Posts Tagged ‘Ubisoft’

Michael Pachter supports Ubisoft’s DRM system

May 30th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough

During the latest episode of his Gametrailers video webcast called Pach Attack, games industry analyst Michael Pachter stated his support for Ubisoft’s always connected DRM system.

Pachter said that anything a publisher does to ensure that you don’t rip off their game is fine. As for the specific Ubi example, I quote :

Do I think they made a mistake? I wish all games were like that, because I think people who steal should be in jail.

While I certainly don’t disagree with Mr. Pachter with his many statements in the video about pirates and the general gaming public needing to stay firmly set ‘against’ them, I also believe he is completely mistaken in who is being affected by Ubisoft’s system.

Sadly, this is likely a good example of where the games industry’s sights are set when it comes to DRM. They’re so focused on those who are stealing their content that too often they lose sight on who else might be affected by their solutions.

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Ubisoft considering EA-style DLC charges for used games

May 18th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough

Ubisoft’s 2009 fiscal results landed yesterday, and they weren’t good. Despite Assassin’s Creed 2 selling 9 million copies across all platforms, the company still saw a drop of 18 percent in their overall sales. As a result, one of the options Ubi is looking it to recoup their losses is charging for DLC content on used games that’s free to buyers of a new copy, similar to what EA has done.

Said Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez in a Tuesday earnings call :

“Regarding … monetizing used games or downloadable content … most of the games that we will release next year will have downloadable content available from the start.”

He added, “We are looking very carefully at what is being done by EA regarding what we call the ‘$10 solution,’ and we will probably follow that line at sometime in the future.”

Since Ubi has started using more DLC with games, and more download keys with that DLC, this really wouldn’t be a difficult change for them. The question is, will it really help the bottom line?

Ubisoft has already made itself a pariah with the introduction of its ‘always on’ PC DRM system. Do they really want to risk having console users look at them the same way by putting in place paid DLC for used games? Say what you will about such a system and its relative fairness, but it does tend to have mixed opinions about it’s implementation, to say the least.

Beyond that, are they really going to make up an 18 percent drop in sales by charging for DLC content on used games? Perhaps they need to start looking at the bigger picture, and the possibility that people simply aren’t interested in a lot of what they’re putting on the market. That would explain losing a fifth of your sales in a calendar year. Eventually, one of these companies has to stop wearing blinders and start considering whether their games themselves are worth it…right?

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Ubisoft’s DRM has issues, again.

March 30th, 2010 Brad McGraw

settlers 7

If you’re in Australia, it appears that there are issues with Ubisofts new account based ‘always on’ DRM for Settlers 7. There is a forum post asking people for information as to location, ISP, Account name (as entered in the UGL), and where you bought the game. While it seems people from all over are having issues the majority of the people with issues are coming from Australia. Apparently the issue has been found.

We have tracked down the issue – it’s a problem that occurs when linking your keys to the multiplayer profile.
Ubisoft GNS and TG-OPS are currently working on a solution – I’ll keep you updated.

Since the game was released on Thursday, and its now Tuesday, this is a long time to wait to play the game you bought. And since it seems that its an Ubisoft issue, far too long to wait for a fix. I wonder if Ubisoft is going to give out another round of free games to compensate players for this?

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Ubisoft offering compensation to those affected by server problems

March 25th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough

May we distract you with a shiny bauble?

Admitting that you’ve erred is hard to do. Ubisoft has sort of done that. This was posted by UK Forum Manager ms-kleaneasy :

Earlier this week we advised members of the forums that Ubisoft was working on a plan to compensate those affected by the recent OSP server downtime.

Ubisoft have started sending out emails to those affected by the downtime so we would ask affected players to keep an eye on your email, not forgetting your spam folders etc.

I would also suggest double checking your profile settings on Ubi.com to ensure your listed email address is up to date and where this is not the case you update your profiles a.s.a.p.

