Ubisoft’s approach to DRM is controversial to say the very least, and its policy continues with Driver: San Francisco, which requires a constant internet connection to play. This has bothered many gamers but, speaking to PC Gamer, a Ubisoft rep has claimed that the DRM has been a success.
Apparently Ubisoft has seen a “a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection,” claimed the rep. “[F] rom that point of view the requirement is a success.”
Piracy is clearly an issue in the PC market, but is Ubisoft’s DRM the solution? Surely there has to be a third way?
Ubisoft: our DRM “is a success” [PC Gamer]
Thanks VG247!
Adam Ruch
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 9:33 AMFirstly how are they tracking piracy of their product?
Secondly of course he has to say its a success. The only time they can say its not successful is during the press release saying they’re canning it entirely. Stupid public relations people are stupid.
David
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 2:54 PMSo, lets test their statistical gathering abilities.
Everyone pirate this game on PC, please.
If we all pirate it because Ubisoft puts the DRM in then they cant in future
Cameron
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 9:35 AMThey can continue using this until the cows come home for all I care. I for one won’t be buying a game with it.
Travman
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:00 AM+1.
What he forgot to announce was the success in combating people willing to purchase titles with this DRM. :P
Chazz
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 9:36 AMI have a solid net connection so it doesn’t bother me too much but I’m not everyone…however the real issue here is;
WHERE THE HELL IS MY WHEEL SUPPORT FOR DRIVER:SF?!?!
Dave
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:18 AMI got a reply on the Ubi FB page about that – apparently it was too difficult to get accurate and fast car selection in the SHIFT mechanic when using a steering wheel. Sadly I almost understand.
Chazz
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:04 AMThat’s a crap excuse. Why would you use the wheel for the shift mechanic? There’s a lovely input device that I think is being used for it already in the PC version, I think it’s called the mouse.
Mitch
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 9:39 AMPeople haven’t been pirating Driver because it SUCKS.
Jamie What?
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 9:39 AMI’m sure there has also been a “a clear reduction” in purchases of their “titles which required a persistent online connection.”
The Cracks
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:02 AMThis. Draconian DRM policies are part of the reason I’m more of a console gamer. At least the DRM on the consoles is consistent and non-invasive.
Gorzilla
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:58 AMI know I’ve been refusing to buy any games Ubisoft has been using this kind of DRM for, including the consol versions.
RaygunBrown
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 9:40 AM“From that point of view” = “We know 99% of the gaming community hates our guts”.
SuperFred
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 9:46 AMPeople will still buy the next Creed game though. Everyone gets all up in arms, and 99% of them lose the rage the minute the next game comes on sale.
Look at DA2 and the DLC for that – if anyone should be looking at reduced sales, it should be DA2 and the DA2 DLC. Can’t see that happening.
Bish
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:17 AMSure, but they’ll buy Ass Revelations on console. As someone who plays Assassin’s Creed on PC, yeah, the online thing really sucked when it first came out (I had a pretty flakey connection at the time), and ramping it up sure ain’t gonna help, but the PC versions don’t come out for another 3 or so months. Polish it up and include all the DLC you want, Ubisoft, but I imagine everyone’s going to get their fix in the November-December period when the games comes out on console, not in March at full RRP in 3 months time.
I can’t imagine their PC sales are particularly strong because of this delay (also, it feels better on console; keyboard mapping is kind of balls), so whilst people might be outraged in principle, it’s only a minor slice of their customers that are affected who really would be raging at this.
Chazz
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:37 AMRelease dates for PC are same as the console.
Kyle_Katarn
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 5:54 PMFor now, at least. If they were pushing it back, you’ll probably not know about it until 3 days before release day (at the earliest).
Aliasalpha
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 9:41 AMOkay its reduced piracy but how much has it reduced sales? How much has it reduced respect for you?
Johnnoz
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 9:51 AM*sigh*, why don’t they just SAY that it’s only done to make stockholders happy…
prashy
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 9:53 AMI’ll be buying this on ps3 just for the fact that I can use a controller and sit/lie on my couch, rather than use a mouse/keyboard and have to sit in a chair.
In short I won’t have a problem with this.
N0NEoftheAB0VE
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:11 AMThis raises a question with me – without a wheel – how the hell do you play a driving game on the PC?
Sandviscerate
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:48 AMI’ve been playing Race Driver: GRID which I got from the recent steam discount on it quite easily with WASD controls.
Mark
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:57 AMBy pluging in your xbox/ps3/logitech gamepad
RebellionRob
Saturday, July 30, 2011 at 5:32 AMHow the hell in this day and age…or any frickin’ day and age has ANYBODY NOT heard of a controller for their pc!??!?!
You plug it in, and you play….easy!
Trent
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:05 AM“a clear reduction in piracy [and sales] of our titles which required a persistent online connection,”
Fistbeard McTavish
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:06 AMI’m pirating Driver: San Fransisco.
Abe
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:36 AM1+ to that!
Femto
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:12 AMDream on Ubisoft!
Thom
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:15 AMI want to be unequivocal about this. Driver I don’t care about, but I was intending to buy From Dust. Persistent online DRM means no sale. I have a stable connection, but I also like to play my games on the road.
Again, I guarantee they’ve lost at least one sale.
Andrew
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:20 AMWhat?! People still play driver?
Peter
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:31 AMI know of people who have computers just for gaming and they don’t connect them to the net at all… what about these people?
