Ubisoft DRM Authentication Servers Go Down

[Myoukochou]

Lulz. Absolute lulz.

They deserve this.

We, their customers, don?t.

Maybe they?ll learn now? maybe.

 

[Thorvan]

Honestly, I cannot believe that maintaining these servers, with potentially thousands of people connecting to them at the same time, costs less than the money they lose from piracy. especially considering the game is already cracked.

 

[commasplice]

Well, this is interesting.

When three Texas gamers couldn't get online to play "Call of Duty 4" or "Halo 3" on their Xbox 360s last December, they decided to sue.

In a class-action lawsuit filed January 4, gamers Keith Kay, Orlando Perez and Shannon Smith claim that they and millions of other Xbox Live users suffered damages in excess of $5 million.

Props to Farinhir over on the Ubisoft forums for providing the link.

 

[Ragnar Homsar]

Oi, I try and keep up my enthusiasm for AC2 PC launch day and now this. Now I'm wondering if the thing'll even work on launch day here in the US.

What I never got about PC game companies that incorporate DRM: why do they publically announce DRM? It just ends up creating nothing but uproars from the PC gaming community at large. It also gives pirates an idea of how the system works so they can crack it more easily.

 

[commasplice]

Oi, I try and keep up my enthusiasm for AC2 PC launch day and now this. Now I'm wondering if the thing'll even work on launch day here in the US.

What I never got about PC game companies that incorporate DRM: why do they publically announce DRM? It just ends up creating nothing but uproars from the PC gaming community at large. It also gives pirates an idea of how the system works so they can crack it more easily.

Because it's all for show. "Look at us, we've got this new DRM that can beat any hacker. Investors, buy our stocks; users, buy our games and suck our cocks." They just don't realize that this pisses off gamers and gives pirates THAT MUCH more satisfaction out of ripping them off. My only other guess would be that maybe it's supposed to have some kind of deterrent effect, too, but as far as I can tell, it only really deters paying customers.

 

[Flour]

I believe Ubi was quoted saying that "Steam isn't effective enough in combatting piracy," which blew my mind. I can't remember the exact quote but it was a giant slap in the face of Steam in general.

That's because Steam isn't stopping any piracy. It might slow down cracking teams a bit while they wait for the last piece of data to be downloaded, but after that it takes them a few hours to a day to create the files needed to get a fully functional steam-free game.

The only exceptions are Valve games for some reason. Sure, you can find Half Life 2 on torrent sites but that, TF2 and Portal are the only ones I've consistently been able to find and even those games have very few seeders.(might be bad google results, but it's what the average person will find)

 

[Antari]

I believe Ubi was quoted saying that "Steam isn't effective enough in combatting piracy," which blew my mind. I can't remember the exact quote but it was a giant slap in the face of Steam in general.

That's because Steam isn't stopping any piracy. It might slow down cracking teams a bit while they wait for the last piece of data to be downloaded, but after that it takes them a few hours to a day to create the files needed to get a fully functional steam-free game.

The only exceptions are Valve games for some reason. Sure, you can find Half Life 2 on torrent sites but that, TF2 and Portal are the only ones I've consistently been able to find and even those games have very few seeders.(might be bad google results, but it's what the average person will find)

Steam is run by Valve .... They've made it very easy for you to download the game once you own it, and redownload it in the future if you get a new system. There is no point in pirating it as well because they price their games reasonably, wait a week or so it'll be on sale again. And Steam doesn't make it a complete headache to play. Sure for people who's system barely run without steam they have problems but for the rest of us its fine. And since every pirate I ever knew is using steam these days, buying games. I'd say its done a pretty damn good job at stopping piracy.

 

[deleted_scifidownbeat]

DELETED

 

[theultimateend]

I smell more DRM hate! And a Shamus Young rant!

Yeah. Course he won't point out that DRM is probably the leading cause of sales losses in video games and not piracy (Seeing as Pirates apparently don't buy games they can't pirate they just don't play them).

Disclaimer: I don't pirate and I think it is silly but I also think that blaming it for profit problems is like blaming drugs for all the worlds problems. It isn't the drugs it is legal response to drugs that is the problem, similarly it isn't the piracy it is the response to piracy that is the problem.

