Has Ubisoft's DRM Gone Too Far?

[mindcycle]

Ubisoft is no stranger to DRM controversies. This was amply demonstrated last year between reviving always-online DRM (and deeming it a success) and what happened with From Dust. But it was the DRM implemented in one of Ubisoft's final releases in 2011 that feels like it may have finally stepped over the line.

As reported around the web earlier this week, Anno 2070 buyers are limited to three installations of the game. It's hardly the first time PC owners have been faced with such a situation, whether it be with another game, a copy of Windows, or some other software. As is typically the case in these situations, Ubisoft claims gamers can contact it and be granted additional installations. Only when it came time to do that, Guru3D was out of luck.

When the site attempted to benchmark the game earlier this month using different graphics cards, it discovered your allotment of installations is tied not to the operating system install, but the hardware inside the computer itself. This, too, isn't a first, but generally speaking a simple graphics card swap is not enough to eat up an install. Yet that's exactly how Anno 2070's works -- each time you install a new video card (which, while it might not be an everyday occurrence, is hardly evidence of the game being shared or installed on an additional computer) you lose an installation, with no means for unauthorizing a previous install. And that is by design.

"While it's correct that copies of Anno include three activations and that changing hardware may trigger the need for reactivation, the vast majority of Anno customers never encounter this scenario," reads a statement issued to Rock, Paper, Shotgun by Ubisoft. "On the rare occasion when a customer does need additional activations, Ubisoft customer service is available to quickly resolve the situation, and we encourage those customers to contact us directly so that we can ensure they are able to continue to enjoy their game."

But as noted above, that's not what happened to Guru3D. After publicizing the lack of a response from Ubisoft when additional installs were requested, the game's developer, Blue Byte, came to the rescue and unlocked the site's copy of the game so it could continue being benchmarked.

Keep in mind this is a legitimate customer being inconvenienced. Meanwhile, a crack exists which allows pirates to download the game illegally and play it offline. As they can't connect to Ubisoft's servers, they're at a disadvantage because they can't use the very beneficial Ark upgrades, as the feature requires a persistent Internet connection. (Legitimate customers, too, are locked out of Ark upgrades if they decide to play offline or have their Internet connection cut out.) That caveat aside, pirates are still able to play the game without having to worry if their next hardware upgrade will necessitate a call to Ubisoft asking permission to install the game they purchased... and that's due to the fact that they didn't purchase it.

Anno 2070 looks to be a really solid game, and, again, it's not as if Ubisoft is alone in employing harsh DRM. (Namco Bandai, for example, approved of Ubisoft's always-on DRM in 2010.) But with Ubisoft happily touting last week that it is the number 3 third-party publisher in the United States, it would be encouraging to see the company lead by example and set a precedent that punishing your fans with DRM is not the way to go.

Read the full article on 1UP:
http://www.1up.com/news/ubisoft-drm-gone-too-far

 

[Martimus]

I don't even have to read what they are doing now. They have been going too far for years now. Enough I avoid any game by Ubisoft, and have for years. It is unfortunate, because I would have bought the latest HoMM if it was published by someone other than them or EA.

 

[ImpulsE69]

n/m

 

[thilanliyan]

Lol, thankfully I don't play mp games...I just get a cracked exe for whatever games I buy so I don't have to deal with crap like that for games I paid for. Last game that made me do this was Splinter Cell: Conviction on Steam which required me to sign into Ubi.com...I said screw that and just got the crack.

I'm guessing the people coming up with these bright ideas don't actually play these games.

 

[Throckmorton]

I will never again buy a game with DRM like that. I bought Test Drive Unlimited on DigitalRiver and after 2 or 3 installs I got locked out. I spent weeks trying to get a new key from Atari or DigitalRiver. Eventually one of them gave in and gave me a key. And then that key expired after one install. Now I just pirate the game which I paid for fair and square.

 

[Throckmorton]

I like how they call it a "rare occasion"... LOL, seriously? Reinstalling a game 4 times is rare? Most of my games on Steam have been reinstalled at least 10 times.

 

[Kadarin]

Has Ubisoft's DRM Gone Too Far?

The answer is YES, and that nobody should ever buy anything from Ubisoft again, ever. Vote with your wallet.

 

[Nebor]

I like how they call it a "rare occasion"... LOL, seriously? Reinstalling a game 4 times is rare? Most of my games on Steam have been reinstalled at least 10 times.

You realize that hard drive space is very cheap, right? I've never uninstalled a Steam game. I keep like 150 games installed, and most of them I've never even played. I'll get to them eventually...

 

[mindcycle]

I've changed graphics cards about three times within the last year or so. I would never buy a game that eventually punished me for upgrading my computer, that's ridiculous.

What I truly wonder about is how they determined "a clear reduction in piracy" for Driver 3 with the inclusion of always on DRM. Click the "deeming it a success" link at the top of the article to see what i'm referring to.

What data do they have to back up that claim? To me that just sounds like an attempt to justify the money they spend on the DRM technology. I don't see how they could possibly determine how many people bought the game because they couldn't pirate it, and really, shouldn't that be the ultimate goal of DRM? To convert pirates into customers? Maybe they deem it a success because they saw a high number of hits to they auth server that failed, but even if that happened, how is that useful data? That doesn't account for the people who were stopped at first but got their pirated copy working later, or conversions of pirated copies into sales. It's just a pointless statement with no data to really prove it did anything useful..

