Earlier this week, PC Gamer got its hands on a retail copy of Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed 2 for PC, only to discover that its digital rights management was a bit ... shall we say, "restrictive?" Aside from the initial online registration procedure, the game allegedly requires a persistent connection to the online game server in order to continue stabbing fools. In practice, this means if you were to lose the connection during play, you'd lose your progress and, if and when the connection was re-established, you'd be kicked backed to the last checkpoint -- not exactly diggable management, right?
Ars Technica followed up with Ubisoft on the DRM issue (that also affects The Settlers 7), which said, "As long as you do not quit the game, the game will continue to try to reconnect for an unlimited time ... once the game is able to reconnect, you will immediately be returned to your game ... AC2 reconnects you at the last checkpoint ... There are many checkpoints so you're back to the point where you got disconnected in no time."
Ubisoft also assured that the required internet connection speed is supposedly minimal. "Our online services platform will require a maximum of 50kbps of available bandwidth, so even with the slowest connection, gameplay won't be affected," an Ubisoft representative told Ars. That said, it seems that gamers lacking an online connection (or, say, those on a plane or in the armed forces, as Ars points out) may be out of luck if they're hoping to play Assassin's Creed 2 on PC.
Reader Comments (102)
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:08AM (Unverified) said
Honestly, I love giving my money to good developers in support, but stuff like this just makes pirating games more appealing so I dont have to deal with troublesome DRM.
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:46AM CynicalStrike said
What an impeccable business model: treat your paying customers like criminals under constant surveillance and in turn practically force them to pirate a DRM-free copy. Well played Ubisoft.
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:52AM aughscreennames said
Ubisoft is not going to go under, thats a crazy scenario.
What will happen though is that the servers wont be able to handle the traffic and nobody will be able to play the game. Its guaranteed, it happens every time a game company tries some new stupid idea that involves the internet. They dont want to get too many servers because thats a waste of money, so instead they get the bare minimum and let us be the guinea pigs to see how many they actually need.
Nobody will be playing this game on release day.
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What will happen though is that the servers wont be able to handle the traffic and nobody will be able to play the game. Its guaranteed, it happens every time a game company tries some new stupid idea that involves the internet. They dont want to get too many servers because thats a waste of money, so instead they get the bare minimum and let us be the guinea pigs to see how many they actually need.
Nobody will be playing this game on release day.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 12:10PM XaiaX said
Hey, Ubisoft, remember when you released Prince of Persia without any DRM, and I bought it and played it a bunch? Then you didn't release the Epilogue for the PC, and I was just a little annoyed since it apparently doesn't add much.
Remember all those other Ubisoft games I bought on Steam?
Yeah, this ain't gonna be one of them. I already rented it for the 360, so I have no compulsion to even bother. It's just going down the memory hole.
Hopefully it cost you a lot of money.
Also, if you want to make them really feel it, if you do actually buy the PC version (masochist) make sure to call up their tech support line every single time you have an issue. That stuff ain't free, and they'll run the numbers on sales vs. time spent dealing with tech issues. That's more effective than piracy, since they can see "oh, we had X sales, but we lost $Y due to support costs".
Hell, just call 'em every day.
Maybe I'll pick it up on Steam *when* they remove this idiotic DRM, and it's $5. I was set to pay full price since I picked up the last one for $10 and enjoyed it (did the same thing with Mass Effect / ME2) but not with this crap.
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Remember all those other Ubisoft games I bought on Steam?
Yeah, this ain't gonna be one of them. I already rented it for the 360, so I have no compulsion to even bother. It's just going down the memory hole.
Hopefully it cost you a lot of money.
Also, if you want to make them really feel it, if you do actually buy the PC version (masochist) make sure to call up their tech support line every single time you have an issue. That stuff ain't free, and they'll run the numbers on sales vs. time spent dealing with tech issues. That's more effective than piracy, since they can see "oh, we had X sales, but we lost $Y due to support costs".
Hell, just call 'em every day.
