All Ubisoft PC games will require an Internet connection

[prowler]

Ubisoft has revealed controversial new plans for anti-piracy measures on all its PC games. Taking a leaf from the Steam and EA playbook, the European publisher has announced that all of its games will require online activation via an Ubi.com account. The only trouble is, Ubi's gone a step further.

On one hand, the new DRM plans will let you install your Ubisoft games on as many computers as you like. You will also be able to run games without a disc, and even save them remotely on Ubisoft's servers. The catch is that Ubisoft will require you to always be online when you play your games, in order to keep the products verified.

While many PC gamers have a persistent Internet connection, a significant amount do not, and the lack of offline play will surely snub a few customers. The new measures are already generating a potential riot from the always-touchy PC gamer crowd who believe it's a stupid and presumptuous move to assume gamers are infinitely connected to the 'net.

What do you reckon? A bold and respectable move on the part of Ubisoft, or a misstep that will create a significant backlash? I'll give Ubisoft one thing -- the company's got some balls, even if it is lacking in the foresight department.

Source

Well, with my computer having no internet connection except from 12pm-9pm (Stupid parents

). I won't be playing any Ubisoft games for a long time.

 

[Hadrian]

If anything it'll make people pirate them more, its enough arseache installing.

 

[WildWon]

Sucks for the legitimate players.

But for the non-legit players, it's not going to stop a thing.

Good try, Ubisoft. But this only going to hurt, more than anything else. :-\

EDIT: @Hadrian: I think it's safe to say "JINX! You owe me a beer!"

 

[Raiser]

This is bullshit. No offline play? You kidding?

Fuck Ubisoft. As far as I'm concerned, they don't have any good games out anyway.

 

[omgpwn666]

Good idea, but at the same time it sounds bad for those who have no internet, or are limited to the internet.

 

[Deleted member 35947]

Like other attempts, this will be cracked. It's the legitimate customers they'll be driving away. Soon they'll be wondering what happened to their customers.

It's been proven before that games with no DRM, that are actually worth buying, do sell.

 

[Theraima]

Very nice anti-piracy.. Not gonna do the full job.

 

[megawalk]

lol @ fail

i think ubisoft isn't aware of a update-blocker -_-

 

[ImpulsE69]

It will be cracked. Apparently their people aren't involved in the summer rolling blackouts in California. I mean really...the internet doesn't ALWAYS work. They are idiots, and this will only cost them sales of the "non-pirating" crowd as opposed to what they are trying to prevent.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

Just wondering, what happens if you're internet connection cuts out? Like it just goes out for 5 seconds and comes back on?

It seems pretty ingenious but flawed. Like the PSP Go, which had a pretty good idea of being a download game device but utterly failed because it lacked a way to play PSP discs. Oh, and it was overpriced as fuck.

 

[megawalk]

"Evil Influences" ?
please

technically if my theory is correct. not all people are online players. if this is to prevent ap my theory would be. they would most likely lose 53% of their valid customers.
hacking possibility would increase be 20%
"Evil People" Influences would increase rapidly by 50%
and complaints would suffocate at a 70%
yes...thats the theory...now i wait for a practical situation.

 

[purplesludge]

http://www.ubi.com/us/games/search.aspx?pltag=pc
I'll be missing so much when i don't have internet.

 

[Centimetro]

when will PC game developers realize that when the dust settles, their games will be cracked regardless, and all that will be left is a bunch of pissed off would-be customers?

 

[Cablephish]

This sucks a lot for people who have caps on there internet. If the idea is to stay connected even while playing a single player game, Ubisoft will be making people lose out on money that they have the right to.

What a bunch of bums.

 

[spotanjo3]

I am not worry because Ubisoft games are not good anyway.

 

[Arm73]

I agree they have to do something about piracy, after all the PC games market is quite large but it's somehow dismissed and we see poor ports sometime because some high profile developers don't feel it's worth to invest too much in that market so terribly plagued by piracy.
At the end the costumer looses too.......
But like any other attempt it will be hacked, they hack everything nowadays........
So to answer people that don't have a steady internet connection...................just pirate the game !
Really , sometimes i crack my legitimate games just so that I don't have to put the DVD in the tray when I play or have some other special needs..............

 

[Celice]

Maybe if the games were affordable there wouldn't be as much piracy...?

Developers I like I send a small amount of money to directly. Usually indie.

 

[RetroVortex]

Why don't they just release their games on Steam, and have the hard copies linked to Steam as well?

Why are these big companies so afraid of co-operating and use a proven decent method. (Rather than adding all that needless extra security which just clutters your average pc anyway, (not everyone has super pc's ya know!).

I'd rather buy my games of Steam, have the Steam app installed, and the ability to switch to offline mode if I wished. Its not a perfect system, (hey VALVE! I got other pc's too! Steam should really give you a multi-pc mode, (where one account can be used on 3 or 4 computers at once, but due to cd keys, only one game can be played online at a time!(unless the game has LAN play already))), but I would argue its the lesser of all these DRM evils.

 

[Centimetro]

Why don't they just release their games on Steam, and have the hard copies linked to Steam as well?

Why are these big companies so afraid of co-operating and use a proven decent method. (Rather than adding all that needless extra security which just clutters your average pc anyway, (not everyone has super pc's ya know!).

I'd rather buy my games of Steam, have the Steam app installed, and the ability to switch to offline mode if I wished. Its not a perfect system, (hey VALVE! I got other pc's too! Steam should really give you a multi-pc mode, (where one account can be used on 3 or 4 computers at once, but due to cd keys, only one game can be played online at a time!(unless the game has LAN play already))), but I would argue its the lesser of all these DRM evils.

Yeah, Steam seems to really help with sales too.

The Multi-PC thing is a thorn in my side, too. They should do soemthing about that. Maybe let you sign on to the same account at same time on multiple PCs so long as they're on the same IP address

 

[Destructobot]

Just another example of why the gaming, movie and music industries need to go out of business. Just like most copy protection schemes, this does nothing to stop pirates, but it does worsen the experience and degrade the product for legitimate customers. Even if they were making the greatest games ever, they still wouldn't deserve to sell a single copy if they think it's acceptable to shit on their customers this way.