Oh dear. Ubisoft’s PC games of late have all been shipping with just about the most ridiculous DRM yet conceived; the devious combination of SecuROM and the need for a permanent, always-on internet connection. This caused some serious backlash, especially with Assassin’s Creed 2, where saves were also stored on the cloud. Hackers temporarily took Ubisoft’s authentication server down, leaving people with legitimate copies unable to play the game they’d bought.
You’d imagine this would have made the company change its DRM stance – but it hasn’t.
Speaking to PC gamer, a Ubisoft representative said that the company has seen “a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection, and from that point of view the requirement is a successâ€. Their harsh, always-online DRM first saw light with Settlers 7, and has since appeared in Silent Hunter V, Assassin’s Creed , Splinter Cell Conviction and most recently, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood. A cursory search through the seedy side of the internet’s underbelly turns up cracked versions of every single one of those games. It’s also confirmed to be included with Ubisoft next major PC release, Driver : San Francisco.
Piracy sucks, but treating legitimate customers like criminals isn’t exactly cool either. It’s a double whammy kick in the face, because not only will paying customers be booted out of the game if their internet happens to drop, but pirates will be playing without having to jump through hoops to do so.
Source : PC Gamer
Last Updated: July 29, 2011
