Ubisoft's New PC DRM Really Requires Net Access, Ends Game If Disconnected

[ayabe]

Well I bought Sh5 this morning off of Steam without having heard about this mess.

We'll see how high my bloodpressure gets when I get home and try to play, something tells me that this might be "the big one!!!" Que Redd Foxx.

 

[mindcycle]

Well I bought Sh5 this morning off of Steam without having heard about this mess.

We'll see how high my bloodpressure gets when I get home and try to play, something tells me that this might be "the big one!!!" Que Redd Foxx.

Ouch, sorry man. On top of the shitty DRM I also heard SH5 is super buggy.

Just remember to come here first before purchasing your games in the future.

 

[aigomorla]

If you're going to do that, then you mind as well pirate the game.

I said IF... i personally dont like UBISoft, and the crap they have.

Yeah, look, a copy-paste from a warez release doesn't mean that the warez release actually functions. And a 4chan demotivational poster makes the article suspect to say the least.

Which, incidentally is why I asked after reading the 'article' to begin with.

the group is by skid-row... ummm... without stepping into the black area, id be pretty sure it would run fine.. You might have some crashes here, and there, but those probably wont be due to the cracks, but shit programers at ubisoft.

LMAO.. I can't remember the last time I bought a Ubisoft game.

Ditto... oh yeah i bought HAWX and played it twice... and havent touched it since...

 

[mindcycle]

the group is by skid-row... ummm... without stepping into the black area, id be pretty sure it would run fine.. You might have some crashes here, and there, but those probably wont be due to the cracks, but shit programers at ubisoft.

The main DRM has been cracked (the online auth stuff), but there are several DRM triggers that still exist in the game that haven't been fully removed yet. Which means there will most likely be a 100% crack eventually but getting rid of all those triggers can take some time I guess. I wouldn't know how much time something like that would take since i'm not a cracker and I haven't downloaded the game (nor will I), but that's at least what i've seen posted on the net.

 

[Attic]

Let me get this straight.

Without DRM you get the pirates who weren't going to buy the game pirating the game, but you also get your customers who want the game and don't want DRM.

0 profit from pirates + 100% of customers.

With this form of DRM you stop the pirates who weren't going to buy the game anyway, but you also drive away customers who would buy the game if the DRM were not so draconian.

0 profit from pirates + 75% of customers (25% have decided not to buy because of DRM concerns)

Is it not explicity clear how this attempt from Ubisoft is going to drive down sales of the game? Given that that pirates don't buy the game, why drive away legit customers with this form of DRM? A DRM whose goal is to inconvience legitamate buyers to placate the pirates? This is what pisses me off the most, i'm suppose to pay 50 bux for this game so I can have a lousy experience due to an ill concieved plan to halt pirates?

Goddamn publishers still think a downloaded game = a lost sale = 40-60 bux. That is just not the case. Stopping pirates does not make your games sell better, making better games makes your games sell better FFS.

 

[coloumb]

The main DRM has been cracked (the online auth stuff), but there are several DRM triggers that still exist in the game that haven't been fully removed yet. Which means there will most likely be a 100% crack eventually but getting rid of all those triggers can take some time I guess. I wouldn't know how much time something like that would take since i'm not a cracker and I haven't downloaded the game (nor will I), but that's at least what i've seen posted on the net.

Well... from what I've seen [way back in the Apple/Commodore days] - Basically run tool/tools to track what is going on in memory while the game is running. Observe what it triggers, if it makes any calls to any files, etc - then just modify whatever needs to be modified to make the game executable think everything is fine and dandy.

Example: You can use CheatEngine to stop the timer in Just Cause 2 by searching for a specific timer value [ie: 5 seconds elapsed, search for "5", let the timer run for 5 more seconds, search for 5, and repeat until you find one address value with "5" - then "freeze" that value which prevents the timer from counting down.]

It's how the game trainers work - they run in memory and modify memory address values.

 

[JoshGuru7]

Without DRM you get the pirates who weren't going to buy the game pirating the game, but you also get your customers who want the game and don't want DRM.

0 profit from pirates + 100% of customers.

With this form of DRM you stop the pirates who weren't going to buy the game anyway, but you also drive away customers who would buy the game if the DRM were not so draconian.

0 profit from pirates + 75% of customers (25% have decided not to buy because of DRM concerns)

You are making three major assumptions here:
1) 0% of consumers who would pirate with no DRM will purchase if piracy is not an option.
2) 25% of consumers who would purchase with no DRM will not purchase if piracy is not an option.
3) Consumers and pirates are two separate groups of people with no movement between each group.

