Korax Posted September 5, 2012 RPS just posted an interview with some Ubisoft people about how they're softening their DRM policies. There are a few things that are making me angry about this. They say that the new policies have been in effect since June, yet it was a mere two weeks ago that higher-ups were claiming a 95% piracy rate without any actual evidence other than "we said so." Then, any direct questions about the negative effects of DRM on the reputation of Ubisoft and their games is met with ambiguous and non-committal statements about "listening to feedback." "Do you have any regrets?" "We're listening to feedback?" "Would you say that it was a mistake?" "We're listening to feedback." "Do you realize it's been damaging to your reputation?" "We're listening to feedback." Or even just ignoring/avoiding a question altogether and making some sort of weird marketing pitch: RPS: Would Ubisoft now acknowledge that DRM only affects legitimate customers, and doesn’t affect people who pirate games?Perotti: I wouldn’t say that, actually. I think the fact that you activate your game when you install it is a pretty industry standard process that we’ve seen in our industry. That can allow you as well to link your game ownership to your account, which means you can re-download the game for whatever reason, it’s not just for one PC any more. You can accept it from other PCs, etc, so I wouldn’t say it’s something that affects PC gamers. I was initially pleased at the idea of Ubi's willingness to admit fault, but reading that has just further convinced me that they have no idea what the hell's going on any more and that they don't deserve my money. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted September 5, 2012 Holy fuck. RPS asks all the right questions and Ubisoft just avoids answering anything. Man, that's an awful interview. I commend RPS for trying, though. Ain't enough for me to boycott the company, though. They continue to make good games, and, aside from the DRM issues (and Uplay's horrifying...ness), they've usually been pretty good ports! IMO. I'm glad they're improving things, but it'd still be nice if they were more transparent. "Corporations." I guess. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brkl Posted September 5, 2012 Come on, they are never going to come out and say DRM is pointless or only hurts customers. Even if they actually believed that and acted accordingly, they would give some other reason for it. These companies want to present a unified front against piracy and won't ever back away from that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted September 5, 2012 A united front against piracy does not run counter to denying that DRM is an effective countermeasure. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gormongous Posted September 5, 2012 A united front against piracy does not run counter to denying that DRM is an effective countermeasure. Yeah, but denying that DRM is an effective countermeasure means acknowledging a problem with no ready solution, which is commercial suicide for a business. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gwardinen Posted September 5, 2012 Well, it's good that Ubisoft is (apparently) backing off the always-online DRM model at least. Not being able to play singleplayer games when servers are in maintenance or just broken is super dumb, and never helped anyone. That said, Ubisoft has made statements about DRM that various games would have before and then gone back on them. As a result, I'm somewhat distrustful even of a communication of this size and seeming clarity and I'll wait to see if it proves true before applauding too heartily. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Twig Posted September 5, 2012 Yeah, but denying that DRM is an effective countermeasure means acknowledging a problem with no ready solution, which is commercial suicide for a business. CDProjekt seems to be doing pretty well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
toblix Posted September 5, 2012 I may be a cynical Charlie, but I think it's pretty naïve to expect a company like Ubisoft to, even faced with tremendous blunders, do anything but try to frame it like everything's going according to plan. I was surprised they went as far as that "unfortunate comment" comment. I've been trying to work out if Anno 2070 has been patched to remove the always-on DRM thing, but I haven't been able to find anything, so I assume this only applies to future releases. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Orv Posted September 5, 2012 Anno 2070 isn't a good test because of the weird metagame that it has that requires you to log into a central server regardless of play type. I was able to run AC2 while offline. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Architecture Posted May 24, 2014 Buuuuuuuuuump. Re-installed the latest Splinter Cell. There's a new patch every time I try to launch it. Why didn't I just download all of the patches with the rest of the game? Middle fingers all around, Ubisoft. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Architecture Posted May 24, 2014 OH MY GOD, THERE IS ANOTHER PATCH. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chummer Posted May 27, 2014 Buuuuuuuuuump. Re-installed the latest Splinter Cell. There's a new patch every time I try to launch it. Why didn't I just download all of the patches with the rest of the game? Middle fingers all around, Ubisoft. Same situation here. While I didn't like having multiple clients to manage my game library, launching Origin and Uplay was more of a small annoyance than anything else. UPlay's patching process is so actively bad though that I've stopped playing Splinter Cell for a bit. Tangent, the patches also broke my game so I actually had to redownload it and keep it from updating. Blergh. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shammack Posted May 27, 2014 My graphics card came with a code for a free copy of Watch Dogs but I have to install Uplay to get it. Why is life so terrible. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
miffy495 Posted May 27, 2014 I really don't get Uplay at all. The two things that I'm playing most right now are ACIV and Rocksmith 2014. Rocksmith is actually pretty good about it. I'm honestly not sure if Uplay is in it at all, but it's so damned obnoxious in AC. I don't understand how these two things could come out a month-ish between each other and have such drastically different implementations of the system. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Architecture Posted May 27, 2014 My graphics card came with a code for a free copy of Watch Dogs but I have to install Uplay to get it. Why is life so terrible. This is how I ended up with Splinter Cell and Assassin's Creed IV. Experienced my first BSOD since overclocking my CPU back in January. Pretty sure it was a thermal trip due to Ubi's shoddy optimization. I've got the Batman games running at 1080p with AA on and most of the bells and whistles, including PhysX and yet my CPU never jumps over 70C. But Splinter Cell: Blacklist, running on Unreal 2.5 with no advanced physics simulations and some incredibly flat, canned lighting? FATAL ERROR! It's too bad, as Blacklist is definitely the best SC game since Chaos Theory. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tegan Posted June 1, 2014 When Jake asked if there was an associated mp3 with the "UPlay Lounge" on the latest cast, my mind immediately jumped to this: Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
