Ubisoft: From Dust PC will not require constant internet connection

by Ludwig Kietzmann on Aug 4th 2011 9:30PM

You can expect Ubisoft's PC DRM scheme to remain in the news for as long as it requires a consistent online connection to play, and for as long as its implementation remains inconsistent. The upcoming PC version of Driver: San Francisco will require an importunate online link if you want to keep going, but world-shaper From Dust will not.

Speaking to Joystiq, a Ubisoft representative confirmed that the PC version of From Dust, which should be out on August 17, won't have the DRM cranked to maximum level. "Constant internet connection won't be necessary when playing From Dust's campaign and challenge mode on the PC."

You'll note the specific language there, which may refer to a potential multiplayer mode that was mentioned by From Dust designer Eric Chahi last year. For now, though, we're happy to report that you can keep playing god, even if your connection to our modern deity has faltered.

Tags: drm, from-dust, pc, project-dust, ubisoft

Reader Comments (47)

Well, looks like I'm getting this for PC then :)

@Draugdraugr

really.....IS THAT DIFFICULT TO UNDERSTAND??????? that stupid protection can´t save a sale if the game is garbage period......want some proof?? for some unknown reason HAWX 2 was never cracked until this day, look at the sales.... UBI didn´t said anything about that game right???? why it didn´t sell like hot cakes if the game was not cracked??? easy it was crap..... but they don´t say a word about it, because the "piracy" excuse can´t be applied with it. So why to waste time with a stupid protection that HAS been destroyed before, when it´s clear that no sales are really increased for it?????

@Hunter141072
I don't know if its the way you type, but you sound really distressed dude.

I'm waiting to play this on my PC too. For a game like this I think it plays a little more to that platform's strengths.

@BlackedOut

Unless you and everybody else agrees with those stupid DRM protections the you are right, I´m distressed......to see that somebody could agree to that DRM. Funny thing is everybody hates it, but now i was down voted.... that´s the kind of idiots that vote here in joystick.... yeah here goes another down vote. :D

@Hunter141072

pretty sure you got down ranked because of two things, first, your post was unintelligible for most. Secondly, if I'm understanding your post correctly (and I'm not saying that I am considering how terrible it is) you're going on about how bad DRM is when the article is about the game not having terribly restrictive DRM attached to it. Also, your reply has nothing to do with the OP's post.

@Hunter141072

Also, you called the game shit.
And here's a protip: DRM does prevent piracy. Yes, it gets cracked in a day, but the process of cracking the game is often painful and basic DRM prevents most people from simply copying the files to a USB and sharing them with all of their friends.

It's still third-party DRM on a Steam game, which makes no sense. What are the extra terms, other than what I'm used to when buying a Steam game? Limited activations? Signing into an extra account?

That's why I won't buy Street Fighter 4.

To buy it on Steam, you have to have Steam running, make a GFWL account, have GFWL running, and log into it.

Screw you, Capcom. Steam is fine. But making people run an additional DRM program ontop of another one just to satisfy your paranoia? You won't get my sale, so you cost yourself a sale. And I am sure many other people feel the same way. Stop with this mult-logging in bullshit.

@Rather Dashing

With the constant connectivity removed Uplay is actually a decent service, giving you DLC unlocks for achievements and stuff. Since you connect to Uplay to get those things anyway, they may as well run an authentication check while you're doing it.

It's the "always online" requirement that has given it such a bad rep.

@Drakkenfyre
not to mention all those extra services running in the background takes away from resources the game could be using. and for those of us without powerhouse computers, sometimes that matters.

Make sure the new Ghost Recon doesn't require constant internet connection too.

@Mr Hett
It won't come for PC so... yeah, it won't need one!

@TachiFoxy

Last I checked, Future Soldier is coming out on PC. If it's not I'll be pretty pissed.

On a side note, Ubisoft's uPlay system isn't that terrible. It's got a really nifty achievement system that you can use to get in-game bonus content, and that's fine by me. As long as it's not running under the "always on" system like Assassin's Creed 2, I'm fine with it.

