DRM News

Assassin’s Creed 2 released last year on the PS3 and Xbox 360, but the PC release was delayed until March of 2010. The first details are now starting to appear on what the game will require, including from a DRM standpoint.

From the Direct2Drive pre-order page for the game :

A PERMANENT HIGH SPEED INTERNET CONNECTION AND CREATION OF A UBISOFT ACCOUNT ARE REQUIRED TO PLAY THIS VIDEO GAME AT ALL TIMES AND TO UNLOCK EXCLUSIVE CONTENT. SUCH CONTENT MAY ONLY BE UNLOCKED ONE SINGLE TIME WITH A UNIQUE KEY. YOU MUST BE AT LEAST 13 TO CREATE A UBISOFT ACCOUNT WITHOUT PARENTAL CONSENT. UBISOFT MAY CANCEL ACCESS TO ONLINE FEATURES UPON A 30-DAY PRIOR NOTICE PUBLISHED AT http://assassinscreed.com.

Will this account system take the form of a DLC portal, as EA has implemented for Dragon Age : Origins and Mass Effect 2? Or will it reflect something more along the lines of Relic/THQ’s use of a Relic Online account that Company of Heroes players must log in to when starting the game? Until more details are released, these remain unanswerable questions.

Also, Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot hinted about the company’s plan to implement new tools to try to reduce game piracy on the PC platform in interviews last year. Is this part of what he was talking about?