Splinter Cell: Conviction, future Ubisoft PC games to use internet-based DRM

by Ben Gilbert on Mar 1st 2010 4:00PM

Assassin's Creed 2 has yet to even arrive on PC, but ever since PC Gamer got an early hands-on with the final retail version, Ubisoft's ... somewhat cumbersome (to be very polite) internet-based DRM has caused a bit of a worry for some gamers. As it would seem, regardless of consumer complaint, the publisher is allegedly moving ahead with plans to implement the anti-piracy software in many of its upcoming titles.

Softpedia reports that an Ubi rep (speaking with PC Gamer) has confirmed Splinter Cell: Conviction, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands, Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic, and the recently announced Ghost Recon: Future Soldier to employ the DRM tools. The publisher also specifically pointed out that different titles handle the loss of data differently -- for instance, AC2 depends on checkpoints and The Settlers 7 saves wherever you last were -- though PC Gamer supposedly pressed for an answer to the question on all our minds: Will every PC game from Ubisoft in the future have this DRM?

Cryptically, the publisher replied, "It's hard for us to say, yes, from now until the day that we all die all of our games are going to include this but most will." While we can appreciate the efforts of publishers to diminish piracy of their games, we can't help but wonder what the logic is in seemingly frustrating your already dwindling legitimate consumer base with measures targeting the folks who probably wouldn't purchase games anyway.

[Via Shacknews]

Source

Tags: digital-distribution, digital-rights-management, drm, piracy, splinter-cell-conviction, ubisoft

Reader Comments (93)

I don't get why these publications and such when they talk to these guys don't say

"DON'T YOU REALIZE THIS IS STUPID AND YOU SHOULD NOT DO THIS?"

instead of just letting themselves be mouthpieces and part of PR.

Journalists. JOYSTIQ INCLUDED, you're a bunch of cowards and failures as real journalists for doing that for all these companies.

You know what you are? You're shills. That's EXACTLY what you are. Cooperate shills, and you should be ashamed.

But I guess it's okay to not have any journalistic integrity anymore, as long as those website ads get some hits, eh?

Hey they still have some integrity. How many other sites refuse to accept free travel expenses from a company attending an event (because, "it makes it harder to view their products objectively")?

How many other sites give away every bit of cool swag they get to their readers?

They may not be hard hitting all the time, but I wouldn't say they've lost their integrity. Maybe they just don't want to rock the boat too hard for fear of losing out on getting review copies of games early and all the awesome included bonuses.

TOTALLY agree OTIS.

While Joystiq is not the worst offender by any means, there remains NO PUBLICATION/BLOG/ETC that I have heard of that actually stands up to these morons and their draconian bullshit

There's really no need for them to be the voice of common sense and burn those bridges. You do have a brain after all, and you're able to read and realize something is ridiculous. They're able to read the comments section on absolutely every single outlet that runs their story. I can pretty much guarantee you that not a single one is overall positive about this news.

It's about integrity. It just shows journalistic cowardice to let your readers do all the work, and then simply act as a mouthpiece free PR person for free stuff. It's not just this. Look at any interview, or ANYTHING on any of these sites, or magazines. A bunch of cowards. Nearly any interview is pretty much "So, why you are so awesome?" "Not even an answer to what you asked." "So here's another question." "Doesn't attempt to get an answer" "AWESOME!!!"

Joystiq, Kotaku, IGN, Gamespot, etc.

You're all spineless shills.

I'm puzzled how they would do this and yet released a patch later for Far Cry 2 which removed the DRM. : /

I'm just curious, because I see you do this often, but here's my question: Why do you post separate comments in the article? Most people would just reply to themselves if they had something new to add, even if it was off topic from their original post.

Gee, hadn't read this weeks ago on PC gaming sites.

Once again, publishers need to focus on who is legitimately buying the product, not the people who will never pay for it.

I legitimately buy all my PC games, usually on day one. I guess from now on I won't be playing any Ubisoft games. They may curb piracy with this online DRM, but I think they will hurt sales far more than they will hurt pirates.

