A couple of months back, I mentioned Ubisoft’s new DRM scheme. To put it simply, any time you want to play one of their new games, you must have an Internet connection. The game connects to their servers at regular intervals and validates your game. If it can not contact their servers, you can’t play. The game will stop while you’re playing if your connection goes down for any reason.
Talk about a disaster waiting to happen!
There have been two wonderful developments since then. The first two games to use this new DRM were released, Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin’s Creed 2, and the DRM was hacked within a day. There’s apparently a patch available on the web that entirely bypasses the requirement that your game check with their servers.
Even better is the fact that today, at least as of six hours ago, the game publisher’s validation servers went down. The consequence is that no one can reach them … so no one can play the game. You’ve done the right thing, paid for the software, and you can’t use it because of protection the company has added to prevent copying. But of course, those who have applied the patch or downloaded a cracked copy can play without any issue.
The more DRM I see, the more I am against it. They claim that it’s to protect their product against copying, and I’m sure that’s part of it. I believe that they also want to control how you use their products, even so far as restricting you beyond the rights you already have. No thanks.
WTL
It’s really terrible, I mean — in this case, the only people who can play the games are the people who pirated it. I wonder how long it will be before someone sues them over it.