Ubisoft DRM: the Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work

Q-BZ said:
I seem to recall UbiSoft themselves made some passing mention about patching out the DRM in one of the Shacknews stories about this. I got the idea it could be patched out very easily.
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That's the feeling I get, too. Which makes me wonder...is that akin to putting big glowing "Secret Hideout Here!" signs over your secret evil-genius lair? If Ubi made the DRM easy for them to patch out, won't it also be easier to crack?
 
I think the best solution to piracy is a game with great multiplayer requiring a valid cd key to play online. No way around this. It depends on the game type, the amount of replay value, or a game worthy of actually paying the money. I think PC games at $60 are just asking to get pirated, $50 has decent mix of pirating, and $40 would be perfect for increasing sales. I know $10-20 isn't much and most people that would pay $40 for a game can mostly likely pay $10-20 more, but it does go a long way in deciding on a purchase.
 
$60 for a friggin pc game deserves to be pirated. $60 on friggin STEAM deserves to be pirated even more. Lower the pc games to let say 39.99 and people might just buy them. And pc games that cost $60 with drm not only deserves to get pirated tenfold but the company should go bankrupt as well.
 
I'll bet anyone that you will either see AC2 a bit before its release date or within a week (maybe 2), fully cracked...

(I'm buying it so I hope this is the case)


Exactly what Nirad9er said, There are lots of games that do this....as far back as 2000 (maybe some before)...Delta Force Land Warrior, It had SP but you didn't buy Novalogic games for the SP you bought them for the MP (You'd play it for years and watch it get taken over by cheaters and die)...You needed to make an account and attach your cdkey to it or else you couldn't play on "official" servers...you could still play on public servers but 95% of the players were stat whores so it didn't matter
 
omg not again this topic

probably no one read me last time so here I go again

DRM will never work because

The hacker will always have the ENTIRE game data files at his CD tray
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I hope this DRM fails. Either by means of the game being pirated heaps, or simply the game selling extermely poorly. Ubisoft can go jump off a cliff, I'd rather their games not taint the PC at all than have them with this DRM.
 
I think that they will lose sales. I personally will never buy anything that is released with this draconian use DRM.
 
I have already planned to not buy this, but noticing how DRM is not getting put in to Steam store pages anymore (see THIS, and a list of games that DO have it labeled on the Steam store, HERE) I am severely boycotting those types of games.

Unfortunately, to revoke on what I said in a previous thread, I will not be buying Bad Company 2 either. DRM makes me sick. I don't want the hassle of reactivating games because I decided to upgrade hardware, switch computers, or simply try and having to play this games 4+ years in the future when they disregard support (unlike MS where they still got XP going for a few more years, and it was released in 2001).

Unless companies are all-knowingly (or are in such a great financial state) knowing that they're going to be around for a long time, DRM should be shot and hanged.

Plus, they'll never get the satisfaction of knowing whether I pirated or not. These companies who say "XXX game was pirated YYY times" simply has its foot up its ass, or they think that counting a few "downloaded" times off a few public torrent trackers is the real count. People don't JUST use torrents. They use IRC, they use Usenet, they use Rapidshare, they use TONS of non-peer-to-peer sources. YOU CANT TRACK THAT. You can only estimate. And estimating is estimating, and in this case, just making up numbers. I can say 32% of PC gamers pirate. And I will be wrong? Because you just can't say without the cold hard facts.

My actions in piracy only condone to that of NoCD executables, because sometimes I can't be arsed to drag along a CD/DVD on my laptop (and I use my second battery in the dock area, rather than my optical drive).

F U Ubisoft, and any other companies who are thinking of adding more DRM (I'm looking at you, EA).

That's my rant. Sorry, I had to post it somewhere. I wish I had a blog or some other videogame forum account so I could just throw my few cents in the ocean of piss that is the internet.

In the end, it's only a game. Just don't buy it. And send an email or two to E.F.F or somewhere. Meh.
 
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veritas7 said:
Unfortunately, to revoke on what I said in a previous thread, I will not be buying Bad Company 2 either. DRM makes me sick. I don't want the hassle of reactivating games because I decided to upgrade hardware, switch computers, or simply try and having to play this games 4+ years in the future when they disregard support (unlike MS where they still got XP going for a few more years, and it was released in 2001).
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I was actually pretty annoyed at Wings of Prey's DRM, and still am for that matter, I find it quite annoying (activation limits). The other day I ran out of activations because of upgrading my PC and not thinking that I had to deactivate the game before upgrading (had it installed on 2 different hard drives, so lost 2 activations in one hit). But I emailed the support team and they happily gave all my activations back within an hour.