 

[Throckmorton]

You realize that hard drive space is very cheap, right? I've never uninstalled a Steam game. I keep like 150 games installed, and most of them I've never even played. I'll get to them eventually...

Yes hard drive space is cheap but I have a laptop.

Also, when you reinstall Windows, with Steam you have zero problems, no need for reinstallation. With these hairbrained DRM schemes, you have to reinstall the game which eats up an install allotment.

 

[ramj70]

I bought anno 2070 because I liked the demo. A few weeks after buying the game I updated my bios, I had to reactivate the game. Then I swapped out the CPU with a new one, had to reactivate again. Well there goes my three installs. Lesson learned, never buy ubisoft again even if you like the game.

 

[nitromullet]

You realize that hard drive space is very cheap, right? I've never uninstalled a Steam game. I keep like 150 games installed, and most of them I've never even played. I'll get to them eventually...

That's not really relevant to the issue. The game re-activates every time you run it after a hardware change, in this case the video card. It doesn't matter if the game was uninstalled or not.

I could easily see someone legitimately burning through three activations quickly. Say you activate the game then upgrade your video card. That's two activations. Then the video card turns out to have issues, so you RMA it and get a replacement. That's three activations right there, and you never specifically uninstalled the game from your HD.

 

[PowerYoga]

fuck ubisoft.

 

[thespyder]

it strikes me to wonder if this particular form of DRM isn't targeting pirating so much as preventing reselling the game. If the game only allows three installs, accidents/upgrades or merely changes in your system could very quickly mean that the game you sell back to Gamestop no longer has any valid installs left.

This might very well be a preemptive strike against lost profits on that front. Scary, isn't it?

 

[Sephire]

Why bother buying PC games when all this DRR is not worth the hassle?

 

[PowerYoga]

Why bother buying PC games when all this DRR is not worth the hassle?

not sure if srs or just troll. Probably just troll.

 

[mindcycle]

it strikes me to wonder if this particular form of DRM isn't targeting pirating so much as preventing reselling the game. If the game only allows three installs, accidents/upgrades or merely changes in your system could very quickly mean that the game you sell back to Gamestop no longer has any valid installs left.

This might very well be a preemptive strike against lost profits on that front. Scary, isn't it?

DRM is absolutely setup to prevent resale. However, reselling a PC game nowadays is next to impossible and has been for several years now. Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't believe that GameStop (or any other retailer for that matter) buys used PC games. Your only hope is to do it yourself through eBay or something like that and hope your serial number isn't already tied to some online service. And that only accounts for retail games, there has never been a way to legitimately resell a digital download (besides a select few Stardock games I think).

Resale is still prevalent on the consoles and you can bet that all the DLC, online codes, and whatnot are setup to combat it, but until DRM similar to the PC shows up on consoles there's still a lot more potential to sell used stuff there.

 

[thespyder]

Gamestop "Used" to buy used PC games. I know because I have on occasion sold them old games that I no longer played. But I am talking like System Shock 2 old. As to if you can still do it today in any form, i don't know.

Still, this pretty much puts the nail in the coffin if it is still happening.

 

[DeathReborn]

Yes they have gone too far & if they didn't have these draconian DRM schemes they'd probably make double the sales.

The only good thing Ubisoft can do now is to sell all it's IP and close their doors, with all the management never working in the Games industry again.

 

[Maximilian]

fuck ubisoft.

fuck ubisoft.

 

[Nebor]

Why bother buying PC games when all this DRR is not worth the hassle?

I wish people would just bail rather than bitch about property owners trying to defend their property & rights. I'd rather PC gaming go away entirely than to allow even 1 person to pirate a game.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

If it's such a big deal, I'm not sure why they don't just drop out of printing hard copies of their games altogether & exclusively sell through shit like Steam.

 

[mindcycle]

I wish people would just bail rather than bitch about property owners trying to defend their property & rights. I'd rather PC gaming go away entirely than to allow even 1 person to pirate a game.

Gotta bring back this awesome post to reply to this, lol

not sure if srs or just troll. Probably just troll.

By your logic "all" video games should go away entirely since console games can be pirated as well. Oh, and while we're at it, we should get rid of all computer software since it can also be pirated..

 

[you2]

I generally avoid ubi soft; and I used to avoid ea until they purchased bioware. To be honest while I dislike EA; they are no where as bad as ubi soft and when I have had issues they (customer support) have been very responsive and helpful - often faster than valve since you can actually reach a real person (I think I used chat).
-
ubi soft not only has harsh drm; the few time I've tried to reach out to customer support it doesnt' exist. Quite frankly ubi soft likes to talk about poor sales on the pc; but they are shooting themselves in the foot. If they would use something like steamworks (which a lot of folks seem to dislike) it would be good enough for me.

 

[Childs]

By your logic "all" video games should go away entirely since console games can be pirated as well. Oh, and while we're at it, we should get rid of all computer software since it can also be pirated..

Dont forget boats. Real pirates still exist.