Game Developers Skeptical About Ubisoft’s New DRM
Written by Ernesto on February 06, 2010Last week the gaming giant Ubisoft announced their latest DRM invention. In order to play purchased games customers have to be connected to the Internet at all times. Game developers are skeptical of this new anti-piracy solution, but could it actually be a step in the right direction?
Ubisoft has announced its new solution to prevent pirates from playing their games. The upcoming DRM will require gamers to be online when playing the game. If no Internet connection is available it means that the game wont work, period.
As with most DRM, Ubisoft’s new anti-piracy solution needlessly hurts legitimate customers. Pirates will always find a way around the access restrictions and will be able to play the game offline without running into trouble. Because of this, Ubisoft’s plans were welcomed with skepticism among fellow game developers.
Gaming magazine Develop has asked several gaming industry figures what they think about Ubisoft’s new DRM. While some are against it and others showed support, the overall sentiment is that DRM itself is not going to stop piracy.
Gusto Games’ Luke Maskell is the most outspoken of them all. “I’m firmly against Ubisoft’s announcement, I think it’s a huge violation of privacy and is only punishing the legitimate customer; the pirates won’t have to worry about being online as they’ll find a way around pretty sharpish,” he commented.
Maskell was not the only one with reservations though. Adrian Hirst, Managing Director at Weaseltron, also stressed that the danger of DRM is that the pirated copy turns into a more desirable product than the retail version.
“Previous draconian attempts at copy protection have only served to outrage our very customers. Copy protection that makes the cracked copy of the game more appealing to the customer than the genuine one threatens to turn them away from purchasing at all,” he said.
Most of the other gaming insiders that were interviewed agreed with this assessment. DRM will only hurt the game if legitimate customers have to face more restrictions than those who choose to download a copy illegally.
“I don’t believe that online DRM on it’s own will ever stop piracy – your game will simply have that functionality stripped out by various hacking groups,” Ben Ward of Bizarre Creations said. “The only way that DRM will be accepted by consumers is if it is delivered inside a service which brings tangible, real-world benefits with it.”
Others were less outspoken against Ubisoft’s new DRM but everyone noted that it will be counter-effective if it’s too obtrusive or cumbersome. To us at TorrentFreak, these different opinions clearly suggest that for a long time the digital entertainment industry has chosen the wrong path to counter piracy.
Instead of trying to add more restrictions to the products they sell to customers, they should add in extra features for those who pay for the product. UbiSoft actually made it half way already by adding several advantages for players who play online, but they’re not quite there yet.
Logged in customers who play Ubisoft’s new games online will be able to save it remotely, so they can continue playing the game on other PCs. Continuing along these lines the company could easily include other benefits and extra features for online players. If they then drop the requirement to play online, they might actually have a superior product compared to the pirated version.
In the end it’s all about finding a way to frame or sell DRM as an advantage instead of a restriction.
The music streaming application Spotify is a great example of how ‘DRM’ can be an advantage. Spotify users can only access music when they’re logged in, which is the ultimate DRM. Still, no one has even brought this issue up because the service offers so many advantages over most other legitimate and illegitimate ways of enjoying music.
If those in the gaming and other digital entertainment industries start thinking in terms of adding benefits for paying customers instead of useless restrictions to keep pirates out, they would have a lot more satisfied customers. Perhaps even more importantly, they could sell a lot more products.
Previously: LG Shows How To Play Pirated Movies On TV
Next: Judge Jeopardizes Anti-Piracy Cash Operation
129 Responses
Totaly agree with the statment;
‘the danger of DRM is that the pirated copy turns into a more desirable product than the retail version.’
Its the reason i have downloaded a number of pirated copys.
I for one will not buy a single product with draconian DRM.
pirate the offline version!!!
I agree with this article completely.
Their sales will drop drastically while this happens, also what about the people who don’t have xbox live? It’s like you really have to pay for the game twice!
Expect a crack/fix to be out within the week.
The problem with such a restriction is simple — not everyone has a continuous Internet connection.
Heard about this, Pirates ALWAYS find a way, so truly, they are hindering themselves, customer wise, rather than reaching the goal of stopping pirates.
And for the rest of us that like to take games with us when we travel, or that are not from the industralised few countries?
How about the millions of us with a laptop, that don’t sit slaves to our net connection. All I can see this doing is hurting their legit customers, as the crackers will find a work around and legit customers will punish them for the restrictions.
All I know is I will never buy another one of their games again until it is removed.
@4….. I’d say more likely within hours of assassins creed 2’s release on PC (if this DRM is released with it) there will be a crack.
Agree with the comments on not having a continous net connection, or restrictions by ISP’s on monthly quotas.
If this happens the pirate community will respond: a crack to play the game offline will offspring.
DRM simply has made a move in the big overall game,which is much more fun than any game they could dream up.Now it is the pirates move.
no money for you. ill play the older stuff which is better in everything except graphics.