 

[ark123]

I smell hackery shenanigans.
Anyway, kudos Ubisoft, it's not every day that we get to see a company your size completely humiliate yourselves like this.

 

[7ru7h]

Spoiler: snip

People always want something for free. In the software world, it is a FACT OF LIFE that someone will find a way to use your product without paying. You can throw up every barrier you can think of and program and it wont stop some people. Piracy happens, and you can either say "Fuck it, they aren't our real customers" and just accept the fact or "ZOMG!!! WE MUST STOP THEM!1!1" and start implementing malicious bits of code that don't stop the problem and hurt your customers. Unfortunately, most of the gaming world has decided to go the latter route. Because that can't go wrong, amirite?

Can you honestly tell me that instituting practices that harm the people that buy your products is a good thing, and doesn't push more people to less reputable means of using your products?

Hey I wasn't judging. It's just that the argument that this is why piracy exists is based on nothing. Sure some people pirate because of this stuff, but piracy didn't start existing because of DRM.

That may not have been the way it started, but it sure as hell increases the problem and brings it into the common knowledge. I mean think about it. When they first started doing this shit, they said that they had to stop those people who were playing without paying, and if you got inconvenienced, you were much more likely to look into it, and probably spread the idea.

Although if you want me to judge: piracy is theft. I'm not one of those PC gaming is dead guys, but it used to be that we got a whole lot more specifically for PC designed games instead of mostly ports. The "ZOMG!!! WE MUST STOP THEM!1!1" part is completely understandable, however ofcourse a piece of DRM that's harsh, annoying, unreliable and doesn't even work is completely pointless and only serves to annoy paying customers.

It is completely understandable? Not at all. How is it understandable for a company to willingly nerf their product to the point that it is basically unusable for paying customers, yet the people who steal it are in the clear?

"Sure, buy our product, but it may not work sometimes if stuff happens. But don't listen to those people who 'stole' it and say they can use it just fine. They are just liars and we know it doesn't work."

I personally can see both sides of the story. Yes, piracy is harmful to a company's profit, obviously. And there's nothing wrong with trying to stop them.

HOWEVER

There are limits. Once your customers start becoming inconvenienced, then you have a problem. And Ubisoft now has a problem. Legitimate, paying customers are not being rewarded for paying for the legitimate product. And even if there is no cracked version of a game yet, there soon shall be, and then the pirates shall be the only ones truly enjoying the game.

So yes, I don't exactly support piracy constantly, but this is one of those times where even I change my mind.

FINALLY, someone got my point. I will admit, I don't care for DRM, but I do understand the reasons behind it. But it would be unacceptable in any other business to work as hard as some companies in the game world do to drive away customers.

Spoiler: double snip

Although if you want me to judge: piracy is theft. I'm not one of those PC gaming is dead guys, but it used to be that we got a whole lot more specifically for PC designed games instead of mostly ports. The "ZOMG!!! WE MUST STOP THEM!1!1" part is completely understandable, however ofcourse a piece of DRM that's harsh, annoying, unreliable and doesn't even work is completely pointless and only serves to annoy paying customers.

It is completely understandable? Not at all. How is it understandable for a company to willingly nerf their product to the point that it is basically unusable for paying customers, yet the people who steal it are in the clear?

"Sure, buy our product, but it may not work sometimes if stuff happens. But don't listen to those people who 'stole' it and say they can use it just fine. They are just liars and we know it doesn't work."

You're not reading. It isn't understandable at all that developers and publishers try to prevent piracy right?

No, YOU aren't reading. I'm not saying DRM should be abolished (although I would love to see that day, but I know it wont happen), I'm saying that going so far to stop pirates that you make your product useless and/or harm paying customers isn't understandable, and that's exactly what Ubi has done.

I don't think he was so much advocating DRM as he was saying that the shareholders wanting to stop piracy is understandable...

Again, I understand that. But how do you think those shareholders will react now that the time, money and effort put into creating, implementing, maintaining and spinning the DRM were pointless? Sure, they are trying to stop pirates, but in the process, they alienated a good section of their fan base, and probably turned a good section away from them (all while not stopping piracy in the slightest).

