Ubisoft Extends Olive Branch, Promises to Never Take DRMed Games Permanently Offline
Ubisoft Extends Olive Branch, Promises to Never Take DRMed Games Permanently Offline
Posted 02/22/2010 at 7:42pm
| by Nathan Grayson
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Assassin’s Creed II, Settlers 7, et al. are in a bit of a tricky spot. An Internet connection is their lifeblood, and the second that precious link dries up, the games go bye-bye – much to the chagrin of their players. But hey, it could be worse. What if the heart in this overwrought metaphor were to stop beating? What if – many years on down the line – Ubisoft pulled the plug on its authentication servers once and for all? Well, don’t worry. According to Ubisoft, that’s simply not an issue.
"Say in 5 years someone who bought Assassin's Creed 2 wants to go back and play it, the hope is, the plan is that we'll be on Assassin's Creed, I dunno, 3, 4, 5, and the servers will still be there to serve those new games," a Ubisoft spokesperson told PC Gamer UK.
"If for some reason, and this is not in the plan, but if for some reason all of the servers someday go away, then we can release a patch so that the game can be played in single-player without an online connection. But that's if all of the servers are gone,” the spokesperson added.
Click through the link for the rest of a very long, highly informative Q&A. If you’re looking for a sigh-of-relief and an end to your frustrations, however, you might want to look elsewhere. The Q&A’s more likely to give that ugly old vein in your forehead the workout of a lifetime than anything else. Oh well. You’re on the Internet, so you like being angry, right?
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highsidednb
February 23, 2010 at 2:21pm
Baldur's Gate 2. One of the all time greatest PC games with sales figures to match. It still sells. 10 years later.
DRM? None. Anyone with a decent ISO rip/burn program can copy it.
Ubisoft, you lose. If you don't want to lose money from all the hours you spent porting the game to PC from your console cash cows, then make a better game.
neo1piv14
February 23, 2010 at 12:25pm
I'm sorry, but this was the easiest way to sell me not getting a game. I actually liked the first one, too, but I just can't encourage this with any good conscience. No need to pirate the game since that makes us just as bad as them, but this move on their part has me turning my back on this game and any future AC games. Unless they're going to pay for my DSL for as long as I've got the game installed, this is a slap in the face to legit gamers. Sure, I've always got internet access on my desktop, but what happens when you want to play this game on your laptop while you're hanging out somewhere that doesn't have free wifi?
nekollx
February 23, 2010 at 9:43am
I'm tempted to save a screen shot of the faq so in 3 years when they abandon AC2 i can take then to court for breach of contract
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
k11k
February 23, 2010 at 9:23am
Give me the right to get my money back if I try it for 1-5 days. I wouldn't have a problem with DRM then. Oh wait, the gameplay on this game is 3 hrs.
rcfiver
February 23, 2010 at 8:31am
@QuadCoreAbe: So wait, only game developers get to say if a game sucks or not? huh?
Tenhawk
February 22, 2010 at 9:14pm
Promise to never *prevent* us from being able to use a product that we BOUGHT!?
When did this become something that remotely NEEDED to be said!?
Lately it's like I'm in a twilight zone episode whenever I read the news...
aviaggio
February 23, 2010 at 9:30am
I'm with you on this. Another epic fail from a game developer. So lessee, you strip me of my rights of ownership when I purchase your games, but then try and assure me you'll always be there for me. @#%!@ retarded. Like I would believe them for a second. It's like getting mugged and having your attacker tell you he really does care.
JUST SAY NO!
nekollx
February 23, 2010 at 3:20pm
also if the authentication servers are off line how does someone get the patch 3 years later?
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Danthrax66
February 22, 2010 at 8:37pm
this is just them confirming that the game is crackable. I will never buy a ubisoft product until they get their heads out of their a. This just makes them a bigger target for piracy. For a game that I never would have bought I am considering downloading as many cracked copies as I can just to show my disdain for drm. If they would just sync it through steam so it was tied to an account it would be better.
