitcation failures, difficulties connecting, difficulties staying connected and corrupt/lost save data?
 
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the funniest answer in that interview was when the guy asked about losing internet connection...

How will I know what I'll lose?

"You'll have to wait for the reviews, and to hear what your peers are saying."

Um...if they really listen to what people are saying they would not be buying this game...maybe Ubisoft is the one who should be doing the listening and remove this ridiculous DRM
 
I'm actually for them putting in this DRM

this way people won't buy their games and they will go out of business

good riddance
 
the funniest answer in that interview was when the guy asked about losing internet connection...

How will I know what I'll lose?

"You'll have to wait for the reviews, and to hear what your peers are saying."

Um...if they really listen to what people are saying they would not be buying this game...maybe Ubisoft is the one who should be doing the listening and remove this ridiculous DRM

They'll probably try and buy out reviewers to get 9.5+ from all reviewers :p
 
They'll probably try and buy out reviewers to get 9.5+ from all reviewers :p

the really messed up thing is that the game itself is getting excellent reviews (from players as well as review sites)...it improves upon the first game in every way...that's why I was so looking forward to the PC version (which comes with all the DLC included as well)
 
The 'advantages' they listed are complete BS. The first two are already advantages via steam and the last one is completely irrelevant.

I wish they'd just come out and say,"Since Assassin's Creed was one of the most pirated games ever, we're taking a step forward to try and curb pirating. However, ultimately we're retarded since this will probably increase the pirating of Assassin's Creed 2."
 
Here's a good anti-piracy idea:

1) Make good games, and people will buy them
2) Don't treat your customers like crap

I'm yet to see any evidence that suggests that DRM prevents piracy, or increases sales.
 
Here's a good anti-piracy idea:

1) Make good games, and people will buy them
2) Don't treat your customers like crap

I'm yet to see any evidence that suggests that DRM prevents piracy, or increases sales.

I think that's the main issue. Seriously, what was the last game they made that was really any good? Splinter Cell Chaos Theory? Rainbox Six 3? Ghost Recon?

And no, I don't think Assassins Creed 2 is a good game. It has a lot more toys than the first game, and is better, but the game is still 95% running and climbing. Cutscenes are still unskippable, and the humour contained is crass and immature.
 
So basically its steam with more security and they will patch the games to not need the online connection if the servers goes down. ( Valve stated the same thing )

So many things require to be online these days. I don't really understand the bitching. I mean you have to be online to use your email or send IM's on AOL/MSN/Xfire. You have to be online to reply in this thread. Don't see people bitching about that. If this system means no 3rd party DRM and extra shit installed on your PC like securom i'm all for it. Also anyone who uses steam and steam cloud games should like this system. It saves all your saves and controls on the server so you never lose them.

I agree with everything you've written.

If you're a gamer, these days, then it means that you have to be online. We all use e-mail, and internet forums (such as this one), and we all need driver support and patch support, and most of us use Steam, and even more of us are online playing online games such as WOW and COD.

If you're going to be playing Assassin's Creed 2 then it can safely be assumed that you have an internet connection. So what's the problem? The authentication check is harmless.

When I buy this game next month I'm willing to bet money that, as with Rise Of Flight, which requires online authentication at all times, I won't ever have a problem playing the game. Seriously, start bitching and whining when something actually happens... not before.

People always say fuck EA, or fuck Ubisoft - no, seriously, fuck the software pirates, because here's simple fact:

If people didn't pirate software to begin with, then we wouldn't need any DRM software at all. Instead of blaming the companies for trying to protect themselves, why not blame the fucking assholes who pirate the games. I'm fed up with hearing the 'holier than thou argument' thrown at me every time I point my finger at somebody who boasts about having illegally downloaded such and such a game from such and such a publisher.

Good for Ubisoft, I say. I sing their praises. Fight back, and hit hard.
 
Right here.

This is the most important quotation in the piece.

"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."

There's no question about it - online authentication, if you've written your code in a certain way, just isn't Securom. Securom is relatively easy to bypass. If you're checking online at the end of every completed level, which appears to be the case here, then that's a different beast.