 

[FlakAttack]

Paying customers can't play the game when anything happens to their internet connection, the internet itself, Ubisoft's connection, Ubisoft's server, or any other hiccup that might be encountered.

Meanwhile, pirates are playing the game regardless.

It's been said many times, but this was never about piracy, it was about preventing used game sales, as you must register the game with a key. Virtually all DRM is made to prevent used game sales. Everything from install limits to Steam.

 

[Heathrow]

Well, I hate to say I told you so but I told you so.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Ugh... failure Ubisoft, failure. If you want this thing to get off the ground and not bite your ass off you need to make sure that this first steps go off so well nobody can ever complain and you screwed it up. There is going to be exponentially more whining now... ugh... It's like a million packs of chihuahuas barking their heads off as it is.

 

[Hiphophippo]

New point, new post...

People keep knocking Steam but once installed, you pretty much can set it to offline and it'll never connect again and you'll have full access to all your games.

On top of that, you get things like 'Defense Grid' the great tower defense game, recently self patched itself for me, in doing so adding support for future DLC. Oh great, another way to try to sell me stuff. Except in doing so they've added extra functions and 4 free levels, months after the game was done released and sold. Portal also has been getting upgraded and I think these stories might have taken longer to break if it hadn't been for the simplicity of upgrades Steam offers.

Ok, Portal can be called a simple marketing ploy that wasn't asked for, but I think Defense Grid and the still constant support of games like Team Fortress 2 are a fine example of good coming from Steam, and things many people would have missed if they are like me and have a few dozen games and had to visit nearly 50 sites a month to see if there was anything new that needed manually downloading and installing.

Also, Steam (from my viewpoint at least) is a great outlet for indie games, and as sales have shown, it's better to get 50,000 sales at $5 than maybe 2,000 at $20, especially when the overheads are so low, in terms of no production costs, shipping etc.

I don't know if I'm alone, but I'm a sucker for the bundle packs, when you see say 7 indie games for £10, it's almost too cheap to say no even if you haven't played any of them.

Eh, you make some good points, but A: I find it annoying that Steam even has to start up for me to run a completely different program (back when I first got The Orange Box, it'd slow my computer down som'n fierce before letting me play, but I've since reformatted, so maybe it'll be a little nicer to me) and B: a lot of the games are priced around the same as their physical counterparts on other systems, which is a huuuuge turn off for me. I don't like paying the same price to lease that other pay to own. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to hate on Steam or anything. I own it, I've used it, I don't hate it; I just wish some things were different.

You lease physical game content too, so you know. Just because you spend money on a hard copy doesn't make it yours.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Just an idea I had, would there have been the level of vitriol if ACII had just connected once per gamer session, at the main menu? And, would this have been a weaker level of protection against piracy? I'm sure there'd have been some level of hate for the invasion of privacy but even so, it's an improvement.

I'm just thinking it would have taken the checks out of actual gameplay at least, and surely so long as you're checking once each time the game is played, you can force updates down into the game to defeat new cracks and the like, without screwing over players who get knocked offline whenever the phone rings. (My parent's internet actually does this! I've been house sitting, and let's just say WOW is far less fun when you can't promise to stay online for any period of time.)

 

[Klepa]

I just find it hilarious that the average pirate probably isn't even aware of the DRM. They just go to their site of preference, go "oh cool, AC2", download, play.

Anyway, the DRM reminds me of BF2142.. EA Login server, not For The Win at all.

 

[jasoncyrus]

I smell hackery shenanigans.
Anyway, kudos Ubisoft, it's not every day that we get to see a company your size completely humiliate yourselves like this.

It's ubisoft servers you could *sneeze* half a mile away and they break.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

May I be the first to call `sabotage'? This all seems a little too convenient...

It isn't an uncommon occurrence for servers to crash early in a game's life. The developers probably didn't anticipate as much traffic as they were getting, so the server overloaded and shut down. So I doubt it's anyone attacking the servers specifically.

Either way though, whether the server just crashed or if it was specifically attacked, it's a clear example of why Ubisoft fucked up badly. It's like they looked at Steam, saw it working just fine, then decided "We can do better than that." Well, no, you can't Ubisoft. Or maybe you can, but you certainly didn't. :/