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Ubi PC Titles To Require Online Authentication


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I just read the news page and I have a question. What about those who bought SH5? Is Ubi gonna forget about them? It was the first game to use said lock and they were just as affected by the DoS attacks as were those who bought AC2. Now we see how Ubi treats it's own PC only games and customers. :wall: Wake up Ubi and treat all your customers the same, it's bad enough you treat them as pirates, but to omit a portion of your customer base is reprehensible (though not uncommon from you).

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Nice find Rocky! Interesting to see that the mainstream media has picked this up. Nice write up ...

New York (CNN) -- Let's imagine this terrifying scenario for a moment. You come home from a long day of work and sit in front of your computer to try out your newly purchased copy of the video game Assassin's Creed 2, and then ... nothing happens. You face an immobile title screen. You check to make sure everything's plugged in -- yup, sure is -- and simply cannot figure out what's going on. "Why doesn't this game work? It cost me $60!"

Meanwhile, on the other side of town, some no-good 12-year-old is illegally downloading the game from the Internet and playing it way past his bedtime. Whom do you blame?

You blame the game's publisher, Ubisoft, for implementing the most egregious form of digital rights management (DRM) ever seen by mere gamers

I wonder how much this bad press is hitting Ubi in the pocketbook?

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The DRM is working great to stop piracy, there is no "scene" release for AC2, thats a pretty interesting surprise considering all the AA titles use to be cracked even before the official release.

Btw check this recent post in a well known "scene" forum :

Posted: 03-09-2010 11:00 PM Subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

crackers 0

ubisoft 1

yay......

fortunately, this isn't a game i'm looking forward to playing.

it looks JUST LIKE asscreed 1.

looks mehhhhhhh

Edited by thales100
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The DRM is working great to stop piracy, there is no "scene" release for AC2, thats a pretty interesting surprise considering all the AA titles use to be cracked even before the official release.

Very interesting. Found another interesting write up by a blogger linked to from [H]:

http://jeff-vogel.blogspot.com/2010/02/awf...-that-will.html

But Assassin's Creed 2 is different. Remember, all of the code for saving and loading games (a significant feature, I'm sure you would agree) is tied into logging into a distant server and sending data back and forth. This vital and complex bit of code has been written from the ground up to require having the saved games live on a machine far away, with said machine being programmed to accept, save, and return the game data. This is a far more difficult problem for a hacker to circumvent. What are the options?

1. Make your own, free saved game server and alter the application code to use it.

This means a lot of work and expense, both to duplicate Ubisoft's game saving code and to set up and maintain the servers. Won't happen.

2. Trick the Ubisoft servers into believing you have a legit copy, so that they will let you save your game.

OK, the hackers will probably eventually come up with a keygen program. This is tricky, because the software that generates the keys will be in Ubisoft's hands, far from prying eyes. But they could possible do it, given a bit of time. But if they ever figure out you have a fake or duplicate key (and I bet they have their ways), poof. Your account and saved games disappear. I don't think this will work.

3. Hack the game to not need to save games on a remote server.

This means a hacker has to figure out the saved game format, somehow jam into the application new code to write the saved data and new code to read it, TEST IT, and get it to work. Doable. But it will take time, and I bet you'd get some bugs in the process.

So this will be a tough nut to crack.

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The question is, are the pirates (the people who wouldn't normally buy the game) going out to buy legit copies? If this is more than the amount of legit customers who have not bought the game because of DRM, then it's worth it. I'm guessing there are more people who haven't bought the game because of DRM than there are pirates who are discouraged and go buy it.

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There are no hard and fast stats on this as far as I know, only guesstimates. In my opinion though, pirates don't buy games, if they can't get one game they just pick another and download that. Gained sales through stopping pirates therefore is minimal in my estimation, however Ubisoft are working to a whole different set of assumptions apparently.

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There are no hard and fast stats on this as far as I know, only guesstimates. In my opinion though, pirates don't buy games, if they can't get one game they just pick another and download that. Gained sales through stopping pirates therefore is minimal in my estimation, however Ubisoft are working to a whole different set of assumptions apparently.

I talked to some industry people on another forum. They say data show that sales (or sales vs. piracy ratio) do indeed increase considerably if the game isn't cracked on release. The crucial period is immediately prior to release (i.e. to avoid leaks pre-release) and the first two-three months or so. After that, whether the game is cracked or not is largely irrelevant to piracy.

