Ubisoft server switch to render always-online DRM games unplayable next week
Ubisoft are having a bit of a hardware reshuffle next week, according to Eurogamer, which means major disruption to their DRM servers.
Games that use Ubisoft’s always-online DRM system ping these constantly to reassure the publishers that you’re not a pirate. That means that next week’s switchover will render Tom Clancy’s HAWX 2, Might & Magic: Heroes 6 and The Settlers 7 unplayable for an unknown period of time. The servers are set to go down on February 7. Ubisoft don’t say when they’ll be back up again.
My strangest PC gaming problem yet: I’ve lost Games for Windows Live
The year is 2012, and yet somehow Games for Windows Live is still a thing. It’s a dark future, to be sure, but even so I never imagined I’d have a problem as weird as this: I need it. And I can’t get it. It’s hard to stay angry when you’re laughing.
I’m trying to play Batman: Arkham City on PC, an excellent game that was unfortunately developed in 1408 AD, the last time anyone alive didn’t know Games for Windows Live was universally hated. And it’s working – in fact, it’s working better than usual. It’s working without Games for Windows Live. That part of the game simply never starts – I’m not asked to log in, the Home key won’t summon it, the main menu option does nothing, and the game seems to function smoothly without it.
Paradox CEO “surprised” people still use DRM, blames company politics
DRM’s the hideous multi-tendriled monster PC gamers pump shotgun blasts into while bellowing “Why! Won’t! You! Diiiiiiie!” And, questionable punctuation aside, it’s a good question. DRM gives legitimate customers no end of trouble while providing pirates with an allegedly righteous cause for their actions. In the cases of companies like Ubisoft, it’s utterly baffling. What gives? Do publishers hate our money?
Obviously not. However, according to Paradox Interactive CEO Fred Wester, we can’t aim our pitchforks and torches entirely at maniacally monolithic companies that erupt in a din of evil cackling and ominous lightning strikes each time someone’s booted back to a start screen. Business, he says, isn’t such a one-sided game.
Ubisoft: “Vast majority” of customers never encounter DRM problems
Ubisoft’s finally seen fit to pipe up about Anno 2070′s extremely sensitive (read: prone to detecting minute graphics card changes – not penning tear-jerking poetry) DRM, and well, perhaps no news actually was good news. In short, Ubisoft told RPS that its DRM is functioning precisely as intended. Worse, the publisher really doesn’t see why everyone’s making such a big deal about this.
Ubi DRM activation limits respond to graphics card changes
Ubisoft’s DRM isn’t exactly known for its gentle, loving caress in matters near and dear to PC gamers’ hearts, but the latest tightening of the cuffs seems a bit overkill-ish even by Ubi’s standards. In attempting to review Anno 2070′s performance on a range of hardware configurations, Guru3D made an extremely disappointing discovery: The second the site switched out a GTX 580 for a GTX 590, Anno demanded another, separate activation. On top of that, the game gives you a whopping three whole activations to work with, so think carefully before spelunking around in your machine’s brittle innards.
I’ve fired off a mail to Ubisoft asking whether this is an intentional piece of extra armor plating for its DRM Voltron, or merely a glitch the publisher plans on patching out. Fingers crossed for the latter, though precedent’s not exactly on our side.
Interview: CD Projekt’s CEO on Witcher 2 piracy, why DRM’s still not worth it
Recently, I spoke with Bohemia Interactive’s CEO about the three most reviled letters in the gaming alphabet: D, R, and M. His company has been making waves with tech that slowly renders pirated games unplayable with all manner of obnoxious, sometimes hilarious effects. From where Bohemia’s standing, DRM’s a necessary evil. No one ever said, however, that forcing thieves to pony up couldn’t be worth a laugh or two.
But that’s only one perspective. So, in the wake of the announcement that GOG’s version of Witcher 2 made a sizable stack of real, non-Monopoly money without any sort of DRM weighing it down, I decided to get in touch with CD Projekt. Read on for CEO and co-founder Marcin Iwinski’s thoughts on DRM schemes like Bohemia’s, why we should get rid of DRM altogether, how many Witcher 2 copies were pirated, and how piracy can even occasionally be beneficial.
Ghost Recon Online being free-to-play is a counter to piracy, says Ubisoft producer
Ghost Recon Online producer Sébastien Arnoult says that free-to-play games are a response to piracy – and an alternative to the restrictive DRM that’s annoyed PC gamers in so many recent Ubisoft games.
“We are giving away most of the content for free because there’s no barrier to entry. To the users that are traditionally playing the game by getting it through Pirate Bay, we said, ‘Okay, go ahead guys. This is what you’re asking for. We’ve listened to you – we’re giving you this experience. It’s easy to download, there’s no DRM that will pollute your experience.’”
While Ghost Recon Online is exclusive to PC, Ubisoft’s other Ghost Recon game, Future Soldier, uses a traditional payment model and will only be available on console.
“We’re adapting the offer to the PC market. I don’t like to compare PC and Xbox boxed products because they have a model on that platform that is clearly meant to be €60’s worth of super-Hollywood content. On PC, we’re adapting our model to the demand.”