Wow. Fuck this. I don’t get a lot of time to play games, but the one time I do is when my internet goes down (meaning I can’t do my work). Internet goes down (and I have Comcast, so it’s ALL THE FUCKING TIME), I fire up a game and play for a few hours until it comes back.
They don’t get that by doing that they are actually pushing people to download their games?
Imagine, you buy the game, you want to play it at your grandma’s birthday party, but she doesn’t have internet, then you’re screwed and have to endure going through a boring party.
Wouldn’t it be a better solution if you just get a chip inserted under your skin that is read by a USB-connected device to your console or PC? Then when you buy a game, the license for that game could be installed via wireless to the chip inside of your hand. Then you could require that be read before starting the associated game. This would have the much awesomer benefit of ensuring that you can never share or sell your game. You have four people in your household? You buy four copies of the game and each person is tied to one of the installations and licenses.
It’s all in the numbers. Let’s assume:
– 60% of the game’s public has broadband
– The DRM is effective in stopping copying
– If the game is cracked, only 1 million gamers will still pay for it
– If the game can’t be cracked, twice more people would buy it, if they had the means to play it (broadband); so the maximum audience of the DRM version is 2 million people
Under these assumptions, it’s easy to calculate that draconian DRM is a good economic choice: in the first case, one million copies are sold, in the second case, 1.2 million are sold (60% of the 2 million that want it). You have lost 400.000 old customers because of the DRM, but you have gained 600.000 customers would have played the cracked version, if they had the choice.
Also, it’s easy to envision such an online DRM scheme becoming very hard to circumvent. If key parts of the algorithm and A.I. exist only on the server, it’s an impossible task for the cracker to recreate them. Of course a careful selection is needed to move out pieces of the algorithm that are less susceptible to lag, and don’t need to be computed in real time. For example, you could compute the minimap exclusively on the server, and send the player a compressed bitmap of it. The crackers could never re-ingineer it, and playing a racing game without the minimap is a waste of time.
I pay for my games to support the developers, then immediately download a copy from the internet for ease of use.
This is going to backfire, and backfire badly.
This is akin to Microsoft when they put out Vista and ‘challenged’ hackers to try and break into their system because they thought it was ‘That secure!’.
And within hours of Vista being released.. they did lol. And Microsoft looked like a complete fool.
Your pretty much just challenging or daring Scene Groups and average joe at home to try and crack this game and giving them a MASSIVE incentive to do it. SPITE.
And they will :)
For an invite to tehconnection.eu so you may get DRM cracked games just email invite@tehconnection.eu or head to irc.p2p-net.eu #TehConnection.Invites
Looks like getting a legit copy is not an option in this case.
And pigs gonna start flying too. True story, guys…
Valves Steam platform is possibly the best kind of DRM. yes there are cracked copies of the games on there, but its nowhere the same as the legit version
Absolutely not, there were very little games myself and other soldiers could play when I was deployed to Afghanistan, with over 500,000 people in the US Army alone, I think this is a big enough market for us to matter too. We don’t get internet for our personal laptops for the most part.
Looks like Ubisoft is going to be boycotted again. First StarForce, now this.
@21 Feb 06, 2010 at 20:55 by Anonymous
“yes there are cracked copies of the games on there, but its nowhere the same as the legit version”
Only they ARE the same, moron.
@24
steam have constant updates. look at TF2. i doubt there is a cracked version with the same amount of extras as the legit version
This will do more harm then good, and I really hope Ubisoft realizes that before they implement this restriction.
As always, these so called countermeasures against piracy only affect the legitimate customers, and will only create more sympathy for a pirated copy.
JAST USA tried something like that in 2003 (google Virtual Mate). Two years later they abandoned the scheme, with only 5 games affected.
Only this year they managed to patch their own system to work on 64-bit OS. In other words, their games were unplayable for legal customers on 64-bit XP/Vista/7 because of their DRM. Cracked games work everywhere without problems.
And now, Ubisoft is trying something a niche company abandoned 5 years ago…
HAHAHA FAIL!!! Yeah this is going to be a major fail. EA have already been sued because of DRM. DRM fails on games completely. Bioshock needed internet connection and only 3 installs allowed, did LOLCATS beat that? Hmmm yes they did. Ubisoft also had to bow down and give away a RELOADED game crack as their own .exe fix because their DRM failed so bad people couldn’t play one of their games. As for steam shit, be quiet noobs the only thing different between a legit steam game and a pirated version is the same as all games, it’s online play, that’s it, nothing more. All dlc gets ripped in the end, and with the amount of cracked game servers that are coming out now even that is changing. A few little sites you guys should read before saying anything else.
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6198136.html this is about EA being sued.