The fly in the ointment is, of course, DRM schemes that turn off customers.

This would suggest that a good compromise would be a copy protection system that actually works, even if it does cause some level of inconvenience for legit buyers, that is then patched out after a few months. Even knowing beforehand that the copy protection will eventually be removed, it shouldn't have any major influence on overall sales.

However, every time I bring up this suggestion I'm met with a wall of silence. Why is it so important to the industry that they control exactly how long I can play the game I bought and paid for?

Edited by krise madsen
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They say data show that sales (or sales vs. piracy ratio) do indeed increase considerably if the game isn't cracked on release. The crucial period is immediately prior to release (i.e. to avoid leaks pre-release and the first two-three months or so

Hehe i agree, check these posts from a well known "scene" forum : :thumbsup:

********
old skool scene


Joined: 30 Oct 2001
Posted: 03-13-2010 06:39 AM Subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I finally bought the game... UBI wins
_________________


******
Lawful Neutral


Joined: 19 Jun 2001
Posted: 03-13-2010 08:16 AM Subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********* wrote:
I finally bought the game... UBI wins


NOOOOOO!

YOU ######
_________________


********
Addict


Joined: 12 Apr 2004
Posted: 03-13-2010 10:32 AM Subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

i gave up and bought it too

[/code]

Edited by thales100
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The other thing nobody really talks about with regard to having to be connected in to Ubi servers while you play the game is that they now have a record of exactly how much time you play, what level you are on, where you get stuck, and much more detailed game mechanic information. STEAM also collects lots of statistics on this as well. This could be datamined to find out all kinds of details like gauging future products or expansion packs to finding certain units in the game that are too powerful.

With more and more of the actual game content residing on the server, it seems like these games are moving to the realm of MMO games.

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I don't play (or follow) SH or AC so I'm curious as to if the preceding titles allowed user-modification and if so, what about now?

Are enough servers available in the loop for those individuals who prefer a yellow submarine or ruby slippers?

Note: If deemed too off-topic, just delete...no need/want for a separate topic.

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There have been mods for SHII/DC (after Ubi released the source code to a group of modders to patch the games they didn't want to fix) and there have been mods for both SHIII and SHIV. One of my favorite mods for SHIII is the swaztika mod for the Bismark that is missing from the release version.

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Here are the pics I said I was gonna post. They are of SH5 and both the front and the back show that a permanent internet connection is required and the back shows that game saves are synched online.

http://www.whiteknight77.net/images/sh5f.jpg

http://www.whiteknight77.net/images/sh5b.jpg

ACII has the same notations.

A permenant internet connection is required to play the game/

Amazon and a few other sales areas post:

A permanent Broadband internet connection and creation of a Ubisoft log-in are required to play.

56k dial up can be considered a permenant internet connection. If that is all you have, but it is there 24/7. Maybe these are the people with the bigger issues?

*Edit*

Just spotted the samall print on the back after looking at that several times...

A permenant high speed connection... :rolleyes:

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Maybe these are the people with the bigger issues?
Mom and Dad -against their better judgement and without reading the fine print- pick up the latest installment of Fill in the Blank for Little Johnny.

Little Johnny begs, pleads, and shames his Mom and Dad for his need for high speed access in order to play the latest installment of Fill in the Blank.

Mom and Dad consent, reluctantly, tapping into Little Johnnys college fund to shell out for a 3 yr package from the local monopoly.

Ubisoft issues a 30-day prior notice of cancellation of online service for the latest installment of Fill in the Blank.

Little Johnny begs, pleads, and shames Mom and Dad for an assault rifle and a chemistry set.

...

Hypothetical?

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So the freedom of choice is taken away, and hacking is a excuse to monitor even more and take control.

Lets face it you buy the game, that info is registered to that game / serial ... you then go online ... you bow down to the game manufacturer to play it even only is SP ... they then have I.P. information game & serial information, statistic information, and then marry that up with purchase data, you have a pretty big picture of data of users .. IP's ... and all statistical information through the life of your gaming experience.

###### them, I wont be buying.

That cartoon has a very good underlying point, becuase sooner or later you will be a total slave to being online and just a switch away from "game over" ... why this isn't boycotted I have no ######ing idea.

Yet another way for the new generations to get used to being a net slave & corporate hoop jumping monkey without battering an eyelid. Oh and paying them for the privileged of being data-mined and tracked just to enjoy a sodding game.

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