News - Ubisoft makes plans to tackle PC piracy

[Saracen]

Why don't they just scrap DRM altogether? It doesn't work it preventing piracy and just punishes legit users. It's the reason I hardly buy PC games (and the reason lots of people download pirated copies, sometimes after buying the game so they don't have DRM on their PC) - I make efforts to secure my computer against malware - why should I allow just another form on my PC to play a game? If they want to cut down on piracy, scrap DRM!!! That's my opinion anyway.

Edit: I'd like opinions on this but why not implement some sort of USB 'key' which the game checks for. It could be a read-only mass storage device so no drivers, it could be all implemented into the game code so no third-party software.

The argument I've seen software houses use for DRM is not that they think it'll prevent piracy, but that perhaps it'll perhaps reduce it, and more importantly, slow it down. If DRM manages to hold down piracy for the critical first few weeks, sometimes even first few days, it's worth it to them. Of course, whether it actually achieves that or not is entirely another matter.

[watercooled]

Hmm that's kind of understandable but they should IMO release a DRM-free version for those prepared to wait a few weeks. I know games are often released DRM free after a while but thats normally months/years after.

[Saracen]

It'll be interesting to see what this "tool" actually is. It sounds from the release like it might be something different, a different approach to conventional DRM. I certainly hope so.

My stance is simple. I've been a computer game player since, well, Battleships on an IBM S360 mainframe in the '60s.

I've been buying computer games since before there was a PC. It dates to the late 70s and Apple II. I even wrote a couple in the mid 70s, but again, mainframe based.

Oh, and I've got a large (and I mean, takes up a hell of a lot of physical space) collection of perfectly legitimate, boxed and often immaculate, games. Without counting, I'd guess at a couple of hundred.


But I haven't bought a PC game for some years, and the reason is DRM. As a result, I've gone without playing some games I'd like to play because I will not put up with the more intrusive forms of DRM, and I can't be bothered to jump through the hoops, or take the risks, most forms of piracy entail. If I could be bothered with the hassle and potential risk of games and cracks, I'd buy the legit game, leave it sitting, sealed, in it's box and use the DRM-free pirate. But despite 40+ years of computer gaming, I can't be bothered to put up with the hassle.

DRM has, to all practical purposes, put a stop to my PC gaming. I understand companies wanting to, or needing to, protect their investment. But when it gets to the DRM being so intrusive that it gets in the way of my use as a legitimate buyer, then they can do without my custom. I may not be typical, but I wonder how many other people have wlaked away rather than put up with intrusive DRM .... or gone the piracy route.


So hopefully .... this will be a geniunely new approach and one that I can accept. But I'm not holding my breath.

[Saracen]

Hmm that's kind of understandable but they should IMO release a DRM-free version for those prepared to wait a few weeks. I know games are often released DRM free after a while but thats normally months/years after.

Interestingly, that approach would perhaps catch me. I don't care if I have to wait a bit. I'd certainly be interested in a DRM-free game a year or so after release, and would cheerfully buy it ..... at a "year after release" price point. But as per previous post, with the types of DRM currently in use, I won't buy at any time or any price point. If these software houses tried to give me games with most current forms of DRM, I'd politely decline.

[aidanjt]

...
My stance is simple....

I'm in the same boat, I have over a hundred (legally purchased) PC games from my beginnings as a PC gamer since my secondary schooling days. And my observations has been, not only has PC gaming become less accessible, the problems with DRM schemes have become unbearable, and the games themselves have been drastically reduced in quality.

Back in the day console to PC ports were rare, now it has become the status quo, and games specifically developed to leverage the PCs strengths are now becoming the rarity.

Older games like Unreal, Quake, etc., generated genuine community spirit, which was self-organised by the community, and modding was fun and rewarding for the community. Now 'communities' and 'mods' are now another must-have business buzz-term which the companies try to force together and control.

The games development industry is shooting itself in the foot. And I have no sympathy for companies who cry "zomg pirates r 2 blame!" when they fail to generate anticipated profits.

[nightkhaos]

The games development industry is shooting itself in the foot. And I have no sympathy for companies who cry "zomg pirates r 2 blame!" when they fail to generate anticipated profits.

The gaming market has become popular because of games like the Sims, and companies are thinking they can just make a cash cow out of games.

What they seem to lack understanding of is the enthusist market. We have long attention spans, very high attention to detail, and almost a case of perfectionsism when it comes to games. How many people still play CSS because they want to "perfect their game"?

What we like is a game that we can come back to, time and time again, and socailise with. Focus more on the multiplayer aspect, and no that doesn't mean add in single player as an afterthought like Battlefield 2, that means make it possible for a few friends to help each other through the story, like Halo 3.

