Don't Purchase Assassin's Creed 2

[Rob Williams]

Anyone who has been reading our news section for some time likely knows by now that I'm not a fan of DRM (digital rights management) in any current form. It's not that I support piracy, because I'm the stark opposite. I do fully believe that there is always a right way to do things, and also a wrong way. But in the case of Ubisoft, it would take me years to properly construct my feelings on its most recent DRM implementation.

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You can read the rest of our post here.

 

[Optix]

Surprise, surprise! The DRM has been cracked already! Actually about a week ago if I recall correctly.

While I respect Ubisoft for doing what they feel is the best way to protect their bottom line I don't like the method they chose.

If I were to buy the game (which I doubt I will if APB comes out in a reasonible amount of time) you could be damned sure I'd crack it just so I don't have to authenticate each time.

 

[Brett Thomas]

The problem with the "I'll just crack it" methodology is that nobody learns from it.

I plan on writing a more lengthy discourse on this for later this week, so I won't say too much more on it now. But yeah, that's not a helpful option to anyone but the cracker.

 

[Doomsday]

Damn u UBI!! u ruined AC II for me! and i'm NOT buying an Xbox to play it!

 

[Tharic-Nar]

Turns out the Server failure at Ubisoft was the result of a DDoS attack... who'd of thought...

Nail in the Coffin
Shot in the foot
Milk in the Kettle
Bleach in the engine
The Joys of DRM...

 

[Altrus]

Damn u UBI!! u ruined AC II for me! and i'm NOT buying an Xbox to play it!

Smart idea, PS3s are so much better for gaming

...but, they've finally done it, they've created an MMO game and striped it of the only things that made them playable, the M&Ms!!!!

 

[Rob Williams]

While I respect Ubisoft for doing what they feel is the best way to protect their bottom line I don't like the method they chose.

That's true, and I agree. Any company has the right to protect their work, but as I mentioned, there's a right way, and a wrong way. I don't think anyone aside from Ubisoft in this case would disagree that the method it chose is the wrong way.

The problem with the "I'll just crack it" methodology is that nobody learns from it.

Yup, people will say, "I won't buy it because of the DRM, so I'll just pirate it", too, and that doesn't help a damned thing. It just means that the company will try even harder next time to make a more bullet-proof DRM solution, and what Ubisoft is doing here is a good example of what they'll come up with.

Can anyone else see the future of this? How about a requirement to scan your fingerprints in order to gain access? Or retina scanning?! Or needing to call up Ubisoft to type in a reactivation code because of a reformat? Think these sound outlandish? If you described Ubisoft's DRM before it was a reality, I probably would have thought the same thing.

 

[Kougar]

Can anyone else see the future of this? How about a requirement to scan your fingerprints in order to gain access? Or retina scanning?! Or needing to call up Ubisoft to type in a reactivation code because of a reformat? Think these sound outlandish? If you described Ubisoft's DRM before it was a reality, I probably would have thought the same thing.

Given the reception (and probably first of many attacks on the DRM servers) I don't think there IS a next step left for Ubisoft to take. The only option at this point will be to jump ship to consoles only and skip the entire ordeal and bad publicity.

 

[Rob Williams]

Given the reception (and probably first of many attacks on the DRM servers) I don't think there IS a next step left for Ubisoft to take. The only option at this point will be to jump ship to consoles only and skip the entire ordeal and bad publicity.

That's true, and that bothers me. I am not sure if Crytek has given up on PC gaming, but after Warhead was released, it said that it would no longer concentrate on PC's, simply because the piracy was so bad. That's pretty freaking sad. I can't believe piracy has come to that.

 

[Kougar]

Given how badly optimized Crysis was and that it was still full of bugs, then Crytek turns around and released Crysis Warhead which fixed the majority of issues... If their first title hadn't been full of so many game disrupting bugs it would have turned out better for the franchise. One of the people over at Tech Report blogged about trying Warhead out a couple months ago and being astonished given he expected it to work about as well as and retain the bugs Crysis had.... this after he supposedly had been benchmarking with Warhead for what had to be at least over a year...