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubisoft-Cracks-Own-Game-with-Reloaded-Fix-90318.shtml
Both of these have also been featured here on TF. It’s fairly simple to say DRM is a failed idea….
the fact that not everyone has a broad band connection and always online will mean this will fail.
This is actually great news guys..
Think about it.. there games will be #1 target for crackers… its a challenge!
What better way to say f*ck yourself than to crack there pathetic DRM and pirate it EVEN MORE.
Seriously, I think its great and I look forward to not buying it (And trust me I buy games) and playing it for FREE.
Epic fail, cant wait!
The internet has always been like an oil field.. and everyone wants to take it.. but we fight to keep it free. What better chance to battle than this..
The people own the internet.. not corporate. They need to be reminded of that.
so…
What happens if I’m playing the single player version of the game and my internet cuts out, does the game exit?
SUCH a dumb idea… 23 days till Battlefield Bad Company 2!!!!
Truly stupid…
They Use So Much Money For Anti-Piracy Measures When They Know A Game Will Be Pirated Anyway…
That Money Could Be Spent On The Development Of The Actual Game…
Or Sent To Haity Anything Would be Better…
@ 5 Feb 06, 2010 at 19:57 by SneakySis and @ 7 too: totally agreed.
The opinions in the article say all. It’s only harming legit customers.
I have towo or three original games from Ubisoft. Seems that amount is never going to increase after that.. I’m not buying any new product from Ubisoft.
Funny thing is that as mentioned in the comments, ppl buy the original to support and play the pirated stuff. I got a few DVDs here I can’t play on my living room because of the damn region thing. I had to crack the DVDs and then I play the illegal copies I made… That’s just so lame… At least the recordable media industry is earning money on that lol
@ 5 Feb 06, 2010 at 19:57 by SneakySis and @ 7 too: totally agreed.
The opinions in the article say all. It’s only harming legit customers.
I have towo or three original games from Ubisoft. Seems that amount is never going to increase after that.. I’m not buying any new product from Ubisoft.
Funny thing is that as mentioned in the comments, ppl buy the original to support and play the pirated stuff. I got a few DVDs here I can’t play on my living room because of the damn region thing. I had to crack the DVDs and then I play the illegal copies I made… That’s just so lame… At least the recordable media industry is earning money on that lol
As someone who works in the game development industry I do think it’s important that we try to combat piracy. I really like what Sony has done with the PS3 for example.
However, I think forcing someoen to be connected to the internet is absurd, UNLESS it’s a multiplayer only game. Then it’s ok.
I like the idea of trying to combat video game piracy because I have seen first hand how it can hurt some companies, at the same time though I’m against punishing legitmate customers and making their gaming experience more inconvinent.
Well, I won’t be buying another Ubisoft game for the single player then.
Do they really think this will prevent the games from being cracked? So, they have probably spent a good bit of money on a DRM that will undoubtedly lose them even more money and customers. Brilliant.
I don’t care about protections like disc check when I buy a game.
But online check is an absolute no-go for me.
Simple as a gaming pc not connected.
Sorry Ubi, I won’t buy any of you games anymore :D
@punko
I’m not sure about your theory.
When I see a game that’s a real pain in the A, DRM wise, I just skip it.
Cracked version or not.
So, they want us to buy a game for I assume too much and in a few years when they take the servers off line the game is dead. What if this was the case with all the games we consider clasics today.
Mama used to say stupid is as stupid does.
Sorry for the spam, but my theory is plain simple :
Instead of selling a game $60 or 60€, offer it for $20 or 20€.
1. Cheaper game price
2. …
3. Profit
Editors should realize that people don’t have much money, so if they want to sell, they have to adapt to the consumer’s budget.
Editors should keep in mind that for $60(or€), anyone can get a 500+Gb hdd. So at least 100 games in iso format.
I would buy loads of games if their cost was 15-20. For 60, I’m starting to chose what to do. Going to a concert and buying stuff there, spending an evening with friends at a restaurant, and so on.
Sadly, gaming budget is too much. Just too much.
“Spotify users can only access music when they’re logged in”. You sure about that? You guys haven’t been following spotify very closely then. http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2009/10/01/spotify-goes-offline/ .
Arrogant gaming companies like Unisoft really need to be reigned in, they seem to be basing there arguement on the fact that “most” people won’t mind about the phone-home/spyware-like constant internet connection as “most” people have a constant internet connection.
The key word here being: MOST.
NOT ALL!!
Can you imagine the scenario, your playing a game, you haven’t saved it for 4 hours, you just decide to save it then BAM! Your internet cuts out, the game stops (as Ubisoft confirms will happen in the event of internet interruption) and tries to reconnect for 5 minutes, fails and shuts off.
And you’ve lost all your progress as game saves CANNOT be stored locally and must be stored online as “most” people have a constant internet connection!
Get “cracking” ;-)
I meant Ubisoft not Unisoft, sorry.
