Down with Ubisoft

[Gazaraz]

I'm surprised that this isn't already on the forums no doubt some of you will have seen this on some of the gaming sites but this doesn't seem to be getting as much publicity as it deserves.

So what has Ubisoft done? They've added new DRM to Assasin's Creed 2 (not that I care about AC2) which will stop you playing if you lose your internet connection. The worse thing about it is that this isn't just a connection check when you boot the game it's always checking. If you lose your connection in the middle of the game it will pause your game this includes singleplayer (I've also heard that you will lose any unsaved progress). You can probably think of a 1000 different reasons as to why this is an unreasonable idea, yet I believe Ubisoft is adding this to all future releases. Another worrying thing as well is what if Ubisoft decides take down servers for a particular game?

If you want to read more on it here's a link...
http://savygamer.co.uk/2010/02/19/drm-a ... o-ubisoft/
They're also forming a protest there, as to whether I take part in the protest I suppose that depends on how many people are going to end up doing it.

I should end by saying I'm not some anti-DRM fanatic I haven't really had any problems with DRM as of the moment (Steam has been annoying at times but I can tolerate it) but I will have problems with this especially as I'm on a University network.

[staberas]

Lose my saves because my internet is broken ? Thats STUPID

[DjBourgeoisie]

I can see 2 groups of people getting pissed about that.

1. Pirates (though im sure they will crack that system as well)
2. People with no internet connection

Can't say I am either so it does not affect me, but I applaud the effort to combat piracy (assuming thats the real reason for it being implimented) as the industry suffers millions and millions in losses due to it. 2009 was a very rough year for developers, several studios cutting back or closing their doors. Pirates are not fully to blame for that but they sure did not help. Anyways since I dont fit in either of those groups I really could care less.

[source-maps]

well I wouldn't worry about it to much seeing as most games release on steam nowadays anyway
we are to blame ourselfs by pirating games..

[ad_hominem]

well I wouldn't worry about it to much seeing as most games release on steam nowadays anyway

Umm... the DRM will still be present in the steam versions, as far as I'm aware.

[skoften]

Yes vincent, YOU are to blame. shame on you

[Gazaraz]

Can't say I am either so it does not affect me

So you won't mind not being able to play games should your router fail, your landline goes down, Ubisoft's servers go down, your ISP messes up...

we are to blame ourselfs by pirating games..

I don't pirate games and yet I'm being punished severely for it. I believe Gabe Newell said it himself if you make a pirated copy a lot more convenient as it would be in this case then it's just going to force more people to pirate. The good thing about Steam is it kinda justifies itself by providing a good service shopping, chat etc. I also imagine that DRM will still apply if you buy a Steam copy.

[source-maps]

yes I pirate, but in my defense allot of games a crap and you play it like 2 hours and then never return to it
and I am not made out of money.
if I buy a game I want a game I can play for many hours, like l4d1/2 tf2 etc
or gain something else out of it like with the OB the SDK

about the DRM in steam games, everything can be cracked

[Major Banter]

I couldn't give a smaller toss because my internet doesn't fail.

And if it does it's not a problem. I will go outside, or work on my book.

Because there are other things to do.

[wood250]

:D yes I pirate, but in my defense allot of games a crap and you play it like 2 hours and then never return to it
and I am not made out of money.
if I buy a game I want a game I can play for many hours, like l4d1/2 tf2 etc
or gain something else out of it like with the OB the SDK

about the DRM in steam games, everything can be cracked

exactly-
Its bad enough i cant sell on any game thro Steam.
Piracy isnt solely to rip off games, its there because game developers release crap.

[The Wanderer]

They can go right ahead with this, haven't cared about Ubisoft games in a while now (only exception being R.U.S.E.). As long as good companies don't adopt this, it's fine by me.

Also i've never considered steam being drm even though it is, it's just well hidden and that's how it should be.

Funny studios still attempt different methods of DRM besides key check/cd check. It really doesn't hurt the pirate in any way as he's never confronted with them so you're just annoying your own buyers (the people you're trying to keep).

Also remember, not everyone in the world has a stable connection and if i would lose my progress in a game, I'd probably not bother continuing (hate having to redo parts i already did).

[Bema]

1. Pirates (though im sure they will crack that system as well)

Lets all be honest here: DRM never effects pirates.

[SotaPoika]

Oh yes, Modern Warfare 2 got like highest number of downloads in PirateBay/Torrents. It ALSO got highest number of sold games in few days/week. Did DRM help? Not at all, it got all cracked and fucked in a few hours from release (oh yes, multiplayer was hacked too). Whatever, my point is, DRM doesn't stop anything.

[Dionysos]

Oh yes, Modern Warfare 2 got like highest number of downloads in PirateBay/Torrents. It ALSO got highest number of sold games in few days/week. Did DRM help? Not at all, it got all cracked and fucked in a few hours from release (oh yes, multiplayer was hacked too). Whatever, my point is, DRM doesn't stop anything.

Basically this. I personally won't support this, as in, I won't buy their games. Then again, they don't have any I would want anyways. Pirates don't care about DRM anyways, the only thing DRM does is make piracy more attractive, as mentioned before. Not to mention it hasn't been proven nor would it make sense that piracy severely affects sales. In fact, (dutch) studies have suggested otherwise. Again not to mention the philosophical side of... bla bla bla

[Gazaraz]

It's a fair point actually that Ubisoft don't make that many good games (in my opinion) at least from what I can recall. The only game I was anticipating was Splinter Cell Conviction but I can do without it.

The thing that annoys me is that if people don't take a stand against it where does it stop? And if this doesn't work (i.e. piracy, from the publisher's point of view is still a major issue) what will they do next? Also there's the issue that if we as gamers don't voice our concerns now other publishers will adopt the same methods as well.