Driver: San Francisco Dev Stands Up For Ubisoft's DRM Practices

[Brian Albert]

Driver: San Francisco Dev Stands Up For Ubisoft's DRM Practices

One <a href=http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=driver+san+francisco&x=0&y=0>Driver: San Francisco developer says DRM is financially and morally a good idea.

Coming hot off the heels of the recent <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111941-From-Dust-Always-On-DRM-Rumors-Denied-UPDATED>From Dust DRM controversy, Martin Edmonson, founder of Ubisoft Reflections says publishers have "every right" to ensure their properties are protected.

"You have to do something," Edmonson said. "It's just, simply, PC piracy is at the most incredible rates. This game cost a huge amount of money to develop, and it has to be, quite rightly - quite morally correctly - protected."

Ubisoft <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/111915-Ubisofts-Always-On-DRM-Is-Back-In-Driver-San-Francisco>announced in July that its "Always On" DRM - which requires the owner to be constantly connected to the internet while playing - would be used in the PC version of Driver: San Francisco, while console versions would be playable offline.

After receiving negative community feedback, the publisher <a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/112370-Ubisoft-Makes-Tiny-Tweak-to-Driver-DRM>tweaked the terms, requiring gamers to "only" sign in to launch the game, which can then be played offline after the verification.

"It's difficult to get away from the fact that as a developer, as somebody who puts their blood, sweat and tears into this thing... And from the publisher's point of view, which invests tens and tens and tens of millions into a product - by the time you've got marketing, a hundred million - that piracy on the PC is unbelievable," Edmonson explained.

The developer added that the decision to use Uplay Passport was not his, but Ubisoft's. New versions of Driver: San Francisco will come packaged with a code that grants access to the 11 multiplayer modes and an exclusive Film Director mode. Those who purchase the game used will have to pay extra for the features.

"It's one of those things that we just have to get used to," Edmonson added. "It's going to happen."

Driver: San Francisco comes out for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii on September 6. The PC version will arrive September 27.

Source: <a href=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-01-driver-dev-defends-ubi-drm-online-pass>Eurogamer

Permalink

 

[Camarilla]

The thing is, I don't think anybody honestly thinks devs and publishers shouldn't be allowed to try and protect their work, people take issue with how they do it. If you make paying customers jump through hoops just to install and play your game, they're probably gonna stop bothering with them. Especially when almost every DRM system is cracked, often before the game comes out.

If your customers are having a worse experience than the pirates are, you're doing it wrong.

 

[Alphakirby]

Or,and hear me out here,Or you can just have it use Steamworks so that we don't need to log in to the game every time we launch it.

 

[ryo02]

why not just make single player games who's only drm forces you to play it off line only.

allways online drm should be only for games were you have to be allways online like mmo's.

or you could just be a console gamer like me and whine about how an internet connection to consoles is ruining them.

but dont make it a worse experiance for your paying customers in such a way that the pirates can easilly get around ... thats just stupid.

 

[khaimera]

One thing that bothers me, and I know this is how business works, if that us consumers have to pay much higher prices for products because of the huge expense of marketing. Like the quote in the article says, marketing costs drive up the cost from tens of millions to a hundred million.


I've always had a personal gripe with marketing in general. It really does harm the marketplace.

As for pirating, I only play xbox, so I don't really care what PC gamers have to do to play their games.

 

[TheMadJack]

Martin Edmonson, please shut up.

We all know Ubicrap wants out of the PC gaming world and concentrate on the Consoles. If that's not the case then act like it mattered to you. This draconian DRM is the worst thing to ever have existed. Because of that I'm not a UbiSoft customer anymore. I don't pirate the games, I simply refuse to bend over and take it so you can justify this crap you're pulling.

If your customers mattered to you, you'd find a way to do it right. But, no. You prefer to ask those who make sure you have food on your table to bend over, close their eyes and have happy thoughts while you do the dirty deed. Get a clue. Because if you don't, in the near future that will spell Ubiscrap's demise. People will stop caring and drop you like an old dirty and smelly sock. It happened to a lot of studios, you're not immune.

Sorry for the rant people, but I had to let that out. Feeling better now.

 

[ImprovizoR]

But how is DRM protecting games when pirates always find a way to pirate them? What is the bloody point? The only people who have to deal with DRM are legitimate customers? So what the fuck are they protecting? It's no wonder people pirate Ubisoft games. Pirates have a lot better experience playing the game. If Ubisoft concentrated more on delivering an enjoyable experience than on punishing legitimate customers they might see a boost in their sales.

 

[forsinain42]

This is like arguing that a shop has the right to protect it's content, by breaking the knees of anyone who enters. Now, here the fun thing...

IT. WILL. BE. HACKED. WITHIN. A. FEW. DAYS. OF. LAUNCH.

