Damn shame that's not more widespread, really. The less chance of this bullshit continuing the better.

I sure hope sales stink - this is ridiculous. If you are going to have stupid DRM you need lots of redundancies in personnel and servers - everywhere. I am not buying new ubisoft products for any platform until they change their wicked ways ... just to make it clear I am NOT pirating them either.

And still you can't give your users a guarantee for shit. Let alone what what happens when the publisher goes out of business or suddenly deems the game no longer support-worthy. Nothing can conceal the fact that there will always be problems and an end-of-lifetime for products depending on external factors to run. Nothing except customer's lack of knowledge that is, but this is soon going away. Not the least thanks to Ubisoft, mind you. How many people do you think bought one of those games without knowing what this sort of DRM implies? And how many of them are going to buy another game with the Ubisoft logo on it?
So the DRM "worked" according to its original intention. Big whoop. If I just paid $60 for a game that I can't play, I don't care a rat's ass about whether the pirates can't play it either. This is just another case of a big publisher proving to the world that they care more about the pirates than their actual paying customers. They'll see where it gets them. Either they wisen up, or they go bankrupt. At least now they have helped point out the silliness in the industry's beloved argument of "pirates who can't download a game will go buy it."

ubi is at it again, never trust them the new driver game requires permanent internet connection to play
http://twitter.com/#!/DriverGame/status/95905062156632064
have fun
http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/221450/driver-san-francisco-on-pc-requires-permanent-internet-connection/

I doubt I would have bought the new Driver game anyway because 1. There has not been a good one sine Driver 2. And 2, It's a Ubi game and I'm loath to buy games from them after their previous DRM antics.

So yeah, even if I was interested in this, that news make it a no purchase anyway.

Silly Ubi

"Ubisoft's response for people who didn't appreciate the inclusion of this DRM system was that the console version would be available at the same time."

Is it just me, or does it truly appear that Ubi is trying like hell to find a "good excuse" for abandoning the PC altogether? Are they worried about the backlash if they just come out and say "we have no interest in the PC platform anymore"? It seems like they're trying to create a situation where their PC sales will plummet, letting them point to the sales figures and saying "See? We have to abandon the PC. It's not our fault!"

hmm......Sometimes I get that same feeling. I mean as pc gamers we pay the same price for games and most of them are ported over from consoles, not only that many of their games they recommend x-box controls instead of keyboards and mouses. DRM creates a user dependancy of the internet and maintained company servers, Honestly I had to go to pirate sites to get files for my some of my legit games to run because they shut down the servers. (Side note) I noticed on the back of Dragon Age II that the licensed serial now has an expiration date, kinda like $60 produce that you cannot wait for the price to go down.

I stopped buying ubi games becuase of this online activation rubbish.

I am sick todeath of companies making honest customers feel like criminals when pirates get cracked copies that dont use constant acess to the internet drm.

It is sad as i was looking forward to some of ubi new games (H O M & M for 1)

Oh well their loss in the end.

I have bought many Ubi games with their awful DRM... When they go on sale for like, $5 or $10, 6 months after release usually. I'm not paying more than that for games crippled by such draconian DRM. Its my way of both boycotting (generally for companies its launch sales that matter, not sales that happen a year down the road) yet still playing stuff I might like.

It's not Ubisoft's DRM that makes me avoid their games. It's that along with their shoddy support.

A good example if the Silent Hunter series. I'm extremely interested in those games, and at one point was looking to buy 5. Until I read that not only did it have Ubisoft's DRM policy, but they also abandoned the game while it was still extremely buggy and have never released anything since.

It's one thing to have an oppressive DRM scheme. It's another to completely abandon games leaving them still partially broken. But it's a whole nother can of worms to have an oppressive DRM AND abandon games.

"[We have seen] a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection," explained an Ubi spokesperson. "And from that point of view, the requirement is a success."

If by reduction you mean less desire to even want to play the games at all then yes, it's a success.

I wonder what they mean by a 'reduction in piracy'? Do they mean fewer people torrented the games? If so, does that really have anything to do with the DRM? Once there's a single cracked copy out there, the DRM has failed and every pirate can get their DRM-free copy of the game. I don't see how there is a 'reduction' in piracy due to the DRM.

I think they mean more that since it will be available the same day they have to take piracy more seriously. They have acted like this before and it's the main reason all their games come out on console first. They are absolutely paranoid that PC piracy will impact console sales.

They should compare the reduction with their reduction in overall sales... I'm pretty sure there would be a connection.

Anyway, they are making it an impossible situation for the PC and I know they're not stupid as not to realise it.

1. everyone will pirate their games because of the DRM - they can point at pirates
2. if people stop buying their games because of DRM - they can point at the PC saying they don't have customers
3. people buy their game - they can brag how their DRM is effective and I can see a black future from there..


can anyone think of another option? :)