Ubisoft ditches their idiotic DRM for their next PC title.

[Lordmarkus]

Haven't seen anything on the site so I guess I'll announcing some good news.

Hey everyone,

This news is destined to our PC players audience, so please spread the information if you know some.

When R.U.S.E. is released in September, it will benefit from Valve?s Steamworks API to offer the best community experience to players. Consequently, a Steam account and Internet connection will be required to activate the game, as per Steam policy. For this reason, R.U.S.E. will not use the Ubisoft protection. Single player can be played offline.
Console players, stay tuned for more R.U.S.E. news in the coming days !

R.U.S.E. team

So I guess there's some light in the tunnel, even if it's only announced for one title at this moment. Hopefully Ubisoft will ditch the entire system and apolagize for their idiocy.

Their still using DRM in form in Steam but it's a heck lot better than always online, am I right?

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5610911/ubisofts-next-game-dumps-controversial-drm-system] & Ubisoft forums [http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=400102&f=4821071447&m=7471048678&r=7471048678#7471048678]

 

[Altorin]

Haven't seen anything on the site so I guess I'll announcing some good news.

Hey everyone,

This news is destined to our PC players audience, so please spread the information if you know some.

When R.U.S.E. is released in September, it will benefit from Valve?s Steamworks API to offer the best community experience to players. Consequently, a Steam account and Internet connection will be required to activate the game, as per Steam policy. For this reason, R.U.S.E. will not use the Ubisoft protection. Single player can be played offline.
Console players, stay tuned for more R.U.S.E. news in the coming days !

R.U.S.E. team

So I guess there's some light in the tunnel, even if it's only announced for one title at this moment. Hopefully Ubisoft will ditch the entire system and apolagize for their idiocy.

Their still using DRM in form in Steam but it's a heck lot better than always online, am I right?

Source: Kotaku [http://kotaku.com/5610911/ubisofts-next-game-dumps-controversial-drm-system] & Ubisoft forums [http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums?a=tpc&s=400102&f=4821071447&m=7471048678&r=7471048678#7471048678]

That's a win for PC gamers I guess.

 

[Tzekelkan]

They're using Steam instead of their crap? YES!!!

I tried the beta for R.U.S.E. and it didn't particularly stick to me, but since then I have increased my liking of the RTS genre and may even give the game a chance based solely on this wonderful news.

 

[Caliostro]

Heard about this before, but haven't seen it posted.


THANK YOU Ubisoft... Now if you retroactively remove it from Assassin's Creed 2 (patch it out I guess) I can jump all over it like a fat kid over a cup cake pool.

 

[Art3rius]

PC gamers 1 - Ubisoft 0.

Will the DRM be on the new Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood game, then?

 

[Trivun]

Steamworks is the only PC DRM that's come out within the past ten years that I actually like. It's not foolproof, but no DRM is. The old-style game keys are too easy to crack, and everything else has hurt the legitimate user just as much as, if not more than, the pirates themselves. Steam actually uses DRM that, though not impossible to crack, has had a good amount of success and generally works pretty well, and is built in to Steam games anyway. It doesn't hurt the person who buys the game properly, and that's the reason why Steam is the only place I'll ever download games (I usually try to get hard copies, you see, I don't like the idea of not owning a physical copy of my game and being unable to sell it on when I get bored of it).

The way I see this, as both a gamer and aspiring game designer, is that Ubisoft has finally cottoned on to the fact that nobody save them thinks their DRM is any good. The DRM they used in Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5 didn't work. So now, they can always brush that off as an experiment, one that failed. And if they accept that, then hopefully they'll realise the best thing to do is release a patch that cancels the DRM on all copies of the already-released games, and not use it in the future.

Overall, this is definitely a win for gamers, and we can rest assured that before the year is out Ubisoft will have removed that specific form of DRM from it's games completely. That's my prediction, anyway - you heard it here first, people .

 

[Trivun]

PC gamers 1 - Ubisoft 0.

Will the DRM be on the new Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood game, then?

I doubt it, if they release it on Steam, which is very likely. As I recall, correct me if I'm wrong here, but Valve actually turned around and refused to allow Ubisoft to sell Assassin's Creed 2 or Silent Hunter 5 through Steam, because Valve weren't prepared to support Ubisoft's DRM. So it seems to me that Ubisoft realised that not having Steam as a platform to sell R.U.S.E. on would be bad for them in the long run, meaning they needed to avoid using the DRM for it. R.U.S.E. was always intended for a Steam release, after all, that's where they released the beta too. So if anything of Ubisoft's gets released on Steam anytime soon, I can't see the DRM being used, and anything on PC is bound to be released through Steam. Including AC: Brotherhood.

I actually tried to play the R.U.S.E. beta on Steam, sadly though my laptop is pretty shitty when it comes to graphics and the lag was just too much for me. Shame too, as an RTS player I was all over it and the concept looks quite interesting, at least to me personally...

 

[Lordmarkus]

The DRM they used in Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5 didn't work. So now, they can always brush that off as an experiment, one that failed. And if they accept that, then hopefully they'll realise the best thing to do is release a patch that cancels the DRM on all copies of the already-released games, and not use it in the future.

