Ubisoft: DRM is Ineffective Against Piracy

[Dalisclock]

Does that mean you're finally going to dump Uplay?

Early says that key to stopping piracy is to offer online services (such as multiplayer) that are simply unavailable for pirates to access.

Loose translation: No.

So, what if I don't like mutiplayer, Ubisoft?

 

[Dalisclock]

Thank Christ! It only took them 4 years and a horrible service to learn that.

Now, can you guys please just switch to Steam already?

Also, how many times do I have to say this, pirated copy=/=stolen copy. Piracy is not that simple of a crime.

Steam is DRM, so to switch to that would undermine their statement. They would have to go GoG style to follow through with their comments. Don't get me wrong I like steam but if their saying DRM is useless and their going to stop then swapping to steam technically isn't the correct action (although that doesn't stop them from selling on steam).

I think what he was getting at was the fact that even if you buy ubisoft game through steam and launch it through steam, you still have to launch it again through Uplay to play, which is stupid. I'm already using Steam, why not let me play it through steam? Why add another layer of complexity and resource overhead to the picture?

Not to mention Uplay's system of storing savegames is broken and, god forbid, you have to reinstall uplay and didn't realize you need to back up your saved games ahead of time, all your saved games are gone. Lost 7 hours of gameplay in AC:R because of that. Didn't even bother replaying them either. Just rage quit and watched the rest of the story cutscenes via youtube because Uplay is a POS.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

It seems as if they're bringing this upon themselves over time, as time passes they keep trying to create many games at the same time, remember Black flag and all the people they threw onto that game alone?, they need to lessen the number of games and really refine them to a point where they become excellent stand alone products on their own, but since they aren't going to do that they are losing quality and of course when it comes to Nintendo they're just being immature and childish on top of not really showing care for Wii U gamers even considering Watch Dogs on Wii U isn't even due until November which is a long time after it's release, I'm not expecting it to get patched or appear any better either tbh knowing Ubisoft.

I think on top of all that's happened recently they're slowly becoming a new form of EA while EA itself is slowly trying to pick up the pieces and become good again even though that's going to be a slow and long process but at least they're trying, same with MS and nintendo at this years E3, they really knocked it out the park and for fans and some non fans too, I know I'm more than sold on a Wii U at this point.

Ubisoft, they really just ened to be completely honest to us, take down Uplay or at the very least make it like the upcoming Galaxy where it;s completely optional eyt rewards you with Uplay points for taking part with it, have sales on their games and drop their install DRM's from the past and the present, make less games and really refine them, toss in all of that and I'm sure they will look good and function normally once more, until then they're going down a slippery slope that might end up with them becoming like Capcom with the posability of being bought out and not being a separate entity anymore.

If anything they aren't making enough games, or at least not enough types. A lot of their titles are starting to blur together, and it doesn't help that they aren't also considering stuff for the 3DS. 40 million users and year after year they ignore it for no real reason. Assassin's Creed is also bad considering that the reason they put 600 people on them is so they can churn them out yearly as fast as they can. It's like we have these companies who look to Nintendo's habit of getting new Mario titles out quickly, but forget that Mario titles tend to be spread over a WIDE variety of styles even within the same genre (Super Mario 3D World playing NOTHING like NSMBU despite being in the platforming genre and Paper Mario not being the same as Mario and Luigi) which is also helped by them switching between portable and console entries. Heck, last year we got a remake of Wind Waker, but this year we're getting Hyrule Warriors; again, they have Zelda on the name but play COMPLETELY DIFFERENTLY. They really don't get that they need to take time with games, not just fart them out as quickly as they can. That's a short time strategy that doesn't lead to longevity.

 

[The White Hunter]

Does that mean you're finally going to dump Uplay?

No they're just going to abandon the PC because we're all pirates

 

[Rad Party God]

Nope.

Ubi hasn't learned their lessons. They'll push Uplay even more and then some more with forced and unnecessary mutiplayer modes.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Thank Christ! It only took them 4 years and a horrible service to learn that.

Now, can you guys please just switch to Steam already?

Also, how many times do I have to say this, pirated copy=/=stolen copy. Piracy is not that simple of a crime.

Steam is DRM, so to switch to that would undermine their statement. They would have to go GoG style to follow through with their comments. Don't get me wrong I like steam but if their saying DRM is useless and their going to stop then swapping to steam technically isn't the correct action (although that doesn't stop them from selling on steam).

Steam is not as much of a horrible DRM service than Uplay is.

I have my suspicions that the piss-poor optimisation of Watch_Dogs was largely due to that service. Steam (so far) has never caused direct performance issues, which would be the best alternative.

Ubisoft will not go DRM-free, because I severely doubt that any investor would agree to that. They are people who have zero understanding of gaming, and see it purely as business. If they are convinced that Uplay doesn't work, then the least they can do is switch to Steam without pissing of their financiers.

 

[MoltenSilver]

If they want this statement to actually be taken seriously, maybe they shouldn't have said it while right at this very moment UPlay is still a broken mess of a thing that instantly puts games on my 'do not buy' list. Until I see them actually living up to that statement I'm going to interpret it as two-faced at best, and at worst as a threat that Simcity and Diablo always-on crap are going to become the norm.

