Ubisoft Says Always-On DRM, "A Success"

[Enrathi]

I want to know why people keep blasting DRM and why stories keep getting put it.

Well, Shamus has already explained it far better than I can. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/5930-The-Impossible-DRM]

To be fair, if you're going to bring up that, then you should probably also bring up the sequel article about the one kind of DRM he felt might actually work: Ubisoft's [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/7467-Experienced-Points-Impossible-to-beat-DRM].

I'm still unwilling to completely bash Ubisoft's DRM system. Sure, it didn't work for long. But it may just have worked for long enough. And it's got a better record of actually working than any other form out there. Yes, it's horrible, and that's why we should hate it, but we can't haul out the usual 'And it doesn't even work!' arguments here unless we can back them up.

Not to rain on your parade, but here's the last two paragraphs from the article you linked.

Of course, if publishers did this it would be a case of destroying the industry in order to save it. They would stop the pirates, but they would also stop quite a few consumers. The system would be slow to develop and expensive to produce, all so that they could (maybe) slightly increase sales on the PC, which is already the smallest platform on the market.

So I give Ubisoft credit: They have come up with a system that can eventually work. But it's still a waste of money, abusive to legitimate customers, and criminally short-sighted. It's a dumb idea, but they're doing a great job at it.

They've lost a couple of sales from me due to this DRM. I wanted to buy Silent Hunter 5, but this DRM stopped me. EA also lost a sale of C&C 4 for the same reason.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Well, that settles it. I will not be buying from them again. And I don't even play on the PC. No, I refuse to support a corperation who does this sort of thing and then claims it works.

If I must have a game, I will aquire it legally second-handed.

 

[DarthFennec]

Ubisoft, you're so stupid ...
Guys, don't pirate Ubisoft's games. In fact, don't play them at all. With this shit in place it's not worth it.

 

[BlindChance]

Not to rain on your parade, but here's the last two paragraphs from the article you linked.

Oh, no question, and no raining there either: I'm in agreement. Ubisoft's DRM is the most draconian, awful thing we've seen. But it is, possibly, a horrible system that works. Every other system is easily dismissed: "It sucks, and it doesn't work, so why are you even trying?" But Ubisoft's might just be, "It REALLY sucks." "But it works, so we're using it."

Now, as has been pointed out, it also might NOT work. Hard to say. But it worked on Assassin's Creed 2 for something like 6 weeks, which may just be long enough. I don't know how long it worked on other titles.

 

[Superior Mind]

A success? For who? The way I see it the Ubisoft always-on-DRM games caused more people to turn to piracy. Myself for instance. I bought Assassin's Creed 2 and after five hours of trying to get into the fucking thing I had to download a crack. It was the only option I had.

 

[duchaked]

LOL "Do you steal our games? Y/N"
gee I wonder what to pick...

guess Brotherhood on the PC LOST sales?

 

[NormalityImpaired]

i generally do not play PC games, but even i think this kind of DRM is a big mistake by Ubisoft, and is going to hurt them in sales. Unless they are trying to get out of the PC gaming biz by screwing over a large consumer base, in which case, mission accomplished.

 

[Tanis]

They're being serious, right?
I mean, really?

If ANYTHING would drive a legit consumer to piracy it's when the best way to play the game you've bought it downloading some kind of crack/modified version of it.

Ubisoft has probably LOST more sales than they'll EVER admit to because of their stupidity.

 

[Sightless Wisdom]

I'm calling bullshit. You don't get numbers on piracy. This DRM can and has been removed from most if not all of the games it's been put it. Pirates aren't idiots(despite the opinion of the writer of this article) and are perfectly capable of skirting around systems like this. The way I see it, Ubisoft has no idea how many people pirated their games after this DRM was implemented, but they do know that at least a small number of people did not buy their games. This means DRM : -X Piracy:? That's a definite loss and an uncertain variable.

 

[Denamic]

How does it reduce piracy, exactly?
Because it takes pirate groups like 3 days longer to crack?
I mean, it does in no way prevent pirates from playing the game by copying over a few files like usual.
All it really does it fuck with legit users like every other DRM.
Only much worse.

 

[shadowform]

Ubisoft's DRM is so effective that it doesn't just prevent piracy, it also prevents legal purchases! As a matter of fact, I've specifically avoided any Ubisoft game since they started using this type of DRM. Which is kind of a shame, since AC2 looks pretty good.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

You know what I want to see? an actual discussion of what this DRM means. I've seen lots of people who instantly sputter a gut reaction and condemn it immediately but that's incredibly short sighted. There are lots of issues to discuss here, not the lest of which is why people hate it so much (and don't give me that crap about you just hate DRM or your internet connection sucks there is more to it and you know it). I want to know why people keep blasting DRM and why stories keep getting put it. Its not about simply hating the thing, this is on the level of a zealot crusade and I want to know why. As far as I'm concerned though, it's never going to happen because people are just too angry to talk all they can do is yell. Ah well, maybe DRM should treat use like means spirited children, we sure act like it.

