Ubisoft's DRM servers crash, games unplayable

Been reading about this since yesterday day and all I can say is HA! I think everyone expected this was going to happen, but so soon is shocking. First reports indicated that they couldn't cope with the demand, which honestly as a gamer scares me to think that it only took two single player oriented games to do that. What's going to happen when they have dozens of games with several high profile titles? And now they are blaming it on an attack? I feel a ruse (pun intended) coming about unless they come out with some proof, same as them claiming there game hasn't been cracked when some reports show otherwise.

I'm also seeing a lot of comparisons to WoW, here and elsewhere. And while from a glance similar, they are in reality two completely different things as most above me pointed out. And I honestly wouldn't be so frustrated with Ubi IF they actually came forth with a SERVICE like WoW. Something you subscribe to and then gain access to all of Ubisoft's games. Of course I would then expect my monthly dues to cover patches, game updates & DLC, customer service 24/7 and anything that I might have missed that WoW provides. Of course this would cost them way more then just bringing out a game for $60 which is $10 ABOVE normal simply cause of greed (Thanks Activision for starting this non-sense!), and slapping on this horrible DRM, promise it'll work then have it offline for 10+ hours...

You're right no matter what the situation/price at one point or another it's going to be downloaded illegally. But DRM and other negative decisions do inflate piracy numbers even higher then normal (Spore and MW2 for example).

This sort of solution is always prone to connectivity problems. DoS attacks, server crashes, ISP issues are a threat to legitimate owners and, as such, should be weighted when people buy products.
If you choose not to support intrusive/obtuse solutions, do not even resort to 'piracy'. Show the manufacturers your discontentment.

This is just more proof that this kind of DRM is a bad idea. I can understand wanting to make the most profit possible on their investment, but this is not the way they should go about it. It's more work for them, it's less enjoyment from the gamers, and it will still get hacked and pirated.

Must confess is was rather irritating to not be able to play - in fact, what was worse was being interrupted while playing by that infernal message "establishing connection blah blah" - talk about destroying the immersiveness - so now I'm going to hold off playing until they iron out all the issues. Aargh!

Must confess is was rather irritating to not be able to play - in fact, what was worse was being interrupted while playing by that infernal message "establishing connection blah blah" - talk about destroying the immersiveness - so now I'm going to hold off playing until they iron out all the issues. Aargh!

Don't know why the double posting is occuring???

this is pretty bad... they made it so that you need a permanent connection to the internet (which is really stupid for a single player game) but their server arent fool proof... This is one of the worst drm to date

Are these DRM'ed games up on torrent sites with cracks? I usually don't torrent video games because I honestly like to give them my money. I want video game makers to keep making awesome games. But stories like this make me want to rip these games off.

Thats not entirely true...

I will admit that I have stolen a game in the past and got a copy from torrenting (well the game has no DRM but you know what I mean). I still have it to this day, and to this day its still rather good game I like to call world of Goo. but I didn't feel it was worth the 10 - 15 pounds or even 20 pounds I had seen it going for.

A week later I checked on there site and they were selling it for any price you wanted. So I signed up for paypal. put £3 pound in there and made the transaction on the same day. a few days later I recieved the email to download my copy.

Moral of the story is. Game was cheaper so I brought it.

Before anyone thinks "yeah whatever" this really is a true story.

And I Know it won't fix the problem but it will help reduce it. So TomSEA

This is utter rubbish!

Hahahahaha, who honestly didn't expect this to happen? I'm 100 % certain it was hackers that did it just to teach Ubisoft a lesson.

i can understand the need to protect copyright softwares... but this just utter failure. i remember the good old days when all you just needed to do was just install the game...

I wonder how this will affect US sales, since this happened before it even went on sale here? Even if i was not opposed to the ridiculous always-connected-even-for-single-player scheme, this would definitely turn me off to ever purchasing it.

So, what happens in 2-5 years when Ubisoft decides it is no longer cost effective to keep the servers up? I don't see them releasing a patch to allow offline play. Everyone who "bought" the game will discover they really just rented it.

It's a cat and mouse play, but those who buy games will be hurt more than those who don't. Besides, I think that PC games are pretty much expensive, but now I have to online all the time!? And what happens, their servers went offline and I can't play even though I paid for it.

i think Ubisoft should come up with better servers or atleast inovative methods to curb piracy!

Thanx Ubi-Soft-In-The-Head. But then you're smarter than most, asking people to buy a crappy game for $60.00, forcing them to stay online to play and save, and then not having the server capacity available to stand behind your product.

Quality and customer satisfaction have gone by the wayside in your organization. Good luck with that!

Your marketing depart should be forced to play Pong for 48 hours to atone for agreeing with and promoting this unfortunate step back.

While I've never pirated a game in my life, I might just start doing that, to preview the games to weed out the crap you're trying to serve us.

Honestly, I couldn't help but chuckle upon reading this story.

Not only does Ubisoft attempt to gouge PC customers by charging $60 when there is no merit to do so (console games only get this leeway because they have to pay a licensing fee or something), but they go out of their way to annoy paying customers with DRM. Then it blows up in their face a week later. Sorry, but they were asking for it.

As others have pointed out, this isn't new anymore so there's no reason to charge $60 for it.

This continuous and ongoing DRM verification server process worries me quite a bit. Eventually Ubisoft will discontinue the use of their servers for this game (unless you buy say Silent Hunter 6 or 7 or whatever will be the newest version at that time) and where will the paying customer be? I also fear what Ubisoft could put into their terms of use as it is just a matter of time before they start poking around insides consumers PC's to see what else is in there (because the PC's have to be connected to the DRM servers).

"...saying the downtime was caused by an attack to its servers." ROFL.

DRM makes it only worse for people who buy the game legally, pirates will always find a way to crack it. Steam is the best way to prevent piracy, period.

Steam is good? What if I want to replay my games in ten years when there isn't Steam servers anymore? I want hard copies for my games. I want to play my single player games without having to depend on getting online to prove I bought them.

I'm against piracy, but I'm even more against they deciding if I have the right to play a game I bought! Or else they should start calling their games "rent-only".

That's why I don't give my money to Ubisoft anymore. I'm not interested in paying full-price to rent a ****ing game that in a couple years, when I'm craving a play (just like I crave playing NES games sometimes but I CAN play because I have the cartridge), I can't play anymore because the company ordered the rent be returned (aka closing the servers).

I want to shout my opinion to the whole world, I want to find people who agree with me. People who hate piracy but that want to have property of functional hard copies of our games, so we can play independent of time passed since game release, or server availability.