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General discussion (archive)Ubisoft's next step (an insider's view)(88 posts)(88 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted May 02, 2010
Current Ubisoft news aside they keeping Activision's trophy as an hostage, an anonymous user calling himself " Anonymous Coward" posted on slashdot, a page solely for PC related stuff, about Ubisoft's next step with the DRM. Could be a troll, but gives a good picture how UBisoft would react on the pirates:

I work at Ubisoft as a programmer, which is why I'm posting as an AC. What the next step will be in the DRM, the ramp-up, is gameplay code that is run from the server. So in order to crack that one the pirates will have to fully emulate the server side code. Not the whole of the gameplay code mind you, just a small, but necessary and essential, portion. This should be in effect for the coming summer releases.
For the record I think Ubisoft are being asshat idiots in continuing to ramp up this obscenity of a slap in the face to paying consumers. And I'm not alone, you should see the in-house mailing list flamewars about this (which also means that other employees are freaking greedy douchebags, it's not just the suits.)
(...) I'll be leaving soon, but for other reasons. Mostly because they work you into the ground sweat shop style, they are hellbent on NOT making innovative fun games (it's always about how it looks, not how it plays), and because the place is full of greedy capitalist douchebags.

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1630600&cid=31975686
Now I feel emberrassed I bought Beyond Good and Evil and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on GOG 8(
Post edited May 02, 2010 by Tantrix
Posted May 02, 2010
Great find, seems to be a nice ambiance there.
So where do all those greedy nuts come from? Or have they always been there?
Post edited May 02, 2010 by Syniurge
Posted May 02, 2010
"they are hellbent on NOT making innovative fun games (it's always about how it looks, not how it plays),"
sadly,but it's true for all major pc games released in 2008-2010
Post edited May 02, 2010 by lackoo1111
Posted May 02, 2010
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Tantrix: Now I feel emberrassed I bought Beyond Good and Evil and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on GOG 8(

No, those are the kind og games we have to encourage. For my money, the only decent things to come out of ubisoft in the last few years has been splinter cell conviction and assassin's creed 1 & 2 and those weren't anything like as good as they could have been
Posted May 02, 2010
I had already stopped buying games from big name publishers as they all seem to love DRM.
I will stick with GOG, Gamersgate (their DRM Free games), and Indie publishers that have no DRM.
It appears though that some Independent Publishers use DRM as well (e.g. Spiderweb Software), so one must be careful.
If people stop buying DRM games publishers would change, but people do buy because the graphics look so good, or it is a game a person "must have," as well as there seems to be little self control.
Post edited May 02, 2010 by Faithful
Posted May 02, 2010
nevermind~
Post edited May 02, 2010 by chautemoc
Posted May 02, 2010
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Aliasalpha: No, those are the kind og games we have to encourage. For my money, the only decent things to come out of ubisoft in the last few years has been splinter cell conviction and assassin's creed 1 & 2 and those weren't anything like as good as they could have been

This. You aren't going to sink a publisher like Atlantis just because you didn't buy a couple of their games. A better policy is to guide them in the right direction by making intelligent purchasing decisions. Boycotting games with obscene DRM and supporting releases that are free of such measures.
Posted May 02, 2010
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Tantrix: Current Ubisoft news aside they keeping Activision's trophy as an hostage, an anonymous user calling himself " Anonymous Coward" posted on slashdot, a page solely for PC related stuff, about Ubisoft's next step with the DRM. Could be a troll, but gives a good picture how UBisoft would react on the pirates:

I work at Ubisoft as a programmer, which is why I'm posting as an AC. What the next step will be in the DRM, the ramp-up, is gameplay code that is run from the server. So in order to crack that one the pirates will have to fully emulate the server side code. Not the whole of the gameplay code mind you, just a small, but necessary and essential, portion. This should be in effect for the coming summer releases.
For the record I think Ubisoft are being asshat idiots in continuing to ramp up this obscenity of a slap in the face to paying consumers. And I'm not alone, you should see the in-house mailing list flamewars about this (which also means that other employees are freaking greedy douchebags, it's not just the suits.)
(...) I'll be leaving soon, but for other reasons. Mostly because they work you into the ground sweat shop style, they are hellbent on NOT making innovative fun games (it's always about how it looks, not how it plays), and because the place is full of greedy capitalist douchebags.