Maybe I'll pick it up on Steam *when* they remove this idiotic DRM, and it's $5. I was set to pay full price since I picked up the last one for $10 and enjoyed it (did the same thing with Mass Effect / ME2) but not with this crap.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 12:26PM TofuSama said
And I was going to buy this game just because of how much I liked AC1. At home during the summer only dial-up is available, and at university I don't play offline games connected to the internet so my computer doesn't try to eat through my bandwidth limitations. So yeah, pirating this seems like the right option since buying the game wouldn't allow me to play it. Nice one, Ubisoft, nice one.
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 12:32PM (Unverified) said
WHY DON"T YOU GO TRY TO PIRATE STAR TREK BECAUSE OF ITS DRM.
WAIT YOU CAN'T
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WAIT YOU CAN'T
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 12:28PM BrianH said
either way, ill just stop buying there products, because all of them will have it.
i have no interest in having to go through runarounds, no matter how easy, to play my 50 dollar games.
I'm also the type of person who games offline regularly, so that cuts the value of this game in half for me.
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i have no interest in having to go through runarounds, no matter how easy, to play my 50 dollar games.
I'm also the type of person who games offline regularly, so that cuts the value of this game in half for me.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 2:51PM BananaBoat said
Sometimes I get the feeling that they're intentionally driving people toward the console version of a game, so that they eventually won't have to make the PC version of a game any more.
I can't think of any other explanation for them requiring you to be online at all frickin times to play your single player game on the PC.
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I can't think of any other explanation for them requiring you to be online at all frickin times to play your single player game on the PC.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:11AM (Unverified) said
What happens if this doesn't sell well because of ridiculous DRM, but also doesn't get pirated because of the DRM. (it will be cracked in time, but this is a "what if")
They would of course say "PC Gaming is dying."
We just can't win.
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They would of course say "PC Gaming is dying."
We just can't win.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:21AM aristokrat said
You're right, the only solution is to pirate it heavily, a la the Spore/SecuROM situation. If the piracy rate is MUCH higher for AC2 than the "background" rate of piracy, the only explanation (to a logical person, of which there is hopefully at least one in a position of power at Ubi) is that the pirated version offered better features, such as not being hobbled with ridiculous DRM.
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:12AM (Unverified) said
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:16AM R Planteer said
Watching that pink haired girl is a guilty pleasure, for sure...
Oh right, pirates. Arg.
In all seriousness, I think EA's solution is the best so far. While not perfect, offering a bunch of small little incentives for buying the game new is a lot smarter than crappy DRM. Its still possible to pirate, for sure, but it does make it a lot harder, and helps you feel good about your purchase, especially with single player games.
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Oh right, pirates. Arg.
In all seriousness, I think EA's solution is the best so far. While not perfect, offering a bunch of small little incentives for buying the game new is a lot smarter than crappy DRM. Its still possible to pirate, for sure, but it does make it a lot harder, and helps you feel good about your purchase, especially with single player games.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 6:12PM BrosefStalin said
@R
Except that all the content for new games is pirated too. It does nothing to the PC market, since you can't really resell PC games anyway. The only thing it does is screw over console gamers who wanted to buy it used.
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Except that all the content for new games is pirated too. It does nothing to the PC market, since you can't really resell PC games anyway. The only thing it does is screw over console gamers who wanted to buy it used.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:28AM Maleboligia said
Despite this stupidity, they know it'll be cracked right away. All they are doing is stopping lazy pirates. Nothing will ever make me switch from PC to console though, I don't care how dumb it gets, playing an FPS with a controller is far more stupid to me than any imaginable DRM:)
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 12:20PM (Unverified) said
No one knows if it will be cracked right away. Hackers are not geniuses.
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 2:38PM ferrikstar said
@Please
Just wait. Hackers are geniuses. Crack could be on release day, or a week later.