So while I still dont like the online activation crap, I still haven't really had any bad experiences with it.

But having to stay online to play a singleplayer game is crossing a line, my internet isn't nearly reliable enough to pull that shit. A one off activation is far less intrusive.
 
I will tell you one thing that this DRM will do, it will prevent me from purchasing anything they publish. Which is finally a good enough reason to keep me from buying their other derivative nonsense and ruining the great franchises that they own.
 
Ubi and excessive DRM that gets cracked in hours anyway, go way back. If you wait a few months, they sometimes get rid of much of the additional DRM in the Steam versions. As a bonus, the game is usually sub $10 by then.
 
Personally the only way I see drm working is through something like Onlive (your keyboard/controller inputs are streamed to a server with the game on it and the video of the gameplay is streamed back to you). If that ever takes off game developers could start to only publish their games on those kinds of services. Then the only way for the games to be pirated would be if somebody hacked the entire game off of the server or got a hold of the code from somebody with access to it. Then they would maybe need to modify the game so it would run on home computers.
 
I remember a few years back, around 2004 or 2005 that Ubi had a few Starforce released games that weren't cracked for over a year. Can't remember the game though, but the good ole Spanish PIrated Game store had the ISO, but couldn't/didn't sell it.
 
here's why the DRM will not work

I WON'T BE BUYING IT, so they end up with a lost sale anyway, just the same as if i had pirated it
 
Draconian DRM and patronising legitimate players is not the way forward.

Damn, guess that means I won't be buying Thief 4 either!
 
dario03 said:
Personally the only way I see drm working is through something like Onlive (your keyboard/controller inputs are streamed to a server with the game on it and the video of the gameplay is streamed back to you). If that ever takes off game developers could start to only publish their games on those kinds of services. Then the only way for the games to be pirated would be if somebody hacked the entire game off of the server or got a hold of the code from somebody with access to it. Then they would maybe need to modify the game so it would run on home computers.
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Oh dear God I hope this never happens. If it does I will officially quit PC gaming.
 
Obviously the smartest thing for Ubisoft to do would be getting rid of this DRM in the first place. But since they won't, the second smartest thing they could do is to patch the DRM off once the game gets cracked.

Do you think that's what they have planned? They get their day of unpirated sales (a month in their minds?), then once the game gets 'fixed' they will then patch the DRM off, then all the standoffish people will buy. Do you think that's their strategy?
 
Fail said:
i know, my larger point is that they are simply hurting themselves by doing this DRM shit

I mean nobody is always ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the time online

outages do happen or some people do go places where there is no internet

or a router can go down, denying you access to internet or your modem can fail or you might not be able to afford your internet bill

all kinds of shit can happen

should that mean you can't play your game?

NO, NO, a thousand times NO
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This guy above is spot on.

Never should I depend on a stand alone game needing my internet connection to play a game. I am not on the internet all the time, so to have to be connected to play it is bullshit.

I will not be buying this crap
 
Parmenides said:
Obviously the smartest thing for Ubisoft to do would be getting rid of this DRM in the first place. But since they won't, the second smartest thing they could do is to patch the DRM off once the game gets cracked.

Do you think that's what they have planned? They get their day of unpirated sales (a month in their minds?), then once the game gets 'fixed' they will then patch the DRM off, then all the standoffish people will buy. Do you think that's their strategy?
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Well according to what Ubisoft representatives have said, no, that's not their plan. Their plan is to have this DRM forever. Even when there's only a few people still playing, they intend to leave a server or two running for them still to be forced to play online. Ubi said it COULD be patched out but they have no intention of doing so.

Personally I hope after a month the DRM does go bye bye, and the day the DRM dies is the day I'll buy one of their games (assuming its not stupidly expensive and has decent reviews of course ;)).
 
Tudz said:
Well according to what Ubisoft representatives have said, no, that's not their plan. Their plan is to have this DRM forever. Even when there's only a few people still playing, they intend to leave a server or two running for them still to be forced to play online. Ubi said it COULD be patched out but they have no intention of doing so.
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They can count on fewer and fewer sales and more piracy guaranteed.

Basically like I've said all along, this is so obviously stupid that it reeks of self sabotage. They don't want to be bothered supporting the PC. This will provide the excuse and cover they need to turn around x number of months from now, comment on the lackluster sales, and say adios.

