We’ve known for sometime that Ubisoft’s plans to curb piracy on the PC will include a required internet connection to play the publisher’s games, including the upcoming release of Assassin’s Creed II. But we didn’t know it was this unsavoury.
We’ve known that there is no offline option, as clearly specified in Ubisoft’s online services Q&A and that, should your internet connection be interrupted at any time while playing, it’s unplayable until that connection is restored. But PC Gamer’s hands-on experience with Assassin’s Creed II and Settlers VII sounds worse than we’d expected.
“If you get disconnected while playing, you’re booted out of the game,” PC Gamer’s Tom Francis writes. “All your progress since the last checkpoint or savegame is lost, and your only options are to quit to Windows or wait until you’re reconnected.”
And if you have a rock solid, up 24/7 connection? There’s still potential bad news, as “any time Ubisoft’s ‘Master servers’ are down for any reason, everyone playing a current Ubisoft game is kicked out of it and loses their progress”.
To be clear, that’s PC Gamer’s experience with the PC version of Assassin’s Creed II, not ours. We’ve reached out to Ubisoft reps to get comment on the report. They initially directed us to the online services Q&A linked earlier and promised a forthcoming statement. We’ll update when that happens.
Constant net connection required to play Assassin’s Creed 2 on PC [PC Gamer]
Paul P
February 18, 2010 at 1:06 PM
If that’s true, that is maximum bollocks. It also highlights to me why a service like OnLive will never be favourable to purchasing and owning games.
Report PermalinkGoraxium
February 18, 2010 at 8:15 PM
It’s nice to see somebody else willing to point out the issues with things like OnLive… Maybe when we’re old and gray, and the network’s a little better, but until then…
Report PermalinkDom Grimm
February 18, 2010 at 1:14 PM
Well I was planning on buying Assassin’s Creed 2, but I don’t have a constant net connection. Looks like that’s one sale lost.
Report Permalinkf4cti0n
February 18, 2010 at 1:46 PM
Good work, Ubisoft. Now I don’t have to bother buying your games!
Report PermalinkBen
February 18, 2010 at 1:51 PM
That’s horrible! Thankfully I have AC2 on my Xbox 360. While my connection is mostly stable, it does have the occasional hiccup, which would bug the hell out of me if I lost game progress as a result.
Report Permalinkwarcroft
February 18, 2010 at 1:55 PM
Its like they want PC gaming to die.
Report PermalinkDavid Brady
February 18, 2010 at 2:10 PM
Laughable!
Are they serious? C’mon surely its in jest!
Whats that? They ARE serious?
tap tappity tap tap……
Problem solved 2 minutes later by using google :/
I call this Torrent bait.
Report PermalinkWake up UBISOFT!
Ad
February 18, 2010 at 2:27 PM
Ridiculous bloody circle they’re perpetuating here. Release port on PC with shitty DRM. PC gamers avoid, buy console version or in some cases pirate. Sales suck. Publisher uses poor sales to argue case for stronger DRM as it’s all obviously down to the pirates.
Report PermalinkPaxBisonica
February 18, 2010 at 3:11 PM
This is as far from reasonable as DRM can get (although I know I will be proven wrong somehow in the future). Guess I will just have to pick up a preowned copy on console instead.
Report PermalinkEl Phantasmogoro
February 18, 2010 at 3:21 PM
Cool. Won’t be buying any game with this DRM. Good luck to anyone who does. You’ll need it.
Report PermalinkPaul
February 18, 2010 at 3:38 PM
I probably would have bought this game but now, after hearing this, I won’t. I’m starting to wonder if they are actively trying to lose sales in the PC department so they can just get on with making console only games.
The thing is, the people who pirate this game won’t have these kinds of problems. If they want to reduce piracy, they have to make the bought version superior than the pirated copies.
Bad case of penalising the majority for the sake of a few.
Report PermalinkRibs
February 18, 2010 at 3:45 PM
Surely this isn’t the answer.
What the hell are they thinking?
