Ubisoft Online DRM: It's Worse Than Expected

[johnman]

My internet was down for about an hour last night, and at work the number of internet problems is staggering.
But the non the plus side the number of Ubisoft games I play can be counted on a lepers hand so it wont actually affect me.

I am just waiting for a console fanboy to start shouting about how elitist and spoilt we all are.

 

[cieply]

Oh boy that's hillarious xD

Hackers play with the ubisoft so it hits legit gamers in the face xD

Publishers philosophy...

I would not care about this game but I will download it and crack it just to spit UBISOFT in the face.

That's insane, hurting a small group of legit gamers, and it even won't do A SMALLEST THING to pirates. OH THE INSANITY XD

 

[Dr. Doctor]

Just pirate it.

That'll fix the problem.

 

[tgr]

Hey, that's great! It adds a whole new level of tension to the game. Not only I have to worry about people trying to stab me in the face ingame, there's also my internet connection lurking around the next corner, instakilling me 10 meters before a savepoint. Sweet!

My crappy internet connection would make AssCreed II the most tense survival horror game ever.

 

[RanD00M]

I give it a week tops before there is a work-around crack courtesy of those magnificent pirates.

A whole week? I give it 2 days.Tops.

OT:Well I certainly won´t buy any Ubisoft games on my PC.Be thing that I always have my PS3 to get around these things.

 

[RicoADF]

Actually, this may be the one case where I'd make an exception.

I don't mean I'd pirate the game, but if I were to buy it, I'd probably get a crack to let me play offline.

I don't think that's illegal.

I dont think cracking a purchased game so you can actually play it would be, but what Ubisoft is doing I'd consider to be on very thin ice legal wise.

Don't bother me much anyway, the few semi decent ubisoft games I'll get on PS3, but tbh even that is a very very thin list, funny I never thought a company could become as silly and have as few games worth looking at as EA.

 

[romxxii]

ugh, and I was planning on buying two games from these French-Canadian fuckheads. Oh Ubi, you make games that can redefine an entire genre, and yet your anti-piracy campaigns tend to affect even those who buy your games legally. First you permanently screw with my OS, now this? You really should fire the twat who comes up with these ideas.

It's not like it really matters anyways, Ubisoft has never made a good PC port, so it just gives gamers more of a reason for them not to go to Ubisoft.

I beg to disagree. The Sands of Time trilogy worked pretty hiccup free on my old rig, and SC:Chaos Theory as well, despite the DRM program trying to fuck things up. The bad porting mostly applies to SC: Double Agent, which was a terrible game to begin with.

Lets just pray to god that no other big publisher thinks this is a good idea, cause then we are really fucked.

To be honest, keeping your save files online does seem like a good idea; no more cluttering my hard drive with multiple save files that I can't even keep track of after a while. The staying connected all the time bit is what really makes it extremely terrible, especially since my Internet connection is about as dependable as a politician.

 

[aaron552]

To be honest, keeping your save files online does seem like a good idea; no more cluttering my hard drive with multiple save files that I can't even keep track of after a while. The staying connected all the time bit is what really makes it extremely terrible, especially since my Internet connection is about as dependable as a politician.

To me it seems a TERRIBLE idea. Why not save locally and COPY the files to the Ubisoft server when an internet connection is available. THAT would make sense. What they're doing here is a mind-bogglingly stupid attempt to combat piracy/used game sales. It won't do much to either one of those because for every 1 person who it affects, 100 will download the crack and play away with no restrictions.

 

[Alfador_VII]

As someone who legally owns all of the games I regularly play on my PC (I have sometimes "tried before I bought" where was no good demo out), this is definitely going to drive me away from paying for any more Ubisoft games.

If I want to play them, I'll obtain them by other means. To quote Ubisoft, I'm "...going to be fine with it"

The only way this position may change is if they do a rapid U turn on this extreme DRM BEFORE ACII is released.

