Ubisoft DRM Authentication Servers Go Down

[ASnogarD]

Thats why I simply do not consider any Ubisoft published title to be a PC title, I have jumped through enough hoops regarding DRM, and will just simply allow my wallet to speak on my behalf.

Wont do much good though as the majority of PC gamers will roll over and play dead on command for thier publishing masters.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Constantly monitored = there are some morons there constantly staring at servers.

NEVER buy a DRM-protected PC game. NEVER. Buy games for PS3, for 360.

 

[Carlston]

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

Honestly if was a hacker team it wouldn't matter.
Ubisoft's little big brother scheme was pointless and doomed to fail from the start.

They really don't need to hold that much control over a game, pirates might lose you money but this loses you customers... kinda the a pirate might snag two games but buy five down the line, a ticked off customer buys one and never buys another again.

 

[Sebenko]

The only option they have is switching solely to console development, or making a team with the sole purpose of monitoring cracks. Checking each and every google link related to *game* + crack to see if something bypassed their system. If it did, they'll have to fix it. It's sad, and speaking as a PC gamer who has spent over $160 on games this year, I think it's dead. The PC is a far superior gaming console, but all you asshole pirates killed it. The thought that "Well they rammed the game with DRM, so I'll pirate it!" will only lead to more severe DRM, which will only lead to more pirates. Pay the people for the fucking game, they spent years of their life making it, pay for it if you want to play it. Stop using the argument that if they put DRM in it, I'll just pirate it. It'll only make things worse down the line, and I think we might be past the point of no return. Pay for the game and enjoy it. Maybe if enough people buy it, they'll stop seeing us all as pirates. Christ.

Go to Steam store, look at Coming soon:

R.U.S.E.- Strategy, so it's a PC game.
DoW II: Chaos Rising- Expansion to a PC exclusive RTS
Order of War: Challenge- RTS, so PC.
Dragon Age Origins: Awakening Expansion- Out on consoles too, but a PC game in my eyes.
Civ V- PC, duh.
Nuclear Dawn- Didn't that start as a mod?
Plain Sight- PC for now, coming to other platforms later, as it should be. Looks like a little indie game or something
MUD TV- Another indie PC game?

Splinter cell- yeah, console game. It's only one.
Super Meat Boy- Not sure about this. I hear it's on XBLA, too, but it seems fine to me.

Not dead, at least quite yet.

 

[Captain Blackout]

I'm cheering for a win for pirates. Then leaving quickly.

 

[JEBWrench]

Constantly monitored = there are some morons there constantly staring at servers.

NEVER buy a DRM-protected PC game. NEVER. Buy games for PS3, for 360.

Because when one of their systems go down, like, say, PSN, you can still play your... oh, wait, right.

 

[viciouspen]

HA!

I think that concisely summarizes gamer responses to that.

Eat it Ubisoft

 

[alexelric]

I just have one thing to say about this: BWAAAAAAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJJAJAJAJAJAJA... this is the funniest botch Ubisoft has had as a development company. It can't possibly get worse for them from here... only if the game gets cracked... oh wait.

Seriously though, let's just hope they learn their lesson and try for once to rectify and send this idiot ball of a DRM down the drain

 

[KrisJenkins]

It does need to be mentioned that, to Ubisoft's credit, there are no working cracks out yet.

The need to be online has been circumvented, but that's not really the mainstay of their protection scheme. Downloading updated files from their server once you pass certain trigger areas as you complete the game is.

And that could take some time to crack.

Fortunately this is such a universally hated system that even those who wanted to play Assassin's Creed II badly enough to buy it are returning their purchases now, and when the protection gets cracked likely wont matter.

 

[Dobrev]

If the servers go down in an MMO you get free day of game play. What do you get if you can't play the game you've already paid full price? A free DLC?

 

[VeNT666]

hahahahahahahahahahahahaha for this I'm gonna pirate every single ubisoft game out there.
lost all that time playing AC2, whats the point in PAYING for somthing just so you're not able to play it!

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Constantly monitored = there are some morons there constantly staring at servers.

NEVER buy a DRM-protected PC game. NEVER. Buy games for PS3, for 360.

Because when one of their systems go down, like, say, PSN, you can still play your... oh, wait, right.

