Ubisoft shaft PC gamers yet again!

[snowbear]

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No publisher would ever ever offer a crack for their own game. Bioware once hinted slightly that Windows 7 uses might want to look for less legitimate tactics to get KotoR to run but that's about as far as it goes.

It would definitely be the right thing to do, but can you imagine how much trouble that would probably get them in? They have all this copy right, they've licensed images and music and pictures whatever, multiple parts of the game are owned by multiple people, they've got all this paperwork trying to protect themselves from pirating and then they release a crack of the game? They'd get sued five ways and suddenly pirates would be pulling out loopholes where it's fine to pirate a game if the owner has been actively encouraging methods to do it and no DRM company would work with them again after they advised ways to break it.

It sucks, it's not right, but I can't imagine they'd been in a position where they were even able to do that. I don't think even Valve could do that

Valve actually show they care about their customers though with free DLC, updates and communication. Its a give and take relationship. They offer great service, quality games and are always looking to improve. Hence so many people are happy enough to let their DRM go pretty much unnoticed.

Ubisoft seems to do the opposite there DRM has been so in your face in the past that even a blind hamster would be appalled and shocked by it.

This latest event is just Proof that PC customers are an after thought. Could you imagine the outcry if they had forgotten to put the online pass in console version of AC3. Id bet you any money they would be all over the media assuring people that they were sorting it and going to compensate the customers in some way.

What do we get?
"No CD key? oh we have to check you haven't stolen it first. Then we will think about giving you a code when we have a spare five minutes next week some time"

All this for a game where DRM is not really even needed, as you cant play the game without the cable they supply anyway.

 

[Evil Smurf]

do you have AC 2? I have a Mac too and wonder if it plays well.

I played it, and it ran horrendously, even on the lowest settings (that I meet no problems). However, my cousin is able to play it pretty well, but he has much more powerful machine than I do, so I tend to be a little bit wary when it comes to Ubisoft's mac ports requirements. I remember the game crashing on me twice, for no apparent reason, and there was an video delay- audio ran before video, so I usually had the last minute or so of Ezio doing pantomime.

is there a demo so I can try it out?

 

[Evil Smurf]

do you have AC 2? I have a Mac too and wonder if it plays well.

I played it, and it ran horrendously, even on the lowest settings (that I meet no problems). However, my cousin is able to play it pretty well, but he has much more powerful machine than I do, so I tend to be a little bit wary when it comes to Ubisoft's mac ports requirements. I remember the game crashing on me twice, for no apparent reason, and there was an video delay- audio ran before video, so I usually had the last minute or so of Ezio doing pantomime.

is there a demo so I can try it out?

 

[Evil Smurf]

do you have AC 2? I have a Mac too and wonder if it plays well.

I played it, and it ran horrendously, even on the lowest settings (that I meet no problems). However, my cousin is able to play it pretty well, but he has much more powerful machine than I do, so I tend to be a little bit wary when it comes to Ubisoft's mac ports requirements. I remember the game crashing on me twice, for no apparent reason, and there was an video delay- audio ran before video, so I usually had the last minute or so of Ezio doing pantomime.

is there a demo so I can try it out?

 

[Evil Smurf]

do you have AC 2? I have a Mac too and wonder if it plays well.

I played it, and it ran horrendously, even on the lowest settings (that I meet no problems). However, my cousin is able to play it pretty well, but he has much more powerful machine than I do, so I tend to be a little bit wary when it comes to Ubisoft's mac ports requirements. I remember the game crashing on me twice, for no apparent reason, and there was an video delay- audio ran before video, so I usually had the last minute or so of Ezio doing pantomime.

is there a demo so I can try it out?

 

[Evil Smurf]

do you have AC 2? I have a Mac too and wonder if it plays well.

I played it, and it ran horrendously, even on the lowest settings (that I meet no problems). However, my cousin is able to play it pretty well, but he has much more powerful machine than I do, so I tend to be a little bit wary when it comes to Ubisoft's mac ports requirements. I remember the game crashing on me twice, for no apparent reason, and there was an video delay- audio ran before video, so I usually had the last minute or so of Ezio doing pantomime.

is there a demo so I can try it out?

 

[Evil Smurf]

do you have AC 2? I have a Mac too and wonder if it plays well.

