Does the DRM mean you can't exchange the game?

[bamzors]

Sorry this is another boring DRM topic, but I have searched the forums and the interweb to try and get a decent answe but there are so many thousands of posts complaining about the ubisoft DRM I can't find an actual answer...

I've been given a legit *used* copy of Silent Hunter 5, with the original DVD, its original manual, in the original case. But after the install and registering a Ubisoft account I get the message something like 'This cd-key has already been used' (which makes a certain amount of sense - my brother already used the software).

And I see on the 'REGISTER PRODUCT' screen I get when I launch SH5 it mentions "Note that this will tie your game to this account".

Does this mean the only way you can transfer the game is to transfer the Ubisoft account with it?? Or those of you with working accounts do you know if you can do something online to transfer the licence?

Please I do *not* intend this thread to be a DRM rant - just want to know if I'm out of luck running this copy of the game (well, in that case I'll borrow my brother's online account, but that seems a bit lame).

Thanks... Bamzors

[msxyz]

Yes, games like SH5 cannot be resold. And the EULA forbids to "sell" the account tied to it.

[bamzors]

thanks for the quick straight answer...

bamzors

[rundeepa]

Yes, games like SH5 cannot be resold. And the EULA forbids to "sell" the account tied to it.


not strictly true, youve got nothing to lose by trying, pm me for more info

[u-boatluc]

im getting a new computer and i want to know if i can play it on my new computer without having to get a new copy

[SabreHawk]

im getting a new computer and i want to know if i can play it on my new computer without having to get a new copy

Yes, this is one advantage of this thing. You have unlimited installs and on as many computers you wish, anywhere you wish.
You could for instance install it on someone else's computer and play it at their home, so long as they have an internet connection. Or install it at work, your vacation home, ect.
The game is tied to your UBI account, not the computer it's installed in.
At least this is the way I understand it.

[bamzors]

pls help a 1st-timer... I've logged on to the web Ubisoft account that the SH5 is registered to, and as far as I can tell the only 'personalised' option available to me is to update my personal details. Did I miss something? I wasn't exactly expecting 'Steam' levels of functionality but i was expecting at least some value-added. It doesn't seem to show the status of my licences.

I wanted to confirm the SH5 licence wasn't showing an error or something. That would help me solve the mystery that the re-install on my new PC is saying 'CD-Key has been used already' even though I'm 100% certain I'm using the right key (it's printed on the manual under a label "Install Keycode') and the client login just before the 'register product' window went smoothly for the correct account (the 'register product' window has the correct account name next to a little man in blue on the top-left corner.)

Any comments appreciated - I'd rather get the kosher copy working without exploring the dodgy world of hacks.

Thanks
Bamzors

You have unlimited installs
I know it says that on the box but have you tried it? This is exactly the situation I am in and it's screwed.

[Takeda Shingen]

Any comments appreciated - I'd rather get the kosher copy working without exploring the dodgy world of hacks.

Because that would get you banned here.

The Management

[krashkart]

^^ That and....

Dodgy hacks are bad for the OS -- get the kosher copy working instead. Contact Ubisoft for assistance, they should be able to help.

[McBeck]

I know it says that on the box but have you tried it? This is exactly the situation I am in and it's screwed.
Yup. I play my copy at home and at my brother in laws place.
No problems so far. It syncs the savegames. All I have to do is to log in - just like on Steam

[bamzors]

Thanks for your help folks. My computer has smoothly moved backwards from letting me log on ok but saying the cd-key is already used to now saying 'this game requires an internet connection' before even completing the logon. I have a PhD in computer science and I'm pretty sure there's nothing broken with my internet connection, so after a few hours trying to get this legit copy of SH5 migrated to the new PC it's time to give up and call Ubisoft when they come back to work in a couple of days...

For every post on the web about resolving issues with the install there's about a million just complaining about the hassle of the DRM which makes helpful posts hard to find, so thanks.

cheers,
Bamzors

[robbo180265]

You might want to search this forum, I'm sure I remember someone else having a simlar problem. For the life of me I can't remember how he fixed it though - sorry.

Good luck anyway - UBI tech support maybe the best approach.

Oh and welcome to Subsim matey.

[bamzors]

lolzors tried again this morning and the "requires an internet connection - can't contact the master servers" issue has gone away (so I'm just back to cd-key already used). I haven't touched my windows firewall/router port forwarding/any other networking parameters and my internet connection was working fine last night as well as this morning - that issue almost certainly had to be at the Ubisoft end... shame we don't have a tool (website?)just to check the availability of the Ubisoft servers.