All I know, is that it's not worth me spending my hard earned teenager money, to support Ubisoft's game. Ill just pirate it when they crack it, beacuse the DRM gives nothing positive to the consumer (Me). I beat AC1 on vacation with no internet at all, and I will do that with AC2 shortly. (Without necessary internet, not on vacation)
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Just wait. Hackers are geniuses. Crack could be on release day, or a week later.
All I know, is that it's not worth me spending my hard earned teenager money, to support Ubisoft's game. Ill just pirate it when they crack it, beacuse the DRM gives nothing positive to the consumer (Me). I beat AC1 on vacation with no internet at all, and I will do that with AC2 shortly. (Without necessary internet, not on vacation)
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:17AM aristokrat said
Though I appreciate the irony in needing to have an internet connection to pirate a game because you don't like it's constant need for an internet connection, I still will whole-heartedly support anyone who wants to pirate this game. I don't care if you're trying to make a point or not; you'll become one of the statistics either way.
This is exactly the kind of ridiculous bullshit that was talked about in the that Unconventional Wisdom paper someone linked to yesterday. This is an example of DRM that turns legitimate customers into pirates, which is the worst kind.
If Microsoft spends more money on anti-piracy measures than anybody, and their software is the most pirated software anyway, shouldn't anybody with a brain realize that continuing to waste time (and therefore money) on outlandish DRM solutions is just that? If they instead spent the money they paid to develop this DRM on promotional materials, they'd probably make even more money in the long run.
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This is exactly the kind of ridiculous bullshit that was talked about in the that Unconventional Wisdom paper someone linked to yesterday. This is an example of DRM that turns legitimate customers into pirates, which is the worst kind.
If Microsoft spends more money on anti-piracy measures than anybody, and their software is the most pirated software anyway, shouldn't anybody with a brain realize that continuing to waste time (and therefore money) on outlandish DRM solutions is just that? If they instead spent the money they paid to develop this DRM on promotional materials, they'd probably make even more money in the long run.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:22AM aristokrat said
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:19AM litrock said
One of the big plusses of PC gaming is the thousands of games that aren't on any console, smaller and more esoteric genres that just don't see a lot of play on a 360 (or its competitors). That said, yeah, these console-developed games are less hassle-filled on the console. Go figure. S'why I buy my console games on console and my PC games on PC. It keeps everything tidy, and gives me the best range of games to play.
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:19AM philmcfail said
Why do people who buy games (on PC) the ones who suffer? This is a legit question :P I mean what does DRM usually do that is such a hassle? Do you have to connect to their servers every time you play or something?
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:20AM Gibbeynator said
So basically, Ubisoft's response to concerns about games being dropped mid-play is "Oh, boohoo..."
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 1:40PM Solar Jetman said
If this was twenty years ago, Ubisoft would be publishing Door games, and the lost connection would involve shouting at parents to not pick up the damn phone when there's a post-it on it.
Ain't progress grand.
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Ain't progress grand.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:21AM Cranky Penguin said
Let's not forget we're supposed to pay $10 more than the standard PC game price of $50 for the privilege of being monitored and annoyed like this. This needs to fail and fail hard so nobody tries it again, I hope it is cracked on release.
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:23AM Drakkenfyre said
For every heavy DRM'd game like this there are 5 that aren't, and you can't get on a console.
Maybe you missed my comment on your last "pc games suck and mods are stupid" comment, but you know all those class-based games and squad-based shooters that are so popular now? Guess who started them?
Team Fortress and CounterStrike.
Guess what they were?
Mods.
So when you get bored of a game after a few years, you can just put it away. PC gamers? You just download a mod and can play it in a whole new way. Oh, and our servers don't get shut down, either, unless the company is being a dick, and requires centralized servers for their games that are simply console ports.
Unreal Tournament? Came out in '99, people still playing. Unreal Tournament 2004? Came out in 2003, people still playing it.
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Maybe you missed my comment on your last "pc games suck and mods are stupid" comment, but you know all those class-based games and squad-based shooters that are so popular now? Guess who started them?
Team Fortress and CounterStrike.
Guess what they were?
Mods.