I played it, and it ran horrendously, even on the lowest settings (that I meet no problems). However, my cousin is able to play it pretty well, but he has much more powerful machine than I do, so I tend to be a little bit wary when it comes to Ubisoft's mac ports requirements. I remember the game crashing on me twice, for no apparent reason, and there was an video delay- audio ran before video, so I usually had the last minute or so of Ezio doing pantomime.

is there a demo so I can try it out?

 

[Evil Smurf]

bollocks, the servers derped up and made me multiple post

 

[Yopaz]

Production accident /= intentional shafting. I'm sorry for your situation, but they weren't being malicious.

Yeah, people should really learn the difference. As crappy as this is it's hardly something intentional from Ubisoft. I don't even think it's Ubisoft themselves which do the actual production, they just publish and sometimes make the actual games. Not the discs themselves, covers or manuals.

The publisher is indeed at fault. As with book publishers or publishers of DVD movies, video game publishers are responsible for their product's manufacturing and marketing.

While I agree it probably wasn't malicious on their part there is a little thing called quality assurance. All this shows is that they dont care enough to check what they are publishing.

As for the reason to buy retail, it was the only realistic option with this game.

on Amazon I paid £34.99 for the game which included the cable to plug my guitar into the PC. On steam the game is £34.99 with no cable meaning Id have to buy a cable for £19.99. common sense says buy the bundle, no?

I did cringe when I saw Ubi was publishing this game, but its such a fantastic idea and not buying punishes the Devs a lot more that it does Ubisoft.

If we all stopped buying games like this then they wouldnt get made and the dev would be shut down.

Of course it wasn't intended. Does that make it acceptable? Hell, no! And don't come to me with: People make mistakes, it happens.
This is a big company, things like that are not supposed to happen. They should have noticed that the cd - keys were missing.
And about that receipt "fix". I didn't buy this game, but not everyone keeps his receipt when he buys something. I do now, when i buy something more expensive, but i know i didn't do that when i was younger.
This think will most likely lead to some people not being able to play a game legally, which they bought legally.

No I'm really still not following you, it's not like they've been negligent, it's not like this is a repeat occurence. It's not like this is even Ubisoft, this is the mistake of some factory in east asia printing out boxes, you know what, Apple had factories with conditions so bad the workers were committing suicide. That is gross negligence and something to get angry about, here we just had a factory who forgot to stick in the CD Keys.

I think your missing the point. Its still ubisofts job to check each batch is up to standard. As far as issues with PC game it just another problem in a very long list of issues the company has had.

Actually the production facility is to blame, not the publisher. The fact that the registration keys have been made and have been included with some of the games prove that this is simply an error in the manufacturing division. Quality assurance and quality control is a part of what the manufacturer has to oversee. Disagree all you want, but this is a fact.

 

[BrotherRool]

And somehow for all your talk, I don't think you would buy a PC game from Ubisoft anyway.

I find this statement quite interesting. I'm not trying to say that Ubisoft aren't a bad company, I'm saying that this isn't something in particular that we should blame them for. What we should blame them for is that horrible horrible always online games they keep trying for. Just not forgetting to include product keys

The second reason I find it interesting is that presumably the people in this thread who are pissed at Ubisoft and hate the company, all decided to buy a Ubisoft PC game for this to happen to them. So if they buy an Ubisoft PC game, why would I who am partially defending them avoid that?

The third reason is because it's right in that I don't play games on the PC of the standard that Ubisoft makes, more of a console gamer, also its correct that I would never buy an Ubisoft game with always online DRM. But it's false in that I've bought plenty of games from EA and Ubisoft quite happily, providing it doesn't do that and if I played games on the PC I'd continue.

Valve actually show they care about their customers though with free DLC, updates and communication. Its a give and take relationship. They offer great service, quality games and are always looking to improve. Hence so many people are happy enough to let their DRM go pretty much unnoticed.

Ubisoft seems to do the opposite there DRM has been so in your face in the past that even a blind hamster would be appalled and shocked by it.

This latest event is just Proof that PC customers are an after thought. Could you imagine the outcry if they had forgotten to put the online pass in console version of AC3. Id bet you any money they would be all over the media assuring people that they were sorting it and going to compensate the customers in some way.

What do we get?
"No CD key? oh we have to check you haven't stolen it first. Then we will think about giving you a code when we have a spare five minutes next week some time"

All this for a game where DRM is not really even needed, as you cant play the game without the cable they supply anyway.