Bamzors

[Placoderm]

Bamzors, the only way you are going to be able to legitimately use that copy of the game without violating the copy protection is if you use your brothers Ubisoft account (I.E. he transfers his account directly to you and he never uses it again). You cannot create a new account using your name and his old cd-key, even if he thinks that he legitimately 'gave' it to you. Once that particular CD-key is registered and associated with a Ubisoft account, it cannot be used again. Period.

The reason that he can no longer use his Ubisoft account is to prevent him from logging in to Ubisoft under his account that SH5 is registered to (say, to play AC2 or Settlers) while you are playing SH5...which would be impossible for one person to do, and would immediately raise a red flag with Ubisoft. Once he gives you access to his Ubi account, in principle he has transferred rights to every Ubisoft game that he owns to you as well: One account=one user=one game at a time. Anything that he has registered under that one account will raise a red flag if anything else that he has registered under that same account is in use at the same time.

The reason that I am being so specific about this is that you indicated in your post that you installed the game and tried to create a new account ("But after the install and registering a Ubisoft account ..."). You cannot do that. All you can do is use the single, already existing, unaltered account to which your brother has already registered the game. Anything else will not work.

I wish I was wrong on this, but I am pretty sure that your/his/our options are very limited as far as transferring ownership/rights is concerned, according to the EULA that we all agree to everytime the game is installed.

I hope the above info helps clear things up!


:salute:

[bamzors]

Understood Placoderm. I'm using the game *and* the associated online account - the game was bought for me but my brother did an install for a quick peek (this sounds complete dodgy bolox even as I write it but you have to guess whether I'm (a) an 11-year-old who spends his life downloading torrents and rebuilding my PC every couple of weeks to recover from viruses or (b) a balding middle-aged bloke with a large mortgage who only gets a chance for serious sim-time if I get up three hours before the rest of the family.)

- Noob question: I have a couple of Steam games and the info Steam gives you about your account is really quite impressive, e.g. obviously what games you've got licenced, but also their upgrade status and play stats etc. I still wonder if I've missed something with Ubisoft because I have found *no* personalised info online after I log on except I can see the profile info I typed in - is that really it or am I missing something??

I'm sure the a/c will be sorted Tuesday and I'm looking forward to seeing how good the rough seas of the North Atlantic really are in SH5.

cheers,

Bamzors

[Placoderm]

Understood Placoderm. I'm using the game *and* the associated online account - the game was bought for me but my brother did an install for a quick peek (this sounds complete dodgy bolox even as I write it but you have to guess whether I'm (a) an 11-year-old who spends his life downloading torrents and rebuilding my PC every couple of weeks to recover from viruses or (b) a balding middle-aged bloke with a large mortgage who only gets a chance for serious sim-time if I get up three hours before the rest of the family.)

- Noob question: I have a couple of Steam games and the info Steam gives you about your account is really quite impressive, e.g. obviously what games you've got licenced, but also their upgrade status and play stats etc. I still wonder if I've missed something with Ubisoft because I have found *no* personalised info online after I log on except I can see the profile info I typed in - is that really it or am I missing something??

I'm sure the a/c will be sorted Tuesday and I'm looking forward to seeing how good the rough seas of the North Atlantic really are in SH5.

cheers,

Bamzors

LOL!...No problem, Bamzors. I personally fall into the category b myself, with the added frustration of having been laid-off for way too long for my own comfort. I am definately no fan of the DRM system that Ubisoft has employed, but we are stuck with what it is...and so I was just clarifying the limitations you will face using the game once it has been registered to another person.

As for your second question, you are not missing anything. All the Ubisoft registration does is guarantee you will be spammed by endless "offers" from Ubisoft whenever their marketing department wants to promote another one of their games. So far, I have received nothing of merit as a member insofar as value-added services are concerned (and that is after literally years...as I was registered long before SH5 was released). Steam is different in many many ways. Steam is a third-party distributor and a gaming service. Steam attracts customers based on numerous enhancements, as you have already found out...and they succeed by offering more than just an over-used sales pitch, with such services as player chat, game tracking, unlimited re-installs, automatic updates, videos, forums, game stat tracking, and more. Ubisoft's version is the ugly inbred crooked-toothed wart-nosed bastard-child of their marketing department, and is essentially useless for anything but their own internal marketing needs.