Yeah, my brother is so ticked, that he doesn't want to play the game period, not even renting it for our 360. I still would like to play the game and maybe I will just rent it. I really wanted to play it on the PC though and support the platform and encourage more developers to bring console games to it.

Oh the Mock outrage of the game site dweebs. I really couldn't care less about this. If they make a great game and I want it, I'll buy it. This doesn't change shit. Well, it might keep me from pirating their just-average games, but I'm not going to cry about it. Be honest, that's why MOSt of you are bitching about this.

1. it's been a decade or more since I had concerns that "but my internet might go down".

2. I know they're not online only games, but plenty of online only games...require you to be you know.. ONLINE, in order to play them.

I'm surprised it took a company this long to finally figure out that forcing people to be connected in order to play is a pretty good way to make sure they're not stealing your shit.

"Be honest, that's why most of you are bitching about this. "

That's BS. Why would the pirates care? This DRM will be patched out in no time and it will be pirated like every other game. The people that are bitching are people that were considering buying the game, but don't want to put up with crap like this.

And have you even read up on this specific DRM? While you may not have had any majors issues with internet outages, lots of people get temporary blips in their connection. Even a short outage will boot you out of the game. That's just inexcusable for a single player game.

There are plenty of online games. But you pay per month and you get content per month. If they turn off the servers, you of course stop paying and it's a fair deal.

But if I pay $60 up front and get a game that stops working after a while because they take the servers down, then I got a bad deal. Because previously I could pay $60 (or even $50 or less) and get a game I could play forever (within reason).

I still play Syndicate! Try that with this!

If they want to reduce the value of the game by taking away something I used to get, then they are going to have to lower the price commensurately before I consider it.

Just a few months back my internet randomly went down for day. A few months before that it had also been down for several hours. I've also had times where it will randomly die out for a second and then restart. All of these are rare for me, but they do still happen.

A good friend of mine has it even worse. We couldn't even chat on AIM without his net constantly screwing up. He's with AT&T, so it's not like it's some no-name company with a bad internet. I think his problem is more related to his old screwy phone lines though (since he has DSL).

Let's also not forget people who are stuck with internet via satellite. If you've ever been to Natalia Texas or any of the cities surrounding San Antonio, then you'll know what I mean. The people who had it via satellite had to deal with speed throttling (they could download say 100mb, then it would go slow for 1-2 hours, then they could download another 100mb, then it'd go slow...). They also had to find something else to do anytime it got too stormy or the clouds were bad since that would interfere with their connection.

Now, if any of these things were to happen while you were in game and you hadn't had the chance to save yet, you could easily lose 30 minutes of work or more. Anyone with a touchy internet connection will likely be saving every 5 minutes for fear of losing all their work.

Pirates will find a way around this. I can't think of a single major release of a PC game that hasn't been cracked/patched/pirated in some way. I can only think of one way to stop pirating, and that would be to hardcode a unique serial onto each disc so that only 1 serial will work for 1 copy of a game, but even that could turn into a nightmare.

HELLO PIRACY !!!!!!!!!

I'm really not that surprised. Afterall, anyone who surfs the internet a fair amount is bound to find that plenty of comments revolve around the right to pirate digital media*. Even sites like joystiq has a fair number of "I should be allowed to pirate" type of comments -- although I see a lot more at other sites. It's not at all surprising that, with those attitudes being so widespread, that publishers are working to lock down their games.

* Arguments like "piracy isn't stealing" reveals a problem understanding the economics of software creation. Afterall, if piracy is okay because you aren't taking anything from anyone, then everyone should be allowed to do it, right? But, do the math: Game costs X million dollars to create + All users should be allowed to get it for free because they aren't taking anything from anyone = game creation is a sure-bet to bankruptcy. Forget about new software, unless you expect software developers to work full time for years for no pay in order to provide gamers with free entertainment.