Steam is surely the best Games / DLC / Content Distribution system there is. Only shame is some games are higher priced (although not that often) than the retail copies which is a bit silly. They do however have lots of bargains plus your discs never wear out and if your HDD goes, then you just re download it, you can install the games on more than 1 PC and you can go offline to play.
Well done VALVe.
To all those saying this is stupid and only hurts legit customers, if you had developed a game, the best most original game, but for a huge investment, how would YOU protect your investment and income>>>?
@44
By selling it at a low price. Supply and demand theory dictates more profit comes out from that then draconian DRM.
Nope not gonna buy it.
I’ve games that I bought legally, because I liked them after playing them from download. One in particular won’t play on Vista nor Win7, however the downloaded one will. Not much sense in buying crippled games when you have to download an illegal version that you have already purchased. Trust me, I won’t be doing that again.
Add to this, I’ve a neighbor with satellite net. He can download nothing, not updates for the OS, not virus definitions, nothing.
Then there is the wireless connection that drops out because it goes into hibernation.
All this is doing is limiting the customer base and then punishing them for the purchase. Not much carrot here to entice you to spend your money but a whole truckload not too.
This will not work at all, just look at Valve:Steam games
O before I even forget, does anyone remember how Ubisoft game “Rainbow Six: Vegas 2″ had a problem and the only fast fix was for Ubisoft to offer a pirated copy of the game executable :))
Ya, what about those of us who having gaming laptops and travel a lot… so we don’t get to play our game because we can’t get online.
May be it could be enough to change windows “hosts” file with direct link to local folder with some soft, which emulates DRM packets.
A good example of pirated versions being more desireable than retail version is that you need to have the disc in your cd/dvd drive. That would not be needed if I had used a no-cd crack.
Don’t use anoine VPN I couldn’t get it to work so asked for refund as their terms and conditions state u can ask for, they said they won’t refund me .. Bastards , so don’t use them they suck and it’s pptp based not openvpn
The only effective way of hampering those damned evil pirates and their abominable acts, would be to *shutdown* the internet. Ubisoft is simply screwing itself with this scheme.
i will not pay for something like that.
i bought a few ubisoft games in the past.. guess ill be forced to download from now on cause i rly want to play offline
GJ UBISOFT
BAI
I can tell you exactly when I became a pirate: I used to be a big buyer of games–I had me a COLLECTION! (Boxes and all.) I was proud of them.
Then one day I shelled out $80 for a game I really wanted, loaded it in my computer, put the disk safely away–and clicked the icon.
‘Please insert disk 1 to play’
Oh, it’s a pirate’s life for me…
I did buy Brothers in Arms 1+2+3.
But SecuROM and StarForce makes my PC, shutdown, reboot or just makes my dvd drive disaphere.
BSOD is a normal day with DRM!
So now i have to crack, dl “pirated” versions in order to play the game i’ve pay’d for!
Unisoft is no help here! They just don’t care! no money back so that i can buy them on Steam! ohh no! and when i said that i would use a crack or “pirated” version, they wanted to sue me! WTF?
Ubisoft will rape you with DRM!
So about €125 out of the window for nothing!
Hoping to reg. my games with Steam!
WTF? This type DRM can soo easy be bypassed.
Solver @50 is very close how to bypass it:
1a. Edit de C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts file.
1b. or use your switch/router to do the next step.
2. Link every ip of Ubisoft http://iblocklist.com/list.php?list=ubisoft (or other ip’s used by the game) to 127.0.0.1 (localhost). If you did step 1b, use the ip of the other pc’s in your network instead of 127.0.0.1.
3. Install XAMPP
4. Make a php-file that premits & prints out every “post”/”get” method, and based on this information you make a savefile generator @your local host.
5. Chmod with Filezilla everything to the right premissions.
6. Enjoy your game, without login.
And I have made this ‘maybe-working’ tuto in 15 minutes!
In other words: This DRM method sux.
Sounds like most of the people here don’t buy games and just pirate… that’s sad.
Well, I buy them, but only if their price is dropped <= €10 xD
@35 Your right about Sony, they did do the right thing they made a unhackable system. NO geohot did not hack the ps3, he found a glitch in the system that’s all. I’m 100% for pirating games, most of the games these days are not worth $60, as I have said in previous comments Harry Potter takes a few hours to complete Terminator Salvation takes 4.5 hours to finish, the retail pc version didn’t even work and they had to release a fix because the games .exe file was broken. Why pay this amount of money for something that has ZERO replay value or doesn’t work. Not to mention that ANY game that requires online activation or limits the amount of installs is beyond the joke. If I go to the store and buy a game I should be able to install it as many times as I see fit, and I should not be forced into getting an internet connection to play it.
@31 No you only need internet to activate the game, not to play it. Unless you want to play multiplayer.
