Ubisoft’s release of From Dust on the PC has been, in every sense of the word, a disaster. Just the fact that, today, it was discovered the game requires an always-on internet connection — putting the lie to earlier claims that it wouldn’t — is a throat-slash to its credibility. The additional fact it’s also a terrible port of a console game is the cherry atop a shit sundae for a raving mad PC gaming community.
A locked 30fps framerate that frequently skips, jaggy graphics and no way to improve them, bugs and glitches by themselves would be enough to alienate PC gamers who resent getting console leftovers. The DRM is its own Godzilla-sized PR disaster, especially as Ubisoft originally said reports of mandatory always-on connection were erroneous. Then, after From Dust‘s release, Ubisoft deleted and then restored the post in its official forums making that claim. For the record, Ubisoft now confirms that, yes, you’ll need to be connected to the Internet to launch the game, no matter what.
Now Steam is said to be offering refunds to those who purchased From Dust, based on the misrepresentations of its DRM.
The real force multiplier to this is Ubisoft’s institutionally tone-deaf, often Orwellian posture on DRM, which says it’s a good thing for gamers despite slapstick calamities like hackers taking down its Big Brother servers in the week Assassin’s Creed II launched, and the mumbling apologies and half-assed make-goods that followed.
This time, it didn’t even take motivated, indignant hacktivists to embarass Ubi. A terrible port would have been more than enough.
From Dust DOES Need Online, Badly Ported [Rock, Paper Shotgun]
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