Not, that I'm supporting Ubisoft in this decision (I think it's a bad decision), I'm just pointing out that widespread "justifications" for piracy are bound to drive businesses into the defensive. In many places on the internet, it seems like outspoken pirates outnumber legitimate users.

Brit, no one here is in anyway justifying stealing a game.

What they are aghast about is these measures, try to stay with me here,

ONLY AFFECT THE LEGITIMATE CUSTOMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Get it? Pirates don't care about announcements like this because they simply have ZERO impact on them. Comprehend?

Pirates simply wait for the game to show up on a torrent site and begin download. No DRM, no need for a disk in the drive etc. The people who do this wouldn't buy the game if it was $1. Price is meaningless to them because they are thieves. UbiSoft will not change their attitudes or practices.

Legitimate customers find themselves having to jump through fiery hoops and to put up with a severely degraded experience every time they play the game. Ubisoft has every chance of changing their attitudes and practices.

People don't like being blamed for other people mistakes. Legitimate PC users are the only ones to suffer because of this.

Pirates are completely unaffected.

> Brit, no one here is in anyway justifying stealing a game.

I never said they were, I was merely describing why game companies continue to escalate their DRM systems. The idea of giving up on DRM requires that companies simply give up *trying* to stop piracy, which is a very hard admission to make. It's a bit like taking the locks off your door and admitting that if someone wants to break into your house and burglarize it or attack you in your sleep, that you can't stop them. It would be a very hard thing to do to simply give up trying to prevent bad things from happening.

I don't know why they don't take a page from Bioware's book. Want to stop piracy? Then make free DLC for legit copies. It makes the customer's feel valued and it doesn't piss them off. True I'm sure that pirates will get hands on the DLC, but it fosters good relations.

It also has the added benefit of not treating your paying customers as potential thieves.

You know what? I applaud them. Now you might be asking yourself: "Why dude? Why would you applaud this clearly bulls**t method of preventing piracy? It's going to be a huge pain, and no one is going to like it." And you're right. It is a huge pain, and nobody will like it. But I think all of you seem to be missing the point: This is it. This is the last straw, the final stand, the point of breaking. Ubisoft is tired of their s**t (and everybody's else's for that matter) getting pirated, and they're not playing this f***ing game anymore. They're done playing around with DRM's and trying to find one that works and still makes legitimate customers happy. There's a time to worry about sales and there's a time to stick it to the filth that rob the people who spend 60 hours a week fighting to get the game out the door and onto the shelves just to make YOU happy. No. No they're done here. This stops. Now.

Or at least, that would be my reason for doing it.

That makes no sense. This won't be any more effective against the pirates than former DRM methods. So how will it "stick it" to the pirates?

We won't really know that until we test it, huh?

No, it's obvious it won't work. It's a single player game. The DRM will be stripped or tricked into thinking that it has successfully validated with the servers. This sort of DRM will never work with single player games.

there some screenshot of the game being played in Russian, so apparently the game has already been pirated, and is currently being played.

Splinter Cell: Conviction, future Ubisoft PC titles to be ignored in favour of titles released by other publishers.

At least that's how it read in my mind.

Just canceled my pre-order on amazon.

hmmm...maybe ill wait and see if they change their minds...I dont want to lose the 42.99 price I have it reserved for...damn, I'd like to cancel to send them a message, maybe I should send an email instead.

Yea, keeping that pre-order and sending them an angry email will definitely send them a message, if "even if I complain I'll still hand my money over to you" is the message you're trying to send.

I will cancel the order if they don't change their minds. I don't want a game I can't play when they decide they don't want to keep the servers up anymore. Although its only slightly more worrying than steam or GFL.

Woah, you're really cutting it close there eh shaggi?

If they haven't made any annoucement by April 1st, I'll cancel it.

Sorry guys didnt mean to confuse, I realize I was unclear, Im talking about splinter cell. I didn't buy AssCreed 2 for PC.

