This story is very interesting to follow. For those that don’t know, Ubisoft have recently implemented a new DRM scheme that requires the users to be constantly connected to the internet to be able to play their games (even if it’s single-player with no online gaming). This was implemented in the game Assassin’s Creed 2.
Some people found this ridiculous because it makes the consumers dependent on the availability of the servers and the company itself (what happens if the company closes down?).
While other people speculated that this will be the DRM that might work because it’d be difficult to modify the code so the saved games reside on the local machine instead of a remote server. However, the game got cracked the very first day it was released.
And now the inevitable has happened. Ubisoft’s authentication servers went down, loyal users were not able to play the game… This thread shows some responses of the enraged customers due to this (and for some reason, the posts over there reminded me of the off-topic section of BA :D)…
Time will tell what’s gonna happen and what both publishers and customers will choose to do…
I’ve been following the story as well (though, somewhat loosely). It is impossible to create something ‘hack-proof’. Not only will this DRM not work, it will also hurt Ubi a good deal. I wonder who came up with the idea.
I haven’t seen any anti-piracy protection that works. Actually they just get worse as the time goes by. Like The Witcher which failed really hard. And of course there is EA that just can’t stop failing on this matter. I haven’t had any problem with Ubisoft before, but it seems that I will. DRM is only hurting those who actually buy the game. Pirates are really sneaky. Every new “super cool anti-piracy protection” gets cracked. I wonder how long they will try to nail piracy?
It occurs to me that even if the game itself couldn’t have been hacked, it would have been pretty simple to create a fake server on the loopback interface and direct all of the game’s checks through that… They probably aren’t using that complex of data for saving games and authenticating…
well, I started an iPhone game, but found out your game is cracked and pirated immediately. So, I stopped work. I personally lost a ton of money on pirates stealing my tutorials, and because of the low official sales, the publisher now says it’s not worth it to update the course for 2.5.
So, while pirates win the battle, they lose the war for everyone, and it results in developers and money and energy going elsewhere, or the general public losing out.
Really? That is a shame because I actually joined the Lynda.com party just to watch your tutorial. I wonder if that is really the case or whether they are getting pressure from the bigger companies to stop publishing for blender. It doesn’t make too much sense especially since the 2.5 series is going to really prove to be a well sort after application. I mean really?
open source for the win, piracy’s still not a good thing, generally speaking though,
hopefully that particular extreme will help balance the other (DRM) extreme as well,
as witnessed by this very case.
this is kinda sad… i recommended your tutorials in a recent presentation about Blender that i did; i watched a few of them and they seem to be well-done…