Mighty BOB!
February 22, 2010 at 8:33pm
I really doubt that in 15 or 20 years they're going to hire a team of engineers to go through all the old game code to make a no-connection patch. Of course that's even if they don't lose the source code.
chronium
February 22, 2010 at 8:04pm
But in 5 years EA could be the owners of Ubisoft or they could go bankrupted and in both cases you could say bye bye to the servers and not see a patch. That's also if they're not just saying it to stop the hating.
Cache
February 22, 2010 at 7:53pm
Easy way to make fair DRM is to have the Feds cough up a spine among the hundreds of members of congress and say that it is incumbant on the game/movie/whatever industry that if they fold the DRM they must submit some kind of release code freeing the media of the DRM they had been using in the first place. Sure, it'd never hold up in any court what with copyright laws, etc. Then again, I defy anyone in congress to demonstrate they have a spine that was not installed by special interest groups in the first place.
lunchbox73
February 23, 2010 at 7:48am
No thanks. Getting the government involved in anything is usually a bad idea.
dankers
February 22, 2010 at 7:49pm
they should promise not to make the game suck like the last one.
QuadCoreAbe
February 23, 2010 at 8:04am
That's a very arrogant response. What game have you developped lately so we can compare ? Ubisoft makes good games. If it wasn't the case, then nobody would care whether the DRM is bull$hit or not.
QuadCoreAbe
March 08, 2010 at 1:34pm
I didn't say he wasn't allowed to have an opinion, I said it was arrogant of him to say that the last one sucked. When you state something like that without justification, it is ASSUMED that the game OBVIOUSLY sucked. Which isn't true. So stop trying to analyse what people say and face the reality that he wasn't talking about DRM, nor comparing it to other games.
He just said it sucked. And that, good sir, simply is spitting in the face of people's work without justification.
Ok, the story wasn't really good. And people don't just jump into haystacks from church roofs and make it alive. But it was decent and fun to play.
So if anyone out there just trashes freely on a good game without explanation, I expect them to have done better.
nekollx
February 23, 2010 at 4:11pm
Wise man once say "Opions are like assholes, everyone has them and think their's don't stink"
------------------------------
Coming soon to Lulu.com --Tokusatsu Heroes--
Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Walnut
February 23, 2010 at 9:59am
One need not be skilled at the production of something in order to criticize it. I don't even know how such a stupid notion could exist. I've never played either of the AC games (and don't plan to after this whole DRM mess), but lunchbox73 is entitled to his opinion regardless of his game developer status. I'm no artist, but that doesn't invalidate my opinions of art; I have no formal training in running a restaurant, but I know when I'm at a good one; etc., etc.
QuadCoreAbe
March 08, 2010 at 1:47pm
You don't need to know how to cook to appreciate or criticize food, but if you get too compicated you can go ahead and cook your own damn food.
I don't get all those ppl screaming for the right to an opinion. If it adds and is relevant to the subject, then by all means, go for it. Otherwise, keep it on youtube, where it's already too late to sort coherence out.
Athlonite
February 24, 2010 at 3:07am
Frack that just give us the damn Patch now ya bastards and never soil your games with any DRM ever again
ASUS M3A32MVP-DELUXE AM2+, AMD Athlon x2 7750BE @ 2700MHz + Tuniq Tower 120
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Athlonite
February 24, 2010 at 2:54am
Frack that just give us the damn Patch now ya bastards and never soil your games with any DRM ever again
ASUS M3A32MVP-DELUXE AM2+, AMD Athlon x2 7750BE @ 2700MHz + Tuniq Tower 120
2x Corsair Dominator Twin2x2048C5D-8500 (4x 1GB) DDR2-1066MHz 555-15CL2 2.10v
HIS Radeon HD5770 FAN 1GB DDR5 cclk/850MHz memclk/4800
2x WD2500AAJS Raid0 Boot/
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