Ubisoft releases new online DRM


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We barely need to say anything here (but we will), as where we're going we don't need words. We only need righteous fury. PC Gamer have experienced the controversial new Ubisoft DRM first-hand, in the PC build of Assassin's Creed 2. We already thought the paranoid new copy protection was pretty bad, requiring as it did an online check everytime you played and giving you a hard time if you tried to launch it offline.

What we didn't think ? what we didn't believe they'd be mad enough to do ? was that it'd kick you out of the game if your net connection dropped for any reason.

Or, as PCG's Tom Francis rightly observes, even if Ubi's servers happen to have a funny turn. (A troubling precedent for which has already been set by EA ? Alec experienced something similar yesterday, when Bioware/EA's servers suffering extended maintenance meant all his Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 DLC was deemed unauthorised, which in turn prevented him from loading any savegames which used that DLC. The point being: don't punish your customers because you've screwed up).

Incredibly, the worst is indeed true in Assassin's Creed 2 ? and, it appears, will be for Settlers 7 too. No matter what you're doing, no matter what the reason, the game will refuse to let you continue playing if it decides you're not online. You're dumped right back to a menu, losing any progress made since the last checkpoint. If you don't have a constant, uninterrupted internet connection, you can't play. Let's list some of the reasons you might drop your net connection, shall we? Router crash, ISP problems, cat playing with the cable, microwave muddling your wi-fi connection, train going into a tunnel when you're on 3G, Windows having a networking befuddlement, someone else in the house torrenting the bandwidth dry?

Incredible. In-cred-i-ble. It's like someone taking away your food mid-meal because your napkin's fallen on the floor. It makes us want to pull an expression we're not physically capable of, like this. It's also worth noting this is a day on which EA have turned off multiplayer servers for games that are only a year old ? so it's hard to have faith that Ubi's activation servers will be around for many years hence. Hopefully they wouldn't turn them off without first releasing an offline mode patch ? but, given how unforgiving this system currently is, we're hardly going to leap to such positive presumptions.

While we've not always gone full-pelt protest against excessive DRM, this is open contempt for paying customers, and, quite frankly, it's the most valid reason yet for PC gamers to call a massed boycott. We'll certainly be ignoring it with all the passion we can muster.

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SO if I buy the game officially yet want to play it on my laptop whilst travelling on a bus say, without any sorta of internet access. I can't...? Or any other situations that I might not have internet access because of X or Y reason?...

Then They ask why people pirate games...

Yada yada all you want, you can "oh it's 2010 theres a free hotspot somewhere anywhere"... Simple answer is no. But like SkyDX says, Legit customers rage, pirates yawn...

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SO if I buy the game officially yet want to play it on my laptop whilst travelling on a bus say, without any sorta of internet access. I can't...? Or any other situations that I might not have internet access because of X or Y reason?...

Then They ask why people pirate games...

Yada yada all you want, you can "oh it's 2010 theres a free hotspot somewhere anywhere"... Simple answer is no. But like SkyDX says, Legit customers rage, pirates yawn...

"We already thought the paranoid new copy protection was pretty bad, requiring as it did an online check everytime you played and giving you a hard time if you tried to launch it offline. "

:/ I think it's suggesting you can, but it's going to be a pain in the a$$. :/ Looks like I am not buying any Ubisoft game for the PC either.

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They should keep Steam versions of games void of any DRM, Steam is the best use of DRM available.

Steam is easily bypassable for single-player games, and its actually easier than having to create a crack (you do not need to crack the game, just Steam itself). But I agree, I would rather have to install Steam to activate and play a game, than have some DRM that can make it pretty much impossible to play a game.

Ironically, if it sells like crap they will immediately blame "piracy".

Heh..

Most likely, its sad that they cannot see that what they are doing is half the reason for piracy, not the way to fix it. Though you could always buy the game then use a crack to play it at your whim (without a connection).....chances are they will only count sales that are activated with their servers though, making your legit sale appear as piracy.

