DRM News

It seems that yesterday when I wrote that this was Ubi’s plan for Assassin’s Creed 2, I was under selling the true scope of things just a tad.

As reported by Gamespy, it seems that this IS in fact the new direction that Ubi is taking their entire copy protection concept when it comes to PC gaming.

Any time you purchase a Ubisoft game, you will be required to authenticate it via a Ubi.com account. Any time you adjust your settings or save your game, those are actually saved on the Ubi.com servers.

So basically, it’s going to function like Relic Online or Steam functions now, complete with Steam cloud saves on the main servers.

The good side to all of this is that you can install your software on as many different systems as you want. Activation limits and the like become a thing of the past. Also, your saved games will follow you from your desktop at home to your lap top on the plane to the PC at grandma’s house when you get there.

The bad side is that if you are ever left without an Internet connection, your Ubisoft games are now absolutely unplayable. There has been no mention of an Offline mode such as what Steam uses, for example. While this is becoming less and less of an issue as time goes on, it’s still likely to make some people rather unhappy.

The first title using this system will be the Beta for the Settlers 7.

Some new information on how this system will operate is available now thanks to a FAQ sent from Ubisoft to Shacknews. Here are some of the bigger points.

What if Ubisoft decides not run these online services in the future? Will my game stop working?
If any service is stopped, we will create a patch for the game so that the core game play will not be affected.

What none of these companies addresses is when talking of issuing a patch is what happens if they go in to bankruptcy. At that point, it’s likely that the overseeing court officials would actually forbid the release of such a patch under the argument that it would reduce the value of the Ubi assets they are in charge of selling off.

What will happen if I lose my Internet connection when I play the game?
If you lose your Internet connection the game will pause while it tries to reconnect. If the Internet Connection is unable to resume you can continue the game from where you left off or from the last saved game.

However, if the games are being saved online, how would I be able to save any further progress made after connection loss? Are the saves also being made locally? This is something that needs further information.

As usual, we’ll keep updates on the situation as new information arrives.