Ubisoft Has New PC Gaming Anti-Piracy Solution

[admin]

Game publisher Ubisoft is testing a new PC gaming anti-piracy solution. The good news is that gamers will no longer need to play with the disc in the drive, and will be able to install the game on as many PCs as they like.

The bad news is that each and every time the gamer wants to play the game, he/she will have to be online to authenticate the game. Save games can also be stored online, which is good is you need to access them from different locations, and bad if you want to play games when your Internet connection is down. In other words, the new system will be like Steam's, but without the extensive library of games.

Downloaders of the pirated version of these games will enjoy the game without these restrictions.

More:

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/01/ubisofts-new-drm-solution-you-have-be-online-to-play.ars

[drfsupercenter]

Isn't that just like Steam?

--EDIT--

Yeah, never mind, I just saw that part of your post.

I've never cared for Steam, just because of the whole "I have to run background spyware to play this game online" thing, I'd much rather just play it offline or over a LAN. But oh well, I'm not big on gaming either, I've only ever owned like two games with copy protection in my life anyway.

[dr_ml422]

This might sound bad to some, but it's going in the right direction. At least they're not putting it on the ISP customers. I mean how many times are you actually going to be down w/out internet access? If you do subscribe then of course you'll make reservations for a Hotel that has internet access. If you're a avid Gamer than you'll be prepared and have the money to pay for a lil Gaming anywhere any time.

I don't understand that Pirater's comment about having to access Ubisoft once though. Unless he's implying he'll pirate it on the dl'd.

[admin]

The pirater is saying he will access the Internet once (to download the pirated game) and then never have to worry about having to connect online again.

[dr_ml422]

The pirater is saying he will access the Internet once (to download the pirated game) and then never have to worry about having to connect online again.

Not for anything but if you're so desperate to pirate songs or even games that's not saying much. I just thought at least Ubisoft wasn't resting total cost on consumer or penalty via way of ISP enforcement.

[Budreaux]

Not for anything but if you're so desperate to pirate songs or even games that's not saying much.

To play the devil's advocate here:
It isn't about being desperate at all.
It's a community in many cases, just like this forum.
Yes, Admin strives to do the right thing here and abide by the rules to keep his site up, but many of the pirate communities are not worried about that and have the servers set in locations that they can't be touched.

[dr_ml422]

I confused the statement by the pirater and Admin's response. Now I understand. He only has to go to the site where the pirated songs are once. What I was referring to was prolly more towards the hacking aspect which I equated w/piracy.

What I intended to say was that to go through all that trouble, if indeed it's a lot for some, but not all, to hack into a music/video/w/e site just to snatch a file is not saying much. If it was something where you was going to disappear w/a couple of million $$$ or so, then for them prolly the act justifies the end.

For a music track/video file I don't think so. It is though the rush for most that really drives them when it comes into this aspect. Then from there stems a community for like minds.

[admin]

The soon to be released Assassin's Creed II (PC version) will have this new DRM system that Ubisoft talks about. Early tests showed that while playing the single player mode, if your Internet connection dies for any reason, the game throws the player back to the main menu and you lose all unsaved progress.

If this is true, then you basically have to get the pirated version just to have a playable game, especially for those that don't have rock solid Internet connections.

More:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/02/17/assassins-creed-ii-drm-proves-that-ubisoft-hates-your-guts-and-wants-to-beat-you-up-after-school/

and:

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=235290&site=pcg

[dr_ml422]

This just another classic example of not doing all their homework and hastily trying to come out w/some anti-piracy formula to please the Big Boys at the studios/gaming companies etc.. Real live testing w/some R&D would of exposed this right away. Now the door is open with still yet another incentive for pirated content being uploaded and downloaded.

Their wasting too much money and time on futile attempts to stop piracy instead of working w/the consumer on trying to do the right thing.

[admin]

I don't think it's a bug, I think it's intentional, in that if you don't have a constant Internet connection, Ubisoft thinks you shouldn't be playing the game, as it can't authenticate it.

[dr_ml422]

So they will indirectly cause others to piracy? If intentional which I don't doubt at all what will they do about refunding the person's money who actually is legit? all internet connections can be choppy in some areas. Not all can afford the upper more pricy speeds of Fiber Optics or cable? This is really low on their part if true which can absolutely be.

[admin]

Confirmation from Ubisoft that a permanent net connection requirement is indeed intentional and won't be changing any time soon. Ubisoft's response to the criticism:

We know that requiring a permanent online connection is not a happy point for a lot of PC gamers, but it is necessary for the system to work ... In the end it all comes back to one single truth: piracy is a big, huge, hairy problem. It's a market that suffered a lot because of piracy, and we're all just trying to figure out what we think is the best way to deal with it.

More:

http://www.gamedaily.com/games/assassins-creed-2/xbox-360/game-features/ubisoft-gives-its-side-on-its-pc-drm-set-up/

[dr_ml422]

I'm missing something here as I really haven't gamed. You mean all these Games they sell to play on your PC are internet activated/web-based software? You just can't buy a Game in a Game Stop or somewhere totally legit and install it like a regular app. and play it? If that's really it w/Game Software man that's kinda pushing one into a corner.

These guys are not using their common sense for lack of a better word forum wise. Now you anger the whole Gaming community both legit and Pirates even more. Hence more Piracy eventually.

[admin]

No, this is a new thing. In this new DRM system, for the one that you buy in the store, which comes on a DVD, you install the thing and then it will ask you to connect online and authenticate the game. Once you do that, you won't have to use the original DVD anymore. There is also a version that can be downloaded from their online store.

What happens afterwards is that when you start the game, the game checks back with the authentication server continuously (wasting a lot of bandwidth, no doubt), and the second it fails to authenticate (either because your game is pirated, or more likely, because you've lost your Internet connection), the game boots you back to the main menu and you lose all your unsaved progress.

Other companies also do online authentication, but they usually only require online authentication once or once per session. For example, EA/DICE made Bad Company 2 so that you only need to authenticate it for every 10,000 days, not the "every other second" that Ubisoft requires.

[dr_ml422]

I had to that once on my 1st time a couple of months ago w/some Game that came w/my Asus GPU card. I don't remember if the disc had to be inserted every time. That's a mood point.

Thes Ubisoft guys they one of the Big Boys in the industry? If so they're going to feel it. Right now it took me about a minute to get here on the web. Page wouldn't come up. So imagine playing a Game? I think sometimes it isn't even the net it's the browser.

How does the PS3/Xbox 360 etc... do their inspections? You don't have to be online w/those Game consoles. Let me know. Not because I'm interested in Piracy. I'm getting that PS3 Slim soon here and any lil info on it's usage is good to know.

Btw that Game they gave me was "Alone In The Dark". Pretty cool. I had fun. It's useless though as it's Vista etc... Kept locking on me and messing w/my OS. Had to authenticate it online just like you said.