So when you get bored of a game after a few years, you can just put it away. PC gamers? You just download a mod and can play it in a whole new way. Oh, and our servers don't get shut down, either, unless the company is being a dick, and requires centralized servers for their games that are simply console ports.
Unreal Tournament? Came out in '99, people still playing. Unreal Tournament 2004? Came out in 2003, people still playing it.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:23AM MystileArmor said
I bet the irony of this game is that it'll sell like shit and be one of the most pirated games out there...
And then they'll blame it all on pirates! This whole DRM thing is turning into a bit of a vicious circle. Do they really not understand that the majority of people that pirate games weren't necessarily going to buy the game in the first place? Now you got potential buyers, who don't want to f*ck around with DRM, pirating the game!
It's not rocket science Ubisoft!!
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And then they'll blame it all on pirates! This whole DRM thing is turning into a bit of a vicious circle. Do they really not understand that the majority of people that pirate games weren't necessarily going to buy the game in the first place? Now you got potential buyers, who don't want to f*ck around with DRM, pirating the game!
It's not rocket science Ubisoft!!
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 1:32PM (Unverified) said
Nothing you can do about, if you protest with your wallet and not buy AC2 on pc Ubisoft will just stop supporting the platform. If you buy the game you get treated like a criminal and if you don't buy it you risk losing support for the platform.
Lose lose.
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Lose lose.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:30AM acefondu said
I think new DRM causes more pirating because it spurs the interest of hackers bored with the same old codes.
PC gaming is in sad disarray. I bought Bioshock 2 on PC because the DRM wasn't THAT bad along with Stalker: CoP which to my knowledge doesn't have any DRM. But what Ubi is pulling here I just can't tolerate. I don't always have my internet on, plus I run wireless so it cuts in and out when I'm not looking. This is just inexcusable.
I just don't understand what these companies are thinking. Their game will get pirated anyway, they are only hurting the honest consumer with lame restrictions.
Why can't they model their efforts alongside Valve and Blizzard? BTW Starcraft 2 will own my soul.
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PC gaming is in sad disarray. I bought Bioshock 2 on PC because the DRM wasn't THAT bad along with Stalker: CoP which to my knowledge doesn't have any DRM. But what Ubi is pulling here I just can't tolerate. I don't always have my internet on, plus I run wireless so it cuts in and out when I'm not looking. This is just inexcusable.
I just don't understand what these companies are thinking. Their game will get pirated anyway, they are only hurting the honest consumer with lame restrictions.
Why can't they model their efforts alongside Valve and Blizzard? BTW Starcraft 2 will own my soul.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:39AM Gibbeynator said
DRM wasn't made to stop piracy, it was made to kill the resale market.
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 11:44AM Shagittarius said
There really hasn't been a PC resell market for quite some time now.
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Posted: Feb 19th 2010 12:28PM Vidikron said
"DRM wasn't made to stop piracy, it was made to kill the resale market."
Sure it was made to stop piracy, it just hasn't been successful. Initially games just had CDs keys and disc checks. But given that there used to be no limits on installs these games could be resold. That was the start of DRM and was it definitely aimed at piracy. These days DRM may have the additional goal of killing the used game market, but it started with trying to kill piracy.
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Sure it was made to stop piracy, it just hasn't been successful. Initially games just had CDs keys and disc checks. But given that there used to be no limits on installs these games could be resold. That was the start of DRM and was it definitely aimed at piracy. These days DRM may have the additional goal of killing the used game market, but it started with trying to kill piracy.
Posted: Feb 19th 2010 12:58PM BrianH said
the PC used sales game market is already dead.
But they have moved to consoles now, sony with the multiplayer codes and EA with the 10 dollar thing.
The next step is death to the console used market, and why not?
just like everything else, it was tested on the PC to be useful, time to go full scale.
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But they have moved to consoles now, sony with the multiplayer codes and EA with the 10 dollar thing.
The next step is death to the console used market, and why not?
just like everything else, it was tested on the PC to be useful, time to go full scale.
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