Ubisoft Relaxes DRM Restrictions on Certain PC Titles

[Jamieson 90]

If its true about Assassins Creed 2 then I might just go and get it. I was really looking forward to it when it was announced but the PC delay and the online DRM requirement totally ruined it for me. Still always thought it was a cool game though.

Be interesting to see the sales figures after the DRM is gone. Perhaps ubisoft will look at them and see a pattern emerging. Legit customers don't like intrusive DRM so stop using it.

 

[lacktheknack]

Does - does this mean I can buy Assassin's Creed 2 now?!

YAAAY!

 

[RejjeN]

Somehow I just think they're making way for newer releases... So they won't have to spend money on increasing their server size...

 

[The Random One]

Fortunately, I would have waited six months before buying them for PC anyway.

My PC even up to spec so I'll continue to rent them about a year after they come out. It hasn't failed me yet.

 

[Starke]

I don't see that much difference, I mean, my PC is already hooked up to internet permanently

Assuming that their servers are actually working [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98935-Ubisoft-Blames-DRM-Outage-on-Server-Attack]? There were also, unsubstantiated claims that if you'd get knocked offline due to a ping out, and then tried to come back on before the server timed you out, you'd get your account banned for "account sharing", meaning no more game at all.

What I really want to know is, is The Settlers 7 affected? Because that was on my "very much do want" list, except for the DRM of doom. Also, Steam's got it for half off today...

 

[teh_Canape]

Assuming that their servers are actually working [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98935-Ubisoft-Blames-DRM-Outage-on-Server-Attack]? There were also, unsubstantiated claims that if you'd get knocked offline due to a ping out, and then tried to come back on before the server timed you out, you'd get your account banned for "account sharing", meaning no more game at all.

I... never had any of those, at all

well, yeah, once it stopped the game because of an internet connectivity fail, but it resumed like, 10 seconds later I think

 

[Starke]

Assuming that their servers are actually working [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98935-Ubisoft-Blames-DRM-Outage-on-Server-Attack]? There were also, unsubstantiated claims that if you'd get knocked offline due to a ping out, and then tried to come back on before the server timed you out, you'd get your account banned for "account sharing", meaning no more game at all.

I... never had any of those, at all

well, yeah, once it stopped the game because of an internet connectivity fail, but it resumed like, 10 seconds later I think

I can go digging around, it was coming off of steam forums, so it's probably a good idea to take it with a grain of salt.

 

[Bluntknife]

All I read from this news was that pirating this game is still a better user experience than the legit way.

 

[teh_Canape]

I can go digging around, it was coming off of steam forums, so it's probably a good idea to take it with a grain of salt.

true, but then again, I'm talking from my experience

sure this is cool news since Ubisoft's DRM IS annoying and shit, so yeah

same thing with Fallout New Vegas, I never had any bug or crash at all, and that was the original release without the "fix-it-all" patch

Spoiler

but then again, I paid $180 for Mirror's Edge for PC, so apparently I'm a retard

...

loved that game and just played my 4th playthrough of it

 

[Starke]

I can go digging around, it was coming off of steam forums, so it's probably a good idea to take it with a grain of salt.

true, but then again, I'm talking from my experience

sure this is cool news since Ubisoft's DRM IS annoying and shit, so yeah

same thing with Fallout New Vegas, I never had any bug or crash at all, and that was the original release without the "fix-it-all" patch

Spoiler

but then again, I paid $180 for Mirror's Edge for PC, so apparently I'm a retard

...

loved that game and just played my 4th playthrough of it

Okay, I've found the post I was remembering. Here. [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=18801958&postcount=32] I can follow this up on the original posts on Ubisoft's forums, if you'd like.

How'd you rack up that much for Mirror's Edge? I spent $10 bucks for it. Then again, I spent over $400 on STO... so I guess it's all relative.

EDIT: I've only seen a few bugs in New Vegas that weren't there in Fallout 3, and with one exception they were almost universally hilarious.

EDIT 2: I did find this thread [http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/6061083365/m/4141082288] off a quick Google search.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

STOP CHEERING.

This isn't a removal. It still requires online authentication when you start the game.

And there's no offline mode, unlike Steam.

Ubisoft are still a bunch of cocknuggets and we shouldn't go back to loving them just because they're being slightly less cuntish.

