Ubisoft comments on new DRM (will lower/prevent piracy?)

[onelifecrisis]

lol @ Neal
Fair enough.

Originally Posted by IanC

I know what you mean, there is a very slight tinge of admission in the way he says it. But at the same time he's not really saying anything is he. Where does that leave us now?

I couldn't say where it leaves you. It leaves me knowing for a fact that their new DRM won't stop piracy - something I was trying to keep an open mind on, but now they've admitted it won't work, so I needn't wonder.

[Adriatico]

It seems they are just preparing their "life boats"... if one day it gets cracked.

...and public question appears "For what reason you have tortured and devastated your fan base ?"

[Blood_splat]

Maybe they'll remove DRM after 3 or 6 months of profits.

[martes86]

Originally Posted by Blood_splat

Maybe they'll remove DRM after 3 or 6 months of profits.

Or the lack of profit...

[Brag]

The only new item is Ubi's admission that they are aware of discontent.
What they are not admitting that the rebellion against DRM is massive. They'll get the point once our wallets remain shut after launch date.

[theluckyone17]

Originally Posted by Brag

...They'll get the point once our wallets remain shut after launch date.

My fear is that they won't get the point... they'll claim the lackluster sales of SH5 are due to a lack of demand (true, due to the OSP, but not due to the lack of interest in SH5) and use it as an excuse to shut down the series.

Unless *all* of Ubisoft's products are suffering from lackluster sales. At that point, the exec's have a problem... do they admit they were wrong with OSP, or do they admit their customers have a diminished interest in their products overall?

It wouldn't be the first time I've seen a company's management ride it down to the ocean floor...

[Brag]

Originally Posted by theluckyone17

My fear is that they won't get the point... they'll claim the lackluster sales of SH5 are due to a lack of demand (true, due to the OSP, but not due to the lack of interest in SH5) and use it as an excuse to shut down the series.

Unless *all* of Ubisoft's products are suffering from lackluster sales. At that point, the exec's have a problem... do they admit they were wrong with OSP, or do they admit their customers have a diminished interest in their products overall?

It wouldn't be the first time I've seen a company's management ride it down to the ocean floor...

After launch, we can do a classic pincer movement, a sort of stereo protest. On the right speakers all they hear is the silence of our wallets. On the left, the roar of outrage. It may take a while but DRM/OSP is dead on arrival.

[melin71]

Im a rather old gamer, from the commandor 64 times back in the 80, And so far I can't say any game that not have been cracked after a few days or weeks, ok some small games that allmost no one buy dont. So Sh5 will be it to, it rather big titel.

But Im from sweden and just downloading games have not been forbidden in more then a couple of years here, so I know , but anyway I buy all the good games, But this time SH5 have to wait if the DRM get patched, I will spend my money on Napoleon total war, yup a steam games, I must say that I love steam, I have never had any trubel at all with steam, and I can play offline, so all my lates games I have bought the last 5 years i think is on steam. there are only some titles that I had to buy the DVD. I bought empire total war, the monster version, and that game was cracked before release day

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Brag

After launch, we can do a classic pincer movement, a sort of stereo protest. On the right speakers all they hear is the silence of our wallets. On the left, the roar of outrage. It may take a while but DRM/OSP is dead on arrival.

Don't worry, Brag, on release day I'm going to buy three copies.

[Reece]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

Don't worry, Brag, on release day I'm going to buy three copies.

Get a straight Jacket boys!!

[Onkel Neal]

Kiss those tick marks goodbye!

[codmander]

pirates being pirates will crack sh5 period I'm not a pirate but the way things are going with sh5 there just gonna turn more people into pirates

[theluckyone17]

We already know about OSP and what upsides and downsides are provided by it. Ubisoft itself has stated the following:

The "enrichment" provided by OSP:

1. Save game files stored on the server, accessible from the internet.
2. Ability to install on an unlimited amount of PCs, assuming only one accesses the Ubisoft account (and hence, playing) at a time.
3. No more Starforce, disk checks, etc.

The downsides:

1. Requirement of having a constant connection and all that it implies; i.e., no offline mode, ISP reliability, server reliability, privacy issues, and concerns regarding what Ubisoft may be doing in the background with the constant connection.

That's clear cut... there's no wait and see. We know what OSP is bringing to the table.

If the upsides beat the downsides, buy SH5. If they don't, then stick with the rest of us and hope Ubi relents.

Myself: I'm a big boy now. I can back up my own data, thank you very much. I've only one gaming PC. I don't like other DRM, but I'll deal with it. I will not put up with the requirement of a constant connection.

Ubisoft can make all the promises they want, stating that OSP will increase sales and thus profits, and implying they'll turn around and put those profits back into developing better software. I've heard lots of promises in the past from gaming companies. Most haven't panned out. I don't see Ubisoft being any different.

[gutted]

Any software worth cracking can and WILL be cracked.

DRM is only an annoyance to the honest buyer. To those who pirate it, DRM means nothing at all, except maybe even more incentive to pirate it in the first place.

I've already quit buying steam only games, and i guess i'll quit buying ubi games as well.

Sorry, but im not putting up my hard earned dough for a product that i can't guarantee that i'll be able to play whenever i want. I lost my job last year, and had to give up the internet for awhile. All those steam games i had were rendered unusable.

This whole concept of merely "Licensing" a product is ridiculous. I pay $50 dollars for it, it's mine... get out of my way and let me enjoy it.

[RSColonel_131st]

Originally Posted by gutted

Any software worth cracking can and WILL be cracked.

DRM is only an annoyance to the honest buyer. To those who pirate it, DRM means nothing at all, except maybe even more incentive to pirate it in the first place.

Well, to be fair, neither Black Shark (Starforce-Based one-time activation) nor NeoQB Rise of Flight (always online) have been cracked yet. Okay, these are niche games for the flight simulation crowd, but I truly believe that an "always online" game can be protected - if you need a key to decrypt the game files, and that key is never stored on your system, always flushed after uses - good luck emulating that.

OTOH we know that for World of Warcraft, there exist black servers for pirate players. So if they were able to reverse-engineer a MMORPG server, who knows what these people might be able to do with UBI. Obviously mass market titles will push the incentive for cracker crowds.