News

Ubisoft Making Emergency Changes To PC DRM

With Ubisoft’s new digital rights management regime for the PC proving both easy to circumvent and wildly unpopular, the publisher has been rushing to make changes to the system in an attempt to appease consumers.

Example: Assassin’s Creed II isn’t even out yet on PC, yet Ubisoft has already upgraded the game to v1.1, the main change awaiting purchasers of the game being the fact the game “can now be continued from the exact same point when connection is restored”.

Previously, Ubisoft had said that should a player lose their internet connection – a requirement under the company’s ridiculous new DRM scheme – their singleplayer, offline game would drop out, and upon reloading you’d be left at your last checkpoint, not the actual point where the game cut out on you.

It won’t appease the furious masses, and nor should it, but at least it’s an acknowledgement of how unpopular this whole thing has become.

[Assassin's Creed II, thanks Steve!]

Discuss

(8 Comments)
  • [–]

    Brendan

    Friday, March 5, 2010 at 12:07 AM

    They should just get rid of the whole thing, nothing good will become of it.

    Reply
  • [–]

    Kane McManus

    Friday, March 5, 2010 at 12:08 AM

    lolol the DRM has been cracked by SkidRow ahahahahah

    http://www.infoaddict.com/ubisofts-new-drm-cracked-in-under-25-hours

    ACII will be next

    Reply
  • [–]

    Adam Hoddinott

    Friday, March 5, 2010 at 1:42 AM

    Until the emergency change is “we’re dropping this DRM”, I want nothing to do with this game.

    Reply
  • [–]

    Jackson Thurtle

    Friday, March 5, 2010 at 1:57 AM

    Even with changes such at this, isn’t it ridiculous that people not paid by Ubisoft and indeed breaking the law provide better customer service than the company providing the game? How disappointing.

    Reply
    • [–]

      Ryan J

      Friday, March 5, 2010 at 9:27 AM

      That’s actually quite a common occurrence, not only is there a “modding” community which tends to offer better experiences (albiet, made from the game itself), but when EA released the C&C First Decade pack, it was modders who fixed thousands of bugs, most of which are game ending, and removed the necessity to use the game disc.

      Then EA advertised it as a pseudo-offical patch (v1.3).

      Reply
      • [–]

        Raf

        Friday, March 5, 2010 at 11:07 PM

        I still can’t believe that publishers think it HELPS them to use DRM that punishes actual paying customers who just want to enjoy the game. Cannot. Believe. It’s not like there’s any shortage of examples here.

        Reply
  • [–]

    RocK_M

    Saturday, March 6, 2010 at 12:25 PM

    Sadly this “improved” DRM will probably sucker just enough people to think “it’s not too bad” and buy the game =/ Even if its the same rubbished just dressed up nicely..

    Just to quote/paraphrase one of my favourite blog/writers on Escapist on his article on Publishers and DRM’s

    Publsiher: Oh. We’re very sorry we upset people. We had no idea customers felt so strongly about being kicked in the balls. Moreover, we didn’t mean to make female gamers feel excluded. So SecuROM will give you a punch in the gut instead.

    Gamers: Wow! They listened to us! This must be what respect feels like! Let’s pre-order the game right now!

    article link here btw – http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/7193-Experienced-Points-DRM-Systems-and-the-Publishers-Who-Love-Them

    Reply

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