You are ignoring the potential benefits because you dislike the costs and your assumptions oversimplify the situation. I agree that the first percentage is not 100% but it is also not 0% either. The second percentage may be either higher or lower than 25%, which matters because the comparison between the first two assumptions is what you are basing your conclusion on. If the first percentage was 25% and the second percentage was 20% then your "result" would be reversed.

The last assumption misrepresents the underlying issue. Pirates are simply consumers who view pirated goods as an acceptable substitute good based on multiple constraints:
- They put a low value on the ethical cost of piracy
- They put a low value on the acquisition cost (time and risks) of piracy
- They put a high value on monetary savings from piracy

The goal of DRM is to remove pirated goods as substitute goods from the marketplace. How well it accomplishes that goal needs to be weighed against the additional costs the DRM imposes on consumers, not ignored.

 

[mindcycle]

From GameSpot's review:

Assassin's Creed II's most unusual attribute, however, is displayed in big letters on the front of the box: "A permanent Internet connection is required to play the game." This requirement wouldn't be so peculiar if it were an online-only multiplayer game, but Assassin's Creed II is a single-player, story-driven adventure. Whenever you play the game, you must sign into an online portal; if you aren't connected to the Internet, you cannot start the game, and if you lose your connection, the game will pause. Even your saved games are stored online, which is a boon if you plan on playing on multiple computers, but seems like an otherwise unreasonable mandate. This is a bold approach to digital rights management--and one that could unnecessarily hinder your enjoyment.

Twice we had the game shut down while it was saving, and we ran into short but noticeable delays multiple times while the game attempted to load our profile and download our progress. Other times, our attempted login timed out, or the launcher incorrectly informed us that we had used the wrong username or password. These issues hindered our playtime for hours, and sporadically affected European players for days.

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/assassinscreed2/review.html

 

[mindcycle]

Ubisoft DRM Petition at 4500 and Growing

The controversy surrounds the requirement to be connected to the internet the entire time gamers wish to play their titles, among the first of which are Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5.

Understandably many potential customers aren't happy and after an unstable weekend which saw problems connecting to the authentication servers, who can blame them?

The petition's main argument is that this aggressive form of DRM will "only alienate those ready, willing and able to purchase your games through legal means" and may possible lead to more cracked versions being downloaded. Therefore the author requests that the publisher revises their DRM strategy and seek out alternatives to combat piracy.

via: http://www.gamerzines.com/pc/news/ubisoft-drm-petition-at-4500.html

Link to petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/ew15dl94/petition.html

 

[Kirby]

http://e4g.info/5099/ubisoft-servers-under-attack-again.html

This just keeps getting better and better. If a DDoS attack is bringing down their servers, they obviously don't have things setup properly over there. This whole thing is pretty ridiculous IMO and just shows how DRM only negatively affects legit customers.

bahahahahaha!!!!!!!!

 

[HeXen]

If this fails, they may end up saying, screw the PC platform, stick to consoles.
How come they dont use TPM (trusted platform module) as most motherboards now have them.
they could encrypt their game and have it run through TPM? right. if its encrypted, maybe it would take longer for pirates to decrypt?

seems maybe hardware DRM would work better than software. PS3 does pretty good, a small few pirated games after all these years so their system is effective enough. Maybe PC's should do similar?

 

[Kalmah]

If this fails, they may end up saying, screw the PC platform, stick to consoles.
How come they dont use TPM (trusted platform module) as most motherboards now have them.
they could encrypt their game and have it run through TPM? right. if its encrypted, maybe it would take longer for pirates to decrypt?

seems maybe hardware DRM would work better than software. PS3 does pretty good, a small few pirated games after all these years so their system is effective enough. Maybe PC's should do similar?

That's probably fine until people start avoiding your brand of motherboards because of the built-in drm.

 

[HeXen]

^ thats like avoiding PS3 because of its DRM. You just wouldnt beable to play the games. Though most all Mobo's have TPM nowadays and can be turned off in bios. Most hardware DRM gets hacked eventually, but typically requires special software and instructions with risk of bricking or special hardware chip...but its inconvenient enough, like the consoles that publishers can still make good profits with less risk.

