Ubisoft Hints At Toned-Down DRM
Ubisoft Vice President Chris Early says the company is trying to find better ways to protect itself from piracy while not "inconveniencing" gamers who actually pay for their games.
It's no secret that Ubisoft's outrageous DRM policies have left a lot of PC gamers very angry. Many of its games require an "always on" connection to the internet in order to function and if you don't happen to have that, you run into a situation like this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115635-Ubisoft-Games-Unplayable-During-Server-Switch]. Unless you pirated the game, that is, in which case your game will run just fine.
But in a sign that Ubisoft may finally be reconsidering its position, Digital Strategy VP Chris Early said the company is looking for better ways to do things. "Is it fair for someone to enjoy our content without us receiving some value for that? I think at the core of that is, no. Otherwise, other than works of charity, there would be few games made," he told Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-23-ubisoft-wants-to-offer-pc-gamers-so-much-value-the-need-for-drm-goes-away]. "The balance, however, is, how do we do anything about that and not harm the person who is giving us value for that?"
One possible idea, he said, was the creation of an "MMO value system" through "ongoing content development, content release [and] engagement at the community level" that would provide gamers with a level of enjoyment that pirated copies couldn't duplicate. Technology has its place - Early touched on the idea of cloud gaming, which isn't too terribly far off what Ubisoft is already doing - but the focus now appears to be on coming up with ways to make its DRM less of a hassle.
"As we continue to keep our player at the centre, we want to find ways that don't inconvenience that player who is paying for it," he said. "We've had a variety of degrees of success as we wind our way down that path. Our plan, our hope is we stay on the less intrusive, less cumbersome side of that path as we go on."
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Ubisoft Vice President Chris Early says the company is trying to find better ways to protect itself from piracy while not "inconveniencing" gamers who actually pay for their games.
It's no secret that Ubisoft's outrageous DRM policies have left a lot of PC gamers very angry. Many of its games require an "always on" connection to the internet in order to function and if you don't happen to have that, you run into a situation like this [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/115635-Ubisoft-Games-Unplayable-During-Server-Switch]. Unless you pirated the game, that is, in which case your game will run just fine.
But in a sign that Ubisoft may finally be reconsidering its position, Digital Strategy VP Chris Early said the company is looking for better ways to do things. "Is it fair for someone to enjoy our content without us receiving some value for that? I think at the core of that is, no. Otherwise, other than works of charity, there would be few games made," he told Eurogamer [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-23-ubisoft-wants-to-offer-pc-gamers-so-much-value-the-need-for-drm-goes-away]. "The balance, however, is, how do we do anything about that and not harm the person who is giving us value for that?"
One possible idea, he said, was the creation of an "MMO value system" through "ongoing content development, content release [and] engagement at the community level" that would provide gamers with a level of enjoyment that pirated copies couldn't duplicate. Technology has its place - Early touched on the idea of cloud gaming, which isn't too terribly far off what Ubisoft is already doing - but the focus now appears to be on coming up with ways to make its DRM less of a hassle.
"As we continue to keep our player at the centre, we want to find ways that don't inconvenience that player who is paying for it," he said. "We've had a variety of degrees of success as we wind our way down that path. Our plan, our hope is we stay on the less intrusive, less cumbersome side of that path as we go on."
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