Ubisoft eases up on DRM

from Elemental Forums

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/09/05/ubisoft-drm-piracy-interview/

Ubisoft games will from now on only require a one-time online activation. Good news in my book.

I wonder how/if past titles will be affected. Obviously games like Anno 2070 and Might and Magic Heroes 6 required persistent online activation in order to even access some features of the game. If anyone has those games stlil installed, care to comment if the connection is still required?

I remember the launch of Settlers 7 which was just atrocious. Their servers weren't equipped to handle the constant connections required, so you'd get kicked out of on-going singleplayer campaign maps constantly. And those maps could last for hours.

36,870 views 14 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

:thumbsup:

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Good news.  Looks like someone over at Ubi managed to come up with some common sense. 

 

 

Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

*rofl* dream on...! ;P

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

UBI... they are still in business?

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Solam, reply 5
UBI... they are still in business?
End of Solam's quote

They are... regretably...

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Solam, reply 5
UBI... they are still in business?
End of Solam's quote

And making a small profit.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

I honestly hope their business goes up after this announcement, giving other developers an incitament to do the same.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top

Black Mesa is slated for release in a little over a week and now Ubisoft is weakening their DRM?  2012 truly is the end of the world.

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting SpardaSon21, reply 9
Black Mesa is slated for release in a little over a week and now Ubisoft is weakening their DRM? 2012 truly is the end of the world.
End of SpardaSon21's quote

 

Indeed the end of the world...

 

Anybody want my WOW stuff?  O:)

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

I will believe this when I see it. I have a suspicion that they will have other "features" that will require connectivity, but not be classified as DRM. Only time will tell.

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

I always disliked Ubisoft because of their DRM dating back to using Starforce in their games back in 2005. 

 

Heroes 6 was a game I very much looked forward to and I still think it would be fun to play. A combination of bugs and a terrible online service cause many frusterations for players of that game, making it a deal breaker to me. I want to access all the features offline, and I don't want to risk losing my save game in order to play online. Plus, their servers are very spotty with frequent downtime if you do choose to play online.

 

I think Ubisoft is just doing a publicity stunt to try and reverse their image. They are not rethinking their policies or turning a new leaf, they are carefully phrasing their DRM system to make it seem less bad but it is the same old crap. Expect plenty of complaints in the future.

 

These "changes" will not effect older games and they will not effect ALL future Ubisoft games, only certain ones such as Assassins Creed which is their cash cow.

Reply #12 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting SpardaSon21, reply 9
Black Mesa is slated for release in a little over a week and now Ubisoft is weakening their DRM?  2012 truly is the end of the world.
End of SpardaSon21's quote
Not yet. But if HL3 is announced then we need to beware :)

Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top

This post is about something that happened on July 2011 and somehow became an instant news item because nobody noticed until now!

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Still doesn't' really matter. Ubisoft as an organisation is pretty fail, but they do publish a few gems out there. Anno-series, Specifically Anno 2070 is one of the best games they have. Yes it sucks that you require online activity at all times to enjoy it, but with a lot of the aspects of the game relying on other player input this is understandable, as it feels the game was specifically designed for that sort of DRM (Council elections with bonuses, The multiplayer and faction missions) plus the continual updates it seems the team (Related Designs and Ubisoft Blue Byte) are very fervent on releasing (Deep Ocean expansion...) they have painted a different sort of acceptable control.  I really don't mind it in that case, because all it is is an MMORTS at that point. After all, how many people do you hear bitching that they can't play their MMO because they don't have internet access? (Diablo III isn't an MMO, Blizzard team should go jump off a cliff for that failure and apologize to the developers of Diablo I and II)

Though, everything I just said could probably be tossed out, as I am a fanboy of that game. Not to mention Ubisoft publishes a hundred bad games for it's 1 good one. Stardock needs to stay around forever for the sort of customer satisfaction team they have. I'm willing to shell out the money to make sure that happens too. If Ubisoft would learn from this, I'd probably spend a few hundred dollars on them too.