Ubisoft Launches Anti-Piracy Countermeasures

[ussfletcher]

They tested this on Anno 1404? LOL, the crack must have taken care of that

 

[RyanPaulShaffer]

Haven't they said they would make it so that if they go under or whatever, they would make sure the games still work?

I don't think they made any such promise. Doesn't it clearly state in the EULA that they can stop Steam service at any time and are not responsible for providing access to any games bought through Steam?

besides, you can use steam in offline mode and still play them. you can even back up your games to cd/dvd as well

Can you reinstall those games from DVD/CD and play them without requiring authentication through your Steam account?

 

[Qbah]

I don't mind it at all. You can use your cell phone as a 3G modem and connect for the authentication time, should your landline be down. Hell, I'm using my iPhone right now to connect to the Internet - works fine for what I do (20GB a month is a bit too little though ). And from what I know, US has an unlimited data plan? Or even if it's several hundread MBs a month, this will only take a few kilobytes tops...

If you don't have either, suck it up and do something else I'm sure this will be so rare, that it won't natter at all. Or just don't buy the games... I'm sure they weighted in the people who would refuse such a deal and still they would earn more due to decreased piracy?

No DRM and no DVD in the drive to play = amazing deal imo.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

I don't mind this system except that if everyone does this I will end up with a bunch of different accounts to keep track of. I like just having a steam account for all my games.

 

[Regs]

If Bill Gates hasn't figured out how to fight piracy, what makes Ubisoft any different?
They should offer special items and such for pre-orders or online registration.

Bill Gates has a different target market than Ubisoft.

 

[lupi]

They very bottom line of this and all similar drm discussions is that the more you are required to do/have that involves an additional party the less you actually own your game and the more likely it is that at some point you won't be able to access your game because someone else has decided for you. You don't have to look much further than EA for all the products with an online requirement/capability that they have expunged from their system, leaving you with a shell of a product or an empty box and a coaster.

I probably have about the largest game collection of those on this forum and other than needing time to fiddle with dosbox settings, there is a very finite number of those games I can't currently run. And of that small list, the reason is almost entirely due to their aged drm rejecting being run on a more modern computer. But drm never causes problems, right?

 

[pontifex]

I don't think they made any such promise. Doesn't it clearly state in the EULA that they can stop Steam service at any time and are not responsible for providing access to any games bought through Steam?

Obviously they need to cover their asses in a legal manner.

Can you reinstall those games from DVD/CD and play them without requiring authentication through your Steam account?

That I don't know.

 

[zerogear]

If you have backups of the game, you can use a 'cracked' steam client to run everything offline. Certainly not official, but it's better than being left dead in the water. This is why I backup every game I buy/download.

 

[kalrith]

If they are trying to be like Steam, then they should offer an offiline mode. If I'm on a plane or at a coffee shop that's a T-Mobile Hot Spot (which I don't pay for), then I want to be able to play my games. If my internet goes down for days, I want to be able to play the games that I paid for.

I wonder if you'll be able to backup saves locally and if the games will function locally once Ubisoft shuts down the servers. I still have Diablo 2 saved games from several years ago, and while I know that Blizzard still has Battle Net up for Diablo 2, most companies don't follow the same practice of keeping servers up for 10+ years.

 

[xCxStylex]

That is definitely a valid point that digital versions often cost the distributor much less than a physical game with all the associated costs you've listed there.

However, on the other hand, there are people like me who are messy slobs who are GLAD to not have to keep track of a physical CD and key. I'm also glad to be able to have less physical crap lying around as well.


Again, if you haven't read any of the other billion posts, you can play your steam games in offline mode. While you may not be able to reinstall them if you accidentally delete them, you'll still definitely be able to play. It would be the same as losing the physical disc or cd key.

Hell, I lost my COD4 MW and Quake 4 CD keys so they cds are pretty damn useless to me.

