Ubisoft's "always-connected" DRM cracked in one day?
- Thread starter Matthew DeCarlo
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skitzo_zac
Posts: 413 +0
Really not suprising to see it cracked so soon. And it's incomplete without DRM I would of thought it would be the other way around, it's incomplete if it DOES include DRM 
Still not buying or pirating anything with this sort of DRM included, not that I am interested in any of the games announced to include this new DRM anyway.
Still not buying or pirating anything with this sort of DRM included, not that I am interested in any of the games announced to include this new DRM anyway.
G
Guest
By making the game harder to crack they are simply encouraging people to hack it just so they can have bragging rights. Everybody n\knows hackers love a challenge.
I gotta agree with the guy that said, get rid of DRM and just give cool Online stuff to legit players. I mean thats the best reason to buy games like Sacred 2, sure it's easy to crack and play offline, but really why bother when you buy it and play online. Sense only 2 copies of the key can be used for online play at a time although, I think it should be 4 copies at a time for a whole family, kind of sucks to have to buy 2 games for every body to play a 4 player game together.
i heard they updated their DRM to v1.1 after the crack and calming that user will be left with unfinished games with the crack.i think UBI is losing money with annoyed real customers deciding not to buy this DRM crap games than pirates who download the games(and i guess they won't buy it anyway,DRM or not).
Alster37
Posts: 285 +2
I think this DRM is going to cause a lot of trouble with pc owners who have patchy wireless networks. I get them occationally, a 2-3 stage where the internet is unresponsive so every time im going to get somewhere in the game, internet goes out for a few seconds and Ive lost all my progress. utterly pointless
Relic
Posts: 1,372 +17
Gaming for a LONG time was as you describe, just recently did the harsh DRM show up. You're right pirates were a catalyst for it, but now that companies see the power and control they have I don't see them giving it up because it's the right thing to do and customers are asking them too. Look at EA a couple months ago who announced that they are shutting down some rather newer sports games (PC/360/PS3). Shutting down servers isn't anything new and has been around forever that's what happens when games fade away. Usually though communities have the ability to step up and keep it going. With DRM and the way control is being taken away from PC gamers I fear a dangerous precedent will be set where that's no longer possible. One that turns our PC's closer to a closed system like consoles where we lose control. To blame it all on pirates and say there isn't an ulterior motive is a bit naive.
Here is also an interesting blog from Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock [link] who sees a problem with blaming pirates and business angles other companies take.
G
Guest
I pirate movies (often) and games (rarely) because of convenience. Living in China it's hard to get anything real anyway, and sometimes hard to get games in English. I have, however, bought 20 PS3 games in the last couple of years since I can get real copies of those games (and hopefully the PS3 doesn't get cracked or those real copies will disappear and I'll either have to wait until my next trip to Canada or buy fakes which will probably be broken into several DVDs).
If I lived in Canada I might not pirate at all, since I could rent movies. Living here in China I pirate about 10 movies a month, plus a lot of TV shows that I can't otherwise watch.
If I lived in Canada I might not pirate at all, since I could rent movies. Living here in China I pirate about 10 movies a month, plus a lot of TV shows that I can't otherwise watch.
G
Guest
Do you remember what had happend with all the copies of the Gears of War last year, when the company forgot to renew its certificate? They were not starting up properly. Lets now say the company goes bankrupt, doesn't have money to maintain its servers or decides to end the product life cycle and replace the product with a new version giving users 2 month period to switch to a new version? Isn't it open to abuse?
G
Guest
Here's the rub. Developers need to make money or their families go hungry. If you want to keep getting newer and better games, you need to pony up to the bar with your wallet out and help feed these guys and their families. If you never buy games, only play pirated stuff, you are nothing more than a welfare gamer and you are holding back better game development. Now, at $60 plus per game, I am careful where I spend my dollars. I am still working on Oblivion (and have been for over a year) and am getting my money's worth out of the game and having a lot of fun doing it. Isn't that the point? If your only intention is to have the latest, greatest game and rip through it as fast as you can, you are wasting your time and now worth the developers time to bring you some entertainment. If we all slow down our spending, but each of us still does it sometimes, the game prices will drop to where they are more reasonable and we can all have more fun.
Archean
Posts: 5,650 +102
No one can contest with your arguments here; but the key point is when companies implement such draconian DRM (or other such tech tactics), what they are implying is everyone out there is a pirate or some evil doer. This is absurdly stupid notion showing mangled thinking of such companies.
