Sunday 28 February 2010

UBISOFT - NOT SOFT ON DRM


Have you heard the news?

Thats right from now on all UBISOFT games will require an "always on" internet connection to play thier games.

PC gamers out there will cry...

"This is nothing new sir! We have had to activate our games online before we can play them in the past! Remember Half life 2?"

But no no, we aren't talking activation here, I am talking about playing a game.

UBISOFT products will now constantly check that you are online, and if you aren't? The game quits out.

Yep, moving house, haven't got your net up yet? No Ubisoft games for you.

Intermittent problems with your wireless connection? You can play! When it works.

Internet goes down through no fault of your own? Best play something else.

In summary... No net connection? YOU MUST BE A PIRATE! YOU DON'T DESERVE THIS GAME. (Then I assume they spit on you as well)

Those of you that know me are well aware of my dislike of pirates, and although its clear to me that Ubisoft have gone insane and have decided to punish LEGITIMATE GAMERS instead of the pirates, I find myself getting annoyed by our downloading brethren.

The sad thing is, this crazy internet only DRM *will* be broken by Pirates and in the end they will get a better service because they won't need a net connection all the time.

Crazy.

Now I have mentioned the mighty Rock, Paper, Shotgun before, probably the best PC only website out there. Excellent games journalist Alec Meer has recently posted about Gamers spreading the word about this and getting out there to tell people that this is unacceptable.

And I agree... so here it is. You know now, spread the word. You can find an interview with a Ubisoft PR man here if you are interested in thier side of the story

That all said... I am fed up with pirates ruining my past time, and then equally so with companies who don't help with hardcore DRM measures like this, but the truth is I don't know what the solution is when it comes to pirates and thats the most frustrating thing of all.

For me... the worst thing is... I don't do anything about it. I am talking about the friends I have that pirate games freely by downloading them. I try and tell them not to, but they don't care, so do I report them? No, they are my friends and I NEVER WOULD, so they carry on, and in truth.. how can I blame them?

Free is a difficult price to beat and if you aren't invested in the games community... why should you care?

How about.... companies going out of business.. like Iron Lore.. see story here

How about... massive AAA titles maybe moving away from the PC... COD 4 anyone?.. story here

How about figures of 10 millions games downloaded illegally in a month.. 10 MILLION!.. see here

I suppose in the end, if you Pirate its down to you. I know none of this will change your mind about copyright infringement, but I guess the question is.... what will? Will anything?

Or does any of this even matter or change anything?

Let me know your thoughts here or at Facebook.

Riaktion... signing out.