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 :
February 17th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough 
PC Gamer has had an opportunity to give the Ubisoft accounts DRM system a bit of a test drive while doing review testing for Assassin’s Creed II and The Settlers 7. Their results can be found here.
On initial launch, the Ubisoft Game Launcher automatically checks for updates. Okay, that’s actually kind of nice! If only that weren’t the only example of the system doing anything in any way beneficial to a gamer :
If you try to launch the game when you’re not online, you hit an error message right away. So I tried a different test: start the game while online, play a little, then unplug my net cable. This is the same as what happens if your net connection drops momentarily, your router is rebooted, or the game loses its connection to Ubisoft’s ‘Master servers’. The game stopped, and I was dumped back to a menu screen – all my progress since it last autosaved was lost.
So, in exchange for automatic updating and cloud saves, we get a system that kills any chance to play the game the instant contact with the Master Server is lost. This all but guarantees that if the Master Server is down for any period of time, you won’t be able to play any Ubisoft games during that time period, either.
Nice.
January 26th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough 
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.
January 25th, 2010 Cliff Riseborough 
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?
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