DRM is a pretty wide reaching term but usually when users condemn it they're talking about specific products, like SecuROM, Starforce or Ubisoft's DRM scheme. Quite often people's opinions on DRM doesn't extend to things like Steam or Battlenet, purely because they don't recognise them as such.

It's kind of sad that they don't; Steamworks is almost as bad as Ubisoft's DRM. The only real difference is if you lose your connection in the middle of a game, you don't lose anything on Steam, whereas you do with Ubisoft. In either case, if you don't have internet in the first place, you aren't playing your game, even if you've already registered it. I know Steam has an offline mode, but it only works if you're already online and you have to go off for some reason; there's no starting Steam in offline mode. Oh, it gives the option, but it almost never actually works, and it definitely doesn't work if you try to use online mode but it can't connect because there's something wrong with your internet connection. Case in point, I'm on vacation at a mom and pop hotel with horrible internet, and I can't log in to steam, which is keeping me from playing a substantial chunk of the games I have installed. I don't understand how anyone puts up with Steam for any reason other than the sales, which price games in the rental range -- which is a fair price, since it's just a glorified rental.

 

[karamazovnew]

Ubisoft has managed to encourage piracy overall. Legit users who buy their games get fed up with the DRM and just get a crack, so they get used to pirate sites. And since so many people pirate games in a "try before you buy" manner, considering just how buggy most Ubisoft titles have been in the recent years, pirates feel even more justified to do this. Especially since Ubisoft's game patch support is... well, isn't. The only title still worth something is the Assassin's Creed series, but even that has gone down the drain because of the game design (I miss Jerusalem).

On the other hand, the reduction in piracy has mostly been influenced by how fed up people are to play buggy games. I was so furious about how little support they offered for Far Cry 2 (those damns road blocks!!!!) that news of the DRM did't even bother me. The last Ubi game I bought was Silent Hunter 5 which was the first title to have permanent online DRM (one month before Settlers) which was a disaster and killed the franchise, so it isn't even mentioned anywhere. Ever since, I haven't even been tempted to pirate their games, let alone buy one. I played Assassin's Creed 2 on a friend's XBox, pirated of course... Even crack groups have lost interest in cracking their games. A quick glance on their forums, a few days after release is ample evidence of how bad their games are. I've noticed that sites such as Gamespot don't even review some of their titles anymore, such as IL-2 Cliffs of Dover.

 

[teebeeohh]

this does it. between this shit and delaying PC version for half a year for no reason i will not find out how the ass cred series ends. Although by the tome they are done milking ezio i would probably not have cared anyway.

 

[Canid117]

Haha lying is unbecoming Ubisoft.

 

[Aklyon]

it worked on Assassin's Creed 2 for something like 6 weeks, which may just be long enough. I don't know how long it worked on other titles.

It won't last anywhere near as long now, so why bother to keep using it? The crackers already got the way disable/trick/remove it once from SH5 and AS2, now its just minor modifications away from fitting whatever game they target that has it.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Their DRM has successfully increased piracy of their games. Seriously, who would even consider using a legitimate copy of a Ubisoft game for PC? Even people who buy their shit all pirate it afterwards just to have a better copy.

 

[Accountfailed]

Well, that Ubisoft rep is an idiot, time and time again always-on DRM is proved to be a fundamentally flawed idea, you don't sell clothes with the magnetic anti-theft tags permanently stitched in, but that's not why this guy is an idiot.

believe it or not, Ubisoft has successfully fought piracy, by making an always online drm checking scheme to deter filthy pirates and paying customers alike. by releasing their pc version half a goddamn century later than the console version. Quick example, BroHood.
AC:B - console, released 16th November 2010
Ac:B - PC, released 17th March 2011

The person in Ubisoft that came up with this idea needs a fucking medal, and cake, and this rep as a personal servant. It's perfect, people are pushed to buy the console port because the PC port takes longer to come out and by the time the game gets out on the scene, all the pirates have either bought it on console, borrowed it from a friend who's finished it, bought it pre-owned or just simply couldn't care because the words gotten out and the game sucks or they've forgotten it entirely.

Also, Settlers 7 SUCKED I reached a gamebreaking bug in second bloody level.