The problem I have with Steam is that they often sell the digital version of games (with no physical goods, such as cases or manuals) at full retail price. Digital distribution has to be saving them quite a bit without the manufacturing costs, shipping costs, retailer shelf costs, etc. Steam games should be $10 cheaper than the full retail version, but instead, they are MSRP. That just ain't right.

I also don't like the idea that if Steam ever shuts down or Valve hits hard times and goes out of business, POOF, there go all of your Steam games. Sorry, too bad, so sad!

 

[mindcycle]

If you're annoyed when you have to show your receipt to someone when you walk out of an electronics store, Ubisoft is not the company for you. This is like having to show your receipt every time you want to turn on your television. If your Internet goes out, if you're on a flight with no wireless or don't want to pay the fee, or if you're at a hotel that only offers for-pay Internet, you aren't going to be able to to play your games.

"This is fine," one self-professed pirate told Ars. "I only have to access the Internet once to get Ubisoft games. You're the ones paying for a broken copy."

lol

via ars technica

 

[Munky]

This is unacceptable to me. I'm not paying money so that Ubisoft holds my savegames hostage and requires me to connect online to play a SP game.

Next year: "In their continued effort to fight piracy, Ubisoft has announced plans to require paid subscription accounts for all games sold starting this year."

 

[Ichigo]

Stardock

ZERO DRM on Sins of a Solar Empire

sold a ton

GOTY

still selling DLC

Sold less than a million, last I checked. It had a low development budget so that's not as big of a big deal for Stardock but they're not selling "a ton".

I think game developers have catch-22 situation. If they use DRM, they get criticized for being draconian. If they don't use DRM, their products get even more heavily pirated. I'm sure SSE would have sold more if it was only available through Steam or something.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Sold less than a million, last I checked. It had a low development budget so that's not as big of a big deal for Stardock but they're not selling "a ton".

I think game developers have catch-22 situation. If they use DRM, they get criticized for being draconian. If they don't use DRM, their products get even more heavily pirated. I'm sure SSE would have sold more if it was only available through Steam or something.

They don't get any more heavily pirated. The level of pirating stays the same; that's why they get critized so much.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

This is unacceptable to me. I'm not paying money so that Ubisoft holds my savegames hostage and requires me to connect online to play a SP game.

Next year: "In their continued effort to fight piracy, Ubisoft has announced plans to require paid subscription accounts for all games sold starting this year."

You're too kind it'll be retroactive with previous years.

 

[zerogear]

They don't get any more heavily pirated. The level of pirating stays the same; that's why they get critized so much.

Pretty much. People who won't buy the game will not buy the game regardless of what protection they use. And since using pirated versions, DRM is a non-factor anyway.

As for Steam, if you don't have the option in the Settings checked, you should be able to start Steam client directly into offline mode if it can't connect. Of course, you would have to have the game downloaded first .

 

[kalrith]

Pretty much. People who won't buy the game will not buy the game regardless of what protection they use. And since using pirated versions, DRM is a non-factor anyway.

I agree. I think control like this negatively impacts the law-abiding citizens, much like gun control would (and no I'm not trying to steer this to a gun-control thread). Criminals will pirate games or have guns regardless of what laws or anti-piracy measures are taken. They always have, and they always will.

 

[paperfist]

I for one won't be buying a game that requires an internet connection to save. Especially for a single player game. Would any of you be willing to put up with this so Ubisoft can "fight" piracy?

Yes so long as Ubisoft agrees to in writing that they'll never blame poor sales or the reasons they switch to consoles is due to PC piracy after implementing this. They also need to agree that if they should go out of business or be bought out that the user is guaranteed life time ownership of the game and saved files.

 

[Modelworks]

I have some news for the people that think they will just crack the games and still be able to play them. Good luck with that considering what they intend to use for the protection. It is the bane of all people that reverse engineer software, code that you cannot see except for when it is in use. What that means is no code to load into disassemblers or emulate. This is not the simple internet check that people are used to where you run the game and it goes out over the internet , sends a key, gets a reply and now you can play.