I will wholeheartedly agree with darkjeric and Mathew's excellent arguments at the top of this page. I deal with dozens of new people every day, and I believe, generally most of the people are good natured; who want to make choices by staying within legal frameworks available to them. Therefore, all what is needed is give them the trust and tools to do so.
You guys use the word "pirate" as a blanket term but it's not as generalized as you would like it to be. To form an analogy; it's like a large aquarium with tank handlers feeding the fishies every day. The "handlers" are very experienced, likely just as if not more than the developers themselves. They all probably have side jobs and access to good equipment, and like TomSEA they have been doing this for a very very long time. Even if they haven't been, they look up to those that do.
How long will it take to get the files off Ubisofts server? Not long. Many developers use the same tactic and when they do so, the customers themselves have become to combative that they buy the game solely to gain access and distribute the missing files.
But people aren't malicious naturally. I too believe it's a money thing, but it's also an internet thing. The internet is it's own little monster and it has it's own international culture. That culture is often outspoken and a lot of people may be using the internet as a replacement for other real-life entertainments, such as movie theaters and the like. That does make up a majority, but those people have no idea how to crack, they can't even read binary or use an hex editor program, even with things as much easier as they are today than they were in the past.
The other portion is people that have been continuously taunted over and over again in one way or another. There is a certain idealism to this group that is beyond negotiation at this point.
Now I think compromise is the answer and platforms like Steam do rake in quite a bit of cash. But the PirateBay did not agree with me. I emailed them once when the TVshows started being released on the internet legitimately on websites such as Hulu, and I more or less asked them what they felt about it. They did not like the idea, but that same group sold out to a swedish company that is now slicing the website up into pieces and selling them to the highest bidder for ad space and revenue in order to prevent it from the inevitable that will likely happen regardless.
It might not be much but at this point you are better off not making any more enemies than you already have. It might be worth it to pull in those 1 or 2 groups described by those here previously than it is to combat them even more than you already have.
TomSEA says it will get worse, but it already has. Starforce was really as bad as it gets and it was boycotted internationally. That created more pirates than you could ever imagine. And if they had allowed us to backup our VHS tapes back in the day, I am guessing that you might not have those expert crackers hounding you at every release.
The bottom line is; your pride will only get you so far. You may be corporate, but you are not God.
How long will it take to get the files off Ubisofts server? Not long. Many developers use the same tactic and when they do so, the customers themselves have become to combative that they buy the game solely to gain access and distribute the missing files.
But people aren't malicious naturally. I too believe it's a money thing, but it's also an internet thing. The internet is it's own little monster and it has it's own international culture. That culture is often outspoken and a lot of people may be using the internet as a replacement for other real-life entertainments, such as movie theaters and the like. That does make up a majority, but those people have no idea how to crack, they can't even read binary or use an hex editor program, even with things as much easier as they are today than they were in the past.
The other portion is people that have been continuously taunted over and over again in one way or another. There is a certain idealism to this group that is beyond negotiation at this point.
Now I think compromise is the answer and platforms like Steam do rake in quite a bit of cash. But the PirateBay did not agree with me. I emailed them once when the TVshows started being released on the internet legitimately on websites such as Hulu, and I more or less asked them what they felt about it. They did not like the idea, but that same group sold out to a swedish company that is now slicing the website up into pieces and selling them to the highest bidder for ad space and revenue in order to prevent it from the inevitable that will likely happen regardless.
It might not be much but at this point you are better off not making any more enemies than you already have. It might be worth it to pull in those 1 or 2 groups described by those here previously than it is to combat them even more than you already have.
TomSEA says it will get worse, but it already has. Starforce was really as bad as it gets and it was boycotted internationally. That created more pirates than you could ever imagine. And if they had allowed us to backup our VHS tapes back in the day, I am guessing that you might not have those expert crackers hounding you at every release.
The bottom line is; your pride will only get you so far. You may be corporate, but you are not God.
G
Guest
Not buying those DRM games. None of them. Assassin's Creed II, Silent Hunter 5 or any other that adopts this DRM concept.
Force the gamer to stay online is not something good, even if you have an ISP 100% up, which I doubt.
