Ubisoft apologizes, will remove From Dust's DRM

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104
Staff

Color us mildly impressed. Ubisoft has announced that it will completely remove its DRM from the recently launched PC game, "From Dust." The developer apologized for the authentication process in a forum post and said it would release a patch within two weeks to remove the mechanism. That time is required to ensure existing installations of the game retrieve their saved progress from Ubisoft's servers and store it locally. Once the update is released, it will be installed automatically on your next login and subsequent sessions will be entirely offline.

Enraged customers lambasted Ubisoft when From Dust arrived last week on PC. Although many users criticized the title's unrefined in-game controls, capped framerate and lack of anti-aliasing as well as other advanced graphics options, most of the complaints focused on Ubisoft's DRM. Prior to launching the game, the developer said that From Dust would only require a one-time activation. Much to gamers' dismay, that was inaccurate -- if not a bold-faced lie. In reality, players are required to pass an online authentication every time the game is launched.

Unfortunately, this concession is unlikely to change Ubisoft's overall policy in the near future. In the statement, Ubisoft apologized for misleading customers about From Dust's DRM, but it doesn't acknowledge that its control scheme is hasslesome to paying customers and ineffective at thwarting pirates. It's awesome that Ubisoft decided to honor its previous commitment but we don't think this will discourage the developer from using its DRM in upcoming titles, such as Driver: San Francisco, which faced its own bout of controversy last week.

Driver was supposed to launch with Ubisoft's always-on mechanism that requires players to maintain a constant Internet connection throughout their entire session. Naturally, gamers were displeased with that news, so Ubisoft responded by saying it would reduce the DRM. Instead of requiring a permanent connection, the game would perform an online validation during each launch -- just like From Dust. Although that's an improvement, it doesn't address the primary issue: many customers want to play the game when a connection simply isn't available.

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Actually (at least for PC) this game is incredibly boring yeah yeah most of the part comes fro the user imagination, but the game is highly repetitive and not to mention that the movement interface is INCREDIBLE ANNOYING since you spend more time trying to make the camera stop, trying to zoom and get a correct angle.

Good thing my bro bought it and not me since those 15 bucks got me lasagna instead :)
 
So basically. Buy the game and then authenticate, stay online, etc, etc.
Pirate the game and play.

I really don't know how developers can believe that DRM reduces piracy. They spend millions every year to "improve" DRM and within 1-3 days of a game's release a crack group breaks it.

Rather focus on making the game awesome.
 
Cota said:
Good thing my bro bought it and not me since those 15 bucks got me lasagna instead :)
Win.

But on another note, I don't agree with piracy at all. But, it simply cannot be stopped entirely. It's better to put focus onto making better games, or making DRM that people enjoy using. As an example, most people enjoy using Steam and Battle.net because it actually adds value to their gaming experience. I hope Ubisoft gets a lot of changes in management very quickly because they aren't doing themselves any favours with crap like this.
 
Qrox said:
So basically. Buy the game and then authenticate, stay online, etc, etc.
Pirate the game and play.

I really don't know how developers can believe that DRM reduces piracy. They spend millions every year to "improve" DRM and within 1-3 days of a game's release a crack group breaks it.

Rather focus on making the game awesome.

Actually it seems to make it take longer for cracks to be released. Especially for lesser known games. Some games take months. In those months or weeks the people who really want to play the game will buy it. Gaming industries aren't stupid its making them more money in the long run.

@ Tom
I don't trust review sites anymore after the DNF bashfest. In games with multiplayer I believe metacritic is inaccurate due to people pirating the single player and solo basing the game off of that. (just my opinion who knows)

The game looks like a new populus im kinda interested I might buy this sucker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y8l8kEI354
 
Treetops said:
Qrox said:
So basically. Buy the game and then authenticate, stay online, etc, etc.
Pirate the game and play.

I really don't know how developers can believe that DRM reduces piracy. They spend millions every year to "improve" DRM and within 1-3 days of a game's release a crack group breaks it.

Rather focus on making the game awesome.

Actually it seems to make it take longer for cracks to be released. Especially for lesser known games. Some games take months. In those months or weeks the people who really want to play the game will buy it. Gaming industries aren't stupid its making them more money in the long run.
Or maybe it's losing them money in the long run because people who *would* have bought the game will pirate instead because they don't want the hassle. The people who will buy on release day no matter the amount of DRM are only the most hardcore fans, and there are very few of them.

If a company wants to protect their game, throw it up on Steam and call it a day.
Easy, simple, and the majority of people like Steam.

Even this game has already been cracked. I don't know when the crack was released. But I checked Skidrow's website (the .in domain website, the .com website doesn't get updated anymore) and the From Dust crack is already up.
 
this is ridiculous. they did this with splinter cell conviction and AC2 as well. their drm sucks so much so that they have fix it with a patch later. i am beginning to think that this is all for publicity
 
You know what's hilarious? The crack from one of their other games worked for From Dust, so not only did they fail to satisfy their customers, it failed completely and was out on sites and playable before it actually came out.

I applaud Ubisoft for their riot control and brown nosing, they must be taking notes from Electronic Arts.
 
well in the U.S now have cap bandwith i guess ubi should think about always use permanent internet connection , because not only they eat bandwith but also eating customer who want bought their games and think twice , i think ubi should reconciled this matter and faster get solved by other way DRM fixed before they got loose more customer
 
Guest said:
well in the U.S now have cap bandwith i guess ubi should think about always use permanent internet connection , because not only they eat bandwith but also eating customer who want bought their games and think twice , i think ubi should reconciled this matter and faster get solved by other way DRM fixed before they got loose more customer

Huh? No cap on my bandwidth.
 
I do hope Ubisoft finds a way to implement their DRM without burdening paying customers with something like the current permanent internet connection requirement. I'm really looking forward to the next Ghost Recon game but I'm now having second thoughts on whether being able to play that game is worth all the hassle put up by the publisher.
 
Ubisoft are hell-bent on destroying their PC user base. They say that their DRM has led to a "clear reduction in piracy". Er... No it hasn't Ubisoft. Looking at the torrent sites I can download a pirated version of every Ubi game released over the last two years. Ok, so maybe it's only available from one group of pirates as opposed to three. So what? If I want a pirated version do I care about that? Of course not.

I actually think Ubi would be happy if they had no PC customers as they could then just turn their back on the PC market altogether.
 
Tanstar said:
Guest said:
well in the U.S now have cap bandwith i guess ubi should think about always use permanent internet connection , because not only they eat bandwith but also eating customer who want bought their games and think twice , i think ubi should reconciled this matter and faster get solved by other way DRM fixed before they got loose more customer

Huh? No cap on my bandwidth.
Well since you're so confused about what is going on around you, I've put together a little information that may help you to understand better.

Okay lets see, AT&T http://gigaom.com/video/att-bandwidth-cap-netflix/ Hmm, introducing caps? Yup.
Comcast? http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent...ts_monthly_bandwidth_limit_for_customers.html Yes again.

And look here, it appears Time Warner is also testing the idea. http://gizmodo.com/5012427/time-warner-monthly-data-caps-detailed

Do we understand what Guest was trying to say now? I'm not blaming him for implying *all* ISPs have data caps because it would appear English isn't his native language.
 
this is why things like steam are way better. at least there is an offline mode where if your internet is down you can still play.....
 
Hello!

Can anybody tell what DRM stands for? I haven't heard that before. :(

Peter
 
Good game, I like it...didn't pay for it, hack was out very fast, thanks SKIDROW
 
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