Then what? Shit DRM that cripples users while pirates play freely. How is that protecting your stuff?

And here is the kicker. This DRM means I won't buy the game. Simple as that. I won't pirate it either but the DRM that 'protects' the game WILL lose it money.

Watch this game fail on PC in 3... 2... 1...

 

[DEAD34345]

These DRM methods drive people to piracy. I've known more than one person who has pirated a game in order to avoid its terrible DRM, but I've never known a single pirate who has been forced to buy a game in order to get past the DRM. The absolute best-case scenario is that it will stop the game from being pirated on release day, and maybe a day or two afterwards if you're lucky. The pirates will simply wait it out, and the paying customers will be stuck with the inferior product, as always.

Now, I agree that companies have every right to do whatever they want with their software, I just don't get the business sense behind "protecting" your product from paying customers.

 

[ph0b0s123]

'One Driver: San Francisco developer says DRM is financially...'

Well duh...

'and morally a good idea.'

Erm no.

Arguing that having a DRM system is moral is like arguing that having a police is moral, as they both do the same thing, protect against criminality. But morality comes down to implementation. The police force in Egypt were not that moral and neither is Ubisoft's DRM. This DRM makes the pirate players experience better than legit players. And they wonder why piracy is so rampant. Well your DRM is not helping.....

Next I expect to be told that it's good Christian ethics to have DRM, because the bible says so...

 

[Stormz]

Yeah okay whatever you say. As if your intrusive DRM does anything to begin with. Pirates crack it on release and don't have to deal with it so you're only punishing the people who actually pay you. Way to go assholes.

 

[orangeapples]

I think online digital downloads (Steam) or just straight up streaming (Onlive) are the way of PC gaming future. You don't even have to worry about manufacturing costs.

 

[Smooth Operator]

You know who doesn't haveto deal with your DRM? Pirates.

But hey I'm sure Ubisoft wrote a nice fat check for your neat speech there, so good for you.

 

[Rawne1980]

"DRM is a great idea to protect our games"

I distinctly remember Ubisoft claiming it would stop Assassins Creed 2 from being pirated....

I also remember a month after Assassins Creed 2 was released it had been cracked and people were playing a pirate copy of it.

DRM doesn't work Ubisoft, it hasn't yet and it never will.

There will always be someone out there who will get round whatever you try and do to protect your games and the only thing being damaged are you PC sales.

People can say they don't care about the PC sales but there are still a hell of a lot of gamers on the PC. The more companies like Ubisoft isolate the PC gamer the more money they will lose.

Piracy isn't your main problem, thats going to happen no matter what you do. Your main problem is giving the middle finger to people and stopping them buying your game in the first place.

 

[Royas]

Your right to swing your fist ends where my face begins. Ubisoft's fist is definitely past that point with this bullshit DRM.

Hell, I might not even mind so much if the DRM even worked, but it doesn't. Every game that has been put out with this DRM has been cracked. The first game with it was cracked within a month. Yeah, that was worth alienating the consumer.

Morons.

 

[Irridium]

Fuck you.

Why am I being forced to use your fucking system when pirates don't have to?

I've said this so much it's really getting annoying, but...

[HEADING=1]PIRATES ARE NOT AFFECTED BY THIS! THEY DON'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS AT ALL! IT WILL NOT HAMPER ONE PIRATE, ANYWHERE! ONLY LEGIT CUSTOMERS WILL BE AFFECTED BY THIS BULLSHIT![/HEADING].

Seriously. How the fuck can you consider treating your paying customers like criminals to be moral? That's just fucking disgusting.

Pirates have already beat this system. This game will be cracked swiftly and efficiently. It will be on torrents, and all pirates everywhere will be laughing at you. And because your so intent on treating your customers like criminals, nobody will feel sympathy for you, even if you are the victim.

Yes, pirates are dicks. But you are no better.

Fuck you.

 

[Radioactive Kitten]

It's going to get cracked anyway, so why use such strict DRM when it's not even going to stop the pirates? All it's going to do is scare away legitimate customers that may not have a reliable internet connection or force them to use pirate-made cracks on their legitimate copies to bypass the DRM.

My internet connection isn't always completely reliable, so I definitely don't want a game that's going to pause or kick me back to the title screen every time I lose connection.

 

[mjc0961]

Now see, unlike the Avalanche guy article I just read, I do not like this guy. I have not bought his games and I will not buy his games. He is an idiot who has no idea what goes on in the real world of gaming. That kind of DRM does not stop piracy and only inconveniences the people who paid for it. Screw any publisher that uses it and screw and developer that thinks it's a good idea. I will be spending my money on other games until you learn to stop being so damned stupid.

 

[koroem]

People who defend DRM need to have every object in their life put under lock and key and have to ask permission from each manufacturer/distributor/retailer individually to use any of it. Bet they would be singing a different tune after 24 hours of dealing with that.