http://games.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1630600&cid=31975686
Now I feel emberrassed I bought Beyond Good and Evil and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time on GOG 8(

I am going to make a bold call here and say that it is a troll. Why? Largely a gut feeling, but the whole thing just seems a little bit unreal: the language used seems off to me (who tries to make a serious point and uses words like douchebag, south park excepted); and it reads like a laundry list of your worst fears about ubi (oooohh they are really evil, why i'm sure I saw a ubi exec carrying a white cat and stroking it furiously not too long ago, irrefutable proof of their diabolical evilness.)
Now, just to clarify, I don't think what ubi is doing at the moment is right, but at the same time, I feel it is more misguided than malicious.
Posted May 02, 2010
The message has a few trollish elements to it, and as such I would like to see it verified by some reliable sources, but I would not be surprised in the slightest if this message was 100% reliable.
Frankly, I hope Ubisoft would stop producing games for the PC market entirely, seeing that they treat every PC user like a criminal.
Although hoping for a mass-boycott of their games is too much to hope for (given that gamers are notorious for not following through on any boycott), I'll still do my part and NOT buy any of their new games, or pirate them (which is a pity since I really wanted to play AC2 and Silent Hunter 5).
There are a LOT of good games out there, new and old, that are fun and do not require me to deal with draconic DRM systems like the one Ubisoft is using.
Besides, any sale lost due to a boycott will probably be considered a sale lost to piracy anyway: one thing Ubisoft is great at is willfully ignoring the obvious.
Posted May 02, 2010
I really wish someone out there would be able to provide a complete picture of sales for games using this DRM, preferably compared with figures for similar games (both in genre and status), to see how this has effected sales.
I have this horrible feeling now, that there are simply too many people out there who are letting Ubisoft walk over them with this stupid DRM. =/
Ah well, at least to me, Ubisoft are no longer a company I will be doing business with.
Posted May 02, 2010
Shamus Young on The Escapist did write something interesting about Assassin's Creed 2 DRM system and piracy: basically it is commonly believed (and is one of the justifications for DRMs) that a huge percentage of game sales is lost to piracy. HOWEVER Ubi's DRM was apparently successfully cracked only recently, as such he argued that if the DRM system worked so well, AC2 should have sold a lot more copies, which it didn't.
This is an extremely abridged version of the article, so here's the link to it: Experienced Points: Impossible (to beat) DRM
Posted May 02, 2010
I was planning to pirate their games (with the new DRM), but they are so shit I can't be bothered. It's like what they say about big cars and small dicks. The bigger the DRM the more shit the game is.
All their titles released this year are worse (IMO as always) than their previous games.
Screw Ubisoft, it's not like there is a lack of games or publishers out there. Over the last month I bought about 12 games. None of which published by Ubisoft.
Posted May 02, 2010
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Tantrix:

...just a small, but necessary and essential, portion. This should be in effect for the coming summer releases.

I thought this was already how AC2 was working ? With the missions data not being on the disk but needing to be downloaded from the UBI's server. And that that was the reason why with the early pirated versions you were only able to free roam but not do any mission.
Posted May 02, 2010
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Tantrix:

...just a small, but necessary and essential, portion. This should be in effect for the coming summer releases.
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Gersen: I thought this was already how AC2 was working ? With the missions data not being on the disk but needing to be downloaded from the UBI's server. And that that was the reason why with the early pirated versions you were only able to free roam but not do any mission.

I guess this is a sign he's a troll 8/
Posted May 02, 2010
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bansama: I have this horrible feeling now, that there are simply too many people out there who are letting Ubisoft walk over them with this stupid DRM. =/

Worse than that if you look at the AC2 forums both on Steam and on Ubi.com you will find a lot of people bought this game simply because it's AC2 and were unaware of this DRM. They try and justify themselves by saying its plastered all over the box but to be honest a lot of PC games have some online requirement, no one was expecting the game to be CONSTANTLY online. I would imagine a great many people bought this online or at retail not knowing about this and have had a thoroughly miserable time with it. Only made worse by the fact you can't return an opened PC game. Its the equivalent of a smash and grab by Ubisoft which will work once or maybe twice but sooner or later people are going to wise up and just stop buying Ubisoft games.
Post edited May 02, 2010 by Delixe
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)Ubisoft's next step (an insider's view)(88 posts)(88 posts)
(88 posts)