EA follows Ubisoft, will sell titles with 'always on' DRM

There have been new forms of DRM before that took as long as a year to crack.

Now that the discovery phase of this DRM is over, it's going to be easier and easier to crack these games.

Given that the game is nearly cracked, that Ubisoft had to give away lots of games for free as compensation for its failing server, and that it was reduced to just £16 after 3 weeks which suggests poor sales performance, I would say that this DRM has not been successful in any way. And to top it off they've taken a PR hit for angering their paying customers, and made them less inclined to buy future games after encountering these problems.

And then EA saw all these problems and put it on C&C4, a game that already sucked in the first place :rolleyes:
 
Overall I think it's a good idea if server reliabilty is improved and it meant they'd do away with the other forms of DRM that install programs locally and can cause issues with individual PCs.

I was originally against this until I thought about it and realised I mainly play Eve online, Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.

What do these games have in common? They all require a constant connection to the internet.
 
Overall I think it's a good idea if server reliabilty is improved and it meant they'd do away with the other forms of DRM that install programs locally and can cause issues with individual PCs.

I was originally against this until I thought about it and realised I mainly play Eve online, Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.

What do these games have in common? They all require a constant connection to the internet.

Whats your point? They're all multiplayer. It kinda comes with the territory. Singleplayer games have nothing to do with the internet, your game experience doesn't improve in any way, shape or form by being connected to the internet, infact and when you can't guarantee connection, its degraded by it for no better reason than the developer/publisher wants control.
 
Overall I think it's a good idea if server reliabilty is improved and it meant they'd do away with the other forms of DRM that install programs locally and can cause issues with individual PCs.

I was originally against this until I thought about it and realised I mainly play Eve online, Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.

What do these games have in common? They all require a constant connection to the internet.

Very true - I don't have a problem with this type of DRM as long as the servers are always up. The other worry is what happens if a company goes bust - I would hope they would have a patch ready to allow offline play.

I also hate how people on Amazon etc. rate the game based on the DRM. Not helpful when trying to get good feedback on the GAME!

Certainly seems to have hurt the sales of AC2 and SH5 - both of which have been seriously reduced in price and are not at the top of the sales charts.
 
Whats your point? They're all multiplayer. It kinda comes with the territory. Singleplayer games have nothing to do with the internet, your game experience doesn't improve in any way, shape or form by being connected to the internet, infact and when you can't guarantee connection, its degraded by it for no better reason than the developer/publisher wants control.

My point is that as long as the servers are reliable and there is some form of buffer in place to protect the player from temporary drop outs in their own connection there should be no great inconvenience to the paying customer.

In this day and age the vast majority of people with PCs capable of playing these games will have an internent connection of some sort. Even those playing on lappy's will generally have some form of mobile internet access and as far as I'm aware it's not as if there's and vast amount of data being shifted between the game and the server.

You say that singleplayer games have nothing to do with the internet but DRM has nothing to do with whether the game is singleplayer or multiplayer and in my opinion the publisher should have a right of control over people copying and using their software without paying for it.
 
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Not if you take the long term view.

Can Ubi guarantee increased sales if they beat piracy entirely?
Can guarantee that the new retinal scanning, DNA sampling DRM won't lose them just as many sales?
Can guarantee that the freeloaders will now start buying games they were only had a passing interest in?

Or is this the rosy long-term view that every pirate copy is a lost sale?
 
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My point is that as long as the servers are reliable and there is some form of buffer in place to protect the player from temporary drop outs in their own connection there should be no great inconvenience to the paying customer.

In this day and age the vast majority of people with PCs capable of playing these games will have an internent connection of some sort. Even those playing on lappy's will generally have some form of mobile internet access and as far as I'm aware it's not as if there's and vast amount of data being shifted between the game and the server.

You say that singleplayer games have nothing to do with the internet but DRM has nothing to do with whether the game is singleplayer or multiplayer and in my opinion the publisher should have a right of control over people copying and using their software without paying for it.

I'm fed up with reading this argument. If you lose your internet connection and want to play games, you go play a singleplayer game (or lan) If all games start using "always on" DRM, then when you're internet goes down you're stuck playing solitaire.
 
Its not cracked - there is a server emulator which lets you play most of the main missions (albeit in a specfic order) and about half of the side missions with most of the map updates missing.

Regardless are you admitting to illegally downloading every game you play? I dont have a problem paying for games regardless of whether there is a crack. AC2 is great and well worth the £17 I spent on it. DRM or not still doesnt justify theft IMO.

i really don't give a poo about ubi's games.. never bought any never will.. i just don't find any interesting games they release.. i mean i only play racing and fps :) so im just discussing about it.. never even had a though of buying AC2 :)

the problem with this is that EA is implementing the same system.. which of course means games like future NFS will have it.. and EA thinks about selling demos(lol) which i will pirate for sure. :o
 
My point is that as long as the servers are reliable and there is some form of buffer in place to protect the player from temporary drop outs in their own connection there should be no great inconvenience to the paying customer.

In this day and age the vast majority of people with PCs capable of playing these games will have an internent connection of some sort. Even those playing on lappy's will generally have some form of mobile internet access and as far as I'm aware it's not as if there's and vast amount of data being shifted between the game and the server.

