Ubisoft Hints At Toned-Down DRM

[Royas]

Ubisoft has lost its DRM privileges in my book. After the always on debacle, I don't trust them to be able to come up with anything that won't be annoying as hell.

Give it up, Ubisoft. Anything beyond a simple key is a waste of money, the pirates can and will always (ALWAYS!) break any DRM you might use. The only group you can protect yourself from is the relatively honest, so stop wasting your cash.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

o.0 who are 'Croteam'? need some perceptive here

The guys who made the Serious Sam games (all of them!). Really good FPS games.

The third installment had a nice DRM: If you played a pirated copy an undestructable and hellish fast enemy would appear when you leave the first building. This thing basically kicked all the pirates in the butt and it took some time untill it was cracked.

that is hilariously genius.

what did they exactly do to "crack" it? make a pink anti-scorpion gun? (ala marvin the martian style gun)

 

[Aiberg]

i think it has come to the point that ubisoft decided that being hated too much may actually start to hurt their business. otherwise i don't remember them ever giving a damn...

 

[antipunt]

??

isn't like it 100% proven DRM is worthless, how are you 'protecting' anything with a defense that's broken in hours?

well, Serious Sam 3 took about a month and a half or so
cool reaction from Croteam too, with the Serious Sam twitter saying things like "thanks guys, god damn pink scorpion was brutal"

Wow, 1.5 months? I'm a huge supporter of 'DRM sucks because hurts legit user, and pirates get it for free almost instantaneously', but that's a pretty impressive long period of protection-time. Doesn't that mean whatever they're doing is semi working?

 

[ASnogarD]

This Ubicrap VP says...

' Is it fair for someone to enjoy our content without us receiving some value for that? '

... but shouldnt a proper customer based business be asking, how are we to ensure the paying customer is getting the full value of thier product instead ? Priorities here pal, priorities.

Pirate scum will pirate, all the DRM is doing is smacking the paying customer about.

I havent bought ( or pirated ) Dust, or Settlers, or any Ubi published game ( except Anno ) due to thier draconian DRM , theres pirates playing those games... but theres at least 1 (ONE) customer here who wont due to DRM.

Besides Ubi , you are too slow... behind the time, has beens, old fashioned, out of date...

... then new buzzword is ( cue Bobs wieeerrrdd voice here ) USED SALES ARE KILLING GAMES.

Not piracy.

 

[Suits]

Ubisoft without crippling DRM? The world is coming to an end

 

[Antari]

Ubisoft? Are they still in business? Oh well, whatever they are trying won't make a difference to me. They are as good as dead as far as I'm concerned.

 

[teh_Canape]

??

isn't like it 100% proven DRM is worthless, how are you 'protecting' anything with a defense that's broken in hours?

well, Serious Sam 3 took about a month and a half or so
cool reaction from Croteam too, with the Serious Sam twitter saying things like "thanks guys, god damn pink scorpion was brutal"

Wow, 1.5 months? I'm a huge supporter of 'DRM sucks because hurts legit user, and pirates get it for free almost instantaneously', but that's a pretty impressive long period of protection-time. Doesn't that mean whatever they're doing is semi working?

probably
it's the ingame type of DRM, like Arkham Asylum for example
it doesn't prevent you from playing the game, it just fucks your experience until it reaches the point where it becomes unplayable

 

[Cyfu]

wow, Ubisoft actually making a smart move. I have to say, I'm impressed.

 

[Epona]

People have to stop falling for this PR stuff. How many times have we heard publishers say things like this only to fall back on ever worse DRM. Remember how after Spore EA pledged to have less intrusive DRM, where are we today with EA?

 

[Hero in a half shell]

'Is it fair for someone to enjoy our content without us receiving some value for that?'

I... I've heard that before...


Well, that settles it. Ubisoft are an evil corporation operating from the bottom of the ocean killing people and harvesting their organs to fuel their debilitating DRM addiction. But it's ok, because I know how to fix this: Would you kindly pass me that golf club...

 

[Something Amyss]

And don't say "CD Project said it was pirated 4.5 million times", because that was just an estimation.

It's also worth noting that even the guy who made that claim said pretty much it was more than an estimate; rather, it was a huuuuuge ass-pull based on some fairly massaged numbers.

Unfortunately, it's easier to remember the sound byte. Especially if it's a shocking number. 4.5 million is a lot!

It also does belie an impressive point, which you certainly got at. other games, including DRMed games, were pirated more in 2011.

Which goes to my point, which I think is your point as well, stop punishing us for wanting to buy your product.

Fair enough maybe not one of the most pirated in history. However, even if it was pirated half as much as CD Project estimated it was pirated twice as much as it was sold. (Sold 1 million copies)

Think logically, though. That would mean, based on Torrentfreak's numbers, that the Witcher was pirated roughly 55% as much as Modern Warfare 3.

 

[Jodah]

And don't say "CD Project said it was pirated 4.5 million times", because that was just an estimation.

It's also worth noting that even the guy who made that claim said pretty much it was more than an estimate; rather, it was a huuuuuge ass-pull based on some fairly massaged numbers.

Unfortunately, it's easier to remember the sound byte. Especially if it's a shocking number. 4.5 million is a lot!

It also does belie an impressive point, which you certainly got at. other games, including DRMed games, were pirated more in 2011.

Which goes to my point, which I think is your point as well, stop punishing us for wanting to buy your product.

Fair enough maybe not one of the most pirated in history. However, even if it was pirated half as much as CD Project estimated it was pirated twice as much as it was sold. (Sold 1 million copies)

Think logically, though. That would mean, based on Torrentfreak's numbers, that the Witcher was pirated roughly 55% as much as Modern Warfare 3.

I guess I don't see your point. Are you saying it was pirated less than MW3? Well yeah, MW3 also sold over 9 times as much in the first day than Witcher 2 did over several months.

Are you saying the piracy numbers are still lower than 50% of CD Project's estimates? Even if you go as low as 25% of their estimate you are at a 1 to 1 ratio and I doubt CD Project would inflate the numbers that much.

 

[DarkSoldier84]

I haven't bought a Ubisoft game at full price and this announcement won't make me change that decision.

 

[Thoric485]

All they have to do is set their priorities like this:

1. Don't inconvenience our customers.
2. Prevent people from pirating our games.

Instead of falling into embarassing situations like when AC:Revelations for PC, with all of its DRM was leaked and cracked week early. Their paying customers end up putting up with DRM for no real reason.

While TW2 only appeared on torrent sites post-launch, and its buyers have zero DRM to inconvenience them now.