If PSN goes down, I can still play all my games. It went down dozens of times, by the way. Perhaps you're referring to leap-year bug in fat PS3 OS which caused them all to malfunction during March 1 st? It's not a problem and it's not PSN related.

 

[commasplice]

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).

Uh... I hope you realize that I wasn't disagreeing with any of those points. In fact, I was just trying to tell you that what's-his-face wasn't either. He was saying that it's understandable that someone would want to protect their intellectual property, not that the measures they took to do so were sane in any sense of the word.

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

True. There's a difference, though. If I own a physical copy, Ubisoft or Valve or whoever can't bust down my door, take the disk out of my Xbox and snap it in half. However, if the only copy of the game I have in my possession exists digitally and is linked to an account in Publisher X's system, they can ban/delete that account any time they want and take away the games I paid for. Likewise, I don't need to log in or get permission to run offline games on my Xbox, so if the game's publisher goes out of business, I don't have to wait for them to create a "no pirate check" patch to play my games.

These arguments have been made countless times by other people and the fact is that it's all hypothetical. I don't know that they'd refuse to let me play for some mild transgression or that they would neglect to release a patch if they went belly-up. However, I don't know that they wouldn't either and I, personally, am reluctant to shell out hundreds of dollars banking on the possibility that they'll do the right thing because, at the end of the day, they're still a business and they're still looking our for number one.

You think Steam's the most convenient thing ever? That's great, I'm glad it works for you, have fun with your games. I just want the option to legally bypass all of that, if I so choose.

 

[NickCaligo42]

You think THIS is bad? Just wait 'til Ubisoft takes these servers down in a year or less--because you KNOW it's not worth the cost of maintaining these things just to maintain a non-community of single-player gamers--and that PC copy of Assassin's Creed 2 that you paid over $50 for is just a worthless piece of plastic, just like Hellgate: London.

Now that's customer service, folks.

 

[RicoADF]

I wonder if anyone will turn around and sue Ubisoft (probably someone in America) for failing to provide the service they have paid for. A game that you cant play after all, is a faulty product.

You think THIS is bad? Just wait 'til Ubisoft takes these servers down in a year or less

That does bring the question of what legal requirements they have to remove the requirement to work.
In the end the DRM thing is just plain stupid, its making piracy more appealing.

 

[Terrorist_school_drop-out]

Captain Obvious says: Really?!

In all seriousnes, it was logical for something like this to happen and Ubisoft DESERVED this like Blade Runner deserved an Oscar.

 

[JEBWrench]

Constantly monitored = there are some morons there constantly staring at servers.

NEVER buy a DRM-protected PC game. NEVER. Buy games for PS3, for 360.

Because when one of their systems go down, like, say, PSN, you can still play your... oh, wait, right.

If PSN goes down, I can still play all my games. It went down dozens of times, by the way. Perhaps you're referring to leap-year bug in fat PS3 OS which caused them all to malfunction during March 1 st? It's not a problem and it's not PSN related.

My mistake. I thought was a bug in PSN, not the OS.

In all seriousnes, it was logical for something like this to happen and Ubisoft DESERVED this like Blade Runner deserved an Oscar.

You do realize the theatrical release of Blade Runner wasn't very good, right?

 

[RicoADF]

Constantly monitored = there are some morons there constantly staring at servers.

NEVER buy a DRM-protected PC game. NEVER. Buy games for PS3, for 360.

Because when one of their systems go down, like, say, PSN, you can still play your... oh, wait, right.

If PSN goes down, I can still play all my games. It went down dozens of times, by the way. Perhaps you're referring to leap-year bug in fat PS3 OS which caused them all to malfunction during March 1 st? It's not a problem and it's not PSN related.

My mistake. I thought was a bug in PSN, not the OS.

In all seriousnes, it was logical for something like this to happen and Ubisoft DESERVED this like Blade Runner deserved an Oscar.

You do realize the theatrical release of Blade Runner wasn't very good, right?

A bug which didnt effect me even tho I have a fat PS3 from launch day in Australia lol.

 

[Dublin Solo]

I wonder if anyone will turn around and sue Ubisoft (probably someone in America) for failing to provide the service they have paid for. A game that you cant play after all, is a faulty product.

I doubt this will happen. Nobody sued Blizzard back in 2005 when the WoW servers went AWOL on launch day (and subsequent days, as a matter of fact).