So, you still have to be online every time you play? You just don't get shut down if you drop your connection now? That's not nearly good enough yet. One online activation, when you first install the game, is bearable (not ideal, though) but a check with every start isn't, and never will be, acceptable. Might as well keep the always online requirement, this is such a small change.

Don't waste my time, Ubisoft. Get rid of the DRM, and stop trying to screw your customers.

So in essence this is, after patching, just slightly worse than the DRM scheme that EA was going to implement where it wanted to "phone in" every so often or your game would just stop working, because that would at least let you start playing the game without an active network connection (rather than simply not booting you to a "connection lost" screen if you ever disconnected)?

Yeah, that really isn't going to cut it - the eternal boycott of everything Ubisoft does forever (yay redundancy!) is still in full effect.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Finally! Maybe in a few months, they'll throw this DRM business out the window and join forces with steam!

 

[teh_Canape]

Okay, I've found the post I was remembering. Here. [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=18801958&postcount=32] I can follow this up on the original posts on Ubisoft's forums, if you'd like.

How'd you rack up that much for Mirror's Edge? I spent $10 bucks for it. Then again, I spent over $400 on STO... so I guess it's all relative.

EDIT: I've only seen a few bugs in New Vegas that weren't there in Fallout 3, and with one exception they were almost universally hilarious.

uh, it's a rather common problem down here in my country

see, technology is expensive as fuck, especially with our fucked up exchange rate (that would be, US$1 = AR$4)

so I got it retail

 

[Starke]

Okay, I've found the post I was remembering. Here. [http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showpost.php?p=18801958&postcount=32] I can follow this up on the original posts on Ubisoft's forums, if you'd like.

How'd you rack up that much for Mirror's Edge? I spent $10 bucks for it. Then again, I spent over $400 on STO... so I guess it's all relative.

EDIT: I've only seen a few bugs in New Vegas that weren't there in Fallout 3, and with one exception they were almost universally hilarious.

uh, it's a rather common problem down here in my country

see, technology is expensive as fuck, especially with our fucked up exchange rate (that would be, US$1 = AR$4)

so I got it retail

Ah... ouch.

Anyway, official confirmation of what I was saying (more or less) of Ubisoft's own knowledge base [http://ubisoft-en.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/ubisoft_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=14061&p_created=1287747122&p_topview=1]. The bans are temporary, but still... The game could literally decide to ban you from itself at random.

 

[Starke]

Sad thing is, they still didn't patch the steam version of AC 1, so it will still pause for 5-10 sec after each kill to ping a DRM server that has been shut down for ages... the only fix for this is to block net access for AC1's exe file.

I don't think that's a DRM server... Otherwise it would be shutting down your game or something when it failed to fire.

 

[teh_Canape]

The game could literally decide to ban you from itself at random.

so, what you say, is that the game has the extremely advanced ability to pull a trollface on you whenever it feels like it?

that's sure is some high tech right there

 

[Starke]

The game could literally decide to ban you from itself at random.

so, what you say, is that the game has the extremely advanced ability to pull a trollface on you whenever it feels like it?

that's sure is some high tech right there

I know, it boggles my mind.

 

[Arec Balrin]

Well why aren't they being louder about this change to their DRM? This is what kept me from buying their games! Had I known, I might have actually bought AC2 during the Steam sale a few days ago.

Because it may be seen(because it is exactly how it looks) that they are admitting it was something less than the totally correct policy on customer-pirate-brand relations. They want to do something about the complaints people have with their connection to Ubi.com dropping whilst not ever conceding that there is a rather large army out there who would buy the game if the DRM didn't exist at all.

Ubi have been extremely shrewd in the information they give out, putting their shareholders before customers which is why we still haven't seen the specific sales figures for AC2, Splinter Cell: Conviction on PC or Settlers 7. If they haven't reported them by the time we reach the one-year anniversary of the release of AC2 then some shareholders will get cold feet and maybe they've loosened the DRM so those with their eyes on gaming news sites will put the sold units up in time for the next quarterly report.

 

[mjc0961]

Okay, now it's time for EA to get rid of the same shitty DRM from their games as well. Hop to it, EA! You don't want to be the only dickheads left requiring a constant internet connection for some of your games, do you?

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

So, Ubisoft is now doing what certain pirate groups have managed almost a year ago? Reaaally great.

Perhaps Ubisoft appropriated the coding for the patch from the crack. Wouldn't surprise me, Rockstar did something similar a while back.