DRM News

Archive for February, 2010

PSN problems rendering some PS3 games unplayable UPDATED! FIXED!

February 28th, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

UPDATE 3 : And from Sony, confirmation that the problems seems to have been fixed. The internal clock on older PS3 units did indeed think that it was a leap year (2000), thus causing the system to go nuts. As the clock ‘rolls over’ to the right date, the issue is fixed. As well, if the displayed time is still wrong, it can be updated manually or via PSN (access to which is also restored).

UPDATE 2 : From Gamasutra :

Sony says the widespread PlayStation 3 outages users have suffered since last night are due to a bug in the system’s clock functionality, and that the company is working to fix the issue within the next 24 hours.

Older versions of the PS3 have had their clocks reset to a date of Jan 1, 2000. PSN has become inaccessible for many users of the older PS3, Trophy achievements have been wiped out, and games will flat out refuse to run. Hopefully, the problem is fixed soon.

In the meantime, Sony is urging all owners of the old PS3 systems to not turn them on.

UPDATE : It seems that the problems are confirmed to be limited to older models of the PS3, not the newer ‘slim’ model. Also, the bug is apparently related to the system calendar date.

Sony’s Playstation Network is experiencing a myriad number of game crashing errors at the moment. The problems go beyond that, however, with corrupted Trophy information and and a lack of PSN access.

Beyond that, however, some PS3 owners are unable to launch ANY disc based games, including those with no online component whatsoever. Included in that list of titles is PS3 exclusive heavy hitter Heavy Rain, which just launched this past week. Most of these problems seem to be affecting older PS3 models much more than the new ‘slim’ version.

As reported by Joystiq, Sony is reported to be ‘looking in to the problem’. Bizarrely, it seems that unplugging your PS3 from the Internet will NOT fix the problem if you’re having one, seeming to point towards this being some sort of system issue beyond simple network problems.If that isn’t the case, why is a network problem rendering any and all games unplayable for some users?

Posted in Games

Tags: game-crash errors, Playstation 3, Playstation Network, PS3, PSN, Sony

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Wal-Mart shows belief in movie delivery via Internet

February 28th, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

Logo unfamiliar? It belongs to Vudu, a company with a library of 16,000 HD movies viewers can buy or rent via their broadband Internet connection.

Oh, and Wal-Mart just announced that their purchase of Vudu is imminent.

Yes, the nation’s #1 seller of DVDs is entering the ‘buy online’ marketplace, tired of losing business to Netflix and the like. Where they take it from this nascent beginning is the question.

Do they switch to a subscription model from the pay-per-flick system currently in place in order to directly challenge Netflix? Do they use distribution contracts with electronics companies to begin pushing Vudu ‘package deals’ with DVD players and/or television sets? And what exactly is Wal-Mart’s relationship with major Hollywood film studios like…can they get favourable distribution deals, or will they be restricted in terms of new release rights as Netflix and Apple are?

What we do know is that Wal-Mart and Best Buy (who will be offering movie-download software with every web-capable device bought in US stores) both seem to think that web-distribution is the way to go for the movie business. The surge in popularity of Netflix and Apple seem to indicate the same. Does Hollywood agree?

Posted in Movies and TV

Tags: Internet movie delivery, Vudu, Wal-Mart

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Et tu, Rebellion? UPDATE!

February 28th, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

UPDATE : Well, here we are towards the end of March, and the game now officially has non-Beta, fully functional dedicated servers. An absolutely pathetic display of Rebellion clearly saying one thing while intending something else entirely, but at least the servers finally fully exist, right?

“Despite rumours, Rebellion has always been planning to support dedicated servers for Aliens vs Predator PC and we can now officially confirm that this is the case. Rebellion has always appreciated fan support,” said Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley.

That quote, made in an article on Gamesindustry.biz, was made approximately 3 months before the latest iteration of the Alien vs. Predator franchise released. In the wake of the hubbub caused by Modern Warfare 2 doing away with dedi-servers, it was seen as a bit of a return to form for the PC platform, a sign that not everyone was going to flee from the sort of customization that PC gamers had grown accustomed to.