I dearly hope so, since I really want to buy the new Splinter Cell but can't justify a buy enough from the horror that I can not play the game whenever I want.

Also I really hope they ditch the DRM system from now on becasue I would hate if the next Massive Entertainment (Ground Control, World in Conflict) title would be utterly destroyed by draconian DRM.

Yay, 1000 posts.

Party.

 

[John47]

PC gamers 1 - Ubisoft 0.

Will the DRM be on the new Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood game, then?

I doubt it, if they release it on Steam, which is very likely. As I recall, correct me if I'm wrong here, but Valve actually turned around and refused to allow Ubisoft to sell Assassin's Creed 2 or Silent Hunter 5 through Steam, because Valve weren't prepared to support Ubisoft's DRM. So it seems to me that Ubisoft realised that not having Steam as a platform to sell R.U.S.E. on would be bad for them in the long run, meaning they needed to avoid using the DRM for it. R.U.S.E. was always intended for a Steam release, after all, that's where they released the beta too. So if anything of Ubisoft's gets released on Steam anytime soon, I can't see the DRM being used, and anything on PC is bound to be released through Steam. Including AC: Brotherhood.

I actually tried to play the R.U.S.E. beta on Steam, sadly though my laptop is pretty shitty when it comes to graphics and the lag was just too much for me. Shame too, as an RTS player I was all over it and the concept looks quite interesting, at least to me personally...

just saying here: for me steam is better then some microsoft live program where you have to pay monthly AND there's almost no community

 

[Ashsaver]

That certainly is good news.

Steam itself is a good DRM,it's not perfect,but it does its job very well.


Also,there are freebies on it.

 

[bobdevis]

Great to hear.

There is at least one perfectly working crack for AC2, proving that the experiment failed.

Better to go with something generally accepted (Steam) then continue to try to piss everybody off in new and inventive ways.

 

[Woodsey]

I think everyone should keep in mind that so far this has only been announced for RUSE, and the X-Play article I read didn't mention it being taken from other games either.

And dammit this probation is ridiculous - anyone know a mod to PM to rectify the mistake?

 

[fix-the-spade]

So I guess there's some light in the tunnel, even if it's only announced for one title at this moment. Hopefully Ubisoft will ditch the entire system and apolagize for their idiocy.

Aplogise, I doubt it.

But they couldn't have kept going with their DRM system, it would have driven them out of business if they had. The amount of money it costs to keep the authentication servers running, even though it's basically dead weight now that the system has been cracked, must be enormous.

I think the money men have stepped in on this one.

 

[barash]

Heh, I didn't bother trying the beta because it was Ubisoft and I expected a right proper shafting-on-release if I found I liked it and decided to buy. Might just have to find out now.

 

[Lordmarkus]

So I guess there's some light in the tunnel, even if it's only announced for one title at this moment. Hopefully Ubisoft will ditch the entire system and apolagize for their idiocy.

Aplogise, I doubt it.

But they couldn't have kept going with their DRM system, it would have driven them out of business if they had.

No they would not. How many famous PC-titles does Ubisoft boast with? None. They could quit making PC Games alltogether and it would barely be noticable in their economy.

I would miss Far Cry and a sequel to World in Conflict though.

 

[SomeBoredGuy]

I think everyone should keep in mind that so far this has only been announced for RUSE, and the X-Play article I read didn't mention it being taken from other games either.

And dammit this probation is ridiculous - anyone know a mod to PM to rectify the mistake?

Probably Kuliani, since he's pretty much the head mod.

OT: As far as DRM goes, Steam is the only one I would call "good". Why? Because it makes up for it's DRM part completely with it's Steam Store with near-constant sales going on. The fact that Ubisoft have (for at least one game) decided to use it instead of their own DRM is a step in the right direction. I still probably won't buy the game, but I encourage less hypocritical people to do so.

 

[Pearwood]

Can someone tell me the difference between Steamworks and Steam? Just want to know cause I heard Steamworks would be on ps3 and I don't really know if Sony would let a competitor to psn into their market.

On topic - We all knew their DRM was never going to last.

 

[Treblaine]

Well if it only took that long for Ubisoft to learn their lesson you have to ask why they didn't see this coming and not do it in the first place.

Worryingly, if there won't be any more Ubi-style-DRM games this presents the biggest risk that they will switch off or significantly downsize or neglect the authorisations servers all the sooner. Which means games bought could become unplayable or need buggy cracks to get them to work...

... unless ubisoft releases an official patch removing the DRM requirements, but why would they bother, they will probably think "pah, that game? old news" as so many of the "shitty publishers" seem to treat their back catalogue. Good developers mind you, but shitty publishers.

No they would not. How many famous PC-titles does Ubisoft boast with? None. They could quit making PC Games alltogether and it would barely be noticable in their economy.

I would miss Far Cry and a sequel to World in Conflict though.

-HAWX
-Assassin's Creed 2
-Splinter Cell Conviction
-Ghost Recon Future Warrior
-Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
-HAWX 2
-Trackmania 2 (PC exclusive)
-I Am Alive

to name a few recent and upcoming.