Ubisoft's "Always On" DRM Is Back In Driver: San Francisco

[Rooster Cogburn]

I wonder if all this DRM is designed to placate investors or something like that. Maybe it's easier to indulge their ignorance by pretending to address piracy, even if it means wasting money and a loss in sales and goodwill. I just don't know, it's hard to think of a justification for this insanity that would be acceptable to a reasonable person.

 

[Radelaide]

I wasn't aware that Driver games were still being made?

 

[Canid117]

Yes Ubisoft this is a fantastic idea. What sane company doesn't want to make the pirated product superior to the legally purchased one?

 

[SenseOfTumour]

I really think Ubisoft should either quit it, or just quit PC development completely. They obviously either don't understand PC gamers, or plain don't give a damn.

I'd suggest you only need to look at the Steam Forums, Steam already is a 'good' form of DRM that protects all games on Steam, yet people insist on crowbarring extra layers of 'protection' into their games.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1188682

This was a thread from last time the Assassin's Creed series was on a crazy sale, with about 60 pages of people pretty much all saying 'I don't care if it's 99% off, I'm not paying to rent it for a bit before Ubisoft decide it's not worth supporting any more' or just plain 'Crappy DRM equals no sale, not even for a penny, but Hey, Ubi, drop the DRM and I'd buy it tomorrow at full price.'

I so nearly bought it myself, then remembered about the DRM and checked the forums, and screw that.

Everything I own on Steam, I feel safe about being able to access in 5 years from now, I can't feel that about a Ubisoft game.

I still believe, pirates gonna pirate, and it's not NECESSARILY a lost sale, although of course SOME are. However, cutting off a huge section of sales to stop a few people getting it for free is like Gamestop hiring a bouncer to punch every third person entering the store in the face,because some people shoplift. It's just not good for sales.

Also wasn't it the case recently that one of the big budget, AAA releases actually getting pirated more on consoles? Pull this shit on the non tech savvy, regular console gaming market and see how many pissy parents are screaming at poor game store assistants to return games 'that don't work'.

Note that's not a bash on console gamers, it's just that, as a rule, people who want a simple, easy way to get into gaming, generally choose the plug n play nature of consoles.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Maybe I'm just weird and of course, I'm not in the position of having something I've spent years creating to sell, but I'd have thought 20,000 sales, even with 100,000 copies being pirated, is better than zero sales and zero piracy?

In fact I'd suggest that perhaps the whole industry needs to rethink it's status.

Sure, a GTA 4 or Black Ops once a year is fine, but if you're building every game you release on the model of a $20 million budget, it's no wonder you're desperate to take every damn sale you can get.

I'm sure it's quite possible to make great games without thousands of people working for years on all of them.

Not saying kill off the AAA games industry, but damn, scale it back some, not every game has to have a professional orchestral score, Hollywood voice acting and Pixar level visuals to be fun and sell well.

After all, isn't it the indie guys who are normally the ones going 'well, piracy is annoying, but it's gonna happen, so, we just concentrate on pleasing the people who are gonna buy the game.'

 

[Steve Lovell]

If hypothetically I bought this game and then downloaded the torrent would I be breaking the law?

 

[robert022614]

I absolutely loved the first Driver game, but even the little interest I had in this game is gone now and I am a console gamer! It affects more than just the pc crowd if you keep screwing over your customers Ubisoft!

 

[Arafiro]

The worst thing is that any illegal versions of the game are likely to be stripped of the DRM (a la Spore).

And we all know what happened with Spore.

 

[bakan]

That's why I don't buy Ubisoft games anymore (especially for the PC).
Maybe I'll rent it for my PS3 or get it used if it is any good, but they won't see any money from me.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Maybe I'll rent it for my PS3 or get it used if it is any good, but they won't see any money from me.

Hope you liked Project $10 and online passports because the console versions of the game will feature Ubisoft's attempt at replicating them - Uplay Passport.

 

[bakan]

Maybe I'll rent it for my PS3 or get it used if it is any good, but they won't see any money from me.

Hope you liked Project $10 and online passports because the console versions of the game will feature Ubisoft's attempt at replicating them - Uplay Passport.

Completely forgot about this
Well, then no Ubisoft games on any platform, I can live without them.

 

[Realitycrash]

Seriously? It NEVER STOPS THE PIRATES FROM CRACKING THE DAMN THING ANYWAY, what are they trying to accomplish? Saving face, if anything.

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

Well, that settles it. I'm not getting Driver: San Francisco and I'm not buying any more Ubisoft products.

Until they learn that they can't treat consumers like shit, they can go fuck themselves.