News Ubisoft introduces new online DRM system

Within days of this coming out, pirates will have found a way to disable it, and the only people required to be online while they play will be legitimate customers, and every time their internet connection goes down, they won't be able to play, while the pirates will.

Piracy isn't killing the PC, stupid money hungry execs are with their desperate attempts to acquire what they perceive to be lost revenue, which is in fact revenue they probably never would have had even if it was impossible to pirate games.

 

Greetings!

How do you know that?
Parasitic freeloaders pirate games because they can, not because games are expensive.
Companies are just trying to figure out an un-breakable DRM system.
Will they succeed? Probably not, but they do have to try.

The current DRM mess is caused by the freeloaders actions, the companies actions are just a reaction.

 

Can someone answer me honestly and intelligently why artists and businesses shouldn't try to protect their work?

 

Whilst that might be true here is my word.

Yeah, it's sad pc game devs need to go to these kind of lengths in an effort to stop being robbed and if or when pirates crack the protection that will just take the mick out of the genuine supporters who buy the games, I totally understand them trying, but like others are saying, they could hold back really important pieces of the game that make it useless without them until you sign up, register & show proof of purchase & download through the devs login that comes with personalised encrypted data related to your registration before you can play it, I very much believe it is true they need to come up with new protections because every past effort has been cracked in no time.

Hell, even a registration with proof of purchase to unlock a very much needed portion of the games installed data which comes encrypted should be enough and expect would hardly cost anything to setup, might be a slight inconvenience but I for 1 really wouldn't mind, and for extra protection, that with a need for being connected would definately kill pc piracy, I'm so sure. They need to be aggressive to properly tackle the issue.

What the ubisoft guy said is so true we could easily use pirated games but I refuse to as I love gaming as an entertainment it's my favourite and want to help chip in so it progresses, not help it sufficate, so as long as idiots pirate games it is the idiots that help to bury pc gaming, I'm pretty sure if piracy for pc games dropped massively, pc would start getting some amazing exclusives too which it really needs, crysis was and is freaking awesome with current tech, xbox360, ps3 are like ancient pc's now.

I only buy games I'm very interested in, any I'm partially interested in I just wait for sales or try a demo to see if it's worth getting, anyone who pirates games must not give a damn if pc became undevelopped for, I hope ubisoft manage to make an unintrusive yet effective pirate unfriendly protection, I really do, the pc needs it.

If every keen gamer supported devs I'm cirtain we would not get sloppy ports from console and even get pc only exclusives, I pre-ordered stalker call of pripyat, I think that is an exclusive or at least made for pc and later being ported to console a dev using their nogging yaaaaay .

 

Companies have a right to protect their work, sure. But when it goes too far you end up in the absurd situation we are in now;
You dont actualy own the game you bought, you mearly paid for the right to play it, and with always online DRM systems like this, the company can take away your ability to play the game (at any time) should they choose to do so. You cannot play the game unless they say you can (constant internet required), so no taking the game away on a laptop somewhere. Even steam allows you to play offline after the first activation.

Hell, you are practically considered a pirate (or rather the purchaser is; not sure what the seller is refered to as) if you sell the game on to someone else when you no longer want it.

This all smells of companies taking the lazy way out of the situation so they can say to their bosses and shareholders (and i guess moreso their publishers) that they are doing something about piracy. All it really accomplishes is further punishing the legitimate consumer. We all know how easily cracked these new DRM systems are.

Hands up who has bought a game and then gotten a pirate copy or no CD crack so it becomes less hassle?


EDIT: Oh and i forgot to ask: What happens if your connection drops whilst playing?
I know mine does if i am downloading.

 

Also, to add to my earlier post.
If the protection on any game gets cracked properly, maybe devs should really start considering to do a patch to remove the hassling protections so the supporters get what they deserve rather than have to put up with annoying protections whilst pirates enjoy and we don't.

 

I really don't have a problem with DRM in principle, so long as it is above board and I know what I am letting myself in for. There are still people bitching about Steam, but I have had very few problems with it. This internet connection thing makes a lot of sense, and it gets around the thing about having limited number of installs. Now I can install the game as many times as I like.

 

Move to the countryside and call again

With you on that one, but the magic word here is "unintrusive".
And this word is the last one on the developers list.

 

I will see you all pissed off threating verbaly your pc when your connection drops and you lose your game in the middle of the action

 

That's right, they hate you and want to punish you. They don't want you to buy their games. And they have joined the ranks of MS, Apple and McDonalds and want to take away your freedoms.

Back to reality.

I'm pretty sure the only reason they are doing this is to protect their future sales, so in that respect you are right. However to say this is the lazy route? Copy protection has been around in my memory since Elite required the crazy viewfinder or Jet Set Willy had it's fold out code sheet, not forgetting the games that required a word to be entered from : "Page 17, Paragraph 2, line 2, word 4" from their manuals. You are talking about coders and businesses that have been around for at least 2 decades. Are you more experienced than them? You think they've had a 100% staff rotation and now the company is full of fools who know nothing of copy protection?

I hate DRM as much as the next person but don't hate the companies for trying to do something about it. Write to them with your suggestions of how you would stop piracy.

 

I said it has the effect of punishing you, i did not say they go out of their way to do that.
Its like the adverts before a film in the cinema telling you not to pirate it even though you are in the cinema viewing it having paid for it.

Ok so maybe Lazy was not the right way of putting it. I will say i think it is the wrong route for the reasons stated below.