The only company that have stopped games getting pirated so far is Sony with the ps3, and that doesn’t stop the games being ripped, you just can’t play them. Other than them there isn’t one company who has managed to stop it. The only ones that have come close is Tages, but even they have failed. Their games do take a little bit longer to crack but they get cracked none the less. I believe that any game that costs above $50 should have at least 12 hours minimum game play (not including fmv) otherwise it’s just not worth spending that kind of money. Mass Effect series worth the money. Final Fantasy series well worth the money. Batman Arkham Asylum, although not to long a game was worth the money. Grand Theft Auto series worth the money, although I refuse to buy their games anymore after they sold out to Microsoft. At the end of the day if these guys make the games worth the money then people will pay for them, as I said I’m 100% for pirating games, but if a game is worth it, then I’ll pay for it.
Just in case game developers read these comments, just wanted to say I pirated original Bioshock, loved it, but forgot to buy it.. but now Bioshock 2 is coming out, I pre-ordered it and it was 10% off and came with the original for free.
You may think its wrong.. I dont really care, $60 price tags are BS, and this way I payed what was due and felt like I got a fair value. Im all for DLC’s and extra content and online play.
Borderlands is a good example of good DLC.. its too bad some kind of BS Port forwarding.. epic fail.. its not a big deal for me but nobody else knows how to do it so I get on and there is zero games.
So close but so far away.
I dont mind paying if im getting value.. these days everything is a RIP-OFF. So please.. dont cry when I pirate it, play it for 30 mins and uninstall.. I just dont give a sh!t.
Ubisoft, you have alot to learn about how to treat your customers.
I will be handing out copys of the game to everyone, and seeding it for months.
Hope you learn your lesson.
@ Pirate Dave
I feel exactly like you. There was a time when I was spending about 500 a month on games. I was a hardcore gamer but I was buying to support editors with what I was downloading. Meaning, I was never installing those originals, I already had them pirated.
Then the games starting to be bloated with really intrusive protections, some even never worked on my computer. Then their lifespan became 4-6 hours instead of a week.
Then I started to think that those were very cheap stuff, for a lot of money. And then I stopped buying games, except for the very nice ones once in a while (my last buy was Necrovision)
So now my budget for games is like, 200 a year.
And it’s not because I don’t want to pay, it’s just that most nowaday’s games aren’t worth the money. At all.
But big gaming companies are like RIAA supporting majors, they just want to insure their income, just because they edit thing, regardless of quality. And I definitely can’t – and don’t want to – support those high profit/low investing policies.
Maybe I’ll just stop playing PC games, after all, over the last months, I’ve just had fun with WinUAE and Mame, which give, let’s be serious, more fun, for 0 spent.
@58 did you read the comments at all??
And this is the last time i buy from ubisoft, downloaded and later bought Rainbow Six Vegas 2 because i thougt they deserved the money.
Sadly i think that time is over.
It’s all the same with games, movies or music. Sell a product that is better than before and work from there. Do NOT blame loyal customers for poor sales if you sell a product that they do not want to spend money on.
1) Release a fully playable game through torrent seeds for single player mode only with no extra features. Let them distribute and market the game at no cost to the game manufacturer. Put ads in the game promoting all of the additional features that are available in a full retail version. Make sure there is no DRM or phone home features in this version.
2) Release a fully playable game through retail chains that have additional features such as allowing full online multiplay, plenty of downloadable content and bonus maps. Allow this version to only work with a unique serial number that phones home. Screw the other DRM as it never works and turns people off.
3) Keep track of where your free and consumer distributable game is more popular by country by studying torrent activity, and release special collectors editions in those countries and other merchandise.
4) Do not label the consumers of your products criminals. Do not force DRM on to them. Track torrents and use it as a tool for targeted marketing and allow game fans to do all of the marketing and distribution for you.
THIS is a good business plan. This allows the consumers to try the product. This allows the consumers to distribute and mass market the game at absolutely no cost to the company. This allows you to find out where your game is popular and target the markets where the game is more popular. This is a win-win for consumers and for the game publishers.
This is just the starting point and I’m sure those with marketing, business degrees and other highly skilled professionals can take it from here.
It’s funny, I quite literally own hundreds of games. I have a good job – and I love games. So what the hell, I can afford it. I DON’T LIKE pirated copies. You can’t update them, you run the risk of viruses, and sometimes they don’t even work when you’ve downloaded them.
Having said that, Ubisoft have just made the pirated version of EVERY SINGLE GAME they release using this new “OSP service” more attractive than the legitimate version.
You want to combat piracy, Ubisoft? Stop doing things that make your products unappealing! Try actually ADDING some value instead of taking it out!
This may be difficult to crack if save files are generated server side and transmissions are encrypted to boot so that you can’t make an offline version.
Let’s hope they simply never go that far and more importantly, NOT put this into Assassin’s Creed 2.
