Ubisoft managed to screw up big time

[Not Lord Atkin]

I believe you all know what I mean when I say that Ubisoft has and has always had a severe case of dysfunctional DRM addiction. The starforce DRM back in 2005 and the 2010's always-online systems are among the most notable. Well they have finally done it. They managed to make their games completely unplayable.

You remember Uplay, right? the novel but ultimately forgettable service Ubisoft has been forcing onto their customers along with the Game Launcher and the DRM thing since Assassin's Creed 2? Well as it turns out, they made a new uplay client for their games. It downloads automatically, it is impossible to avoid when you want to play the games you bought and it does not work.

As of now, you can not play any ubisoft game that uses Game Launcher. Ubisoft has released no statement on this. there is no proper error message showing, no maintenance notice. The client keeps telling you that your password is wrong, no matter how many times you reset it.

Here's the link to the official uplay formus. There's quite a movement going on among the enraged paying customers who can't play their games. They range from upset cries, through pleads aimed at community magagers all the way to threats of boycott, piracy and even a lawsuit or two.

http://forums.ubi.com/forumdisplay.php/259-Uplay

what do escapists think of this?


EDIT:
One of the customers contacted support and this was the response he received:
http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/691193-Cannot-log-into-Uplay?p=8473097&viewfull=1#post8473097

 

[Shadowsetzer]

Honestly, I don't see how any company could think that ticking off their entire customer base is a good idea, no matter what the so-called 'upside' would be. Ubisoft's just a horribly managed company that has only managed to stay afloat because of the quality of their games.

 

[Jackalb]

Lol I like whoever that support guy is, nice answer.

 

[superdark]

I am at a loss for words. I'm just so fucking disappointed.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Lol I like whoever that support guy is, nice answer.

Perfectly understandable. The customer had the temerity to ask annoying questions. How dare he/she.

 

[Lethos]

So I dodged a bullet by choosing not to buy Anno 2070? While I hope that this is sorted out quickly so people with Ubi games can enjoy their purchase, I do feel slightly good about sticking to my morals now.

 

[Stormz]

I already swore off Ubisoft games for their horrible DRM and the way they treat customers. This is just another reason to avoid them. Their customer service looks very professional I see.

 

[The Artificially Prolonged]

Well the values of never buying a ubisoft game on pc has pays off again. I hope this incident will be enough now to force ubisoft to change their drm methods.

 

[StBishop]

If their console games were as awful as their PC games, playability wise, I wouldn't buy any of their products.

The thing is though, they don't give a fuck about PC. Pure and simple. They make console games and sell people DRM for PCs. I didn't even know people bought Ubisoft games on PC any more.

 

[Manji187]

Only Ubisoft game I have is From Dust. Good thing I got it dirt cheap (get it?). No more Ubisoft purchases for me, that's for sure.

 

[Atmos Duality]

It's almost as though....introducing a central point of failure into gaming was a bad thing for the consumer or something.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

So I dodged a bullet by choosing not to buy Anno 2070? While I hope that this is sorted out quickly so people with Ubi games can enjoy their purchase, I do feel slightly good about sticking to my morals now.

This. I was just about to get Anno 2070, until I read about the DRM.

On a related note: people, unless you stop buying games from publishers that do this, publishers will keep doing it.

 

[ResonanceSD]

If only there was a way to play Ubi titles offline! OH WAIT. Just open the game through windows explorer and you're fine.

 

[Jack Rascal]

EDIT:
One of the customers contacted support and this was the response he received:
http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/691193-Cannot-log-into-Uplay?p=8473097&viewfull=1#post8473097

What do you think, have ve got a new candidate for proper Krahulik treatment or what?

I think the person who posted that on Ubisoft forums does not know how to read.

From Ubisoft support, you receive an automatic reply where they say "We aim to respond to you within 24-48 hours". Under this text is your original question/issue and "The following answers might help you immediately". This is not their repsonse, this is only a possible answer to your question so you wouldn't have to wait. If it helps, fantastic. If it doesn't, wait for Ubisoft's reply.

Posting this as Ubisoft's actual response is just stupid.

 

[Rawne1980]

Ahhh Ubisoft.

I haven't bought one of their games since the first Assassins Creed.

They irritated me when I was a PC only gamer so even though I own consoles I still haven't bought any.

I have this amazing little thing where if a company does something to annoy me .... I stop giving them money.

It's worked wonders for me over the years and stopped me getting annoyed.

 

[Zhukov]

Whelp, that explains why my Steam copy of AC:R hasn't been working.

Although in my case I can't even get to the login screen. It just says "unable to find game launcher".

Ugh.

Why the fuck do I even need a game launcher?

 

[Gitty101]

Well, it seems they've really kicked the barrel this time round. I mean, I don't own any Ubisoft titles or anything, but I imagine that there will be quite a few people planning to Boycott and long-time customers who will be severely disappointed by this.

And in the end, is it really worth it? After all, the only people they are screwing over with this DRM are those who have legitimately bought the game. I bet the pirates they're trying to stop are laughing their scurvy boots off.

 

[Johnson McGee]

I really wanted to try Anno 2070 but turned up my nose at the DRM, specifically the limited number of installs. I feel a bit vindicated in that decision seeing this.

 

[Rellik San]

Probably Ubisoft press release:

"And clearly the number of pirates is escalating, after our online service went down for a few days not allowing customers to log on and play even their single player games, the number of pirated copies of our products lurched forward a few thousand digits. This is clearly a case for why we will no longer support the PC platform."