Ubisoft, what are you doing? This didn't work before and won't work now, WTF!?

I'm not sure why but it looks like Ubisoft really is holding the nice big sign saying Pirate me.

The asinine thing is that Ubisoft can't possibly think this won't be cracked. So the only people who will be afflicted with this nonsense are the people who buy the game. Everyone else will simply have a copy that doesn't phone home. It's enough to drive an otherwise upstanding individual to piracy.

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/6518/1540652.png

http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/7641/1540654.png

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1979/1540647.png

seems the game has already been "pirate patched" in russia

I totally was going to buy this game for PC as my 360 was adopted. I guess I have two options either buy another 360 or wait a year later and see if it is still a 360 exclusive... I refuse to be treated like a criminal. It is sort of like the celebrities who are under "house arrest". It is pretty much the same thing...

I can guarantee, that the game will be pirated ANYWAY. People who will be f***k*d are gamers who purchase a crippled-CPRed game.

They might just as well buy OnLive and don't let you have any part of the code in your possession.

So by your reasoning you show that you don't understand how pirates work at all do you?

Most pirates will be unaware that Ubisoft have even implemented this DRM. Last time I checked there were no adds from game publishers on torrent sites.

The ONLY people effected by this will be legitimate customers.

So how will " this stop. Now"? Precisely how will it "stick it to the filth"?

Do you work for a publisher? From what I can tell only someone actively employed by a publisher would support this.

Above reply should be under Acreal's comment.

Reply system fail.

My Wallet : "Yay! More games that master needn't buy!"

Simple solution to all this stupid DRM - don't buy any of it. If NO ONE at all buys a copy of these otherwise decent games then that should make a pretty good point to the dumbass publishers who should have realised by now that;
1) legitimate customers don't like this kind of thing and
2) the hackers will have a crack out for it within 5 minutes anyway.

I've owned every copy of the Splinter Cell series to date. I can't say that I've lost a game because some authentication server has gone down, but I've lost a great deal of software because of the problem. I had the PC version pre-ordered and fully paid off at GameStop, but now that I know this draconian DRM is going to be in SC:C I will be returning to GameStop for a full refund.

I had a personal boycott on EA because of their draconian DRM practices, and only recently lifted that after seeing their response to the community in what they've done with BFBC2, ME2, and Dragon Age. ME2 and DAO have no DRM, and BFBC2's DRM is on the extremely forgiving side. In fact it's completely removed for people who buy through Steam (which I find to be an acceptable form of DRM).

Some of my friends say I'm crazy, and that I'm missing out by refusing to buy games from publishers who infect my machine with DRM that opens security holes or prevents me from using my machine how I want to (try installing or running an unpatched version of Crysis with Daemon Tools on your machine) because they thing I MIGHT be using certain items to pirate games. I agree that I'm totally crazy, but I totally disagree that I'm missing out. I don't want this garbage DRM, and I'd rather "miss out" on an epic game that has massive DRM than infect my machine with their garbage.

While I don't advocate piracy, I find it quite telling that the most heavily pirated games are usually the ones with the most DRM. I don't want to lose access to Splinter Cell: Conviction just because their servers take a dump, I go to a lan party in a barn with no internet connection, my mom trips over my ethernet cable, or for some unknown reason I don't have an internet connection.

Hell, now that I think about it, maybe we should all buy the game. That way when Ubi takes down their servers 5 years down the line, we can all file a class action lawsuit to get rid of this BS DRM. I know it's a dumb and crazy idea, but hell that's what I'm full of.

Previous 50 Comments

Splinter Cell: Conviction, future Ubisoft PC games to use internet-based DRM

Reader Comments (93)

Posted: Mar 1st 2010 5:00PM Otimus said

Posted: Mar 1st 2010 5:38PM sonicspike41 said

Posted: Mar 1st 2010 7:52PM arrrgh said

Posted: Mar 2nd 2010 8:15AM onan said

Posted: Mar 2nd 2010 8:33AM Otimus said

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