Online gaming is essentially for multiplayer mode, for instance, Team Fortress 2. A game like SH5 is so characterized as single player that it makes difficult to understand you have to stay online to play it.
Certainly, developer's will realize that this is not the way to avoid having their titles pirated, like everybody's already commented here.
Another good example is those games with StarForce (http://www.star-force.com) protection. I have the 10tacle Studios GT Legends racing game and I simply can't install it on Windows 7 because StarForce's version used in this titles isn't compatible with W7. Detail: I bought the original game!
One last thought is that not everybody has an internet connection available, whatever the reason. If I want to play the game and stay off line, I just can't? This is really a drawback, not an evolution in the game industry.
Cheers!
Force the gamer to stay online is not something good, even if you have an ISP 100% up, which I doubt.
Online gaming is essentially for multiplayer mode, for instance, Team Fortress 2. A game like SH5 is so characterized as single player that it makes difficult to understand you have to stay online to play it.
Certainly, developer's will realize that this is not the way to avoid having their titles pirated, like everybody's already commented here.
Another good example is those games with StarForce (http://www.star-force.com) protection. I have the 10tacle Studios GT Legends racing game and I simply can't install it on Windows 7 because StarForce's version used in this titles isn't compatible with W7. Detail: I bought the original game!
One last thought is that not everybody has an internet connection available, whatever the reason. If I want to play the game and stay off line, I just can't? This is really a drawback, not an evolution in the game industry.
Cheers!
zaidpirwani
Posts: 74 +0
So now if I want to play games I have to be connected to the INTERNET and I only play games when I am not connected.....
I don't think that DRM is going to live until next year...Ubisoft is just want to get some more customers, but they will loose more. Probably they are giving a lot of money for developing such a ridiculous protection. It's just metter of time and it's useless losing of time.
compdata
Posts: 527 +8
I think their DRM will actually work in this case, as it effectively follows the same model as WoW. I think you will see a lot of other producers doing the same thing in the future. I do think it is kind of annoying, but it isn't that much different then the "steam" powered games either which i play I would like to hear from someone who legitimately bought a copy to know if it has really affected them or not.
I would like to hear from someone who legitimately bought a copy to know if it has really affected them or not.While I understand that people without a good internet connection aren't happy with this, you can't blame companies for trying to protect their work. And this does sound like one of the best ways to protect a game. DVD copy protection has always been inefficient, so it was only a matter of time before something like this was going to be tried.
I wouldn't be surprised if most of the people complaning about this are pirates who can't get their game right now anyway. Well, excluding those complaining because of their internet connection of course.
I wouldn't be surprised if most of the people complaning about this are pirates who can't get their game right now anyway.
Well, excluding those complaining because of their internet connection of course.hello ...
this is the reason why i went to console gaming & mostly on PS3. In Mauritius we have same problem, it's difficult, if not impossible to get legit PC or Xbox games, copies are sold everywhere & those owning these platform would make fun of PS3 owners forced to pay higher prices.
I'm happy got a PS3 & i don't care about paying for quality games & what's weird, the sales chart is quite impressive leading to one important fact: People go for pirated copies because they are available & 'some' have no considerations for developers.
maybe there will never be a solution against piracy but i think would be easy to control or slightly drop it off.
- the developers must not lose time protecting their work & end up with a crappy finish. like some of you mentioned, additional contents & services or bonuses would be a great solution & incentive in letting people get the games.
- create more competition at local levels, stop ignoring some countries & support all the sales. like in China, in Mauritius also we can't find original games, the 'official representative' of some companies if any wouldn't do anything to bring more & support the product. MS exist in the island & does a lot of campaign against software theft, but i never saw any campaign against games theft & console modding. if they only could come up with some competitions that would encourage youngsters to bind to the rules & play fair with some prizes at the end, would at least create the need of having an untouched system with legit 'loved' games.
piracy isn't good for developers, but also for gamers, i've seen a lot owning all the copied games possible but never could finish any, hey i didn't pay for the game & i'm stuck here ... no challenge too good, i can put the game away, won't lose anything, let's try the other one & so & so ...
i hope someday somehow some developers would come up with a system to protect their work, but i mostly wish that we consumers, would realise how bad it would be if our favourite games won't have sequels, some movies will never be produced just because they would go bankrupt if they dare spend too much on them.
say NO to piracy & YES to great pieces of art, whether it be in the musical, theatrical or virtual world .. let's have FUN!..
cheers!
this is the reason why i went to console gaming & mostly on PS3. In Mauritius we have same problem, it's difficult, if not impossible to get legit PC or Xbox games, copies are sold everywhere & those owning these platform would make fun of PS3 owners forced to pay higher prices.
