Thursday, November 10th 2011
Ubisoft Abandons Despised Always-On DRM For Upcoming Assassin's Creed: Revelations
Hot on the heels of our story Are The Days Of DRM Numbered? news reaches us that for its upcoming title, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, Ubisoft is abandoning its despised always-on internet DRM, which continues to cause much controversy. This type of DRM requires the hapless gamer to have a persistent internet connection, with authentication data constantly flowing between their computer and Ubisoft's servers. The instant that connection is interrupted, the game stops dead in its tracks with a warning message to restore the connection. What if someone experiences an extended ISP outage? What if they want to play while away on holiday, where there's no internet connection, or it's very limited and expensive? What if the authentication servers fall over as they have done so in the past? There are in fact, too many serious negatives to list here. This is a dreadful and shameful way for Ubisoft to treat its customers who are being handled like criminals with curfew electronic ankle bracelets. This requirement eats into a gamer's monthly bandwidth allowance just for the benefit of Ubisoft. No wonder it's despised and hated so much.
This drop is despite Ubisoft claiming that it has reduced piracy significantly. Apparently, they have seen "a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection, and from that point of view the requirement is a success". What they haven't said of course is whether the reduction in piracy has actually increased sales. If it had, one would expect this glorious achievement to be shouted from the rooftops, wouldn't it? The only thing that companies listen to are their bottom lines and lawsuits, which really affect their bottom lines. Therefore, one can reasonably conclude that sales have actually reduced due to this draconian DRM. Also, the servers must be expensive to maintain, which eats into their precious profits too. Hence, it sounds like they're just keeping their options open with that statement. Shall we take bets on them dropping always-on DRM from all their titles in time? The sooner the better. PC gamers will have to wait until December, a few weeks longer than their console counterparts, to get their hands on the game.
58 Comments on Ubisoft Abandons Despised Always-On DRM For Upcoming Assassin's Creed: Revelations
/jk/
I'm glad my lack of dollars flowing their way helped them wake up.
though AC is a console title for me. unless, does pc get a reasonable release date with this one?
#2 Hope they don't replace it with some dumb shit similar to it
Starforce 2012,anyone?
In all likelihood, it will only be a matter of months before they attempt to reinstate this DRM or a system that causes equal discontent amongst their customers, so whilst I commend this move, they will get no thanks from me for removing a system that never should have been in place.
They receive a thank you from me, because they just proved that they DO listen a little bit and they DO care about their customers. I also imagine this was a hard achievement for some in the company, as investors etc are probably not that happy about this decision
DRM should be reduced to a bare minimum and the need for some form of anti-piracy measures should not afford companies licence to treat their customers any way they please. In this particular case, given the average Internet speeds in Spain and many other parts, it was simply a stupid idea from the outset.They do not listen to customers, they simply have not reached expected sales levels and somebody has finally had the insight to ask why. In the end, lost revenue is all they listen to, you are naive to think otherwise.
i think the first game to be released without it, will be anno 2070 (dawn of discovery?), which is about to be released in a week...not sure if homm6 still has it...
no need for any bets, it's been dropped...for now anyways...
Care to give some examples of the legitimate problems you've had with Tages and how you determined exactly they was caused by Tages.