Feb
23

Ubisoft: Stupid is as stupid does…

13 Comments

More on Ubisoft’s ass-hattery:

What happens if Ubisoft take the DRM servers offline for maintenance, or suffer a technical breakdown?
In the case of a server failure their games will be taken offline, and you’ll be unable to play them. “The idea is to avoid that point as much as possible, but we have been clear from the beginning that the game does need an internet connection for you to play. So if it goes down for real for a little while, then yeah, you can’t play.??”

Are Ubisoft trying to kill PC gaming?
One theory states that piracy is such a problem on PC that they’d prefer to move their customers to the Xbox or PS3. Their spokesperson disagrees. “No, we’re not trying to kill the PC market. Are we frustrated by the PC market? I think everyone is. In the end it all comes back to one single truth: piracy is a big, huge, hairy problem. It’s a market that suffered a lot because of piracy, and we’re all just trying to figure out what we think is the best way to deal with it.”

Do Ubi believe this DRM is unhackable?
They accept that it’s all DRM’s fate to be eventually hacked, explaining that internally, they’ve already talked of a timescale for how long their games will be protected by it. But, they believe that it’s secure enough for them. “We wouldn’t do it if we didn’t believe in it. The guys who designed it believe in it. Do we think that it’s the one system that God has sent onto earth that will never be cracked by anybody ever? We can’t guarantee that, but we believe in it.??”

Does this mean that Ubi are dissatisfied with other online rights management platforms like Steam?
There’s a hint of that, although Ubi are keen to praise Valve’s online platform. “We think what Steam has done is amazingly valid, but aren’t Steam games cracked amazingly fast? It’s not a question of dissatisfaction, it’s a question of ‘we’ve got another idea, another way of implementing it, and we’re going for it’.”

Seems like they don’t get it.

I will not be buying another Ubisoft game, including Silent Hunter 5, until they find some other solution.

What they’ve done in this interview is admit that this will be hacked eventually…but hey, they “believe in it”. Seems like they need to just accept the reality of piracy instead of believing in short term solutions that just piss off customers.

D out.

Posted in Editorial
13 Comments Posted by Darren

13 Responses to "Ubisoft: Stupid is as stupid does…"

  • Rob says:
    February 23, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    Same here. I was really looking forward to Assassin’s Creed 2 as well. However, gamers have never had a problem with not having enough choices and I have a list ten miles long of other games I want to buy or missed out on previously. I can wait this DRM out. If it never goes away, oh well.

  • Rob says:
    February 23, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    … also, don’t you miss the good old days when DRM was simply a rootkit that attempted to control and monitor your activity, but, you know, still actually let you play the game?

  • ScytheNoire says:
    February 23, 2010 at 1:58 pm

    They don’t get it. DRM only punishes the customer and keeps people from buying your product. This has happened over and over again. Know how to get people to buy? Make a good product that has online features. DRM always fails, it’s always broken, and it has never worked in all the years it’s been around. But these corporations are run by moronic lawyers who don’t have a damn clue about their audience market. Keep on failing Ubisoft, EA, Activision, etc. We’ll keep on mocking you.

  • Nelson says:
    February 23, 2010 at 6:47 pm

    FWIW, I have friends who work in the game industry who think the same way. They understand the copy protection only works for a few days before it’s hacked, but they also believe those few days are enough to secure significant revenue. Also they believe that by making the barrier to copy a game higher, it encourages people to buy the games.

    I don’t find the online-only requiremen too onerous. I’ve never once used Steam’s offline mode, for instance. Maybe I’d feel differently if I owned a gaming laptop. What worries me is that these online DRM solutions will destroy the game’s historical value. I predict there will be no way to play these games legally in 10 years, maybe even 5. Which is a damn shame. Then again the Apple ][ retro gaming scene is pretty much entirely about playing pirated games with the copy protection deneutered. People will find a way.

  • Jaxom92 says:
    February 23, 2010 at 8:57 pm

    What is most… depressing, for lack of a better word, is that if your response to Ubisoft’s draconian DRM is widespread enough to affect sales, the most likely response will be that the DRM isn’t severe enough. Why? Because dwindling sales for PC games have been blamed mostly on piracy (and the dominance of console gaming). So if Ubisoft sees a continued loss of sales, what’s to indicate if those losses are from the economic pressure we as gamers have put on them for their DRM, or the continued practice of piracy? The glass-half-empty view would predict continued and more strict DRM practices due to the lack of sales.

    I will do anything in my power to legally purchase a game that I want to play, but if I hit substantial road blocks from the very company I’m trying to do business with, then I’m going to do one of two things. First, I’ll not play their game. And I’ll recommend that others don’t as well. This is the most likely response. The second is that if I really, really want to play the game. Like I’ll die if I don’t play, I’ll get it illegally. Yes, I think it’s ethically wrong to pirate, but I also think that it is wrong to make your games unplayable due to DRM. Either response, the game company loses.

  • PexCorrh says:
    February 25, 2010 at 1:36 pm

    I don’t really understand why people are up in arms about Ubi, but don’t care at all that Starcraft II has exactly the same DRM, and can be demonstrated today. Will there be a mass Starcraft II boycott as well?

  • Dblade says:
    February 25, 2010 at 5:00 pm

    Darren, the big flaw in this is that you assume with no DRM enough people will buy it legit to make it worthwhile. Yes piracy happens, but a lot of times it makes the game unprofitable to bother releasing. Seriously, look at the PSP for evidence of this-the piracy on that system has choked the flow of games, and people don’t support it over the DS.

  • Darren says:
    February 26, 2010 at 9:12 am

    @Dblade: The point is that the only people who encounter DRM are paying cutomers. Pirates never encounter the DRM of software. And…there have plenty of examples of games without DRM selling very well….Sins of a Solar empire being a perfect example….and most of Blizzard’s gmes.

  • Akely says:
    February 26, 2010 at 10:27 pm

    I’d like to point out that our copies of Windows do not have copy protection. Instead they have a activation code. That is also a copy protection. sure, the OS get pirated, hacked and what not. But it is a copy protection that works pretty well. Sure there is the only one machine per key, and other things. But I’d much rather have the problem of having to contact UBI if I’d have to do a re-install or something. Perhaps it’s better for UBI to quit PC games. It would be better for Darren’s blood pressure, that’s for sure. :-)

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