R.U.S.E. drops Ubisoft's DRM for Steam

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Ubisoft's always-connected DRM is, to say the least, greatly unpopular in the gaming community, and it seems that disdain has made an impression. The publisher has decided to exclude its DRM from the upcoming real time strategy game R.U.S.E., favoring Steam instead. Although it's been known for a while that R.U.S.E. would use Steam in some capacity, it wasn't clear whether the title would ship with Ubisoft's own DRM.

"When R.U.S.E. is released in September, it will benefit from Valve's Steamworks API to offer the best community experience to players," Ubisoft said. A Steam account and Internet connection are still required to activate the game, but at least gamers won't have to be online to enjoy the single player campaign. We assume the game will also use things like Steam achievements, but that much hasn't been detailed yet.

Before you get your hopes up, Ubisoft made sure to note that its DRM will still be used most of its in-house PC games. R.U.S.E. is a WWII-era RTS being developed by Eugen Systems and is due next month on PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/39952-ruse-drops-ubisofts-drm-for-steam.html

 

[tengeta]

Valve is still DRM, but I will agree it is much less annoying and transparent to deal with.

 

[Guest]

You can turn steam offline, big differnce to ubi's sledgehammer drm

 

[Mushroom]

Everyone should just model themselves after valve and steam, they're doing it right.

 

[cannonfodder]

so if you think destroying the second hand market through blocking resale of games or sale of your account or blocking you from installing open source map packs and ad-dons just so steam and the publishers can monetise what has always been freely available and made by the gaming community is getting it right id like to see what getting it wrong is?

BTW SecuROM DRM that Ubi and others are using is Sony DRM.

 

[cannonfodder]

until you want to use the first sale doctrine to resell your titles and steam goes F U everyone must purchase NEW only as we are helping destroy the second hand market at the beset of the publishers!

 

[Mushroom]

crippling drm, selling mostly rehashed map packs, charging monthly fees for first person shooters (or even thinking it's a good idea) no dedicated servers , and have you seen steam sales? you do know that a lot of companies are thinking about charging for various things so they can get some of the second hand market pie? have you even played a valve game? valve actually seems to give a damn about their customer base.

 

[Guest]

Im in two minds about 2nd hand game sales. They do nothing to fuel the gaming industry, only the shops and the shops can go f*** them selves for all I care, they are just middle men, and when middle men take all the profit what is there to support the actual game makers.

I dont buy 2nd hand, if I want a game that costs too much I will wait for the price to drop, just the other week I bought a NEW copy of mass effect 2 for less than half the original price happily knowing that a cut of that went to the publisher/developer to fund new games, which is a damn site better than giving all the profit to gamestation/game.

Just remember the world cant run on lawyers and salesmen alone, there also has to be someone there with an actual skill or talent to make something usefull in the first place.

Kel.

 

[isamuelson]

@Kel

Excellent posting. I couldn't agree more with what you said.

 

[Burty117]

@Kel,

Spot on mate, I also only buy brand new (and believe it or not, I have also just recently bought Mass Effect 2 for half the orginal price, epic game!).

I have a friend who refuses to buy brand new because used is "cheaper" but he has no moral's on this kind of thing, it sickens me.

 

[Guest]

Great post, Kel.

The markup on used games always amazes me. For instance, I could walk into a Gamestop and sell a relatively new game, say Red Dead Redemption, to them for about $20. They turn around and put it on the shelves for $54.99. The cost of game brand new is $59.99!

 

[Richy2k9]

hello ...

this is good news, i just wish everyone else does same ...

As long as there is replay value & good support, it will be easy to slow down second hand sales, I meet Kel's opinion on giving the developers also, that's why i buy new & don't ever sell my titles, but it also makes me more picky

cheers!

 

[fimbles]

I find it quite annoying that i have to sign in, stay online, create accounts and basicly have to jump through hoops to play a game i have bought originaly, while some of my friends play the same illegal versions of these games with non of these issues..

Im starting to think they may have the right idea to be honest.

 

[Relic]

Good news for RUSE, I really enjoyed the beta and this game is definitely back on my radar.

@Kel Good to know you don't like how our economy works or your rights. Second hand market helps more people then just terrible businesses like Gamestop. But its really irrelevant for PC gaming as very few games to begin with can be resold. This discussion is much more suited for console games.

 

[Guest]

@ruse

I know my rights, and I stick by my statements. I also know right from wrong, such as game shops charging only slightly less for pre-owned games that are very new releases so they get their own markup plus the developers cut, you know the actual product. Also I never stated my location so "my" economy could be anywhere, for instance Japan where pre owned game sales are illegal; they are one of the world leaders of the gaming industry and there are no fires or riots there over the issue, just people getting the money distributed fairly. Im not from Japan by the way.

 

[Guest]

Sorry that was to Relic, from Kel

 

[Relic]

@Kel

Then don't support those shops? Ridiculous markups on used products is bad I agree, this is why I don't buy or support those stores. That however doesn't make exhaustion doctrines bad. What you see as being fair, I see as greed from publishers (as developers aren't the ones pocketing all this money if any e.g. IW). Not all prices are equal either and some countries have high taxes on games making buying new virtually impossible for the masses like Brazil. There only recourse is second hand or pirate market, most of which I'm sure choose the latter. And this applies more to consoles then PC gaming and Steam is irrelevant here since we don't actually own those games. Now don't get me wrong I very much support developers and buy everything new, but not everyone can do that depending on where they live.

 

[Guest]

@Relic

Fair enough, but as you can see every economy is different. Basicly I think the developers/publishers should get a cut from the game new or pre-owned as this is what drives new content, not pre owned games. As for the publishers taking all the money, yeah that makes them a** holes, but its the publishers who front the money to developers to make new games, and if the publishers profits fall then who is going to front the money for a new game?

Basically pre-owned games slow down growth in the games industry by draining money from future developments and that can only be a bad thing.

Kel