Yes and these systems worked fine in the time before the internet where it was not as easy to find cracks/photo copies of manuals/code books etc.

You will note i never said that.
I do not, however, have to be an expert at DRM systems and technologies to see that the currently employed methods are not actually stopping the piracy but are placing more restrictions on people who actually bought the game.

Other than maybe lowering the prices to entice people to buy the games, i have no ideas or suggestions on what could be done to prevent piracy. Even that would not stop the people that will pirate a game just because they can though; Making it pretty much a non viable solution.

This new DRM system will probably be broken very close to the release of a game that uses it. When that happens the people with cracked copies will probably be able to play without a net connection whenever they want, the people that have a legitimatly bought copy will not.

I say probably because who knows. Maybe this will be the DRM solution that works and is never broken. I do doubt that will be the case though.

 

wow this blows
also, I had to check this list to remember what the hell Ubisoft published anyway.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubisoft_games

 

Agreed. It annoys the hell out of me when I have to watch the 2 minutes rolling text from the federation against copyright theft before the film starts, time to put the kettle on at least.

They didn't though, well, Elite did to some degree but eventually people could guess the codes, as for the manual or fold out card protection - useless. I remember one lad had written RRYBBYBRYBRRRYYBRY x 30 lines (?) for Jet Set Willy, and that was supposed to be a really complicated code set. As for the manuals, photocopiers had been invented by then.

Agreed they are placing more restrictions on honest gamers and it is crap, but like you said the current systems don't work so they need to try something else. The constant connection idea is almost like the publisher is looking over your shoulder the whole time you are playing, however I can bet that it is NOT a constant check. They have to say that so you don't get any ideas of disconnecting. I imagine the coders have thought of temperamental-connections. I would also bet that the check is performed very irregularly. As for connection drops - as and when this happens and the DRM tries to do it's check, it will likely give you a grace period and firstly assume you are innocent and had a connection drop - secondly when it tries to re-check 10 minutes later and your connection is still not there I expect it will drop you from the game after a pre-warning.

All of this is of course second-guessing. But I wouldn't for one second believe that if they really do implement this idea then they haven't thought about making it as unobtrusive as possible.

However, honestly, I don't even think they will do it. Maybe a version of this, but certainly not the OMFG-version that everyone is whining about!

Agreed, I think the Steam holiday sales showed that everyone has a price in mind for what they are willing to pay for games. Some are happy to pay full price, some half-price, some wait for the really good deals months after release. Speaking of Steam, why don't they trust Steam?! 95% of PC gamers like Steam so why can't they work with Steam to release their games?

We should send CardJoe to get the answers!

 

I was thinking about that. Why dont they want to use steam? I could only really think of a few reasons. The one that stood out the most in my mind was money. Maybe they want all of that £20-30 to goto them and none to valve?

Who knows what the actual reason is.

 

Terrible idea. My internet connection is slow enough without this added strain to my system. Also there is enough 'Big Brother' in real life, and I dont want someone else keeping tabs on what I do, when I do it. For all you know this system could be used to monitor all your pc use and target you with adds. Whats next? I have to call Ubisoft and pre-arrange a gaming session using my CD-KEY and Passport?

On the bright side atleast one dev is keeping dedicated servers (even if it is only for savegames)! If IW implemented this there would be no cloud server and my saves would be stored on another gamer's pc, and his saves on mine! Steam is brilliant, I buy all my games on it (when they match the prices of other retailers).

"At the moment, if Ubisoft release a PC version, essentially what you're getting is a console port and they rip you off. Rubbish games are killing profit." is what he should have said. He calls us all criminals and then expects us to buy his game?

 

Correct, now with BluRay, you can have real cinema feeling at home. 5 Min's of copyright warnings / update firmware advice and loadscreens for the effin menu.
Also: unlike DVD's BluRays don't continue where you left of. press the stop button for whatever reason, and you go through the whole 5 min's shenanigans again.
Makes me remember why I ripped DVD's and stripped the menu in the first place.

Steam sales...yeah, just bought Psychonauts for 2€ off Steam
Who said pricing doesn't attract customers?

Passphrase copy protection...I think I've got the photocopied handbook of "Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards" somewhere..lost the disks about two decades ago though.

 

**** off. I am done with this s***. I will not buy anything that has this kind of DRM. Ever. I'd rather crawl under a rock and live like a hermit. I never bought a single mp3 until I discovered DRM-free etailers.

 

Part of the first sentance from an article "Broken By Design" (Hot Hardware)
".... the corporate executives at the helm have the collective intelligence of a ham sandwich."

Had to get out the spare keyboard whilst my regular keyboard is made coffee free again.

 

This is a real shame, I was looking forward to ACII.

I've never pirated a game, I never will as I find them good value for money (generally because I buy games months down the line at bargain prices ).

This action means I will definitely not buy a game that I was actually intending to buy near release date, the only chance I will buy it now is if further down the line this nonsensical internet based control is rescinded.

I do not want my internet on all of the time and if their servers go down then I wouldn't be able to play a game that I own.

I don't care how reliable their infrastructure may or may not be I fundamentally disagree with paying to own something which I do not have the ultimate control over as to whether I can actually use it.

 

well i was just thinking of buying Settlers 7 but this DRM thing NO WAY i`m always on the go in airports and i want a game thats myne , all myne!!!!!!! get it UBISOFT, i certainly don`t need an overlord on top of me.