And most importantly, depth. If you're gonna tell a story, tell it, don't add in features that you think we want, limit us. We, as gamers, like to be challenged. Give us a 20 foot wall to climb, a rope that will break if it ladden with more than 100 kgs, and a graplying hook, and the quick save key.

But no, that doesn't mean add challenges that make little sense, take mission parameters like "time challenges", why do we have to run through this segment in two minutes? Does they guy we're helping have an explosive set to go off in two minutes? No! I remember a mission in Halo Wars where I had to get some marines back to base in a certien amount of time, and they were 200 metres away from base, and there was nothing between them and the base, and they instana poped because "I ran out of time"... that put me off that game.

Take the movie industry, priacy, sad to say, is rampet, but that doesn't stop movies from making over a 100 million dollars at the box office. Why? Because they're good movies, which people want to watch.

[kalniel]

The gaming market has become popular because of games like the Sims, and companies are thinking they can just make a cash cow out of games.

What they seem to lack understanding of is the enthusist market.

I disagree - I think they understand the enthusiast market very well, and know that it's a fraction of the size of the mass market. Even worse if you want games that last forever, reducing your need to go out and buy more

Enthusiast games either need to sell at a high price point, or make every sale count, which basically lends them to the console market where piracy is low, prices are high, and the technical side of things is fixed.

Games like the Sims, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies etc appeal to the much larger casual market, and thus are viable on the PC - extra development costs of the Sims is made back through purchasing additional content. I don't like that idea very much, but then I'm not a casual gamer. I'd rather just buy a big old meaty single player game like Fallout 3 or Oblivion - but even they rely on console sales to help fund development, as they sell many times more there than the PC version.

[Singh400]

Why do they insist on this crap? It's the paying customers who pay the price, not pirates. It will be very interesting to see what this tool is, but it won't last long in pirate land.

I bet it makes its appearance in ACII. #1 was probably the most pirated game ever. Makes sense they would [try to] protect the sequel.

[watercooled]

Any votes for creating a thread for listing DRM-free games?

[Saracen]

Any votes for creating a thread for listing DRM-free games?

Hell, yes.

A large part of my problem is that I won't buy games where DRM gets in the way, and it's too much like hard work having to research every game to establish if it has DRM, and if so, what it is and how it impacts on users.

All I really want to do is go into a store, rummage around, find a game that appeals and buy it and play it. But, perswonally, I will not buy a game that relies, for instance, on activation servers. I know not everybody agrees with me and some like that as a form of protection, and that's fine. But not me. It sounds like nightkhaos and I are alike .... I like a game I can come back to. I went through Thief again a fe months ago, and next, I'll probably do Thief 2. A friend and I are even planing on digging out a couple of old PCs, with old sound cards, etc, to have a blast on Duke Nukem. I want to be able to KNOW I can go back to a gmae again and again if I wish, perhaps some years later, and NOT to be reliant to the company still existing, still having activation servers running or having released a patch to activate the game without servers. Nor, for that matter, are my games machines online. Playing games over the net doesn't interest me, and I'm not prepare to be told I've got to connect those machines to the net just to activate a damned game.


So, a list of games with no DRM would certainly interest me. I might even buy a few more recent PC games if I know I can avoid any DRM hassles, but if I can't be sure of that, I just won't buy anything, and I'm not spending ages studying each game release to work out if it has DRM or not, and if so, how it works. Ironically, I don't mind sticking a CD in the drive to load a game. It's a pain, but I'll put up with that. But online activation? Not in a trillion years. I'll give up gaming altogether first .... which is more or less the point I'm at now.

[watercooled]

I agree with you completely! Here's that thread BTW: http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-gaming...ml#post1742655

[OilSheikh]

I never buy any new game/ I buy used ones from ebay and then sell them back.

Ubisoft needs to offer ppl like me decent prices.

[usxhe190]

Not a game player myself but I will only buy a game that that is really worth it. So the only game I have brought is SC1 with BW.

Why spend 40-50 quid for a crap game?

Not really games related but it's funny - I still remember how Windows wanted you to call them up to activate your Windows programme but now they are willing to let people try out Windows 7 for free.

[kalniel]

Why spend 40-50 quid for a crap game?

Quite agree. But I haven't seen PC games costing 40-50 quid since the 90s.

Last game I bought new was £19.99. One before that £6.99 (new). PC games are cheaper than ever and usually well worth it.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

operation flashpoint 2 is going for £18

[Fernandobeto]

I sure hope it works, piracy is killing PC gaming! When you see things like Assassin's Creed being on PC but Assassin's Creed 2 won't, or even Gears of War being BETTER on PC, but Gears of War 2 wasn't - there's a problem!