Ubisoft DRM Server Downtime Causes A Lockout

TheMailMan78 · Feb 9, 2012

If you are trying to play Might and Magic: Heroes VI, The Settlers 7 and Tom Clancy's HAWX 2 or are trying to activate Assassin's Creed Revelations, Anno 2070 and or Driver: San Francisco don't bother. Ubisoft has announced a server migration this week that will block all access from players validating their legitimate purchases via Ubisofts DRM "always on" model. The original plan was to allow some of these games to remain playable. However it didn't seem to work. Some DRM schemes are more intrusive then others but the Ubisoft "always on" DRM has come under heavy fire this week from players turned critics via Twitter. One is quoted as saying, "Dear @Ubisoft I am totally unimpressed with your server upgrade strategy."

Ubisoft has yet to give a specified time when the servers will be re-launched and players can regain access to their games.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

Wile E · Feb 9, 2012

What a crock of shit. This DRM model is completely unacceptable.

TheMailMan78 · Feb 9, 2012

Wile E said:
What a crock of shit. This DRM model is completely unacceptable.

I agree. Its stupid. However whoever lost their game to this crap deserved it IMO. I haven't bought or played a Ubisoft game that carried this DRM for the soul reason I refuse to support it or them. Until they fix this broken DRM Ill be playing their competitors titles. If you are locked out of one of these games then tough luck. You should read more.

Jmarc · Feb 9, 2012

Wile E said:
What a crock of shit. This DRM model is completely unacceptable.

What's even more unacceptable is to have planned downtime in 2012 due to a server migration! The technology is there: virtualize your servers and use a mechanism like VMware vmotion to move the workload to another host.

Thousands of people are being penalised because Ubisoft is late to the game!

Downtime should remain exceptional and certainly unplanned!

hhumas · Feb 9, 2012

i think there will be upgrade in the end

Easy Rhino · Feb 9, 2012

the response is simple. stop buying ubisoft games. complaining about it one day and then shelling $60 the next will only continue the problem. kids need to learn to vote with their wallet at an early age.

n-ster · Feb 9, 2012

Easy Rhino said:
the response is simple. stop buying ubisoft games. complaining about it one day and then shelling $60 the next will only continue the problem. kids need to learn to vote with their wallet at an early age.

LOL play uber popular game in a week or not buy the game... Guess what people choose?

Easy Rhino · Feb 9, 2012

n-ster said:
LOL play uber popular game in a week or not buy the game... Guess what people choose?

they choose to buy the game because they have the discipline of a dog in heat. not ubisofts fault that kids can't control themselves. hell, i would exploit the shit out of that too. dumb kids.

Legacy-ZA · Feb 9, 2012

Usually when you migrate servers, you make sure that the new ones are in place before shutting down the old ones. I thought this was supposed to be a "planned downtime" :banghead:

This is a perfect example how DRM causes inconvenience for paying customers, I am certain that all the pirates will be enjoying their games and having a good laugh. :nutkick:

Depth · Feb 9, 2012

The pirates enjoy their free game while those who paid for it can't play because of anti-piracy software.

I like the philosophy coming from this

Dippyskoodlez · Feb 9, 2012

whats this? can't hear you over the sound of my working, pirated game.

RejZoR · Feb 9, 2012

Just boycott Ubisoft. I've bought games that they've released before this retarded protection and since then, i haven't bought a single game from them. I haven't even pirated any. I just ignore Ubisoft altogether. I check the game if they release a new one and what kind of protection it has. If it's always-on garbage i just ignore it and forget about it. There are better developers and publishers in the world besides stupid Ubisoft.

Product activation is as far as i'll ever go. It was annoying at first with some EA titles but they have improved things with SolidShield. This thing is smart enough that it recovered my otherwise wasted activations because i formatted the system without de-activating first. It also didn't count re-activations when i was changing my graphic card and it required activation. And i never had downtime because of some lame server migration. It just works as much as DRM activations have negative annotation. But further than this, i'll ignore the titles if they'll bring more annoying schemes.

DannibusX · Feb 9, 2012

As soon as I heard of this DRM scheme when it was announced for AC2 I decided against buying any Ubisoft game for any platform.

I'm so proud of myself for sticking to my guns with this one.

FreedomEclipse · Feb 9, 2012

Time to throw down the chains of DRM and embrace Hacktivation!!

Unlike Ubi's DRM, the Hacktavisits will never abandon you when Ubi's servers go down leaving you in the shit when your demand for a night of hot sex has just been denied by your GF, your GFF or your GFF's F or that other special bit on the side in your life that you probably dont want your wife hearing about!!!

REJOICE! as theres never a dull moment when you join the hacktavists - the way its meant to be played!!

Black Panther · Feb 9, 2012

15 hours ago on facebook they said:

Server migration successfully achieved. Everything should now be back to normal! Many thanks for your patience and understanding!

But people are still complaining that they can't play, as can be seen in the comments below Ubisoft's post!

ironwolf · Feb 9, 2012

I love the people who argue that internet based DRM/authentication is "no big deal" as everyone and their momma has internet access. This issue here is one of the many reasons why this is a bad idea. Internet connections goes down or their servers are down and bam, can't play your game. Just say nay to internet based crap like this!

TheMailMan78 · Feb 9, 2012

ironwolf said:
I love the people who argue that internet based DRM/authentication is "no big deal" as everyone and their momma has internet access. This issue here is one of the many reasons why this is a bad idea. Internet connections goes down or their servers are down and bam, can't play your game. Just say nay to internet based crap like this!

I don't know of anyone on this forum (including me) who ever said internet DRM was ok. I support DRM but I never supported this one.

w3b · Feb 9, 2012

I'd feel a little pity for the poor developers (coders, designers, modellers, etc.) that are seeing the worth of their products degrading dramatically thanks to the poor choice of Ubisoft as their publisher (I doubt they would want people to buy their game only to have the publisher punish them in a fashion of this nature).

For Ubisoft itself I have no pity at all; they chose this dictatorial (see server closure as argument for) system and rightly deserve the consequences of it IMO.

cadaveca · Feb 9, 2012

Can't say my UbiSoft games are failing to work...what's the fuss about? :laugh:

Wile E · Feb 10, 2012

TheMailMan78 said:
I agree. Its stupid. However whoever lost their game to this crap deserved it IMO. I haven't bought or played a Ubisoft game that carried this DRM for the soul reason I refuse to support it or them. Until they fix this broken DRM Ill be playing their competitors titles. If you are locked out of one of these games then tough luck. You should read more.

Also exactly why I don't own any of these titles, and will never own them until this completely excessive DRM is patched out of them.

grynnan · Feb 13, 2012

"Ubisoft has yet to give a specified time when the servers will be re-launched and players can regain access to their games."

Just to make things a little bit clearer...

"Ubisoft has yet to give a specified time when the servers will be re-launched and players can regain access to their games."

tadaaa...

We all here, understands my little "hint"..
How the hell can we make Ubisoft get it? Any ideas?

xenocide · Feb 13, 2012

TheMailMan78 said:
I don't know of anyone on this forum (including me) who ever said internet DRM was ok. I support DRM but I never supported this one.

I've seen several people down play its flaws, but nobody ever outright embraces it and shouts from the mountain tops about it. I don't care for any form of DRM, as it just punishes the legitimate consumers for what other people do. Making great games tends to lower their Piracy rate anyway. Skyrim is a great example of that.

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Ubisoft DRM Server Downtime Causes A Lockout

TheMailMan78

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Wile E

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