I'm really not trying to prove that Ubisoft are a nice company, I find them the worst of all companies regarding DRM because of the always online stuff, which is the first DRM that would ever persuade me from not buying a game. However I'm just not going to take an opportunity that really wasn't their fault and is causing them a huge amount of hassle probably, to rip into them on that. If this was a thread about how much Ubisoft DRM sucked, I'd be right in there. Since this is a thread about how Ubisoft DRM sucks because of a factory mistake and it;s unfair, that their staff who have families and lives and fully scheduled jobs with plenty of work already are struggling to validate thousands of games in a very messy situation, I'm not joining in.

I agree they should have thought of some compensation, but I think you're undervaluing the pure logistics of sorting the situation as far as sending people CD-keys goes. Think of the problem like a programmer or event manager, how do you go from the situation you're in to the situation where you can deal with peoples problems? Either you using people who are already working in this company, in which case someone needs to look at all their tasks, which ones can be postponed which ones need to be done now, who can spare the time, how much overtime you can reasonably force a person to do, or you're hiring in which case you need to contact a hiring agency, advertise, meet x people and tell them that they've got a job (and run it through accounting)

And then after that, you need to train them how to do it and give them the space equipment to do it. It sounds like an incredibly time consuming process and it must be very hard to get sufficient staff to keep up with the demand.

Huh? They wouldn't relinquish their copyright by doing so; it's totally within their rights to modify their own game through fixes and updates. And that's precisely what this would be - a "fix" for a "bug". If GOG can digitally distribute DRM-free games and make it a part of their image, so can Ubi.

Except they don't want to. They probably have signed contracts with DRM companies, whose only money-source is piggybacking onto paranoid publishers. And the higher-ups at Ubi (which I can guarantee came up with the "take a photo of your receipt"-idea, yet surely won't be the ones who flip through those photos) can't see past their fucking eyelashes, so they crib their IP in order to fool investors into thinking their company is "risk-averse" and "safe" and "takes precautions", and all of this is for naught because they get pirated like every other publisher. Now, if they would finally realize that the future lies in consumer trust, brand loyalty and providing a consistently user-friendly service, they wouldn't care what their parasite DRM company has to say about them issuing a crack. Or a "fix".

I'm not lawyer, but remember the Scrolls vs Bestheda case? Where it turns out in copyright law if you don't actively sue anyone who breaks it then it weakens your claim if you want to sue another person for breaking it? This could easily be the case if you're providing consumers with a way to break your own security.

The difference with GoG is they license everything from the start with no DRM in mind, they've got no contracts that assume x must be protected and no contracts with companies like Securom. And there are stories of GOG games that took years to be released because they were hunting down licenses and agreeing contracts

Imagine this game was FiFA 13, and in FIFA 13 you'd licensed a Lady Gaga song. The record company that controls that song has an anti-piracy stance and included legislation that any reproduction of the song in game would be protected by some form of DRM, at least as strong as the DRM they use. Now this happens and you decide to freely offer a crack to that DRM.

We know that companies sublicense their development and they use third-party engines and software which is also copyrightable. They could easily have the same sort of problem

Now I'm not saying that Ubisoft should have DRM. But the fact of the matter is they have and they plan to continue using it, so they still have to value their SecurRom relationship. What you're asking for them right now, is on the strength of this accident, to change their stance completely on DRM.

Maybe they should do that, the point is that it's unreasonable to be asking them to do this because of this incident in particular. If this was a thread complaining purely about Ubisofts DRM policies, I wouldn't have interjected, my issue was that people are taking issue with something they didn't attempt to do and could really have happened to anyone.

 

[Mordekaien]

is there a demo so I can try it out?

As far as I know, there is no demo for AC 2, unfortunately.

 

[L0dest0ne]

I really think PC gaming publshers should just do away with DRM all together. While that may seem self-serving, pirates will ALWAYS find a crack, so its best not to annoy actual customers with horrible DRM.

 

[masticina]

Well not any news really there

Ubisoft and Costumers... I don't know sure if Ubisoft even beliefs in their products.

There are enough reasons not to buy Ubisoft games, lets just say DRM is only one of those reasons.

 

[snekadid]

Production accident /= intentional shafting. I'm sorry for your situation, but they weren't being malicious.

I'm fairly sure it was. If they announced officially they were going to do this they would be mobbed and lynched by people outside the gaming community as a violation of consumer rights.
As an "accident" they can apologize for free and only get some bad press from within the minority that bought it or cares about such things while being defended by others.

They automatically lose credibility due to draconian DRM practices as well as outlandish claims against the gaming populace.

