Several PC titles from Ubisoft will go dark next week thanks to the company's strict DRM.
Yes, we agree that piracy sucks, unless you're Rovio of course who opens their arms wide to naughty "fans". But for the legitimate customer who must pay the price for the thievery of others, DRM sucks even more, especially when it's embedded in our systems or gives publishers the power to disable our favorite titles with a flick of a switch.
This latter scenario is apparently what will happen to a good number of Ubisoft titles next week according to the company itself. In a community letter released this week, Ubisoft said that it will be transitioning the hosting of many of its online services from a third-party data center to a new facility starting next Tuesday, February 7. This will have an impact on the online portion of a majority of its games for an undisclosed amount on time.
But here's the real kicker: there will also be a number of PC games that will be inaccessible online and offline including Tom Clancy's HAWX 2, Might & Magic: Heroes 6 and The Settlers 7. Mac gamers will lose access to Assassin's Creed, Splinter Cell Conviction and The Settlers. That said, these games will be rendered useless for an undisclosed amount of time.
The downtime may be short, but the fact that Ubisoft customers shell out loads of cash for software they can't even use is disappointing. Unfortunately, Ubisoft isn't the only publisher practicing this type of software control, following the likes of Blizzard and a few others that require an online connection to play a single-player game. Piracy isn't the only thing killing the PC gaming sector -- it's the hoops legit customers have to jump through too, thus pushing them to play the same titles on consoles (if they're available, that is).
This week Ubisoft also said that Uplay on PC will go dark during the transition. However, PC games not previously listed will remain playable offline if already connected at least once via Uplay. But if they haven't been activated through Uplay, they too will be locked tight like a bank vault. So far there's no indication of when players will regain access once the Ubisoft "blackout" goes into effect. Anno 2070, Assassin's Creed Revelations, Driver San Francisco, Just Dance 3 and The Settlers Online will not be affected, remaining fully playable online and offline, Ubisoft said.
"We apologize to our customers for the inconvenience," the company said. "This move ultimately will help us improve the maintenance of our infrastructure and deliver better uptime and greatly improved services for our customers."
While DRM is understandable, has it gotten better over the years, or is it getting out of hand?
if drm doesn't stop piracy, then what is the point in it?
Piracy might not be good, but sometimes DRM can be a pain in the ass. A smarter solution is needed that won't unintentionally screw with paying customers.
Piracy might not be good, but sometimes DRM can be a pain in the ass. A smarter solution is needed that won't unintentionally screw with paying customers.
if drm doesn't stop piracy, then what is the point in it?
I've bought dozens of games off Steam, Direct2Drive(formerly), amazon, etc, but I don't use their services. After I bought them, I found a way to download them else where. I want to have the entire game at my disposal without the need for online downloading, verification, etc. I don't always have the internet, and a couple times a year I do a fresh Windows install. Without certain torr sites, I would have stopped buying games long ago.
I know people will disagree with my approach, and they have their right to their opinion just like I have a right to mine.
Happy customers=more money
really can't understand these baboons at the publishers...
DRM only hurts the paying customer and restricts the paying market.
Many cracked games will run faster than the paid game. generally a game that is a little laggy will run smooth when cracked/ pirated. that is because many current DRM's will run continuous checking of the memory and other integrity checks to make sure you are not bypassing any of the DRM. Though for the check to be done, the DRM tool has to be included with the game. DRM free copies have none of this and thus more stability and faster performance when the CPU is the bottleneck on performance.
it will happen at some point, i mean there are private wow servers, but you will have to wait quite a few months before it will be possible.
im waiting on that too, but thats more me not wanting my gameplay effected by the auction house, or the fact that instead of just a few farmers, the whole player base will practice farming at some point, and they have said they will limit item drop rates based on the auction house.
I meet total Not less than 15 times server down since Dec 15. ( average ~24hours each downtime )
Check the anno2070 facebook page. See how many time the "Apologize for server downtime "
Uplay down lah, Server down lah, Harddisk problem.....
The offline play you mention? Sorry, no such thing. The is a button - offline access - but never worked for Anno 2070, they even now close the Anno 2070 forum to stop people complain....
DRM is ok. Company like UBISOFT is Pirate, took our money, and dont give us the access to "SINGLE PLAYER GAME" we purchased.
I think someone in UBISOFT is trying to kill themself.
I would never spent a single cent on this bs company.
If I owned any of these games and would suffer this outage, when the alternative is to download a cracked copy and suffer no such thing, it raises the question, should I have just gone the pirate route in the first place?
http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2010/02/19
ignoring UBISOFT for just this reason.
Its about time others boycotted companies doing this DRM this stupidity.
Once upn a time internet users had a backbone.