This is a boken DLL approach which is a much nastier beast. A lot of us crack software for fun and do not provide that information to pirates. I spent about two weeks looking at the broken dll approach and it is not something easily overcome. Right now there is no way .

The way it works is you do not ever have a 100% complete copy of the game. Instead they have chosen to remove parts of the software. When run the software switches to SSL mode , grabs the missing data and runs the program. The only way around it would be to grab the memory contents and patch the local files, but that is also protected using DEP . IDA,asm, winhex, all failed at getting the contents.

I imagine they will start small with just a few Kbit missing, that way it will only take seconds to verify and start the program. In the future they could place things like textures and more online only. You are still executing the code locally but you are downloading the bits every time you play. Right now they will not store much in the cloud but as connection rates increase that will grow.

 

[Munky]

This makes Steam look all the better by comparison. They want me to pay full price for a disc that only contains parts of the game? No thanks.

 

[mindcycle]

The way it works is you do not ever have a 100% complete copy of the game. Instead they have chosen to remove parts of the software. When run the software switches to SSL mode , grabs the missing data and runs the program. The only way around it would be to grab the memory contents and patch the local files, but that is also protected using DEP . IDA,asm, winhex, all failed at getting the contents.

You're probably correct. The method you are describing is basically identical to ByteSheild DRM. I wonder if they are using ByteShield or they just ripped off the idea.

Anyway it goes, I have no interest supporting Ubisoft's PC titles due to these additional restrictions. I refuse to be told when and how i'm able to play a game I legally purchased. I was looking forward to picking up Assassin's Creed on the PC, but it if it comes bundled with this nonsense i'll just pick it up on the 360 instead..

Maybe this will be a good case study. If it actually does prevent piracy but they still see the same exact sales numbers as titles without invasive DRM, I wonder what their next step will be?

Activision had some pretty heavy DRM for Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena which resulted in it taking several weeks, if not a month or more, to crack. However, despite mostly favorable reviews along with the inability to pirate it, the game didn't have huge sales numbers. It had pretty much average sales numbers similar to any other PC FPS game with similar reviews, thus making it pretty clear that preventing piracy doesn't actually increase sales. I'm just wondering when these publisher will realize the reality of the situation.

 

[Zargon]

Sold less than a million, last I checked. It had a low development budget so that's not as big of a big deal for Stardock but they're not selling "a ton".

I think game developers have catch-22 situation. If they use DRM, they get criticized for being draconian. If they don't use DRM, their products get even more heavily pirated. I'm sure SSE would have sold more if it was only available through Steam or something.

you are also right

over 500K units as of August 2008. And still selling.

Made for under 1 million dollars, by a team of like 8 programmers, compared to MW4 which had 70

 

[Modelworks]

You're probably correct. The method you are describing is basically identical to ByteSheild DRM. I wonder if they are using ByteShield or they just ripped off the idea.

ByteShield is basically the same thing that I was talking about. It is a pretty well known idea but in the past bandwidth was too low to make it practical. It transfers the code needed to run on your pc and when done using it nobody has a copy of the exe that can be cracked.
People often say that no protection is perfect and that is true but they leave out that it doesn't have to be. It just has to be good enough to not make it worthwhile to break.

 

[wanderer27]

Maybe this will be a good case study. If it actually does prevent piracy but they still see the same exact sales numbers as titles without invasive DRM, I wonder what their next step will be?

I might venture to say that they'll see less sales with this kind of tactic.


On the other hand, this might be a nice case study experiment.

See how your sales are with this restriction implemented and then remove these restrictions a couple months down the line to see if you generate additional sales.

Case in point, I just picked up Settlers: Rise of an Empire not long ago just because they have patched out the DRM.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Prediction: There will be a 'Fixed EXE' for it a couple of days before the game actually hits retail.