I've been under the impression that saves are stored locally AND uploaded to the servers.
According to PC Gamer this seems to be the case:
"Addendum: Some people are inferring that your savegames are only stored online - that's not the case. "
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=235290

I will be playing all future Ubisoft titles with a crack then, at least until they decide to abolish this abomination. This probably won't last for long anyway, so I don't see it as a big problem. I remember they changed their mind about Starforce back in the day, and I can see them changing their mind about this as well. Just give it some time to burn.

I just had a look on the Assassin's creed steam forums, and there are almost 2 pages of 'we won't buy due to DRM'. It's sad that it's #4 on the bestseller list, but possibly it would have been #1 if not for the DRM.

That may just indicate that nothing else has sold in that hour or so. The Steam top seller list is exceptionally unreliable for monitoring any long term sales trends.

1. Steam users are the ones who're going to have the least trouble with a game that demands they always be online.
2. This doesn't account for all those that will be asking for a refund when the damn thing dies on them.
3. What bansama wrote.

If that's the case then I feel sorry for the people at Ubi who actually believe this won't be cracked. If the save files are generated and stored locally then we are not talking about months or weeks before it gets cracked. We are talking about days.

Or hours.

Or minutes.

Or seconds.
But seriously - I can't see it being cracked within a day. It may be easy but it is unusual - it will take some time.

Nah, remember you have to turn your comp on? And then start either downloaded preordered copy or retail? Filling the formular? And do a save?
Make it half an hour and we have a deal.

OK, agreed. But some people do leave their computers on all day. ; )

Think of nature D8 !

Screw nature, we need our computahrs!!!

Hey, don't complain then when your country gets flooded in teh next 20 years...