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Their official explanation is close to laughable. "Nothing to see here, move along... "

Official explanation of controversial Assassin's Creed 2 DRM

By Ben Kuchera | Last updated February 18, 2010 4:02 PM

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Ubisoft has long had some controversial ideas about how DRM should be used, but when PC Gamer was given a review copy of Assassin's Creed 2 on the PC it seemed as if the reality was going to be much worse than what opponents to DRM had feared: the game requires an always-on 'Net connection and constant communication with the home server. If your connection is dropped, the game kicks you out, and you lose any progress you had made since your lost save.

If you have flaky wireless in your home, it sounds like it's time to move onto a wired solution. We caught up with an Ubisoft representative to get the full story, and it may not be as bad as it sounds... but it's still certainly not good.

Here's how PC Gamer described its test:

The game first starts the Ubisoft Game Launcher, which checks for updates. If you try to launch the game when you're not online, you hit an error message right away. So I tried a different test: start the game while online, play a little, then unplug my net cable. This is the same as what happens if your net connection drops momentarily, your router is rebooted, or the game loses its connection to Ubisoft's 'Master servers'. The game stopped, and I was dumped back to a menu screen - all my progress since it last autosaved was lost.

We reached out to Ubisoft to see how accurate this account was. "As long as you do not quit the game, the game will continue to try to reconnect for an unlimited time. Once the game is able to reconnect, you will immediately be returned to your game," Ars was told. What about your progress?

"Where exactly you are reconnected in the game may differ from title to title. Settlers 7 reconnects at the exact point where the connection was lost, AC2 reconnects you at the last checkpoint (and not the last auto save, as indicated in the CVG article). There are many checkpoints so you're back to the point where you got disconnected in no time."

We were assured that only happens if the disconnection is lengthy. If you're cut off for just a second or two, the game simply pauses and continues on. Ars was also told that nothing will happen if your connection slows down. "Our online services platform will require a maximum of 50kbps of available bandwidth, so even with the slowest connection, gameplay won't be affected."

What does this mean for you?

Since upcoming Ubisoft PC games will require you to be connected to the Internet through your entire gaming session, members the armed forces may have a hard time playing games on their laptops. If you're flying, you'll have to pay for onflight Internet or not play. If your Internet goes out in your house, you can't play, and if you were playing while it happened, you could lose progress.

There is a certain weirdness to a company demanding to know every time you play the game, and requiring you to be talking to their servers for the entirety of your session. Does this DRM come at the cost of privacy? That's debatable, but it will be a deterrent for those who travel or play games where there isn't Internet to buy the game at all.

Source: Ars Technica

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Their official explanation is close to laughable. Nothing to see here, move along...

Even after their explanation, I still feel the same way about it now as I did before.

They could also technically use this type of thing to limit access.....playing for 4 hours at the current time? Ubisoft cuts your connection and forces you to take a 1 hour break.

Granted its not likely to happen yet, I have a feeling this type of DRM will happen in the future if more companies follow Ubisofts horrible lead on DRM.

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Even after their explanation, I still feel the same way about it now as I did before.

They could also technically use this type of thing to limit access.....playing for 4 hours at the current time? Ubisoft cuts your connection and forces you to take a 1 hour break.

Granted its not likely to happen yet, I have a feeling this type of DRM will happen in the future if more companies follow Ubisofts horrible lead on DRM.

I guess I should've put the "Nothing to see here" in quotes. I meant that the explanation explained nothing. They're trying to make it sound like it's no big deal, which is laughable.

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I guess I should've put the "Nothing to see here" in quotes. I meant that the explanation explained nothing. They're trying to make it sound like it's no big deal, which is laughable.

I know and understand your words....I was simply wording my own response to their explanation.

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i was going to ask and it has been mentioned before sort of, will the steam versions also suffer from this problem, as ubisoft responded to that.

Apart from the question i agree with the other comments that really the only people who are gonna suffer from this is legit paying customer, pirates will bypass this check altogether. Although slightly off topic its one of my biggest annoyances when buying DVD's and Blurays, i have to suffer through screen after of screen of antipiracy crap, where the pirates version launches straight into the movie / tv show.

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I'm really struggling to see HOW Ubisoft thought this was in any way a good idea. Surely they know by now that people who would pirate the game weren't always going to buy it (though obviously it does mean a loss of sales too) and that despite these measures it WILL be pirated. :/ Yet again the paying customers get shafted.

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