You say that singleplayer games have nothing to do with the internet but DRM has nothing to do with whether the game is singleplayer or multiplayer and in my opinion the publisher should have a right of control over people copying and using their software without paying for it.

Theres no such thing as a buffer to protect people from it and there could never be one. Giving away cheap games that a) they might already have and b) didn't want in the first place is not a buffer.

Publishers do not have the right to control how and when you use the game you bought. Internet Connectivity for a singleplayer game provides NOTHING for the customer. A blanket statement that there is no excuse for not having a stable internet connection is retarded. Sure, if you restrict your statement to solely be based on lovely sub-urban towns somewhere in the USA. I accept that if you live in the middle of nowhere with poor internet access that multiplayer games will be off limits, suggesting otherwise is dumb. Why should 100% singleplayer games be for no better reason than some random company thinks it'll stop piracy.
Sure, its preventing it atm, its new and different so will take time to crack, once its cracked it won't do a damn thing. Let me see my options, buy a singleplayer game and be unable to play it because i lose all progress if my internet so much as sneezes? Download a pirate copy without these restrictions so i can play it when i want to.

And Disjunto just said it. When you have internet trouble and you decide not to play MP games, you generally play a SP instead.
 
Theres no such thing as a buffer to protect people from it and there could never be one. Giving away cheap games that a) they might already have and b) didn't want in the first place is not a buffer.

Publishers do not have the right to control how and when you use the game you bought. Internet Connectivity for a singleplayer game provides NOTHING for the customer. A blanket statement that there is no excuse for not having a stable internet connection is retarded. Sure, if you restrict your statement to solely be based on lovely sub-urban towns somewhere in the USA. I accept that if you live in the middle of nowhere with poor internet access that multiplayer games will be off limits, suggesting otherwise is dumb. Why should 100% singleplayer games be for no better reason than some random company thinks it'll stop piracy.
Sure, its preventing it atm, its new and different so will take time to crack, once its cracked it won't do a damn thing. Let me see my options, buy a singleplayer game and be unable to play it because i lose all progress if my internet so much as sneezes? Download a pirate copy without these restrictions so i can play it when i want to.

And Disjunto just said it. When you have internet trouble and you decide not to play MP games, you generally play a SP instead.

you summed it up pretty good... i think this will just increase the piracy.. :) people who did not buy but wanted to buy before the cocky drm came out they will just pirate it and play it.. think about it better support.. no connection required.. you dont pay a penny.. whats there to lose? there's many more games you can play while waiting for YES NEW type of security to be cracked.. as i can remember the securom was a bit of a problem at first but then it got cracked and the only people that "suffered" from it was the ones paying...
 
I am playing Assassin's Creed 2. I have never had a problem with roughly 4 hours playing time per session. I don't see a problem in this and it's a way of getting around pirating.

But, as the same time, a website now has emulators available for AC2. Not sure they work but they're available. Still, it took much longer for these to come out

My 2 cents
 
I am playing Assassin's Creed 2. I have never had a problem with roughly 4 hours playing time per session. I don't see a problem in this and it's a way of getting around pirating.

But, as the same time, a website now has emulators available for AC2. Not sure they work but they're available. Still, it took much longer for these to come out

My 2 cents

it wont take long the next time they use this.. even if they keep improving it i think the amount of sales they lose over the price of making/implementing/upgrading this DRM will be higher..
 
I am playing Assassin's Creed 2. I have never had a problem with roughly 4 hours playing time per session. I don't see a problem in this and it's a way of getting around pirating.

But, as the same time, a website now has emulators available for AC2. Not sure they work but they're available. Still, it took much longer for these to come out

My 2 cents

And do you live in an area where you can generally got a very reliable internet? And so many other factors.

AC2 at least autosaves regularly, so if you do blink ocasionally and lose progress its not *that* big a deal. But look at C&C4, even an EA employee was bitching about it. Lose connection for a moment and you've lost that entire battle, maybe it was the first 5 minutes so no big problem, or maybe it was an hour in? Or maybe it was a level you've had difficulty with, finally manage it and then you lose connection?
 
AC2 at least autosaves regularly...snip...

Careful now, that sounds almost bufferish and I'm sure I read earlier in this thread that there could never be a buffer against a drop in connection. :P

What's stop them automatically pausing the game if the connection drops until it's regained or even just having it authenticate every 10 or 15 minutes when the internet is dropping in and out - starting the countdown from when the internet dropped out initially?
 
Careful now, that sounds almost bufferish and I'm sure I read earlier in this thread that there could never be a buffer against a drop in connection. :P

What's stop them automatically pausing the game if the connection drops until it's regained or even just having it authenticate every 10 or 15 minutes when the internet is dropping in and out - starting the countdown from when the internet dropped out initially?

Not quite, AC saved regularly. It saves regularly because someone decided to not bother giving PC players quicksave and save slots. Suddenly deciding thats a buffer (especially in a single game) is wrong, its just part of the game.

If you're going to go along that route why even bother with it? Its only a step up from online activation, meaning you need to be connected when you play for the first time (ok a few steps but the point is there). Besides, if they can crack always on DRM, cracking 'periodic' DRM is surely even easier.
 
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