 

[Under_your_bed]

Let me be poster #5800000000000000000000000000000000000000 to also say: no shit, Ubisuck. How the hell did you not figure this out before your miserable DRM bullshit?

On a more positive note, if they did actually remove udontplay, I might start buying Ubisoft games again.

 

[K12]

Who thinks this is going to be a precursor to Ubisoft announcing something like:

"In order to create a simple and easy service for our customers, all our games are now available exclusively on Uplay!"

 

[Atmos Duality]

So, Ubisoft has finally realized the fucking obvious at last.
I'm sure it took years of collecting data to figure this out.

Of course, there is a drawback to this "revelation" of theirs: going forward, eventually every game is going to be online-centric (MMOs and the like) because that's how you "defeat piracy".

And with online emphasis comes, you guessed it, implicit always-online DRM.
Better known as "The Blizzard Method".

If online multiplayer is all you want, great. It'll be heaven on earth.
But if you're just looking for something to chew through between workloads and the like without having to deal with the hassle of flaky internet and online assholes, well, sucks to be you chum.

 

[MCerberus]

So Ubisoft,

You keep holding the one game I want to see from you for ransom, then pulling back on promises when you're payed.

Your track record on the PC ranges from "another pointless layer on top" on the good end to "haha, you shouldn't have put in a new component, now you're screwed".

You're taken aback by pushback against lazy recycling and your concept of a default person being plopped straight into all your games, your games that are bleeding together into a generic haze. And you still don't get why.

And now you're going "Of course DRM doesn't work, but we're keeping it in anyway to support things like the least-liked part of a game we hyped that didn't deliver"

Oh speaking of that, there's a lot of junk to go through about that particular disappointment. Like the part where you lied about lying about lying about the graphics situation. Or the fact that there's very little game in the game. Or the, and this is seriously the vibe you're giving off, odd feeling that your writing staff has never been around a mother, or even woman before in their lives.


Fuck off,
The Gaming Community

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I guess even the thickest executive staff of a company must admit defeat after years and years of facts proving the opposite position pile up in their office.

 

[Oskuro]

It's been said before, but hey, I want to jump in:

This is just a rebranding exercise, moving away from the negative connotations of the word "DRM" and trying to sell us Uplay and similar schemes as "services".

Same thing about Origin or Steam, mind you.

Sad thing is, before, I might have been tempted to pirate a game to see if it was worth buying, or just until I could afford it. Now I'm not even tempted. All this crap just makes me lose interest in those games completely, and that is a lost sale.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

Ubisoft are so late to the party, that most of the booze has already been drunk and all the cool people have already paired off and gone home.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

I want to say "finally" and mutter about how they seem to have worked out the truth the rest of us knew all along, but I have this dreadful fear that this is going to manifest itself in stupid ways, like having to connect to Ubisoft servers or Uplay or whatever to download missions from the single player campaign in addition to having to connect for the MP aspects and Ubisoft's legendary mountains of pre-order and platform-specific bonuses that should ALL be in every game already. All they're saying here is that they're against the current format of the DRM they're using, and that's something they've said before.

 

[JET1971]

I havnt bought an Ubi game since FarCry 2 and it's limited number of install BS and it wouldn't let me revoke an install when I wanted to, consider an old install to be new because I did a motherboard and processor upgrade, and lost an install due to a hard drive failure. Oddly was out of installs and only actually used 2 of them. Since then as long as the ubi game has DRM I refuse to buy it and even play it. So not only does DRM not prevent piracy but it can and will turn potential customers away and even create piracy by forcing paying customers to pirate it just to play it... FC3 *cough* *cough*.

I highly doubt Ubi has realized that DRM hurts them more than it helps, I see this as a PR campaign to get players to stop talking about other Ubi BS that's giving them just as much of a bad reputation. "Stop talking about playable female characeters... Look over here, we think DRM doesn't help so talk about that instead."

 

[Strazdas]

So they are going to dump Uplay? of course they dont. they have the worst DRM out there (now that GFWL is dead) and dare to spout that. Oh and it keeps giving.

Early says that key to stopping piracy is to offer online services (such as multiplayer) that are simply unavailable for pirates to access.

What services would those be? because pirates so far has managed toa cess EVERYTHING. they madfe their own MMO servers. they tricked steam into thiking the copy is legit and played on official servers. they even outright stole the Ubisofts online database at one point (couple years back). unless you are going to invent something completely new, this is a false statement to begin with.

None too surprising if I'm not mistaken Watch Dogs was leaked like a week before it was released. I'm not gonna say why bother but they've gone to great lengths to penalize honest customers.

the leaked version was a beta and was quite buggy from what i hear. of course, the day of release there was a correct version on pirate sites and they played it without having to even install Uplay, while legitimate costumers could not play it because Uplay kept crashing on them, so pirates did play it earlier, but not a week earlier. Steam pre-loading is where most early pirated reseleases used to come from, but steam seems ot have fixed that by not allowing you to actually fully download the game.

So, what if I don't like mutiplayer, Ubisoft?

Lies! gamers that dont like multiplayer dont exist! they are all filthy pirates that should be jailed for life!