Things You Should Boycott: Assassin’s Creed II and Its Horrendously Restrictive DRM
Posted 02/18/10 at 01:22:44 AM by Nathan Grayson
We love Assassin’s Creed II. It’s a fantastic game that actually lives up to all the promise its predecessor fell just short of.
Its DRM, however, manages to undo all that good will and then some.
We weren’t entirely sold on Ubisoft’s new “anti-piracy plan” when the publisher ran it by us last month, but little did we know that we were witnessing the birth of DRM so sinister that we’re now petitioning to have the guy that created SecuROM canonized.
Here’s how it works (as discovered by the fine folks at PC Gamer UK): as you’re already aware, the DRM requires an Internet connection to authenticate your game. As you weren’t already aware, it requires that Internet connection at all times. Constantly. The second you lose that connection for whatever reason, even for a second – be it a faulty wireless signal, a clumsy roommate, or a fried server on Ubisoft’s end – your game goes dark, you lose all unsaved progress, and you’re locked out of the game until you resolve your connection issue.
We’re reminded, at this point, of an old Internet saying: DO NOT WANT.
Ubisoft’s also afflicting the DRM upon Settlers 7. We weren’t actually planning on purchasing Settlers 7 in the first place, and – shockingly enough – this hasn’t done anything to change our minds.
Is this a joke, Ubisoft? Because we’re not seeing the punchline. That is, unless you burst out laughing every time hundreds of thousands of pirates cause you to lose millions of dollars.
I understand their right to
Submitted by omen3330 on Tue, 05/11/2010 - 1:33pm
I understand their right to protect their intellectual property but when something is as intrusive as this DRM is, it is hard to see why you wouldn't get pissed about this. Not everyone has a good connection and with a DRM this strict the game is really easy to walk past. Some people also have data caps and any amount of data going through the line makes a difference. To summarize, the lack of faith in it customers from Ubisoft is appalling.
Submitted by B10H4Z4RD on Fri, 04/09/2010 - 6:18am
I am happy to announce a cracked ACII was discovered whilst floating in pirate waters[thank you EriktheGreat]. connection to ubisoft does not come with the game.
______________________________________________________________________
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero. Chuck Palahniuk, FIght Club.
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Submitted by aligatorxx on Sat, 03/27/2010 - 3:52pm
In ten years of gaming Assassin's Creed II is the first game that i bought. After more than 20 days have past and no cracks were made available i went and bought the game. Everybody should get used to this type of DRM or quit playing PC games. Bravo Ubisoft.
Submitted by thinsoldier on Fri, 03/19/2010 - 11:56am
I give up on posting to this site. The pledge of allegiance even triggers the spam filter.
preach brother
Submitted by nekollx on Fri, 03/19/2010 - 12:00pm
preach brother
Submitted by thinsoldier on Fri, 03/19/2010 - 11:59am
Drupal or its spam filters or Maximum PC's configuration of the spam filters or all of the above SUCK.
Submitted by thinsoldier on Fri, 03/19/2010 - 11:49am
Luckily I'm still in the middle of chrono trigger, Mass Effect 2, Dirt2, GRID, peggle deluxe, world of goo, Torchlight, Doom3, Half Life 2 episode 1, and Star Wars Episode 1: Pod-Racer, Batman Arkham Asylum, Castlevania SOTN,
(Just Cause 2 & Black will be added to this list soon)
So, by the time I'm done with a few of these, hopefully Assassins Creed 2 will be in the $10 bargain bin AND they would have taken thier DRM servers offline and released an official patch to remove the DRM.
There is absolutely NO NEED to rush out and buy a single player game the day it's released at the maximum price point. There are lots of 5-star, game-of-the-year quality titles out there that you haven't played yet. Ignore the marketing and go play something really fun that's stood the test of time and won't dent your wallet.