@TRONdll unless you lose the login/pass for uPlay...then you are screwed for life. Seriously it is unrecoverable.

You mean like we said in the comments on your original post?

Looks like I'll be buying it now, unless some other nasty news comes up.

Almost fell for Origin when they had tempting offers but then I heard of their asinine plots to anal fist you.

@Mmmmz

If you cooperate with Origin it's only 4 fingers.

@liquidsoap89
http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/155326-60s-spider-man

@liquidsoap89 Thank you for making me laugh in beat with Korn - Get Up after reading your comment :)

Yay!

Don't be too eager to buy yet. That was all lawyer speak, he didn't say there would not be some other pain in the ass DRM on it, just one that didn't require constant internet conection. Will hold off till the game is released and confirmed from outside source.

I am torn, I want this game, but I hate ubisoft for this BS DRM they are putting on their games.

It only does the DRM check online once every 20 seconds. Not constantly.

You really, REALLY need to make a distinction between the different types of connection "requirements".

"Does not need to have a constant internet connection" does NOT equal "does not need an internet connection at all."

"Needs an internet connect at startup" falls perfectly under that description, and can still screw you over.

So they could be saying 'We aren't screwing you (hard, but we're still screwing you.)"

@Drakkenfyre
It's funny. That's how Blizzard does it and yet no one seems to complain.

All of Blizzard's games which require an internet connection has multiplayer components built in, even if it's just Achievements for your profile.

Ubisoft will take games that have no multiplayer whatsoever and stick an internet connection requirement on them.

@Drakkenfyre
They still have achievements. Also having just achievements is a poor excuse what about not being able to save maps to your HDD for SC2? Face it Blizzard also is spitting in people's faces just as much as Ubisoft. For some reason people don't want to admit it.

I just used Achievements as an example.

In StarCraft 2, there is more than just Achievements.

And with StarCraft 2, you can go online to validate, then go offline and play. You only need to log in once every 30 days to validate.

Ubisoft games don't do that at all.

@Drakkenfyre
Really? Because my friend seems to constantly needed to be online to play the game when it first came out. He was pissed when he was on a road trip and couldn't play SC2 due to no internet. So he only could when he was at a hotel. What he wound up doing for the entire road trip was leave his laptop on never closing SC2 with the lid down just to be able to play. And had it constantly charging in the car.

I don't know a bunch about DRM, but why does Ubisoft ever use it? It seems worthless.

@Dooliss Because they are over-paranoid over PC piracy, which is unfortunately still a scourge on my beloved platform. : (

This kind of announcement is like a bottle of apple juice declaring "made with real apples!"

It should never have been any different, and there should be no need to announce something that should be safely assumed from the start.

How come Steam says otherwise?

"HIGH SPEED INTERNET ACCESS AND CREATION OF A UBISOFT ACCOUNT ARE REQUIRED TO ACCESS THIS VIDEO GAME AND ONLINE FEATURES AND TO PLAY ONLINE."

They have this language in every Ubisoft game with their stupid DRM.

@Faceless Troll
Because when you first login you have to login to their servers and have an Ubisoft account.

@sonofman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKNnwLL991c&feature=related

Sorry Ubi, no dice.

I'm willing to begrudgingly put up with steam as a stupid DRM alternative.

I am not willing to put up with steam and sign up for an Ubisoft account and deal with your extra DRM. Always on or not you lost a sale.

Piracy might be a big issue, but Candlejack would never allow Capc-

I bet a good number of the people that were complaining will still pirate this one.

@Bentzero

And that is the exact fail logic that companies like Ubi use to justify crap DRM. You know because if a game doesn't sell well it isn't that people didn't like something about it or how you presented it, Its because they are all out pirating it.....

That isn't to say some pirating won't happen, because it will. The question becomes more, is it worth the negative publicity and loss in sales to insure that someone who wouldn't have bought the game in the first place doesn't play the game at all?