After watching dozens and dozens of people recently posting in the Mass Effect 2 thread at this forum - before the damned game was even released - I'd have to say that what Ubi is doing is definitely a step in the right direction.

And some of you guys complaining - yeah, methinks thou doth protest too much.
 
ok bro, tell us that when you get disconnected while playing some Ubisoft games

You'll rant and bitch about it

we'll just go

"cool story bro"
 
Even if there was no piracy they'd still have DRM to prevent resale (which isnt' even a huge issue in the PC market like console).

Kissing their asses for putting this insane DRM in place is like thanking police for putting cameras in your home to protect against potential theft. Neither makes any sense and just gives more power to someone else.
 
Here's my side of the story

FUCK YOU UBISOFT

I will not be supporting this company, what a load of bullshit. If I happen to lose connection to my router and I just got a hardcore achievement and i was unable to save . . .

well I'd be very very pissed.

Why don't you say the same thing to people who pirate games? They're the ones who are responsible for all of this to begin with.

Ubisoft is just protecting itself.

If you have an internet connection... and again, why wouldn't you... then this online authentication absolutely will not be a problem... trust me, Rise Of Flight's servers are nowhere near the same caliber as Ubisoft's will be, and I've never been kicked off mid-game.

Again, methinks thou doth protest too much.
 
I agree with everything you've written.

If you're a gamer, these days, then it means that you have to be online. We all use e-mail, and internet forums (such as this one), and we all need driver support and patch support, and most of us use Steam, and even more of us are online playing online games such as WOW and COD.

If you're going to be playing Assassin's Creed 2 then it can safely be assumed that you have an internet connection. So what's the problem? The authentication check is harmless.

When I buy this game next month I'm willing to bet money that, as with Rise Of Flight, which requires online authentication at all times, I won't ever have a problem playing the game. Seriously, start bitching and whining when something actually happens... not before.

People always say fuck EA, or fuck Ubisoft - no, seriously, fuck the software pirates, because here's simple fact:

If people didn't pirate software to begin with, then we wouldn't need any DRM software at all. Instead of blaming the companies for trying to protect themselves, why not blame the fucking assholes who pirate the games. I'm fed up with hearing the 'holier than thou argument' thrown at me every time I point my finger at somebody who boasts about having illegally downloaded such and such a game from such and such a publisher.

Good for Ubisoft, I say. I sing their praises. Fight back, and hit hard.

The problem is that Ubisoft is basically cutting out a market segment by doing this. What if I am travelling and don't have internet access but want to play games on my laptop? Granted not a lot of people will be effected directly by this, it's just stupid that Ubisoft is basically turning their backs on the people this does effect.
 
ok bro, tell us that when you get disconnected while playing some Ubisoft games

You'll rant and bitch about it

we'll just go

"cool story bro"

Not going to happen. You're making up something that's not realistic. People said this EXACT same thing about Steam when it was launched.

Don't believe me. Google it.

When it was announced that Steam would be required to authenticate Half Life 2 people went ballistic.

So I'd have to say the same thing to you. Cool story, bro.
 
Why don't you say the same thing to people who pirate games? They're the ones who are responsible for all of this to begin with.

Ubisoft is just protecting itself.

If you have an internet connection... and again, why wouldn't you... then this online authentication absolutely will not be a problem... trust me, Rise Of Flight's servers are nowhere near the same caliber as Ubisoft's will be, and I've never been kicked off mid-game.

Again, methinks thou doth protest too much.


reading comprehension fail

I said if i lost connection to my ROUTER, nowhere in there did I say a word about their servers, and if their servers went down for maintenence or some shit, and I felt like playing the game, I wouldn't be able to play something I paid for

dude, how about you just grab your ankles, you're already headed there anyway with your mindset

"More DRM? no problem! I'll buy buy buy into it"

Sure I could say the same thing to the pirates but I won't, why should I? they offer a better experience to the consumer than the company actually making the game does :eek:

shocking, right?
 
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