Submitted by Shrody on Thu, 03/18/2010 - 8:35am
Honestly DRM isn't doing much to stem off piracy. You would be better off shipping your game with a pamplet on how piracy kills baby hippos in Africa, now THAT would stop those pesky pirates.
Submitted by ErikTheGreat on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 6:20am
Found this comment while in pirate waters:
SKIDROW bring us new “Silent Hunter 5 Battle of the Atlantic” game. Funny thing is that this game is based on newest Ubisoft DRM protection which requires you to be online during the gameplay. Poor legit users…
Guess the only ones it screws with are thoes dumb enough to buy legit copies....
Submitted by foolm2 on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 5:59pm
To all the folks on here saying we should put up with this and not use cracks or whatever: what will you do when they are bankrupt? Install a crack from a pirate? That will be the only way to play the game after they stop supporting it. And that will be against the EULA. So if you do that you are a criminal. So this is a catch 22. Buy the game from these assholes to prove you aren't a pirate and hear how it didn't sell well due to piracy, or don't buy the game from the bullies and hear how it didn't sell due to piracy. Either way, "YOU'RE A THIEF!!! YES YOU!!! I'M UBISOFT AND I'M POINTING AT YOU!" I don't need these crappy console ports and neither do you. The fact is, it's so easy to release console games on PC, because they are made on a PC, that it's just free extra money. The games are nerfed to work on the limitations of the consoles, so they should just release them at a reasonable price ($10) with no copy protection. The fact is all these companies care about is your money. Don't give it to them. Give it to companies that care about making good games.
Submitted by HouseofBlues on Sun, 02/28/2010 - 10:54pm
Boycott you say!, DONE! Oh well, I'll spend my hard earned $ somewhere else! This kind of treatment of paying customers is unacceptable, I will not even think once of buying this title or anyother that uses this kind of DRM! That is all!
Submitted by hinokin on Tue, 03/02/2010 - 4:36pm
Proper crack for Assassin's Creed II 100% works!
Download link:
http://www.envirofile.org/download/12693
****************************************
INSTRUCTION1. Disconnect internet first!
2. Copy crack to game folder.
3. Run game.
4. Minimize .
5. Run aces2.exe
6. Enter game from taskbar.
7. Play!Special thanks to NForcer's Team
Submitted by dstevens on Wed, 02/24/2010 - 1:58pm
when this causes ubisoft to go bankrupt and close thier doors,
what happens to the players that bought this game,
they lose thier gaming ability as well....
yep definately makes me want to invest some of my cash
good game or not.
we could always try the governmental approach
" buy DRM infested games or the terrorists win!!"
Submitted by DBsantos77 on Tue, 02/23/2010 - 10:21pm
Lol, this is gonna cose $60 bucks on STEAM.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/33230/
-Santos
Submitted by Singapoor on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 4:09pm
because I think I can live with the DRM, as shown here it may not be the end of the f--king world, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PzqPuH4D8k
Submitted by drevas on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 11:46am
I'm having a similiar problem with Mass Efffect 2. I got the PC Collectors Edition that was bundled with 3 DLC Items. After 1 play through I get a message that they couldn't validate my DLC! The only option the so called "Cerberus Network" gives me is to buy the content again because, and this is rich, my code has already been used!
Two emails to tech support who sent an automated response that they would contact me in 24 hours has yielded NOTHING! Bioware won't even contact me back. $60.00 when I could have spent less. Collectors Editions, never again.
So DRM meet pissed of Gamer. Pissed off gamer, meet another crappy attempt at DRM....
Daniel
Submitted by highsidednb on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 6:30pm
You have to make sure your email accounts for the DLC and the game are the same. If you redeem your code with a different email address than what you use to login inside the game, you'll get the problem you're describing.
Submitted by Caboose on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 1:44pm
Those damn Canadians eh!
We`re always causing problems eh!