Plus where there is a will, there is a way. I am sure it will get hacked within the week of release.
slickx
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:34 AMI wont be playing this game if an internet connection is always required. Rural Australia doesnt always have the steadiest connection and im not wasting $90 on something that only works sometimes. :)
Fenixius
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:40 AMI’m seriously dismayed by the number of people who are saying “I play on console” or “My net is rock solid”, and therefore don’t care. By the same logic, because you’re not in Afghanistan, who cares what atrocities the Taliban commit, right guys?
The Cracks
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:54 AMI play on console, but I do care. It’s a ridiculous DRM method, but unfortunately there isn’t much anyone can do now that Ubisoft has it in ther heads that it works. People want the games, and I’d imagine console sales are way higher than the PC sales for most of their games, so they feel they can get away with something like this.
If every single person refused to buy the PC version, they’d maybe change their policy. There just aren’t enough people who care enough to make this happen though. At the end of the day, people want the product.
Jo
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 12:17 PMNah they would just say PC gaming is dead and stop developing for it.
Jamie What?
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:36 AMThat’s a pretty stupid analogy. It’s DRM, not terrorism.
bookiegnu
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 12:04 PMWow. Serious over-reaction. For people who aren’t worried about their internet going down, or have a console, Ubisoft are supplying a product which works. Those bastards.
Not playing advocate here, as I don’t like the system, I’m just amazed at the response to it. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it.
But also don’t accuse Ubisoft of crimes against humanity.
mchaza
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:52 AMits going to be a slopply console port with the press start to continue on the main menu so likely to happen with little pc optimization, so who cares.
Another thing is that the best DRM is to create a game with such value and dept that you target the pirates morals for enjoying a product they stole. Who goes to there friends and say, “hey i am really enjoying this game i stole”. Have no DRM but come out and say that you are doing this because its bad and that we put all this effort for you to experience. And maybe have a page up where people can pay what they want for the game, display what the gamer is really wanting to pay. Just trying to say that DRM isn’t the way to go, punishing your paying consumer and rewarding the pirates isn’t the right thing to do.
Stevorooni
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:53 AMNot a bear in sight, the bear patrol must be working!
Chazz
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:06 AMI see what you did there.
bookiegnu
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:59 AMI’d like to buy your rock.
f4ction
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 12:06 PMI could claim that this rock keeps tigers away
anon
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 10:55 AMhasnt helped with piracy, for a laugh i downloaded it torrent style, along with a pirate authentication server BAM works fine…
just like assasins creed 2 :D
os42
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 1:02 PMThinking about it, it wouldn’t be that difficult to circumvent anyway – a bit of network traffic snooping, some alteration of the game exe/config (or to the PC’s hosts file), and a local server simulating the responses from Ubisoft’s DRM server… Somewhat of a simplification, but it’s not rocket science. Their DRM probably appears to work because they see no pirated versions trying to connect to their DRM servers, they’re just using local ones.
Btw, I’m a console gamer, so it doesn’t really affect me directly, but I can’t see how this style of DRM could possibly be very effective.
Astroboy440
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:41 AMAfter not being able to play Final Fight for weeks with the PSN down, I will never again buy again a game requiring constant connection to anything-PS3 or otherwise.
Mad Danny
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:49 AMFinally I’ll be able to play Settlers 7 now.
Initially I made a point of not buying OR pirating Ubi’s recent offerings, but thanks to their current actions and statements I now no longer have to deal with any guilt for reverting to the latter option!
sadface
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:50 AMAsking them if they’re happy with their DRM is like asking Activision if they’re happy with CoD. Of course they are.
I also agree with everyone, less pirates….maybe. Less sales….definitely.
Isometric
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 11:52 AMUgh. This really urks me. Why do they punish the people who buy these games legitimately, when someone who pirated it will simply be able to get around these loopholes with a simple crack/pirated server?
Apparently Ubisoft has seen a “a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection,” claimed the rep. “[F]rom that point of view the requirement is a success.”
“The rep later added “Admittedly, only three people bought the game, and gave up after a couple of days of frustration with our DRM System. But for them, it was a success!”
Thooperman
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 12:46 PMI agree completely with your statement about punishing people who buy the games legitimately. Pirates don’t have any restrictions to their usage. It’s the same as DVDs, I buy a DVD and have to sit through messages telling me that I shouldn’t download movies, yet if I did download it, I would be watching the movie already
Lucas Brown
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 12:05 PMThere is a 3rd way – what Blizzard has done with battle.net and Starcraft 2 for example. Move a significant portion of your game to an online portal – one which people WANT to connect to – and bam.
alinos
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 2:46 PMwell you’d be loosing me that way to.
From what i played of AC:B The fighting is still pretty bad IMO an improvement over the original no doubt but still rather bad.
I see nothing advantageous about multiplayer there. as it’s just gonna waste development dollars.
Same as the other series i have skipped over this stuff. PoP:Movierelese(can’t remember the name of the game) again is PoP so no use in MP there.
Splinter Cell maybe, but i didn’t really like the look of the new game, and the DRM was enough to stop me from playing it.
Fact is that moving stuff to an online based game doesn’t help if it’s an inherently SP game.
And if the selling point of your game is that its a Multiplayer extravaganza then requiring an internet connection to play singleplayer mode is rather redundant
Not to mention that all of starcraft 2′s singleplayer can be played offline you just don’t get achievements