 

[Playbahnosh]

I've been thinking, and I think I solved the puzzle:

This move by Ubisoft wasn't really an obviously misguided attempt at stopping piracy, no. It was well thought out and deliberate, we just can't see the forrest for the trees. Lemme explain:

Ubisoft is deliberately trying to destroy PC gaming, by annoying the fuck out of everyone wanting to play their games on PC. They are totally aware of the fact, that no matter what DRM or copy protection they use, it will get cracked eventually, usually in a few days before the game's release. So, they thought, wtf, let's kill PC gaming altogether, and herd them to buy consoles. "If we annoy them enough, they will stop playing on PC and go buy a hassle-free console". Sure, it's totally obvious now. Making games for consoles are far easier than PCs: unified architecture (no need to take different configs, OS-s, whatever into consideration), simpler dev tools, shorter development time and it's way more cheaper, etc. And, for what it's worth, piracy is still lower on consoles. The sales they lose on the PC, they will get it back on the increasing console sales when disillusioned ex-PC gamers fold and go buy a console. Win-Win.

This is not an idiotic frontal assault against piracy, it's a well thought-out, insanely clever evil plot against PC gaming. Yea, some may think it's just another conspiracy theory, but still, it's a better explanation than "Ubisoft went insane and stabbed itself in the back". Think about it...

 

[DancePuppets]

The depressing thing is that people will probably still buy the game and Ubisoft will interpret that as a "We think that your new DRM system is great" and continue using it. :-(

 

[KayuWolf]

hell no. they've definately lost my sale, i've never pirated a game before but this decion makes me want to.

 

[stabnex]

AAAAH HUH HUH HUH HUH!!

WHAT HAPPENED UBISOFT?! *SOB*

I USED TO BE ON YOUR SIDE! *takes old Ubisoft PC games to the trash can*

 

[Saint_Zvlkx]

What the FUCK?
I mean, I have dial-up, and can't keep it connected all the God-dammed time. How am I, Mr. Paying Customer, being screwed out of a game because my area does not support high-speed internet?
I mean, I probably would have bought the game, and never would have pirated it, but now? I'm almost tempted to pirate it just to screw Ubisoft for killing my chances of buying it.

 

[ravensshade]

As a PC gamer, does Ubisoft not realize we are an unforgiving bunch? Do they also not realize we complain like there's no tomorrow?

Yeah! We should boycott the game! That ALWAYS works.

you forgot the sarcasm tag.. now they will be boycotting all over the place...

OT: the fuck... oh well there will probably some group that will make saves get stored locally... so when i hear bout it i'll buy the game and then crack it anyway...

 

[Sebenko]

I've been thinking, and I think I solved the puzzle:

This move by Ubisoft wasn't really an obviously misguided attempt at stopping piracy, no. It was well thought out and deliberate, we just can't see the forrest for the trees. Lemme explain:

Ubisoft is deliberately trying to destroy PC gaming, by annoying the fuck out of everyone wanting to play their games on PC. They are totally aware of the fact, that no matter what DRM or copy protection they use, it will get cracked eventually, usually in a few days before the game's release. So, they thought, wtf, let's kill PC gaming altogether, and herd them to buy consoles. "If we annoy them enough, they will stop playing on PC and go buy a hassle-free console". Sure, it's totally obvious now. Making games for consoles are far easier than PCs: unified architecture (no need to take different configs, OS-s, whatever into consideration), simpler dev tools, shorter development time and it's way more cheaper, etc. And, for what it's worth, piracy is still lower on consoles. The sales they lose on the PC, they will get it back on the increasing console sales when disillusioned ex-PC gamers fold and go buy a console. Win-Win.

This is not an idiotic frontal assault against piracy, it's a well thought-out, insanely clever evil plot against PC gaming. Yea, some may think it's just another conspiracy theory, but still, it's a better explanation than "Ubisoft went insane and stabbed itself in the back". Think about it...

You're a conspiracy theorist. If they wanted to kill off PC gaming, the obvious solution would be to not release the game on PC and claim that it wouldn't be commercially viable.
And one publisher? yeah, Ubisoft on it's own is going to bring us down. if it was "well thought out", they'd just get all the dev teams/publishers to work together and not release on PC.

 

[joshthor]

i will wait till it hits less than 20 bucks. then i will buy it and crack it.