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by BushidoBob on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 5:26am
They just dont learn do they. Seems like this is shaping up to be SPORE Part 2. Won't be long before a crack comes out, circumventing the DRM and frustrating paying customers but not the pirates. Woopee!
The Joint With The Latest In Video Games – News, Reviews And More @ http://gameknut-gary.com/blog
Submitted by jetbruceli on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 2:10am
Well good thing this is out for the consoles. I love playing my games on PC but most of the time, the Single player games are played when I am not on the internet. Like Deployments. If they keep this up, more and more people are gonna leave the PC gaming to Consoles.
Instead of making you be online during game play, why dont they do what Steam does? Atleast there is an Offline mode. I understand making sure you get paid for your work but come on? It wont be long till someone like an ex employee from Ubisoft makes a cracked version. Look at MW2!
Oh well just another title to skip!
i wasn't gonna buy the game
Submitted by gothliciouz on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 10:18pm
i wasn't gonna buy the game anyways!...still i hate that they're doing this to the pc gamers
Submitted by PhoneyVirus on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 9:51pm
Get it on the 360 if you have one
Submitted by ShockerX on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 6:27pm
I dunno about the rest of you guys, but the way its going for ubisoft, its encouraging people to go piracy. Not only that, legit users are getting penaltized with DRM due of piracy. I suppose steam DRM isn't good enough for ubisoft.
"We think most people are going to be fine with it," Ubisoft's Brent Wilkinson said. "Most people are always connected to an Internet connection."
I call it major BS that we'd be "fine with it," but its true that most people are always connected ... But people DO get disconnected for whatever reasons.
Submitted by snapple00 on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 8:18pm
Unfortunately, the majority of the people who buy this game are not going to care that it has DRM.
Hopefully this 'always on' connection thing will cause so much problems the world will end. Everything has gone to shit these days.
Submitted by Zallomallo on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 4:13pm
-
Submitted by Zallomallo on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 4:12pm
Rather than limit the product for paying customers, just add something like good community integration(achievements?), or a free bonus mission you have to download. Something that makes you WANT to buy it instead of pirate it. I don't really know though.
Submitted by Sebie Kay on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 10:19am
Thats a good idea. I remember the days of 'Corridor 7' (if ANYONE else remembers that, i would be surprised). You bought the game, then the insure that you didn't just pirate a copy, you had to buy the last several levels to beat the game.
A little frustrating, but the last few levels were on a CD, so you just pop in the CD, and Viola! No DRM needed.
Perhaps this is the future of gaming?
Or perhaps game developers can release a gimped base package for $20, and sell add on's via the web (either download or CD/DVD media). The add on's would contain important features, such as a the game map, last few levels, etc.
I'm not sure of the logistics on this method, but perhaps it could work?
-=Do unto others... THEN RUN!!=-
Submitted by Daemon on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 3:52pm
My PC your DRM , sry U want put Ur game on My PC... U pay me first, and My EULA says NO DRM allowed. Ur Games , Ur Movies... go bye bye.
Submitted by Caboose on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 4:15pm
Hi, my name is the English language. And I'm charging you with rape! Please stop raping me! My friend grammar is also pressing charges against you for assault and battery!
You are hereby sentenced to return to elementary school english class where you must learn how to spell and form a correct sentence, and use proper grammar.
Court is adjourned.
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by Tekzel on Sat, 02/20/2010 - 5:06pm
Normally, I don't jump on people for butchering the language in posts. For one, it's usually futile. Dumb people communicate as a dumb person will, poorly. Also, amazingly enough, I find that many people actually wear their dumbness as a badge of honor any more. What is the point then? You aren't going to do anything except get accusations of pedantry, and some people will come back and attack the, often minor, grammatical or obvious typographical errors in your reply.
The second reason is it isn't always obvious if the person is a moron, or if English is a second, or third, etc, language for them.
