Ubisoft DRM requires always-on internet connection

Games publisher Ubisoft have come in for some considerable flak over plans to implement a new DRM and copy-protection approach to their PC games.

Back in January, the publisher announced that to play or save any Ubisoft games on PC then the user would require to be permanently connected to the internet so that Ubisoft’s servers could check users were playing a legitimate copy.

Such a plan causes major headaches for users; the ability to play Ubisoft games will be severely restricted in cases where no internet access is possible. And with the always-possible scenario of a server crash or a network failure, there is a real lack of flexibility in Ubisoft’s plans.

As indicated by Computer and Video games magazine, if you get disconnected while playing, you’re booted out of the game and all your progress since the last checkpoint or save game is lost.  From here, your only options are to quit back to Windows or wait until you’re reconnected to the game but of course, you’ll be back to where the game was last saved..  imagine playing for hours, finally getting past a difficult part of the game and *pop*, your net connection drops before you’ve hit the next save point?

You’ll be faced with the task of having to re-do it all again – a prospect that won’t appeal to the majority of gamers.

The only real benefit from Ubisoft’s approach is the ability to store saved games online and sync them with other PCs but with many similar services also available, such as Dropbox this is a small benefit.

And according to CVG during their review of latest Ubisoft products Assassin’s Creed 2 and Settlers VII, the game won’t even run if there’s no internet connection available, so unawares gamers with no internet connection could potentially be shelling out for a game they can’t play.

Ubisoft’s approach will see their games driven into the hands of software pirates, and the very thing they are trying to combat could in turn hit them hard as legitimate buyers are driven to torrent sites to obtain copies of Ubisoft’s games.

The phrase ‘Epic DRM fail’ come to mind.

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