Ubisoft and their beloved DRM

[Adagio]

Ubisoft has lost me as a customer with their new DRM, that they are planning on including in most of the new games including the next Settlers game

Their new DRM requires you to be connected to their servers all the time, which their customers found out this weekend. SKiDROW attacked Ubisofts servers this weekend, which ended up blocking one of their games for lots of legit users

[Asher]

What a ****ing stupid system.

[Main_Brain]

I saw Silent Hunter V in the shop today, thought about picking it up but "needs connection to the Internet while playing". For a Singleplayer Game? I dont think so.

[Whoha]

What a ****ing stupid system.

If it protects them from a zero day warez release then it is a pretty smart system. Of course it would work even better if they'd put effort into making multiplayer for these games.

[Wiglaf]

No one nerdy enough to buy Silent Hunter IV is going to not have an Internet connection. Stop pretending you don't spend all day online.

[Asher]

If it protects them from a zero day warez release then it is a pretty smart system. Of course it would work even better if they'd put effort into making multiplayer for these games.

It's a dumb system. I do enjoy Silent Hunter series games (always have), and I was going to buy it from Steam (as I've bought many, many games from Steam lately), but the DRM scares me off.

If the servers go down in a few years (not out of the ordinary with game devs...), then people can't play the game. It's ridiculous. I'll not pay a dime for such a system.

[Whoha]

It's a dumb system. I do enjoy Silent Hunter series games (always have), and I was going to buy it from Steam (as I've bought many, many games from Steam lately), but the DRM scares me off.

If the servers go down in a few years (not out of the ordinary with game devs...), then people can't play the game. It's ridiculous. I'll not pay a dime for such a system.

First off, if steam goes down then pretty much the same thing happens, and second, this actually has happened for a few games that are multiplayer oriented and can't be cracked. The community in each case has its own master servers running. Finally I fully expect that this will be cracked within a year.

[Asher]

First off, if steam goes down then pretty much the same thing happens

This is patently false -- Steam supports an "offline mode". You can use Steam games without any internet access. I've done it many times.

and second, this actually has happened for a few games that are multiplayer oriented and can't be cracked. The community in each case has its own master servers running. Finally I fully expect that this will be cracked within a year.

I'm not going to risk it, nor am I going to condone it. It's a ****ing retarded thing to do and I'm voting with my wallet.

They're going to reverse their opinion on this when they see the effect it has on their sales.

[Quillan]

The same DRM is supposed to be on Assassin's Creed II for the PC, and they're already having issues with the European servers since it came out there. What's worse is that even though the game may be distributed through Steam like Silent Hunter V is, you have to connect to the Ubisoft server to play, not Steam.

Personally I wouldn't have a problem with it if it supported an offline mode like Steam does. I'll probably give it one try, but I think it's a stupid idea.

[Whoha]

This is patently false -- Steam supports an "offline mode". You can use Steam games without any internet access. I've done it many times.

Unless you cracked those game, you had to go online to validate them. Validation which will no longer be possible if they go down. Unless your computer is going to never fail, the same complaint applies.

[Asher]

Unless you cracked those game, you had to go online to validate them. Validation which will no longer be possible if they go down. Unless your computer is going to never fail, the same complaint applies.

Uh. What?

It's a one-time validation. If the server goes down, you can use Offline Mode and play just fine.

I don't think you understand the distinction here. Ubisoft's DRM requires CONSTANT internet connections while playing ANY aspect of the game.

Steam's DRM requires activation. By default, it logs into Steam when you start the game but this is optional. You can launch the app from the SteamApps dir to avoid the Steam authentication, and you can also set Steam to operate in Offline Mode, which means it doesn't use the internet to authenticate your game.

If the Steam server goes down, all the games are still playable.

[Quillan]

I think he's referring to a possible reformat of the drive. If you have to reinstall the game, you have to go online to Steam to re-validate it before switching to offline mode.

[Asher]

You don't need to reinstall the game or revalidate. Just back up the files you've downloaded.

If you've deleted the game and didn't keep a copy of it and Steam is no longer operating, then yes, you're boned. But that's no different than losing physical media or having it degrade to the point of not working over time (which has happened to me)...

Hell, I've moved a valid Steam game from my desktop to my laptop just by copying the folder...no validation or internet needed.

[Guynemer]

I was planning on getting AC2 for the PC, as opposed to the XBox. Hardly seems worth the hassle now.