Report PermalinkCerberus
February 18, 2010 at 3:48 PM
They do want PC gaming dead, this will get cracked anyway (probably is already knowing the internet), services like Steam are what is keeping PC gaming alive, unlike some others run by major corporation…
Report Permalinkbrent3000
February 18, 2010 at 3:51 PM
All this DRM yet the cost of playing games stays high :)
Report Permalinkplmko
February 18, 2010 at 6:00 PM
Well someones gotta pay the monkey who thought of the idea.
Report PermalinkMike
February 18, 2010 at 7:48 PM
Someone has to pay for the DRM to be implemented
Report PermalinkPeter Richards
February 22, 2010 at 6:01 PM
I agree that this DRM is total goat bollocks, but I’m tired of people whining about the price of games, they are way way cheaper than they were twenty or even 25 years ago, and they cost way way more to produce.
Report PermalinkHaving said that, I won’t buy anything that I can’t play if the distributor’s servers are down or if my internet connection isn’t available.
tcb
February 18, 2010 at 4:13 PM
I actually had one person tell me a few years ago, “if game developers didn’t want people to copy their games they’d try harder to stop them.”
Grrr…
Publishers see things like WoW and figure that the only way you make money on PC is offer products that don’t work well for pirates. Then they get bright ideas. .
Report PermalinkAPK
February 18, 2010 at 4:20 PM
I dont encourage piracy or anything but, it pretty easily to get a private server for WoW
Report Permalinktcb
February 18, 2010 at 5:25 PM
Sure you can get pirate servers, but it’s not really the same. You pay for the community, the support, and to be a part of their world, not a part of an isolated pale shadow of their world.
Anyhoo, I said “games like WoW”, which have some form of piracy resistance, be that subscription, heavy dependence on a central community or whatever. STEAM is another good example.
It does annoy me that the same people who pirate games complain about the lack of innovation in the industry and the increase in casual games, when they place the buying power in other people’s hands. .
Report PermalinkLucas D
February 18, 2010 at 4:19 PM
I wonder if the reference to stabbing, after the events of the last few days, will cause an uproar on a current affair or something
Report PermalinkWaveOfMutilation
February 18, 2010 at 4:55 PM
I love how publishers keep trying harder and harder to punish the people who actually purchase their games while these actions do nothing to prevent people pirating them.
Report PermalinkChoM
February 18, 2010 at 5:11 PM
That is just absurd. How can any game company see this as a plausible drm method?
Meh I guess I’ll be giving this one a miss, didn’t much like Assasins Creed 1 anyway.
Report PermalinkJoe Mama
February 18, 2010 at 5:14 PM
And pirates will have it cracked within the week.
Report PermalinkDale Williams
February 18, 2010 at 5:38 PM
This is a real shame. It’s almost like they’re trying to justify dropping PC as a platform. I’m going to miss mouse/keys. I may pick this game up for X360 instead, though Ubi should be worried that I, and others are saying “may”, considering the quality of the game.
Report PermalinkBraaains
February 18, 2010 at 6:01 PM
Ssshhhhh… if you listen very carefully you can actually hear the sound of people not buying the game.
Report PermalinkMr Waffle
February 18, 2010 at 6:50 PM
And that’s why ubisoft are the new “old EA”. That and the whole selling DLC that’s already on the game disc/in the game install (ala HAWX)…
Report Permalinkshawn
February 18, 2010 at 7:28 PM
just put the game on steam – all the DRM needed
Report PermalinkMac
February 19, 2010 at 1:17 PM
AC2 is coming out on Steam, which begs the further question as to whether the Steam version will have Ubisoft’s DRM in addition to Valve’s anti piracy measures.
Report PermalinkNathan Runge
February 18, 2010 at 8:23 PM
Ridiculous. I have never pirated a game in my life, but they’re CREATING reasons to do so. Now the pirates games are going to be the ones that work people are just going to be more inclined to do so. They’re kidding themselves if they think they’re going to make that piracy impossible.
Report PermalinkFoxbane
February 18, 2010 at 8:25 PM
Nice to see pc gamers getting bent over and screwed once again :’(
Report PermalinkRod
February 18, 2010 at 9:51 PM
I can see “boot to main menu” being changed to “forced pause” in the near future…
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