 

[mindcycle]

^ thats like avoiding PS3 because of its DRM. You just wouldnt beable to play the games. Though most all Mobo's have TPM nowadays and can be turned off in bios. Most hardware DRM gets hacked eventually, but typically requires special software and instructions with risk of bricking or special hardware chip...but its inconvenient enough, like the consoles that publishers can still make good profits with less risk.

The difference is that the DRM on the PS3 isn't intrusive and draconian like DRM typically is on the PC side. Which is due to the fact the PS3 is a closed platform. If hardware based protection on the PC was standard (meaning everyone had it built into their machine) then we wouldn't have a problem. However due to the open nature of the platform this is probably years away at the very least. Publishers aren't going to use something like TPM since it's not in every machine out there and that means they would be excluding a large amount of their customer base if it was a requirement to run the game.

The absolute best way to fight against PC piracy, given the current climate, is to offer your paying customers greater incentives to purchase your product as opposed to pirating it. Heck, even EA of all publishers understands this concept now.. Took them a few years, but if they can "get it" anyone can IMO. What you absolutely don't want to do is punish your legit customers based off of the actions of non-customers (aka pirates).

 

[KMFJD]

"Ubisoft is offering owners of Silent Hunter V a free copy of either Shaun White Snowboarding or Prince of Persia to compensate for server outages. Long-time reader Jim passes along the email he received, which offers the following explanation: "Following the recent temporary game server outages which may have caused disruption to some Silent Hunter 5 players on PC only, we would like to reward your patience if you have experienced any problems by offerring [sic] you a full downloadable game from the list provided below, completely free of charge."

DRM Working great i see

 

[lsquare]

Seriously guys, just stop supporting Ubisoft and or any other companies that implements this BS. No petition or blog is going to punish Ubisoft and get them to learn their lessons. The only way they'll ever learn is by seeing the red in their books.

 

[KMFJD]

Ahahaah it just keeps getting better...Australian players denied access to play Settlers 7

http://www.gossipgamers.com/ubisoft-drm-stops-australian-gamers-playing-settlers-7-again/

 

[mindcycle]

From the article linked above.

Isn’t it exciting though? It is like gambling when you buy Ubisoft games.

lol.. Quite sad really.

 

[Modelworks]

How come they dont use TPM (trusted platform module) as most motherboards now have them.
they could encrypt their game and have it run through TPM? right. if its encrypted, maybe it would take longer for pirates to decrypt?

seems maybe hardware DRM would work better than software. PS3 does pretty good, a small few pirated games after all these years so their system is effective enough. Maybe PC's should do similar?

Because most motherboards do not have them, maybe some of the OEM ones but I can buy boards everywhere without TPM where buying one with TPM I have to actively search for. There are effective methods for hardware DRM . Current generation smart cards are very good. Dongle protection is another option. It took over a year to crack the cubase protection. Other forms of hardware protection like those a CG plugin company called Chaos Group uses with their product Vray is currently the bane of crackers.

Dongles cost money though and people don't want to increase the fees already paid to play a game. The next windows release may provide an answer as it changes how code is handled and could make things much more secure making cracks a lot harder to create. Moving software to the cloud method will also cut piracy in large ways.

 

[poohbear]

if i bought this game, i wouldn't install it...rather i'd go download a cracked copy which wouldn't have this nonsense in it.

but that's the point, there is no cracked copy, i've searched everywhere for one. As much as we all hate to admit it, this restrictive DRM is actually working, but i would never buy a game w/ it as i simply dont have internet 24/7, sometimes stuff happens and u lose ur connection.

 

[mindcycle]

but that's the point, there is no cracked copy, i've searched everywhere for one. As much as we all hate to admit it, this restrictive DRM is actually working, but i would never buy a game w/ it as i simply dont have internet 24/7, sometimes stuff happens and u lose ur connection.

Yeah, it's working to deter people from buying their games. Pirates are just going to pirate something else.

 

[KaOTiK]

I know at least there are some hacked and fully working copies of Silent Hunter 5 out there. Coworker showed me earlier in the week at work on his personal laptop him playing SH5 and he played it for most the day at that. He was (or probably is) close to end of the game now. Besides him saying it was a cracked copy, we don't have any wireless connections in or around our building and the laptop was unplug as he brought it into my office, we can't connect outside computers to our network anyways.

It's a weird situation, cause he knows how I feel about piracy and he has the same feelings, but he feels the same way many others do about this crappy new DRM so he showed it to me. At least in his defense, he did say he bought the game once he got a working cracked copy.

No clue if the other Ubi titles have cracked copies around, but at least there is one cracked version of SH5 out there.