I personally believe that I should behave as the corporation treats me, if they treat me like a thief I should act like one since thats the social contract they want with their customers. Now if only they would make something worth playing so that I could get started twirling my snidely whiplash mustache.

 

[Something Amyss]

To be fair, they never claimed to be amazingly user friendly. They are certainly more reliable then vending machines as far as my record goes. Anyway its not like the company had a meeeting and said 'Lets 'forget' to put the CD key in half the games >:]'

Though you would certainly be excused for thinking so if you heard about it from folks online.

 

[snowbear]

Actually the production facility is to blame, not the publisher. The fact that the registration keys have been made and have been included with some of the games prove that this is simply an error in the manufacturing division. Quality assurance and quality control is a part of what the manufacturer has to oversee. Disagree all you want, but this is a fact.

I'm not saying its not a manufacturing error, clearly it is. I'm saying Ubisoft are in charge of manufacturing ergo its their fault...

What ever way you look at it, it's a massive cock up on Ubisofts part if it was just a few hundred copies it would be so bad but when its a cock up of this scale they should be looking at who's was in charge of QA and put their head on a block.

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I agree doing it the way they are doing it is a logistical nightmare, however patching it so that the CD Key is not required would be a very fast and simple solution. a couple of hours work and the problem has gone away. The cable itself is all the DRM the game needs. I dont believe the licensed music is protected by the DRM anyway as they've encrypted the files even once the game is installed.

This is all beside the point anyway as they should not have made an error of this magnitude in the first place!! Its the fact that they have that's a complete disregard of there paying customers.

 

[Yopaz]

Actually the production facility is to blame, not the publisher. The fact that the registration keys have been made and have been included with some of the games prove that this is simply an error in the manufacturing division. Quality assurance and quality control is a part of what the manufacturer has to oversee. Disagree all you want, but this is a fact.

I'm not saying its not a manufacturing error, clearly it is. I'm saying Ubisoft are in charge of manufacturing ergo its their fault...

What ever way you look at it, it's a massive cock up on Ubisofts part if it was just a few hundred copies it would be so bad but when its a cock up of this scale they should be looking at who's was in charge of QA and put their head on a block.

Ubisoft is in charge of publishing the game. That means they are the ones paying the developer to make the game and discover bugs and make sure that the game is fit for release. When the product is done they pay a manufacturer to print the game, cover and manual. They pay the manufacturer to do the manufacturer to do a quality check to make sure they aren't shipping out defective discs, covers with damages and that all is included. These errors happen once in a while because not every copy is checked, how many is checked all depends on the product and company.

Now do you understand that Ubisoft has nothing to do with the manufacturing process itself? That they have lost money on this and not received the service they paid for? If you do, please explain how Ubisoft is still to blame, because if we're going to blame companies not involved in the manufacturing process we could just as well have blamed EA or Nintendo.

 

[Griffolion]

Production accident /= intentional shafting. I'm sorry for your situation, but they weren't being malicious.

Yeah. I'm not saying Ubi aren't arses. Because they really are. But this looks more like a mistake of production than anything intentional.

 

[snowbear]

Ubisoft is in charge of publishing the game. That means they are the ones paying the developer to make the game and discover bugs and make sure that the game is fit for release. When the product is done they pay a manufacturer to print the game, cover and manual. They pay the manufacturer to do the manufacturer to do a quality check to make sure they aren't shipping out defective discs, covers with damages and that all is included. These errors happen once in a while because not every copy is checked, how many is checked all depends on the product and company.

Now do you understand that Ubisoft has nothing to do with the manufacturing process itself? That they have lost money on this and not received the service they paid for? If you do, please explain how Ubisoft is still to blame, because if we're going to blame companies not involved in the manufacturing process we could just as well have blamed EA or Nintendo.

I think your misunderstanding the role of a publisher...

The publisher PUBLISHES the game I.E. once the game is made they are in control of Manufacturing, advertising and distribution!!!

Otherwise they would simply just be an investor.

Do you really think Ubisoft just throw money at developers and leave it all up to them?

 

[masticina]

The question is who signs off on this

That person that last person.. is responsible for what happens under him/her. Now mistakes are made at times yes and it is good to see Ubisoft work hard to fix the mistake. They react quick and all ...

At least that, sometimes companies try to put the blame in places where the blame isn't. For instance Microsoft blaming the customer the first four months that the RRoD came out.