Again the argument comes down to, Yes piracy is down ..... but have sales improved? and their answer to that is almost always the standard non answer that "piracy is down!" but that doesn't tell us anything about sales ..... "piracy is down!"

You know the ONLY good thing about DRM is that when "piracy is down!" they can't blame it for crap sales....... ruh roh, accountability >.> dive dive!

I heard this was like a "spiritual succesor" to Populous. Then I saw it was done by Ubisoft. Damn.

Backpedal, backpedal, backpedal, backpedal...

I guess they *Do* want me to buy the game.

I'll be getting it release day.

Can someone enlighten me as to why always-on DRM is so bad? Does it slow down gameplay? Does it make it near impossible to play with a bad connection? Because in my eyes, requiring an always-on internet connection is like requiring gamers to have a mouse (the peripheral, not the animal). Everyone has one; what's the the big deal?

I actually bought a game on Origin the other day (someone was complaining about it), and I have no issues with it. So I have to log in every time I play. It takes me two seconds to type my password and click "Login." Simple. Painless.

@(Unverified) Ever travel while you work? Long solo plane or train trips are a pain in the butt.

"Hey, instead of watching that in-flight movie, I'll get some Diablo 3 in."

There are people that still use dial-up or some type of dish connection because that's all they have. You don't think the telcoms are using government subsidies and your monthly fees to expand their networks, do you? For those people, they're SOL.

For other people, all they have is Comcast or ATT. Because their internet is provided by something akin to a monopoly in certain areas, connections can be piss poor at best, 90% packet loss at worst. Good luck getting them to fix that if you're not a big business class account holder.

@(Unverified) Some of us aren't always online. I like to travel with a laptop, and in hotels connections tend to be variable, if they exist at all. Or, if you visit elderly relatives, they might not even know what a computer is, let alone have a decent connection (and they tend to go to bed really early, so you need to find something to do until you also want to go to bed). As someone else mentioned, if you're on a plane you're likely not going to have any sort of connection, good luck playing your games then.

There's also the matter of people who lack consistent connections or have bandwidth caps which they have to watch religiously.

Yes, it's "simple, painless" if you've got a good connection at all times. Not everyone does.

@(Unverified)

here's a good reason, 40% of all Americans have to use dial up or purchase a T1 connection because they don't have access to broadband internet where they live. That's got to get really expensive.

From Dust also isnt a fully price retail game. Only 15 bucks.

You aren't out of the woods yet Ubi

I still am not getting it until it comes out and everybody says it has not a game breaking DRM (like having to be connected every time you start the game)

From Dust

Ubisoft: From Dust PC will not require constant internet connection

Reader Comments (47)

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:35PM Draugdraugr said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:53PM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 2:54AM BlackedOut said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 10:59AM Hunter141072 said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 1:45PM Vladeon said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 7:48PM Esposch said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:40PM Rather Dashing said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:32PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 11:35PM Excessive said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 9:57AM LexStewther said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:41PM Mr Hett said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:53PM TachiFoxy said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 11:55PM TRONdll said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 12:05AM Fire Walk With Me said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:44PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:48PM Mmmmz said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:05PM liquidsoap89 said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:35PM Special Agent Bob said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:37PM Cole Phelps said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 9:57PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:11PM Ender7 said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:26PM Shogan said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:29PM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 11:14PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 12:42AM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 2:56AM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 10:53AM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 9:43PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:40PM Dooliss said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 11:36PM nerdydesi1 said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:43PM greyseal said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 10:44PM Faceless Troll said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 11:15PM The Aquacharger said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 11:33PM Stevetrop Man of Mystery said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 11:35PM Scuffles said

Posted: Aug 4th 2011 11:59PM Dooliss said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 12:25AM Bentzero said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 8:24AM Scuffles said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 12:45AM Drakkenfyre said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 5:07AM Vordus said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 8:44AM SmilinGoat said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 8:59AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 9:36AM Zelyre said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 11:50AM SynthOno said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 1:55PM Vladeon said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 11:25AM Leafhopper said

Posted: Aug 5th 2011 6:39PM Barry Burton said

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