We hope to have more specific information on the exact form the compensation will take soon and will update you all as soon as we have the information

The compensation offered is reported to consist of another game (H.A.W.X., EndWar & Prince of Persia have been named on other sites…amusingly, all of those titles shipped completely DRM free), or perhaps the extra content from the Special Edition of AC2 for owners of the standard version of the game. Blue’s News has posted that, according to an email passed on to them by an affected Silent Hunter 5 player, Shaun White Snowboarding and Prince of Persia are the games he was offered.

Of course, the server DRM system remains in place, so it isn’t as though they are completely stepping away from the ledge here. Also left unclear is exactly how Ubisoft is determining who was affected by the server problems.

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Ubisoft’s authentication servers go down

March 7th, 2010 Brad McGraw

Ubi_thumb

What happens when an always online DRM system has problems? Well Ubisoft is finding out it gets unhappy customers. Apparently in the early hours (roughly 3am) this morning the authentication servers went down, and 11 hours later they are still not up. What does this mean? It means players who bought the game cannot play it. So far, it appears as though it’s only the European servers that are at issue.

Vigil, an Ubisoft Community Manager for the UK, had this to say:

Due to exceptional demand, we are currently experiencing difficulties with the Online Service Platform. This does not affect customers who are currently playing, but customers attempting to start a game may experience difficulty in accessing our servers. We are currently working to resolve this issue and apologize for any inconvenience.

This is the first ‘official’ statement from Ubisoft about this. Ten hours later. Ubisoft was already getting a lot of flack for its DRM system from almost every gaming website and DRM websites, and now a lot of the fears people had about the system have come to life. Maybe this will make them rethink the whole idea? Yeah, probably not. Also, the way he worded that comment makes one wonder if the server capacity was overloaded due to ‘exceptional demand’. If so, what’s going to happen when multiple AAA titles are all trying to access these servers at the same time?

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Ubisoft’s DRM cracked already?

March 4th, 2010 Brad McGraw

Ubi_thumb

Well if you believe Ubisoft, no it hasn’t. As reported by Computer and Videogames:

Ubisoft has told CVG that reports of its new always-online DRM system having been cracked already are false.

Well that’s a relief for Ubisoft isn’t it? I guess its just a prank by some punk kids. Wait. What?

Ubi added: “Please know that this rumor is false and while a pirated version may seem to be complete at start up, any gamer who downloads and plays a cracked version will find that their version is not complete.”

So it has been cracked, its just not the full version. So why tell us it hasn’t been cracked? The other thing odd is that there is no mention of what they are missing from the ‘full’ game. Is it just the ability to save games online? If so, then I fail to see how this would be different from any other game out there right now. Maybe a cracked version cannot get patches, and that constitutes not having a full game in the eyes of Ubisoft? This is all speculation though, and until there is more news out there about what a pirated version is missing, that’s all we can do.

*Update* Rock Paper Shotgun is reporting that some pirates are having problems playing through missions, which are supposedly on the Ubisoft servers and not loaded into the game. However some people are reporting they are able to play without problems. Its still a guessing game and until Ubisoft clarifies its rather vague comment, it will continue to be.

(more…)

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DRM complaints. Really?

March 2nd, 2010 Brad McGraw

hurrah-for-petticoats1

 

Two things have been annoying me lately.

Number one is yesterday GamePolitics released an article called Another DRM Victim Details Woes. It talks about cruise ship crew members who are hit by DRM and unable to play games. The Chief Officer of a cruise ship says:

… we quite often don’t have a good Internet connection or it’s cost prohibitive, especially on our personal computers. I watch movies and play games during my, albeit limited, time off. There have been many games that I have been unable to play because of DRM issues, games such as Spore & recently Empire: Total War caused me huge problems simply because it required an Internet connection during installation. I had to spend $120 USD on Internet charges just for the privilege of installing Empire: Total War.

A little over a week ago ars technica wrote an article titled The victims of PC gaming DRM: one soldier’s story. The soldier writes:

"I’m deployed to Iraq right now, and [DRM] has ranged from annoying to unforgivable for me. I would like to let you know that Steam is pretty awesome with working with deployed folks to make sure we can access/play our games," he told Ars.

"I’ve had hit and miss success with some of the other download companies. Any kind of game that tries to call home, though, is generally more of a problem than it is worth. Especially ones that try to resolve your IP address with your version/purchase location."

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