Here we are at the end of February, the game has been out for weeks…and dedicated servers are nowhere to be found. All that can be found is this nebulous post from a Rebellion staffer in the game’s Steam forum :

Further information regarding the dedicated servers closed beta will be announced on the 1st of March, as stated in “Patch 2 notes” thread which has been stickied in this forum.

The only further mention made in those notes, which can be found here, is this sentence here :

We will also have news on an additional feature we know many of you have been waiting for which is now ready for a closed Beta test!

So, not only are the promised servers not available, they’re not even in a closed Beta yet. It strikes me as rather unlikely that something as intrinsic to a game as the way its multiplayer portion functions would be left until after that game is released to be added.

No, what seems increasingly more likely with each passing day is that Rebellion saw a chance to grab some cheap publicity for themselves. Then, they hedged their bets on actual server support until they got an idea of what sort of reception the game would actually receive from consumers. Oh, it’s good? Great, let’s get on adding that dedicated server support, then.

And these companies wonder why sales are diminishing on the PC platform?

Posted in Games

Tags: Alien vs. Predator, dedicated server Beta test, Rebellion

2 Comments »

Avalanche CEO urges publishers to cancel more projects

February 27th, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

We’re so often hearing game developers ramble on ad nauseam about their 633 latest projects requiring 19,204 artisans and a budget roughly commensurate to the Gross Domestic Product of Poland to bring about. It’s exhausting. It’s numbing. It’s a constant reminder of why so many development companies are suffering through serious financial issues.

So, when a developer comes out and says that publishers need to start cutting projects earlier in development and keeping costs vs. profits in mind, it tends to be a refreshing change of pace. And that’s exactly what Avalanche CEO Christofer Sundberg had to say in an interview with Develop (Part 1, Part 2).

I still believe publishers should cancel more projects in case the developers fail to deliver quality, before the investments become too high.

A better due diligence process for developers is needed, as is a higher demand for quality, along with a courage to invest more money in fewer projects, rather than spreading the budget over many ‘OK’ projects.

Avatar is a great example of a game that should never have come out, regardless of how much money it made. I don’t know if it was profitable or not, but games like that give licence-based games a bad reputation, and that reputation is already at an all-time low, and you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

How truly sad is it (and how big an indication of how big the problem is?) that talk like that is so utterly refreshing? It just makes sense. Well, aside from saying that Avatar gave license-based games a bad name…that ship sailed LOOONNNNNG ago!

And he doesn’t mince words about the rough year his own company has had, either.

The first thing Christofer Sundberg says as I switch on my recorder is that 2009 was a bad year for the company.

It’s the kind of blunt, untampered honesty that can catch people by surprise in an industry where “everything’s going just fine”, and where developers are overly keen to “thank our publisher for their exceptional support.”

Perhaps what the industry needs are a few more people capable of being bluntly honest when looking over the ledgers?

Posted in Games

Tags: Avalanche Studios, cancel projects, publishers

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Ubisoft announces slate of games to use server access DRM

February 27th, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

It isn’t really a surprising announcement at all, seeing as how Ubi had stated previously that their ‘all access all the time’ server DRM system wasn’t just going to be a one off. However, it does sort of cement its status as their system of choice for the foreseeable future.

As reported on Softpedia, the entire known slate of upcoming Ubi releases will require permanent server access during play. That means :

-Assassin’s Creed II

-Settlers VII

-Splinter Cell : Conviction

-Silent Hunter 5 : Battle of the Atlantic

-Prince of Persia : the Forgotten Sands

-The upcoming Ghost Recon title

There you go. It was pretty obvious this would be the case, and now it’s official. Also, they have officially stated that progress loss if the connection is severed will differ from game to game :

The company is also confirming that if the connection to the Internet goes down, the effect depends on the title the player is engaged in. Those who have checkpoint-based save systems will lose the progress they made since the last one, while other games, like Settlers VII, will allow the player to continue exactly from the moment when loss of the Internet connection forced the game to shut down. It also acknowledges that the new DRM scheme will at one point be cracked, but it hopes that until then, players will go for the genuine product.

Posted in Games

Tags: Assassin's Creed 2, Ghost Recon, Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands, Settlers 7, Silent Hunter 5, Splinter Cell Conviction, Ubisoft, Ubisoft account system

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Can we please stop with the hypocrisy and gross oversimplification when it comes to DRM and piracy talk?

