Ubisoft DRM Authentication Servers Go Down

[SavingPrincess]

I'd be interested to see the financials on the following:

• - The amount of money invested in Server-Based DRM infrastructure
  - The amount of money invested in paid salaries of DRM monitors/techs
  - The number of boxed retail copies of the game sold (not shipped) on PC
  - The number of digital download sales (Steam, Direct2Drive, etc.)
  - The number of pirated downloads

I wonder if, after you do all the calculations, if this was even a 'profitable' move on Ubisoft's part. I mean, if you're satisfying shareholders, shouldn't you at least make it profitable?

I wonder if this really is meta stuff and this was Ubi's way of proving to shareholders that the investment isn't worth the return? i.e. Ubi went out of their way to take the flames of the gaming world press, waste a ton of money, and jeopardize their place in the hearts of gamers just to show the investors that DRM is a failed enterprise.

 

[imperialus]

I'm starting to think that in the long run here most devs are probably going to be successful at what seems to be (as best as I can tell) their long-term goal of pushing all games onto the consoles and completely abandoning the PC as a platform. If or when that happens all of the piracy that happens on the PC due to its relative ease are going to simply follow to the consoles while the massive power-vacuum left on the PC will be filled by what are now the 'indie' devs who won't be so abusive to their customers.

But won't pirates just figure out a way to crack console games then? I remember a friend of mine had a stack of ripped games back in the PS1 days. He bought them from a little hole in the wall place in Chinatown (how's that for stereotypes) for an 1/8th of their retail price. At the end of the day, a game is still just data, in a piece of hardware designed to read said data... Data can be copied, hardware can be modified, and laws controlling the internet still suck ass. Also, the sky is still blue, the world is round and when you drop your Assasins Creed 2 CD out of the window it will accelerate towards the ground at 9.8m/s.

 

[commasplice]

Fucking derp, man. Well, on the bright side, it could be worse. Ubisoft could decide to pull a full Nexon and ban 2,700 users on suspicion of having caused the server crash.

 

[reg42]

Spoiler: Well, I'd like to say we all expected something else to happen but...

I'm starting to think that in the long run here most devs are probably going to be successful at what seems to be (as best as I can tell) their long-term goal of pushing all games onto the consoles and completely abandoning the PC as a platform. If or when that happens all of the piracy that happens on the PC due to its relative ease are going to simply follow to the consoles while the massive power-vacuum left on the PC will be filled by what are now the 'indie' devs who won't be so abusive to their customers.

At this point I almost am wishing for that to happen already.

If that happened piracy would just move over to the consoles, and it would still be a very big problem.

 

[TheMadTypist]

well, that was fast. Considering how wildly unpopular this method of DRM is with us gamers, maybe it was intentional sabotage? I mean, when you've got a massive hulking single point of failure like that you're going to set up all kinds of failsafes and backups that keep exactly what happened from happening by accident.

 

[AndyCobra]

and that's why piracy exists!

 

[Lazy Kitty]

First the PS3, now the PC.

Now we just have to wait for every 360 in the world to stop working and the circle is complete!

...oh wait.

First we wait for all Wii(s?) to suddenly start exploding.

My Wii is going to explode!?

But... But I don't even have a child yet.

Don't tell me you weren't expecting it to explode when you bought it!?

I didn't buy it, I got it for free.

It's been with me for a good 16 years now. But I didn't know it was going to explode!

Obviously whoever gave it to you wants you dead.

I'm not going down alone! I'm taking someone with me!

*looks for nearest person... which happens to be you*

I can come along?
Great, I've got to visit someone in Hell, because apparently he can't control my floor heating.
You know, some idiot minion of mine I left in charge while I'm on vacation in the mortal realm.

 

[DoctorNick]

I'm starting to think that in the long run here most devs are probably going to be successful at what seems to be (as best as I can tell) their long-term goal of pushing all games onto the consoles and completely abandoning the PC as a platform. If or when that happens all of the piracy that happens on the PC due to its relative ease are going to simply follow to the consoles while the massive power-vacuum left on the PC will be filled by what are now the 'indie' devs who won't be so abusive to their customers.

But won't pirates just figure out a way to crack console games then? I remember a friend of mine had a stack of ripped games back in the PS1 days. He bought them from a little hole in the wall place in Chinatown (how's that for stereotypes) for an 1/8th of their retail price. At the end of the day, a game is still just data, in a piece of hardware designed to read said data... Data can be copied, hardware can be modified, and laws controlling the internet still suck ass. Also, the sky is still blue, the world is round and when you drop your Assasins Creed 2 CD out of the window it will accelerate towards the ground at 9.8m/s.

That's exactly the point.

Most mainstream devs are going to try to move on to the 'greener pastures' of the console only to have the exact same problems follow them there because they can't fix these sorts of problems using the same brute-force kind of methods.

 

[LordShadowCaster]

Why is it that everything Ubisoft (and EA... OH! And Activison) touches dies?

Well, Activision is only a so-called middle-man. Since they merged (or something like that) with Blizzard, they've also adapted Blizzard's "less content, more price (or no content, some price)" -policy. EA doesn't seem too bad nowadays.

 

[Terramax]

Hopefully Ubisoft realises what a stupid system this is and drops it.

Yeah, right.

It's just a little bit embarassing at this point.

Meanwhile, pirates (I assume) get to play their cracked version without issue. Nice job Ubisoft, really.

I agree, selling a game that literally does not work is as if they're trying to promote piracy than fight it.

 

[zombiebeard]

Good job Ubisoft! Screw over all of your consumers who actually give a damn about gaming, while the pirates you were trying to prevent are sitting around playing the game laughing all the way.

 

[dochmbi]

Ahahahahahaa, PWNED!

 

[Christemo]

it seems Ubisoft has taken the IW route of slowly converting to consoles and then finally putting their balls in the PC gamers´ mouth.

 

[Somethingfake]

Hands up who could see this one coming? *Raises his hand*

 

[dochmbi]

It's just a little bit embarassing at this point.

Meanwhile, pirates (I assume) get to play their cracked version without issue. Nice job Ubisoft, really.

Not so. AC 2 hasn't been cracked yet, don't know how long it will take.

 

[Chaos Marine]

The irony. It amuses me.

 

[commasplice]

The moment I heard of this DRM, the first thing that came to my mind was "DDoS bait"

First thing I thought of:

"I've been fax DDoSing [the Church of Scientology] with black pieces of paper taped together creating an infinite loop but they've recently blocked them from coming through."

 

[More Fun To Compute]

These Ubisoft games sound fantastic. I'll buy them at a high price.

 

[minotaur199]

Ubifail!

Ill laugh my pants off if pirates make a fully working version!