Ubisoft DRM: Q & A

So if you haven’t heard software maker Ubisoft are unveiling a new DRM that would require an always on internet connection as part of their DRM and online services platform. This means those of you without internet or when your internet is down, you are out of luck.

In an interview with PCGamer Ubisoft answered many of the questions from the gaming community on what is being called a “heavy handed” approach to security.

In the interview the Ubi spokesperson stated about piracy; “It’s a huge problem – you know it, I know it, other people know it. It really is a very important issue that all serious companies need to address,”

Ubi did state that with the new always online approach gamers will no longer need a disc to play and can install the game on as many PC’s as you want as many times as you want and with the ability to save your games to the Ubisoft servers.

So let’s say you are playing a game and your internet goes out, here is an example of what can happen, keep in mind that every game may function differently. “In Assassin’s Creed, if your connection cuts out, you’ll be taken back to the last checkpoint. With Settlers, your game will resume exactly where you left off,”

Now let’s talk maintenance and downtime. As any MMO player knows having to wait hours to play due to server maintenance can be a pain and in the past you could at least play your single player games, now, maybe not.

In the case of a server failure their games will be taken offline, and you’ll be unable to play them. “The idea is to avoid that point as much as possible, but we have been clear from the beginning that the game does need an internet connection for you to play. So if it goes down for real for a little while, then yeah, you can’t play.”

Like everything else this is a test run. As companies grow larger and merge they know they have the upper hand and will make more changes to move closer towards their vision. I am not saying this move is bad (thought I don’t like it) but the key is players will have less and less say in what happens and less choices on what else to do and in other games to play. Hopefully this will not be a major inconvenience to gamers, but it is another step forward toward the end of PC gaming at least in the way that we use to know it.

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