I'm happy got a PS3 & i don't care about paying for quality games & what's weird, the sales chart is quite impressive leading to one important fact: People go for pirated copies because they are available & 'some' have no considerations for developers.
maybe there will never be a solution against piracy but i think would be easy to control or slightly drop it off.
- the developers must not lose time protecting their work & end up with a crappy finish. like some of you mentioned, additional contents & services or bonuses would be a great solution & incentive in letting people get the games.
- create more competition at local levels, stop ignoring some countries & support all the sales. like in China, in Mauritius also we can't find original games, the 'official representative' of some companies if any wouldn't do anything to bring more & support the product. MS exist in the island & does a lot of campaign against software theft, but i never saw any campaign against games theft & console modding. if they only could come up with some competitions that would encourage youngsters to bind to the rules & play fair with some prizes at the end, would at least create the need of having an untouched system with legit 'loved' games.
piracy isn't good for developers, but also for gamers, i've seen a lot owning all the copied games possible but never could finish any, hey i didn't pay for the game & i'm stuck here ... no challenge too good, i can put the game away, won't lose anything, let's try the other one & so & so ...
i hope someday somehow some developers would come up with a system to protect their work, but i mostly wish that we consumers, would realise how bad it would be if our favourite games won't have sequels, some movies will never be produced just because they would go bankrupt if they dare spend too much on them.
say NO to piracy & YES to great pieces of art, whether it be in the musical, theatrical or virtual world .. let's have FUN!..
cheers!
G
Guest
As bad as I would like to go to the store and purchase this and play it, I will not. I have the <S@tan> copy already and it works great. Going thru levels is a snap. I noticed that the source code has been re-engineered and you simply run your own "check server", which replaced ubisoft's. the check server only takes up about 48k of memory then released from memory, Very intelligent cracking efforts I must say.
Which supprised me the most is that it runs flawlessly. Just as if it was the legit store bought version.
Oh and one more thing, The DRM has been totally stripped out! Awsome Job of cracking and cleaning up the *****
Shout out to Ubisoft - Mutha ****a!!! The Finger!!!!.
Which supprised me the most is that it runs flawlessly. Just as if it was the legit store bought version.
Oh and one more thing, The DRM has been totally stripped out! Awsome Job of cracking and cleaning up the *****
Shout out to Ubisoft - Mutha ****a!!! The Finger!!!!.
Maybe it's not the theft and piracy the problem, but the economy? Perhaps people aren't buying games right now cause they can't afford it. DRM is a waste of time, effort, and money that these game companies are investing in, specially when it can just be cracked in one day. Also, it's a turn off to consumers. I didn't buy Red Alert 3 for that VERY reason. As much as I wanted to. I also bought Spore, which I reject now because I didn't know it had DRM on it. The only time I'll buy a game now is if it doesn't have DRM, or it's a game I really want to play, like Starcraft II.
While I'm not so much a gamer anymore, it's certainly not solely because of DRM and it's invasive ways, but simply because I can't afford it. I don't pirate games because of it, but I'm definitely not going to buy one that has DRM. If the gaming companies can't trust their own consumers or give them what they want, then they might as well just stop making games.
While I'm not so much a gamer anymore, it's certainly not solely because of DRM and it's invasive ways, but simply because I can't afford it. I don't pirate games because of it, but I'm definitely not going to buy one that has DRM. If the gaming companies can't trust their own consumers or give them what they want, then they might as well just stop making games.
Neojt
Posts: 250 +90
So this means that if your on the road with you laptop (witch i do very often) you cant play if you dont have internet!
wow now that's entertaining.
Also if demo versions of the games would be more available so we could try the game before spending 60 + $ then realizing that you don't like the game ...... maybe there would be less illegal download. As a lot of people download the game to try it but hey i already have the full version running why go buy it now ......
Just a thought
wow now that's entertaining.
Also if demo versions of the games would be more available so we could try the game before spending 60 + $ then realizing that you don't like the game ...... maybe there would be less illegal download. As a lot of people download the game to try it but hey i already have the full version running why go buy it now ......
Just a thought
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