And BTW: I would pay BIG BUCKS to for Duke Forever. If the owner of that game wasn’t such an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder case we’d have that game by now.
Will SOMEONE work on and finish the darn game already? This game has the potential to be the most profitable video games of all time.
DUKE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“DRM as an advantage instead of a restriction.”
haha, that is never going to happen, the whole point of DRM is to lock you in to use the product how they want you to use it.
plus them knowing how long, when you play it how good you are surly is invasion of privacy to boot.
LMAO!
I went to spotify out of curiosity and checked out spotify free. On the homepage of spotify it says spotify free requires an invite. I clicked on the free link to check it out anyway and it took me to this page:
http://www.spotify.com/en/products/free/
It says ["This product is not available in your country yet."]
I live in The United States of America and it would seem spotify isn’t available here. Alternative to piracy? I think not, when it isn’t even available in my country.
As for the article, I can really see a problem with privacy being a huge issue about this DRM. How are we to know that when we connect to Ubisoft’s servers to verify we have a legitimate copy of the game, they aren’t spying on us and possibly checking our web browsing habits?
Good news for Ubisoft though…..I’m not a heavy gamer and any games I would play would be online only games like Guild Wars, or various other free to download free to play games. I won’t be buying ubisoft games or even downloading pirated copies of them.
I can’t believe some companies still think DRM helps in any way. Pirates will always without exception find a way around the DRM. The absolutely only people who are affected by DRM are legitimate purchasing customers.
@16 Ditto. Unless there is a ridiculous level of drm crap or something on it, in which case i will just download it in spite, and so as not to support such stupid ideas.
Has anyone else noticed Demonoid just opened registrations?
Or did I miss this awhile ago?
@ 65
Sadly Ubisoft seem to care more about limiting the way users play their games than new innovative ideas such as the ones you have just suggestd.. good thinking mate!
every now and then the net locally is slow, sometimes it stops
often play fallout3 then, looks like will only be getting pirated versions of ubisoft’s games in future, to allow me to play in offline mode
No need to worry guys, it is just something they HAVE to try, even though they know it is plain stupid, they have to try it anyway.
I can imagine the looks on ubisoft programmers when their boss brief them on this “brilliant” idea. DOUGHH!
Give it time, after TONS of flooded complaining users in the first day of release, then they will ’secretly’ hire reloaded to make a better version for them, like they always did, everybody happy and can get on with their lives.
I’m am very pro p2p and don’t agree when music/movie execs say their industries are being damaged. I do however believe the pc gaming market is being damaged severely by piracy. It’s come to the point where games don’t even see a pc release; the PC has become a third rate platform. As much as I like a free game, I’d rather pay than get no game at all.
I have a secret…
Sodomize me and I’ll tell ya
I have an xbox360 and a wii and will never connect either to the internet.
I will never activate a PC game online, and always disconnect my PC from the internet before starting any game I suspect may communicate with net, if i haven’t already blocked it from accessing the net.
If I have no choice but activate a game online – I will get the pirated version instead.
I will never buy a game that requires Steam, Games For Windows or Rockstar Social Club
I wouldn’t need to download pirated games if it wasn’t for online activation.
This isn’t keeping people honest, this is giving honest people a reason to download pirated games.
i bet ubisoft got conned by the third party provider of drm. they probably promised ubisoft that their protection is unbeatlable, that it works flawlessly, and will make ubisoft craploads of money.. guess what ubisoft believed them lol…..
old hat…imitating an online connection is something that is even easier defeated than cd verification. way to make pirating even easier, ubisoft.
This whole DRM, console only, full protection policy thing will be blown to pieces when Blizzard releases SC2 and D3. These games will have fair security (like serial and cd to play), but it won’t have such that will annoy customers. Blizzard will make tons of money on both games (especially that SC2 will come in 3 parts) and present industry with some nice figures. The message however will be one: good product = good money. No need for sophisticated DRM or security measures. Fans will buy the game, because it’s good, not because they can’t pirate it.
The PS3 a crap idea making unhackable, you simply cannot unlock the full power of the unit as with all modern tech. The old Xbox was a prime example, standard it was crap and basic. Hacked it turned into a total media centre with far more capabilities than the 360 or the PS3 have right now and they are the next gereration. This is a step in almost the right direction, steam is by far my best friend when it comes to legit games and if the game happens to be great I don’t mind purchasing it. If my internet goes down as living in Guernsey (a crap little island of inbreds) it often does I would be rather pissed off at the fact that I can’t use my game. Therfor I will be downloading the pirated version to be safe.
Great Article! Added benefits for paying users are the way to go. Steam ‘paved’ the way, now others should follow and maybe do it even better…right? There is nothing wrong with making money, but serving the customer is the 1st and the only priority the company should have.. if that’s ok, the money should pour in, especially in the media/entertainment business you’d say.
