# All new Ubisoft games to require 'permanent internet connection.'



## treelover (Feb 25, 2010)

all new Ubisoft games such as Silent Hunter 5 will have to have a permanent internet connections and a UBI.COM account, lose your connection and the game kicks you off. So, pirates will have it easier than those who have paid full price for the game! The publishing companies are really panicking about piracy, but this is not the answer.


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## Kid_Eternity (Feb 25, 2010)

This is insane...


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## kained&able (Feb 25, 2010)

Ridiculous and pointless, its not like it wont be got around by the people that pirate stuff already, will just piss off the people who actually buy the game.


dave


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## kabbes (Feb 25, 2010)

PC games only, is it not?

Basically, it means I'm extremely unlikely to buy an Ubisoft PC game.


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## Sunray (Feb 28, 2010)

treelover said:


> all new Ubisoft games such as Silent Hunter 5 will have to have a permanent internet connections and a UBI.COM account, lose your connection and the game kicks you off. So, pirates will have it easier than those who have paid full price for the game! The publishing companies are really panicking about piracy, but this is not the answer.



I was thinking about this years ago and it could defeat pirates.

What they could do is to have crucial bits of the game download off the server when you need them and lose them when you change levels and move on in the game.  

Do this right and it makes the game very hard to hack because not all of the game data such as the levels is ever on disk, just in memory.  The code that accesses the data could also be downloaded so that code is keyed to your level data.  

It wouldn't have to be big downloads.  Some of the payloads could be anti hack code which would test the game code for modifications.   Because this code is never known and keyed to the user it would be impossible to work out what it was supposed to return before hand and fake it and it could change anyway.  The test would include level data that only you got so even if you could work out the return values it would only be for that user.

Hackers trying to get that code could be easily identified by unusual server requests.


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## treelover (Mar 2, 2010)

I'm more concerned it will mean the end of second hand games*,i don't pirate,but i buy lots of cheap games off ebay,etc.

*the publishers see this as the holy grail


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 2, 2010)

You could piss off the owner of every single ubisoft game with one simple DDoS


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## stupid dogbot (Mar 2, 2010)

Dillinger4 said:


> You could piss off the owner of every single ubisoft game with one simple DDoS



You'd imagine they'd have geographically diverse servers...


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## A Dashing Blade (Mar 2, 2010)

Pound to a pinch of pigshit the hackers/crackers will be all over this as a matter of honour. Havn't seen a single-player game in the last two years that wasn't cracked and on the download sites within a week (max,absolute tops) of release.


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 2, 2010)

stupid dogbot said:


> You'd imagine they'd have geographically diverse servers...



True, but my general point still stands.


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## stupid dogbot (Mar 2, 2010)

Dillinger4 said:


> True, but my general point still stands.



Indeed.

Actually, that's quite interesting. If they insist that you have a connection to their servers to use a product that you've payed them for, what compensation will they offer if their servers are down?

(obviously, the answer is: none, but y'know)


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## kabbes (Mar 2, 2010)

The TOS for a computer game makes the devil look like an amateur with his infernal contracts.


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## bhamgeezer (Mar 2, 2010)

They'll stop it when nobody buys the game


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## Shippou-Sensei (Mar 2, 2010)

i used to think  steam  was shit  for doing a check at the beggining  but  actually   the way you can install on multiple computers  and  good prices on lots of games  has made me appreciate steam 

however  i'd be fucked off  with   this system as  ocasionally my conection drops out   and if that booted me form a game  i'd be ready to kill


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## Epona (Mar 7, 2010)

Shippou-Chan said:


> however  i'd be fucked off  with   this system as  ocasionally my conection drops out   and if that booted me form a game  i'd be ready to kill



Surely no-one can ensure that their internet is _always_ on, mine is connected 99.9% of the time but there's always room for it to go tits up, like when there was a fault on the phone line a couple of months back, or the cats messing with the cables etc. or when I occasionally have to reset/disconnect something


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Mar 7, 2010)

This will guarantee I never buy a game from them ever again. I've tried to be good since I've got back into PC gaming and support the industry by buying software, rather then pirating it like I always used.

However where I live my net connection is so flaky that it would be impractical for me. As it is I can't play online games as I get disconnected so often, in fact I'm more likely to play games when my net connection is acting up. 

Pirates already have it easier, look at Steam or even games that make you leave the DVD in to play.


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## Cloud (Mar 7, 2010)

It's been this way for ever. They think up all these anti piracy tricks and it just makes the game difficult to play. As already mentioned, it's often easier to get a pirated and cracked version. 

What really pisses me off now is all this account theft bollocks, blizzard want £9.99 fir a dongle to prevent it. I remember when cubase had that stupid dongle, I dunno if games are going to have one too. Bloody dongles.


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## dogmatique (Mar 7, 2010)

And the authentication servers crash... DOH!

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98927-Ubisoft-DRM-Authentication-Servers-Go-Down


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## treelover (Mar 8, 2010)

The reviews on Amazon UK for Assassins Creed 2 hardly mention the game, just the DRM! they may save on piracy initially but long term the sales will suffer, PC gaming is in crisis,imo.


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## Sunray (Mar 8, 2010)

A Dashing Blade said:


> Pound to a pinch of pigshit the hackers/crackers will be all over this as a matter of honour. Havn't seen a single-player game in the last two years that wasn't cracked and on the download sites within a week (max,absolute tops) of release.



If its done correctly it will be impossible to get the full set of data.  Hacking a CD protect code or copy protect is a trivial task.  Just step through the code till you find the if statement (or statements).

To hack this you'd have to know how the level data is set up and the downloaded data is unique to your copy and to get that data you'd need to have a working login to get the data in the 1st place.  To get that login, you going to have to buy the game.  The work you'd have to put in would be monumental, clearly not worth it for a game.