Assassin’s Creed Revelations won’t have always-online DRM
Here’s some good news for those of us waiting patiently for Assassin’s Creed Revelations to tip-toe onto PC in a few weeks. Ubisoft have told RPS that Revelations won’t have their dreaded always-on DRM system that required players to be constantly connected to the internet, even during a single player campaign.
It’s a bit of a turnaround from Ubisoft’s position this summer, when they told us that the always-online DRM was “a success” that had led to “a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection.” Thankfully for us, they didn’t listen to themselves.
Opinion: Trouble in “always on” paradise
For many PC gamers, the recent trend toward always-connected games – sometimes referred to by the name of its top-hat-wearing, mustachioed alter ego, “always-on DRM” – is an oncoming black cloud. Developers, however, insist that there’s a silver lining. The likes of Blizzard and id, for instance, argue that they’ll make up for a tiny loss of control with a heaping helping of convenience. “In the end, it’s better for everybody,” id’s Tim Willits told Eurogamer. “Imagine picking up a game and it’s automatically updated. Or there’s something new you didn’t know about, and you didn’t have to click away. It’s all automatically there.”
And then Darkspore’s dark days happened.
Stalker 2 could use online only DRM
GSC are currently considering using online-only DRM as a possible anti-piracy solution for Stalker 2, according to an interview with Ukrainian website KP spotted by Kokaku. GSC said:
“Protection from piracy? Part of the content will be located on the server and downloaded as the game progresses. Permanent internet access is required. Text information, code and quests will be loaded through that connection.”
Later, speaking to Rock Paper Shotgun, GSC clarified that this was only one of many possibilities, saying:
“The idea of implementing DRM came in as a possible anti-piracy solution. You know the severe level of commercial piracy we have here in ex-USSR region. This said however, there is no firm decision to go for DRM with S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 as of now. Be assured, we do realize how uncomfortable this solution is for the players, so we’ll continue looking for most effective, yet acceptable for all, way of protecting the game by the time of its release.”
Opinion: Ubisoft, piracy, and the death of reason
Last week, Eurogamer examined PC piracy in an attempt to discover how much it actually harms companies, and the effects of different approaches to DRM. Unfortunately, as the PC Gaming Alliance’s Christian Svennson admitted up-front, you can’t really quantify the problem or the efficacy of its remedies “because you end up having to do a set of cascading assumptions that you have no real ability to validate in any meaningful away.”
However, Ubisoft provides a test-case. We are almost two years into its aggressive attack on PC piracy. Recently, Ubisoft called its “always-on” DRM a success, claiming “a clear reduction in piracy.”
In terms of actual sales, however, the results seem decidedly mixed. Michael Pachter told Eurogamer that Ubisoft’s “PC game sales are down 90% without a corresponding lift in console sales.”
Pachter framed the problem in terms of piracy, as I’m sure Ubisoft frames the problem, but a 90% decline in PC sales is a catastrophic number. If piracy were the problem, then their “successful” DRM policy should have prevented such a free-fall.
Football Manager 2012 Steam DRM enrages fans
Football Manager fans have voiced their anger at the integration of Steamworks into Football Manager 2012. The move to Steam means copies of the game will need to be activated online before being able to play. Eurogamer indicates 40 pages of comments reacting to the news on the Sports Interactive forums, with thousands of posts from fans angry with the changes.
Some fans are threatening to boycott the series until the online activation requirement is removed. Sega tell Eurogamer that Football Manager has moved to Steam to combat piracy.
“Make no mistake, if a quarter of the people that usually pirate the game switch to purchasing Football Manager 2012, the sales of the game worldwide would more than double,” they say.
From Dust DRM removed
Last month, Ubisoft said they would patch their online-at-startup-DRM out of From Dust and now RockPaperShotgun are reporting that they have made good on their promise. The next time you fire the game up on Steam it should update and sync up your savegames with the Ubisoft servers. Rejoice!
Previously gamers would have to be online and connect to the Ubisoft servers when they started From Dust, although they could disconnect and continue as normal afterwards.
The DRM was one of many issues with From Dust’s launch, if you want our verdict on the game itself, read our From Dust review.
Diablo 3 game director: mod support would “add a couple of years” development time
Speaking with Jay Wilson at Gamescom, we’ve already heard bad news for anyone with poor internet connections and thrifty habits, though plenty of good ones for people who want to head online with friends and crack skulls until the cows come home. But what about tweaking and adding your own stamp to the game with a few mods? You’re out of luck, at least officially…
“None of the Diablo games have ever supported mods and primarily because being able to do modding along with high fidelity art that is also randomly generated is a really, really big challenge. And when we started the project we went ‘Well, if we’re going to do mods, we’re going to add a couple of years onto the product.’”
From Dust DRM to be patched out
Ubisoft have decided to remove From Dust’s controversial DRM system that requires players to be online whenever the game is launched.
A post from Ubisoft on their forums, spotted on Eurogamer, says that a patch will arrive in approximately two weeks to remove the start up authentication procedure. They say that the development time is needed to ensure that players’ game saves, currently stored on Ubisoft’s servers, are relocated to users’ hard drives before the servers are switched off.
“Once the patch is ready, players who already have the game will automatically receive the update on their next login and subsequent game sessions will be 100 per cent offline,” reads the forum post.