Anyways, the best way to change the way the ‘big’ companies think is not to fight from outside but from within. So if you ever think about fighting them, please get( a university/college degree and an important position at a big media company and stay true to your ideals! Make them believe in the new order of things!
Viva la Internet! For Universal Internet and Privacy rights! If we can’t get it now, we’ll go for it in a few years! Yarr!
/revolution mode off
So that was my rant for today :)
@83 fail the original xbox is no where near as good as a ps3 can you put linux on the xbox? can you run a webserver from the xbox can you play xvids from usb stick on the xbox? You can on the ps3.
Ubisoft should just copy Steam’s business model. Steam’s dominating the market right now.
http://store.steampowered.com/
Its stupid to bother with DRM any more.
Ubisoft’s attempt is nothing but utter failure right from the start.
How do they expect legitimate buyers who have limited internet connections to play they games they buy?
Moreover, do they really believe that crackers won’t be able to find a work-around for such protectionist measures?
PSP
PS1
PS2
PS3
Xbox 360
none of these require internet to play games.
Demonoid registration is currently open if anyone is interested.
http://www.demonoid.com/
Frederick Banting deserves millions of dollars for creating insulin. Why does Lily Allen deserve millions for writing ‘The Fear’? Even if you think it’s a great song, she isn’t saving lives.
Bottom Line – Piracy offers better versions faster than corporations. Pirates can download music, movies, games, and television shows at whatever quality and format they want with great speeds. Offer pirates this at REASONABLE prices and you have defeated the ‘threat’ of piracy without having to waste money trying to outlaw it.
It won’t stop piracy, they just have no brains whatsoever when they invent these stupid fucking DRM bullshit. Simple solution is for people to pirate, to avoid these dumb drm ‘features’.
there would probally be a work around it using 127.0.0.1
‘the danger of DRM is that the pirated copy turns into a more desirable product than the retail version.’
Did someone say SPORE?
Four children.All with laptops and gamestations.We go on holidays where there is no internet connection.(Along with many other families)So you know what they think,and what they will be doing!!Or to put it simply.Two lolly shops .One with locks and one with no doors.Where do you think you will find your kids???
This Should Be Easily Fixed With a Host’s File Alteration :P redirect the request back to your own pc where a mini “activation” server program runs
Right. At times i want to play on a laptop, LAN, or friends house for some coop, and in those cases i won’t always have Internet. So i cannot play the game i legally bought?
For comparison:
LEGAL:
+ Supports game developers
- Costs money
- Restrictions: Install limits, Can’t play when not online,
- Installs possibly harmful DRM software.
PIRACY:
+ Completely Free
+ No Draconian control measures
- Doesn’t support game developers.
I don’t mind forking over money for a good game. If i like it, i will gladly pay for it. However, if paying money means buying restrictions and ridiculous measures as well, i prefer free.
I’m not supporting developers that are fools, in other words.
That would be pathetically easy to bypass. Heard of server emulation?
That would be pathetically easy to bypass. Heard of server emulation?
phew.. seems like a new project is being allotted for crackers!!!
but nevertheless crackers always complete their project on time!
Woh! Implementing a Internet backdoor as a copy-protection, what stupidity!
Remember, 40 years ago, no video games, so we can live without it, and there always will be people to make free games anyway, so no reason to pay to play, capitalism has lasted too long it need to go away
ANARCHY NOW!
Any chance these could be hallucinations?
One hallucination flattened me with a clout on the jaw.
That sounds like a painful reality.
Yes.
There must besome logical explanation.
Your signal’s weak. Can you turn up your gain?
I’m already on maximum.
Captain, shall I beam down an armed party?
Negative. Our people here are armed with phasers.
Besides, there’s yet to be any real danger.
Captain out.
McCoy. McCoy, do you read me?
Kirk to McCoy. Come in.
Captain, take cover!
There’s a samurai after me.
I mean, there was…
Captain, you’ve got to believe me.
I’ve met some interesting personalities myself.
haha they should add that pandering to the top graphic card users only alienates them even furthar.
YA know how a lot of us dont have those 3000$ computers
no we have 400-600$ ones without or with limited graphics cards and they whine how sales are down thats cause its all too pricey.
GOOD however for the new AMD graphics card that 100$ USD card that does a lot of the new features. might actually do more for ubi soft then they realize.
as to DRM well don’t worry kids i can guarantee you its cracked before they even shove out the first game. WHY?
HERE IS THE MAIN REASON ALL GAMES SOFTWARE WITH DRM IS CRACKABLE.
unless its a measure to forever prevent you and there is no way to decrypt then you are crackable and a solution will be found especially on a mass production scale.
FOOLISH waste a money better spent on making a game cheaper and more playable.
/me goes back to making his Basic dnd mass combat game FOR FREE…and personal use.
I don’t think I have heard of a single thing that will promote more Pirates than this.