Personally I hope after a month the DRM does go bye bye, and the day the DRM dies is the day I'll buy one of their games (assuming its not stupidly expensive and has decent reviews of course ;)).
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At this point, as badly as I want both AC2 and the new Splinter Cell on the PC, I'm going to wait it out myself. I just can't make myself pop open my wallet and support something like this.
 
Yeah this DRM worked...






...to prevent me from buying Assassin's Creed 2 or any other Ubi game. Ever. Sad part is I can see many publishers adopting this kind of DRM to orchestrate their exit from the PC space. *stares at Activision*
 
Its going to fail miserably. They will spend millions developing it then the first game they throw it on will bomb and they will just blame the pirates for it.

Its gone too far and its too the point where voting with your wallet dont work anymore because if you dont buy it then they just assume you pirated it instead of realizing whats really going on.
 
Disposed said:
Its going to fail miserably. They will spend millions developing it then the first game they throw it on will bomb and they will just blame the pirates for it.

Its gone too far and its too the point where voting with your wallet dont work anymore because if you dont buy it then they just assume you pirated it instead of realizing whats really going on.
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Here's the catch, though: There's NO way at least some folks at Ubisoft aren't well aware of the outcry and anger there is over this. They'd have to be living on Mars to not know. Their own forums are lit up like hell and who knows what else.

They know. It's just a question of what's going to happen and when.
 
Fail said:
that's a good write up

I agree with some of his points

but here's the thing

i wonder exactly how many sales they will lose to INFORMED customers?

i'm guessing pretty much all of them
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Just as many as MW2 lost for not having dedicated servers that people said they wouldn't buy it, and how many copies did they sell?
 
MrGuvernment said:
Just as many as MW2 lost for not having dedicated servers that people said they wouldn't buy it, and how many copies did they sell?
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Pretty sure its under MW1's numbers. The ratio of console-to-pc users is a lot lower at least.
 
So about this being uncrackable or hard to crack? Well a friend just told me that Silent Hunter 5, which using the DRM, is on some sites fully working.
 
There is only one true full-proof solution to piracy: have a multiplayer component, a good/enjoyable multiplayer and dedicated servers & anti-cheat.

Valve/Steam has proven this method. Sure, their single player components get pirated but that's no big deal since everyone pays to get into the multiplayer action.
 
Derangel said:
So about this being uncrackable or hard to crack? Well a friend just told me that Silent Hunter 5, which using the DRM, is on some sites fully working.
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Yeah just read about it on another forum,so one day after release it's been cracked. Doesn't look to good for Ubisoft.
 
inotocracy said:
There is only one true full-proof solution to piracy: have a multiplayer component, a good/enjoyable multiplayer and dedicated servers & anti-cheat.

Valve/Steam has proven this method. Sure, their single player components get pirated but that's no big deal since everyone pays to get into the multiplayer action.
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Stop saying that, there is absolutely no lack of cracked MP servers for any of the Valve or Blizzard games out around the world.
 
pigwalk said:
Stop saying that, there is absolutely no lack of cracked MP servers for any of the Valve or Blizzard games out around the world.
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Doesn't matter. It still works.

Starcraft: The only thing remotely good and public these days for Starcraft is ICCUP. Thanks to the Korean scene.

World of Warcraft: Private servers are terrible because they lack server side boss scripting, anti-cheat measures, and they lag.

Diablo 2: Hahaha. Nothing there.

Warcraft 3: ICCUP supports this, but I don't ever hear anything of it other than DOTA.



Conclusion: It's still the best way of preventing piracy.
 
PornoSatan said:
Doesn't matter. It still works.

World of Warcraft: Private servers are terrible because they lack server side boss scripting, anti-cheat measures, and they lag.
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While I agree that multiplayer does help to curb piracy I just want to mention that Private WoW servers do have server side scripting and I had less lag than on the official servers. I can't say anything about anti-cheating other than most servers will insta-ban anyone caught cheating.
 
Bankie said:
While I agree that multiplayer does help to curb piracy I just want to mention that Private WoW servers do have server side scripting and I had less lag than on the official servers. I can't say anything about anti-cheating other than most servers will insta-ban anyone caught cheating.
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Wow private servers are a fucking joke compared to the real thing. And no they do not have all of the server side scripting for bosses. Many boss fights with phases or gimmicks end up just tank and spank on private servers.
 
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