Trust me, you are not missing anything worthwhile at all...


:salute:

[SabreHawk]

I'm sure the a/c will be sorted Tuesday and I'm looking forward to seeing how good the rough seas of the North Atlantic really are in SH5.

cheers,

Bamzors

What is a/c, and whats happening on tuesday?

The bottom line is here that you will not be able to play SH5 until the issue of it being registered to your brother or who ever gave it to you.
But I dont think this is possible unless you contact UBI and can prove all that you say here to them, and they can delete the original account and registration.
But if you ask me I smell something very fishy here with this whole story.

[bamzors]

What is a/c, and whats happening on tuesday?

a/c = account.
what's happening on tuesday = I phone Ubisoft support.

and I agree it *looks* fishy (unless you have smell-o-vision).

Bamzors

[SabreHawk]

a/c = account.
what's happening on tuesday = I phone Ubisoft support.

and I agree it *looks* fishy (unless you have smell-o-vision).

Bamzors

Ahhh, ok.:03:
Yep thats what I'd do is call UBI on this. But they too may think it's fishy, cause if you think about it anyone could call them up and make this claim.

One other option, make him go buy another one for you.
I mean this mess was all his making in the first place.:O:

[bamzors]

Final summary, for anyone actually interested in this thread, mainly if you get the "cd-key already in use" message, particularly after a re-install of SH5:

1) When you first re-install SH5 onto a new PC, you will be prompted for your ubi.com online account/password, so you should get immediate confirmation at least you've given the right password. I created a *new* account which is a mistake obvious to people that know what they're doing, but then was able to simply log out and log in again using the proper ubi.com account.

2) Assuming you've used the correct online ubisoft account, and password authenticated ok, you should *not* be prompted for the cd-key on re-install. I was being prompted for the cd-key and re-typed it a thousand times checking for capslock and 'V's being 'U's and '0's being 'O's but my error was that I was correctly authenticating to the *wrong* online account (simple when you know). Basically the fact that I was even being prompted for the cd-key on the re-install was enough to know it was the wrong account.

3) I dialled the 0871 support number listed in the SH5 dvd manual which is manned 11am-8pm, although I notice Ubisoft uk website lists another tech support number 0905 482 010 (30p/min) manned 9am-7pm. It took 2 minutes to get through the tone-menus to a real person but then it was straightforward.

4) The support guy asked for my online account *and* password and I think he logged in directly to my account. There are security questions like date-of-birth but that's checked against the info that is stored in the account so given the password it's a bit circular. Immediately he was able to tell me the ubisoft games licenced to that account, which in my case did *not* include SH5 hence the issue. It would have helped me a lot if I could have seen that online.

5) I gave the support guy the cd-key (from the retail dvd box) and he was able to tell me the ubi.com account that *did* have that SH5 licenced to it, only because this account was an obvious clone of the other one (same personal details, different email account). He was simply able to reset the password of *that* account with the new password going to the registered email address (which I can access) so he didn't actually tell me/do anything insecure.

So now it's all sorted. I did have all the security info the support guy needed, (cd key, ubi.com account info, d.o.b. etc, able to access the original email accounts - if you don't then it will be hard to distinguish yourself from the 'fishy' category' as SabreHawk says). And it helps now to know the process which looks trivial now but stumped me on the weekend. With hindsight the only hints I'd have would be:
* do dial ubisoft support - they can see a lot of stuff you can't see
* when you fill in the form for the online account, be a bit careful with account name, password, email address and date-of-birth. *All* of these can turn out to be crucial in recovering your licence. In particular if you move to a new email address, go back in and change the entry in your online ubi.com account, because a password-reset will be sent out on that address... the ubi.com entry form won't accept my '.ac.uk' email account (WTF?)

Thanks for the help on here - I'd have bored you with it less if it hadn't been a holiday weekend and I had 3 days to wait for ubisoft support...

Bamzors

[Feuer Frei!]

Final summary, for anyone actually interested in this thread, mainly if you get the "cd-key already in use" message

Glad you got it sorted, constructive and helpful reference for others who may have this issue, and don't know.

[robbo180265]

Glad you got it sorted, constructive and helpful reference for others who may have this issue, and don't know.


I can only echo Feuer Frei's statement above.

Glad you got it sorted in the end - and thanks for your last post, that'll really help someone if they find themselves in your postion.

NOW GO SINK STUFF! :arrgh!::DL