New Ubisoft games must always be online

[Vagrant0]

I too, but one must remember that this is not the devs fault, the one who makes these idiotic choices are the publishers, and they are most of the reason that games come out shitty, the publishers tell the devs what to do or the game wont get published, and what they tell is not what would offer the best experience but would make the most money. which in most if not all the devs have to follow the publishers rules so that they can become publishers themselves, and the vicious cycle continues

It's really only the big developers who are a problem in this regard (like EA) as they often buy out other developers or titles which are doing well just so they can get rights to releasing another good game within the franchise, but only end up killing it by trying to broaden demographics or implementing their own form of inane requirements.

Edited February 22, 2010 by Vagrant0

[rebalious]

Similar to FOX entertainment, buy a franchise, milk it, kill it, attempt a revival, milk it some more, kill it again. :(

[evilneko]

The scene group that cracks it will be like unto gods, even if it's an easy crack, they'll win bragging rights for being the first to flip the bird at Ubisoft's new scheme of customer punishment.

 

Assassin's Creed 2 wasn't the first game to use the new DRM. Now, the race is over after 25 hours: Skid Row are like unto gods.

 

http://www.infoaddict.com/ubisofts-new-drm...-under-25-hours

 

Now, it's too close to release date for Ubisoft to abandon this silly scheme for Assassin's Creed 2. Question is, knowing that their evil plan has been foiled, will they offer up a patch to correct the most egregious problems with it? Or will they just continue to screw their legitimate customers while pirates enjoy hassle-free gaming?

 

I'm not holding my breath.

 

I'm not buying any Ubisoft titles, either. (come to think of it I'm not even interested, so I wouldn't buy them anyway)

[TheTerminator2004]

Actually, AC2 has also been cracked - its just a bit more complicated to install (though not too hard if you have a basic knowledge of how the internet works). Still, SH5 is the most important one, as that crack is extremely easy to install. Just copy/paste a couple of files. The 1.1 patch has also been cracked in a similar manner.

 

Can't say I'm particularly surprised, of course. The thing which confuses me, is that the implementation of the SH5 DRM seems to have been pretty shoddy - for a system that was claimed to be uncrackable, it was a lot easier to crack than expected - hell, it was easier than some other, less draconian, DRM systems I've seen. I wonder if it was deliberately poor, or if Ubisoft are just displaying their usual incompetence.

[evilneko]

I think, if it were possible to gather accurate statistics, it'd be interesting to compare several games that have "normal" copy protection, such as Fallout 3 with its non-invasive version of Securom, with games that have something more draconian such as Ubisoft's, Starforce, or the more invasive versions of Securom, in terms of sales and pirated downloads.

 

Unfortunately it's pretty much impossible to get an accurate picture of how many copies of a particular title have been "snatched" so to speak. You could try to follow the scene release across as many trackers as possible, but that'd necessarily leave out the private scene distribution channels, and any private trackers. And that's not even to mention other public p2p systems.

 

Still, it'd be pretty interesting to see if there's a correlation between how nasty the DRM is, sales, and piracy. I for one have purchased a few games based mainly (or even solely, in the case of GalCiv 2) on the lack of invasive copy protection out of a desire to support publishers who don't treat their customers like criminals.

[Vagrant0]

Should I even bother to point out that discussions of piracy are not allowed on these forums, or has everyone pretty much started assuming that because the ends are just the means are also "right"?

[Retribution]

I don't think cracking ridiculous DRM is piracy.

[evilneko]

Aww, well let's not get this thread locked.. I'd like it to last at least til Assassin's Creed 2 is released, so we can all post here in righteous indignation or a sigh of relief when we see how things really turn out. Remember that the dropped connection = boot without save problem was discovered what, two weeks ago? There might have been time for a last-minute fix.

 

Time will tell.

[Halororor]

According to a report published yesterday by Eurogamer, submarine sim Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic, and the day one patch that fixed many fundamental bugs, were immediately hacked, with the game appearing on torrent sites and Usenet. The anti-piracy system was apparently circumvented by replacing an executable file with a patched replacement. The piracy group responsible said that a user turning off their internet connection or not using Ubisoft’s game loader was enough to get the game running DRM-free.

 

Ubisoft denies that its new anti-piracy measures were cracked for Silent Hunter 5, and remarked that the versions currently being hosted on torrent sites are incomplete. “Please know that this rumor is false and while a pirated version may seem to be complete at start up, any gamer who downloads and plays a cracked version will find that their version is not complete.”

 

Users seem to disagree with Ubi, however, with some saying that they are playing a pirated version of the game without an internet connection and by saving offline.

 

Ubisfailsauce.

 

Oh, and Ubi denies it.

 

Reports suggesting that Ubisoft’s controversial new DRM platform have already been cracked are wide of the mark, according to the publisher.

 

As part of Ubisoft’s new anti-piracy measures, consumers of its PC titles are required to connect to Ubi.com accounts to authenticate games online each time they play them, meaning they always need to be connected to the internet.

 

The new scheme didn’t go down too well with some sections of the PC community, and reports over the past 24 hours have suggested that pirated copies of Ubisoft games circumventing the new protection are doing the rounds on file sharing sites.

 

“You have probably seen rumors on the web that Assassin’s Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 have been cracked,” Ubisoft told us in a statement this morning.

 

“Please know that this rumor is false and while a pirated version may seem to be complete at start up, any gamer who downloads and plays a cracked version will find that their version is not complete.”

[Vagrant0]

Oh, and Ubi denies it.

“Please know that this rumor is false and while a pirated version may seem to be complete at start up, any gamer who downloads and plays a cracked version will find that their version is not complete.”

Well, you know, they kinda have to in order to discourage people from just downloading it instead of forking over money for their DRM laden crap. And of course, any acknowledgment of the possibility would make all of their effort and money spent go to waste.