In January, Ubisoft revealed plans to streamline its DRM policy across all PC titles, making players log in to Ubisoft servers to authenticate before playing. Although it sounded dubious at first, Ubisoft's Brent Wilkinson assuaged our fears, explaining the new process would allow gamers to play on any computer and continue a game's progress through a cloud-based save system.
According to PC Gamer, tests of upcoming Ubisoft PC titles Assassin's Creed 2 and Settlers VII proved how flawed the system actually is. If, for whatever reason, your connection experiences an issue (be it router reboot or a momentary pause in connectivity) the software will immediately boot you to the main menu of the game. Oh, and all that progress you made after a previous save or checkpoint? That's gone.
But that isn't the worst part. If Ubisoft's "Master Servers" encounter any errors, then all players with working connections logged in to the servers will not be able to play their games until the servers are back online, and lose all unsaved progress if this scenario occurs during gameplay.
There is something to be said about protecting your property from rampant PC piracy, but when draconian concepts such as Ubisoft's new DRM policy are in place, the publisher seemingly punishes the players who do support its wares. The cloud concept is great, but not at the expense of saving every thirty seconds out of fear that a server on the other side of the world might decide to act up.
[Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
Reader Comments (111)
Posted: Feb 17th 2010 9:12PM Ben79 said
after iwnet I present you online save game.. way to go ! Seriously next step is what?? I'll be able to buy a virtual copy on a third world server and stream my game online without downloading it at all !
Way to go ... keep going ! oh btw this crap would be hacked 2 days after the release.
Way to go ... keep going ! oh btw this crap would be hacked 2 days after the release.
Posted: Feb 17th 2010 10:40PM Cheesus Crust said
Then why does my 2 YEAR OLD $160 48501GB play everything at MAX 1080p just fine? You fail troll.
Posted: Feb 18th 2010 12:11AM BananaBoat said
@jackal - I applaud ye good sir for an informative post made amidst trollery the likes of which hasn't been seen in over a day on Joystiq.
Posted: Feb 18th 2010 12:46AM twocows said
No problem, I'll just be sure to not buy any more Ubisoft games until they stop supporting crap like this.
Oh, but that doesn't mean at all that I won't play them. No, I'll play them, just without paying for them. Whether this means leeching off a friend who owns it or some other means doesn't really matter; just that I won't be giving any more money to Ubisoft until they cut this crap.
And yeah, just my money alone isn't going to put a lot of hurt on them. On the other hand, I'm sure I'm not the only one considering this, either.
Oh, but that doesn't mean at all that I won't play them. No, I'll play them, just without paying for them. Whether this means leeching off a friend who owns it or some other means doesn't really matter; just that I won't be giving any more money to Ubisoft until they cut this crap.
And yeah, just my money alone isn't going to put a lot of hurt on them. On the other hand, I'm sure I'm not the only one considering this, either.
Posted: Feb 18th 2010 1:17AM bigE said
Seems Ubisoft's games have become an instant no buy. I really wonder who thought this would be a good idea, can't they just implement steamworks into all their games? That system seems to work OK.
Posted: Feb 18th 2010 2:06AM rullers said
Hilarious. Best part? People will still buy it.
Posted: Feb 18th 2010 4:30AM TeoV said
When it comes to fixing game prices, it does.
Posted: Feb 18th 2010 4:32AM TeoV said
wrong reply
Posted: Feb 18th 2010 9:09AM (Unverified) said
I wasn't actually planning on playing this game as it's not my sort of thing, but having read what a bunch of blockheads Ubisoft are being I think I'll make a point of bittorrenting a pirate version.
Posted: Feb 18th 2010 10:45AM MasterYogurt said
This will suck when Ubisoft shuts down the server...
Posted: Feb 26th 2010 7:43PM Gco said
@jackal
that...was beautiful...lol
that...was beautiful...lol
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