[Méo]

Originally Posted by jwilliams

Yes most not all (and prob less than most a peak times).

I finally found it:

Me: Per our phone conversation, let me share some thoughts with you. You mentioned a detailed message explaining the exact nature and characteristics of the DRM, I think that's a good idea. It should as accurate as possible. What is it, how does it work, what kind of load times can a player expect, server up-time, and how will it affect the gameplay?




Hi Neal,

Thanks again for your email and the many salient points that you bring up. There is a lot of stuff in there and I hope to cover it all!

In a nutshell, our online services system was designed for two main purposes: to help combat piracy and to allow us to offer services to our customers that had been specifically asked for by them. Obviously we're not able to give out all of the details about how it works - we're not here to give a head start to hackers - but I know that the main focus of many comments is regarding the permanent online connection requirement.

Basically the online connection allows us to periodically authenticate users - specifically to ensure that only one person is using an account at a time. And of course it allows us to save games so that the player can re-access the game from wherever they left off and on any computer where they have installed the game. The permanent online requirement is clearly stated on the front and back of every box and we are working with our online partners to ensure that it's noted on their product pages too, as well as included in all point-of-purchase marketing materials. We're making every effort to ensure that anyone who buys our products that include the online services system will understand this requirement before purchasing the game.

The system of course sends information to our servers. The only personal information that it sends it that which is required to sign up for a Ubisoft account. The actual exchange of information while playing the game is very minimal. Players will only need the minimal broadband connection and the game runs with less that 50 kbit per second. For example, if you play Assassin's Creed II for a total of 20 hours, the game will have only transferred 2 MB of data. The game play won't be affected by such small amount of data.

It's clear that the community is sceptical that this platform will be crack-proof and that is understandable. But I cannot stress strongly enough the effect that piracy has had on the PC market. If you want to scale it back to the very basic - we feel that this effort to combat piracy allows us to continue investing creative resources into PC development.

Can we guarantee that the platform is crack-proof? I guess it's impossible to make that guarantee but I can say that we would not be releasing the system if we didn't believe that it's worth its salt.

Do we know that this kind of thing is bothersome to a certain group of gamers? Absolutely. And we're not happy to be frustrating a group of people who play our games. But we do feel that the services that we can offer with the system offset some of the frustration and, more importantly, the efforts that we put into limiting piracy will ensure that Ubisoft can continue investing in developing true AAA game experiences for PC gamers..

Thanks again!

IF THIS IS REALLY TRUE:

for a total of 20 hours, the game will have only transferred 2 MB of data.

Looks like it's really not a huge transfer of data.

Altough I have no idea about the amount of data transferred for saving purpose.