February 26th, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

Something has been eating at me a bit lately, and I need to unleash a little inner Lewis Black…if there were a polite version.

It seems whenever talk turns to discussions of piracy and DRM (And frankly, it’s a little too often these days), all reason and forethought goes out the window. It quickly degenerates in to a ridiculous screaming match between people on one side and the other of the ‘debate’, showing all the collective maturity of your average toddler in need of a diaper change.

On behalf of the vast number of us who, as in most discussions, aren’t ‘picking a side’ as though it’s a game of dodgeball, can we PLEASE try to stick to reason?

That goes for you, software/media companies.

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Posted in Just my Opinion

Tags: Battle.net, DRM debate, Ubisoft account system

6 Comments »

Square Enix says XP just ain’t good enough; new Beta Steam client out

February 24th, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

Just Cause 2. If it’s anything like it’s older brother, a thoroughly ridiculous game featuring latching a grappling hook on to passing aircraft and blowing a lot of stuff up. Oh, and something about either fomenting or stopping a revolution or something. Anyway, did I mention the blowing up of stuff?

Well, if you are an XP user, you’re out of luck. According to the system requirements for the game (thanks to Rock Paper Shotgun in this case), you will need to be running either Windows Vista or Windows 7 to play the game.

One wonders if the surprisingly fast uptake of Windows 7 amongst Steam users in January’s system survey results helped push Square Enix in to the decision. Of course, those same results showed that XP was still the most popular OS amongst Steam users, totalling almost 44% of users.

And speaking of Steam (yes, it is another hybrid post…mostly because I’m sick as a dog at the moment. See what I fight through for you people?!)…a new Beta client is available for download from within the existing one. Now, it IS a Beta…some people have reported Friends’ lists turning up empty, or games deciding they need to be downloaded again. However, the whole system looks a lot more slick. Everything is laid out well, with smart pop ups for details on a game if you hover over it. Lists look better, too. And best of all, the entire thing was built new from the ground up WITHOUT using Internet Explorer dependencies any longer. The new WebKit based rendering engine is a lot faster.

Posted in Games

Tags: Just Cause 2, Square Enix, Steam, Steam Beta client, Vista and Windows 7 only

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Video game anatomy

February 23rd, 2010

Brad McGraw

Have you ever wondered how much of a $60 video game goes to developers, distribution, royalties, etc? Well wonder no more, the LA Times reported on Steve Perlman’s talk at the DICE summit in Las Vegas.

Another way to look at it is to say publishers such as Activision and Electronic Arts receive $45 after retailers take a $15 cut. Publishers turn around and pay a $7 licensing fee to console manufacturers such as Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. The cost of making, packaging and shipping game discs to stores carves up another $4. Finally, not all games sell, so the expense of returning unsold inventory eats up another $7.

That leaves publishers with about $27 per disc sold for development, marketing and other expenses. These are, of course, back-of-the-envelope averages. Each of these numbers can vary. For instance, a publisher could negotiate a smaller licensing fee with console manufacturers. And by deploying the Goldilocks method of inventory (not too much, not too little), they can also minimize returns. Tinkering with the margins in these ways lets companies tune their bottom lines.

Overall pretty interesting, at least to me. I used to work retail at a video game store and knew our margin was not very big on new games. Sometimes not even the $15 Perlman states, so its good he mentions that these are just averages.

Two questions pop into my head though. Where does the $27 publisher piece get broken up into? How does a $60 game breakdown with a digital download purchase?

Posted in Games

Tags: distribution, publisher, royalties, Video games

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Ubisoft DRM/Command & Conquer 4 Updates; Both online all the time

February 21st, 2010

Cliff Riseborough

Since they sort of fit together in terms of what they do, it sort of makes sense to do a bit of an article mash-up.

As has been reported here and approximately 7 billion other locations online, Ubisoft’s new DRM system is generating just a SLIGHT bit of controversy. Well, they’ve done an interview with PC Gamer magazine in an effort to clear the air on their system. The full interview can be found here. A few notable parts :

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Posted in Games

Tags: Command & Conquer 4, constant server access, EA, Ubisoft

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