I think the person you replied to is clearly an idiot so they fall into the former category. Do you think you can brow beat someone that is obviously so far gone into taking any pride in how they communicate on "the interwebs"? It is a lost cause that will only lead to frustration and heartbreak.
Submitted by couger on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 3:33pm
I am also a pc gamer thats sick of this invasive DRM , next thing they will want is a dna sample, but im also a father with kids. I have a PS3 and X-BOX 360 that i buy games for and i think its time to let these companies know what comes around goes around. And i will let these companines know you screw me on one format you lose the sale on all formats. By the way i myself have mabe played 5 min on consoles in total. (to dam slow) use them to steam movies. PC Gaming is not a crime
Submitted by k11k on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 11:00am
I bet the day they release it, a crack will already be on the internet. Hackers always need something to 1-up each other. So new DRM are always the target. Try as they might hackers are always one step ahead of them. Look at the console, not hackerable....please. You can download almost any new game for console (soon the crapstation3)or PC.
The biggest ripe off I say is these MMORPG that charge you $50 for the disk and $15 a month to play. The $15 a month I can see but $50 for a disk that should only cost $1 or less for the price of the disk, just charge the consumer one or the other. Its not the consumer fault if the MMORPG suck and the maker gets no where near the max subscribe member. Thank Hackers for "private server" and the motto "I DON'T PAY TO PLAY".
Submitted by Furien on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 10:42am
This doesn't have much to do with anything other than, you guessed it... MONEY. If you consider that game companies sell what, 10 times as many console versions of their games as they do the PC, why the hell would they care about investing the time and money it takes to do it right?! Oh really, you can think of a whole slew of reasons too? Well too bad, things like "long term customer satisfaction" and "brand loyalty" don't matter when you're a game company executive and your bonus is most likely determined by how good your development cost to earnings ratio is, or any other short-term metric that the vast majority of corporate America is based on. As long as you perform better than last quarter, or increase such and such ratio by x percent this time around, then you get that nice hefty bonus... those pesky PC gamers making up 10% of all your sales be damned!
Lesson: Short term "success" trumps the long term any and every time.
Submitted by habuza on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 10:21am
I didn't buy the first one, I won't be buying this one either. I refuse to pay for a game with DRM on it.
I have made some exceptions, but for the most part, I won't touch anything with communist DRM on it.
Submitted by Caboose on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 12:19pm
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by jcseely on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 12:07pm
Ummm, I'm pretty sure Communist isn't the word you're looking for.
Submitted by Caboose on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 9:36am
From what I've heard Command & Conquer 4 (the final installment in the Tiberium War series) is going to require an "always on" internet connection too! But I wonder if it'll do the same as this... Lets hope not!
Has anyone written to Ubersoft and complained?
-= I don't want to be dead, I want to be alive! Or... a cowboy! =-
Submitted by kdainxtreem on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 9:30am
Wow did someone tell these guys that the world has 100% internet penitration what about the gamers who don't have permananent internet connentions and yes we do exist. I guess you don't want our money ok fine, I will keep mine nice and warm in my pocket.
Submitted by DirkBelig on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 9:16am
When EA pooched Spore with onerous DRM, what did it get them? Hundreds of 1-star Amazon reviews and Spore was the most pirated game of 2008. How does Ubisoft look at that debacle and think, "We can do much, MUCH worse. Muwahahahahahahaha!!"? When Ubi's idiotic "must be online 24/7" scheme was announced, a story I read about it quoted a pirate who said that unlike the paying customers he'd only have to go online once to get and play the game, if you follow.
A lot of pirate kiddeez are using this as a justification for their piracy like they're actually striking a blow again "The Man" by behaving in a manner which only confirms publishers reasons for slathering DRM all over their games in the first egg. (It's like Punch & Judy meet the chicken and the egg.) Ubi thinks this will prevent piracy, but if piracy goes up, they'll be justified in their actions, no matter how anti-consumer they are.