I don’t have internet at home, its to dam expensive and I get all I need at work so what do I do..?
They say “If no Internet connection is available it means that the game wont work, period.”
Well for me and thousands of others it would then be Online DRM then no purchase PERIOD.!
I would be forced to crack it if I wanted it … or I would taking from the caring sharing community.
Result is the same they get nothing further from me and I have spent a shed load on games.
It very simple, all this will do is force more people to piracy, when they just want to play a dam game, and once they are sharing how long till they also pick up music and films..?
WAY TO GROW THE SHARING COMMUNITY … THANKS :-)
“In the end it’s all about finding a way to frame or sell DRM as an advantage instead of a restriction.”
Then why bother with DRM? If you provide a compelling product, people will buy it. DRM is wasted effort either way.
they want to drive you insane until they convince you to put a chip in your brain
support the authors of freeware gaming, donate to the freeware games you enjoy and shun drm crippled commercial games.
Good thing they haven’t got any good games released soon or ever, really.
i think that piracy is overrated. that isn’t to say it doesn’t lower company revenues, it just means that, IMO, it’s not that much of a factor.
as a person who has bought several games, and now exclusively pirates, i can tell you that i wouldn’t buy the game if there wan’t a pirated version. 70$ just aren’t worth it. and i know that most of the people i know wouldn’t buy them either. they download because they can and it’s for free.
so if i’m not going to buy it in the first place, how am i lowering your sales? all that happens is either you get positive reviews and comments if it’s good, bad ones if i isn’t. free marketing, if you deserve it ;)
If a game is more than say $20 – $30 – im not gunna buy it, its just to expensive.
When im playing on some kind of digital distribution platform, ie steam or games for windows live, if your client looses its net connection when playing a multiplayer game, you have to grin and bear it, if you loose connection when playing a single player game, and get kicked out of it…that would piss me off and id download a pirated copy in a heartbeat. As far as Ubisoft new DRM goes, its sounds a bit too risky for me to spend my hard earned cash on something thats just going to piss me off, so ill give my money to Rebellion, or EA or any other game dev….and give Ubisoft and they’re DRMware a wide berth =)
make games cheaper and people will buy them. Look at steam when they made half life 2 like 50% cheaper they sold more copies than they did when the game came out.
How is this any different from Steam’s model?
Even offline mode is abysmal. Ever tried playing a Valve game over LAN?
I never tried the first one, but I built a new game PC recently, so I thought I might buy Assassins Creed 2.
However, with this announcement, my interest is gone.
I generally play games when my internet connection is down. Even if that wasn’t the case, I won’t even consider buying games with this DRM, not even if the price was drastically lower.
How about this DRM. You can only play the game on an official Ubisoft cabinet and you have to make a microtransaction of 25 cents every time you want to start or continue the game.
DRM is never, in any shape or form, good.
Period.
Requiring to be online for use of any cultural artefact is just ugh.
hey if they pay my internet connection fee, sure i’ll buy their game…
they just need to make the legit copy more enticing than a copied one. ie: free downloadable weapons, armor, achievements, for having a serial number with online authentication.
That’s a joke lol.. It will still end up cracked so quickly..
I still haven’t purchased Spore or any other game that was loaded with DRM. So go ahead, bring on all the restrictions you desire, you’ll just lose out on my money.
Catch the signal, make a keygen, bounce the signal with a program, and play it offline… something else new today?
What about the people who don’t have the money to pay for an internet connection? This will prevent them being able to play as well!
Way to go Ubisoft, now no one will buy your games… I dont buy games anyways, the only one I ever even considered buying was MW2 for the MP, but I decided against it and just play the SP all the time…
They should just have NO piracy protection. I mean, woho, they have some protection requiring you to be online while playing… Someone will have an emulator out in 24 hours of the release. What’s the point.
Spend the money on making the game better, not the protection.
Oh ubisoft, ubisoft. They don’t realize that crackers will always find a way…
This is a TERRIBLE idea! As shocking as it may seem to game developers, there are still people in the world who only have dial-up (or have to pay per megabyte/time online or something). So you’re just going to cut off all of those customers because they aren’t wealthy enough (or don’t live in the right area) to have Internet access? Absurd. That’s not going to do a single solitary thing to cut down on piracy, it’s only going to increase it among people with limited Internet access and cut Ubisoft’s sales.
who cares, this will be circumnavigated again, just like the rest. Now im off to shit on my copy of splinter cell.
They should follow Bioware’s lead, who offered “free” DLC codes for those who purchased the game.
*ahem* The game being Dragon Age.
Such DRM + DDoS on Ubisoft’s servers -> no-one can play their games.
That’s one more vulnerability to the list.
Start worrying about piracy and DRM when you finally start developing half decent games.
STEAM. I mean here is a service that just beats piracy. Its almost like Spotify in the way that it works in term of having to login.
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