When it was revealed that Infinity Ward and Activision were borking Modern Warfare 2 on the PC, they lost my money because I had planned on switching from the Xbox 360 version to PC to get mouse+keyboard. I didn't make a fuss or stomp off and download a pirated copy to "teach them a lesson." No, I did something a lot meaner and totally legal: I bought a used X360 copy a couple weeks after release for about $28 (Gamestop B2G1 sale and gift card) which allowed me to play the game and have the fun and NOT ONE FRAKING PENNY WENT INTO IW's OR ACTI's POCKETS!!!! Instead of making the profit off my PC purchase, they got NOTHING! BOOM!!!!
Oh, yeah, Assassin's Creed 2? I bought that used at the same time and I'll be getting to it shortly after finishing Mass Effect 2. More money not going to Ubi. Losers. OTOH, you've got to admire the perverse way EA is getting people to buy new copies of Mass Effect 2 and Bad Company 2 by packing in a code to access the parts of the game they took out to make "free DLC" a reality, thus forcing used buyers to shell out $15 to gain access.
"This would be a great job if it weren't for the ****ing customers." - Randal Graves, "Clerks"
Submitted by TheZomb on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 3:16pm
When you buy a used copy you increase demand for actual copies since they know they can resell them for a fair price. If no one bought used copies and you could only get $2 for a lightly used game then less people would buy and it would hurt activision more. There still making less money off they game, but your still funding them.
The only way to truly hurt them would be to not buy the game and never speak of it to anyone since talk and piracy itself increases demand for a product even if the talk is negative.
Submitted by 8jwong14 on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 8:46am
If people don't want the DRM, stop playing cracked version, making cracks for games, an stop buying games with the DRM of Assassin's Creed.
DRMs only exist because people pirate games.
Submitted by HeartBurnKid on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 5:40pm
The first thing any pirate group is strip out the DRM. Thus, the pirate enjoys a DRM-free experience, and the paying consumer experiences the DRM annoyances inflicted on him (supposedly) because of the pirate.
Isn't it ironic, don'tchathink?
Submitted by psye on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 8:59am
You're a moron.
Thanks.
Submitted by Atomike on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 11:48am
Irony. People who pirate games are thieves. They are bad people. If you pirate games, you cannot by definition, be called a good person. You're a bad human being. You make the world worse.
Submitted by TheZomb on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 3:26pm
But not pirating won't stop restrictive DRM. If a banks stopped getting robbed for decade do you think they would stop building vaults. There are also people (usually the same people who pirate) who make patches for legal copies of the game so that legitimate owners can use them. There is no reason to use DRM like this on product, legitimate buyers can easily circumvent it, create hacked copies and give to pirates who don't even notice the difference, and in fact generate more pirates since they feel like they are teaching the big bad corps whose boss.
It does nothing, but frustrate legitimate customers who then go "look at that pirated version, they don't have to deal with this shit." These practices hurt companies and generate more and more pirates.
Submitted by Atomike on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 6:26pm
"But not pirating won't stop restrictive DRM."
This is such a ridiculous statement, there is nothing I can do but laugh out loud. The sole reason for DRM is piracy. Why do you think they put DRM in games? Because they love to pay the licensing fee? I'm sorry but you are simply not intelligent enough to particpate in this conversation.
Please don't use the internet anymore. You're not able to use it properly.
Submitted by planetouched on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 8:54am
People pirate games because of the insult of DRM
MMMMM, no. That sounds
Submitted by lunchbox73 on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 9:16am
MMMMM, no. That sounds romantic but people download pirated games because they enjoy getting things for free and don't consider it stealing. It has nothing to do with sticking to the man and protesting again DRM.
Submitted by snapple00 on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 9:24am
I think both of you are right. Some people want to stick it to the man, so they pirate. Others just don't give a shit about anything, so they pirate. Others might do it for some weird "thrill factor". And so on.
One would be a fool to think the whole population of pirates is one homogeneous group.
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