The original Sky's boxes, the analogue versions were hackable when they 1st came out.  Then they went to the digital version and that has yet to be hacked after,what 12 years?


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## Kid_Eternity (Mar 8, 2010)

dogmatique said:


> And the authentication servers crash... DOH!
> 
> http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98927-Ubisoft-DRM-Authentication-Servers-Go-Down



It couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of cunts!


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## G. Fieendish (Mar 8, 2010)

Does this mean that Ubisoft will alienate all their console users as well, as the model Ubisoft seems to be now following, assumes that all console users, will be connected to either X-box Live or Playstation Network...?
I would argue, that most people that are casual users/players will not have their consoles connected to said networks, i.e their consoles are "stand alone", will be rapidly returning said games back to the shop, that sold said Ubisoft game to them, if this does happen...


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## debaser (Mar 8, 2010)

G. Fieendish said:


> Does this mean that Ubisoft will alienate all their console users as well, as the model Ubisoft seems to be now following, assumes that all console users, will be connected to either X-box Live or Playstation Network...?
> I would argue, that most people that are casual users/players will not have their consoles connected to said networks, i.e their consoles are "stand alone", will be rapidly returning said games back to the shop, that sold said Ubisoft game to them, if this does happen...



They certainly won't alienate their console users, you could argue, as some are, that this is all big scheme to move the last of the PC AAA+ title buyers over to the console  It's not its just stupidity of the highest order.

The severs where _apparently_ down due to DDoS attacks. If this massive failure dosn't show other developers just how awful an idea this is then we really are in trouble!


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## Epona (Mar 8, 2010)

I'm pissed off enough with Bioware's Dragon Age with it's "authorised user needs to log in to their account to authenticate the DLC/save game" ner ner ner messages.  It's all well and good, but I can't access the server half the time, and the other half it keeps booting me off.  Today I logged back in after it did this to find that it had royally fucked up the game I'd been playing for ooh probably something like 40 hours, all because I can't seem to stay logged in to their fucking shite server. Thankfully I had an earlier save I could go back to, but I was spitting nails - it's a great game but I'm not going to bother with any of their future games if they pull this kind of shit again, it's too much arseing about.  And that's just the DLC (which I paid for thank you very much Bioware!), I dread to think what it would be like if major sections of the game were dependent upon being logged in.

Also what happens a couple of years or so down the line when these companies stop providing support and servers for what will then be old games?  I have old favourites that I go back to year upon year, will Ubisoft games have a limited shelf life from now on, or will they release the full thing as a budget standalone once they no longer want to provide ongoing service?  I certainly won't be buying any game from them while this is going on, as what I've experienced of staying logged into gamer accounts during play is a real headache, let alone staying logged in 24/7.


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## Sunray (Mar 8, 2010)

The servers will never need to be switch off, they can just scale them back as needed, down to one server that is for archived games.  The cloud computing system that are currently being built are immense and not going to go away any time soon.

People are going to have to get use to the fact that games companies see secondary sales as lost money and given that they spend a lot of money developing games this is how things are going to go.  Expect this as a standard within 5 years may well be even less.

If you don't have a net connection, you'll not be able to buy or play games.


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## Citizen66 (Mar 8, 2010)

I've never really been into cracked games like I am downloading films and music. For one the games industry is one I don't mind supporting (and it does take money to produce the best stuff unlike films and music) and the other reason is I get jumpy about what could be sitting behind executable files from unknown sources.


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## FridgeMagnet (Mar 8, 2010)

Sunray said:


> The servers will never need to be switch off, they can just scale them back as needed, down to one server that is for archived games.  The cloud computing system that are currently being built are immense and not going to go away any time soon.
> 
> People are going to have to get use to the fact that games companies see secondary sales as lost money and given that they spend a lot of money developing games this is how things are going to go.  Expect this as a standard within 5 years may well be even less.
> 
> If you don't have a net connection, you'll not be able to buy or play games.



You will be able to - just not the hardcore We Are Big Games Companies Respect Us titles. You know, I play about one or two of those a year anyway.


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## jcsd (Mar 8, 2010)

You will never be able to stop piracy. I remember when one game game with a physical key that you needed to play it, this was twenty years ago, it was still hacked.


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## kained&able (Mar 8, 2010)

Yeah my dad had a turbo cad or auto cad that had a physical dongle thing. They didn't bother the next year as it had been done and replacing em was becoming a hassle.


dave


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## Citizen66 (Mar 8, 2010)

Cubase used to have a dongle.


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## ExtraRefined (Mar 9, 2010)

Sunray said:


> To hack this you'd have to know how the level data is set up and the downloaded data is unique to your copy and to get that data you'd need to have a working login to get the data in the 1st place.  To get that login, you going to have to buy the game.  The work you'd have to put in would be monumental, clearly not worth it for a game.
> 
> The original Sky's boxes, the analogue versions were hackable when they 1st came out.  Then they went to the digital version and that has yet to be hacked after,what 12 years?



You fail to appreciate how dedicated release groups are.

The sky comparison is specious for the simple reason that Sky control the hardware - Ubisoft don't


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## Mungy (Mar 9, 2010)

Citizen66 said:


> Cubase used to have a dongle.



i believe the atari st version had a dongle. mine didn't


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## treelover (Mar 9, 2010)

if this means the end of second hand PC games,then my collection and gaming pleasure will be much diminsished.

Oh,and no demos either,they won't need to do them


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## treelover (Apr 17, 2010)

Well, Assassins Creed 2 is now only 15.95 on Pc at Zavvi, that is unheard of for a triple A game just after launch, the DRM issue must have hit sales badly.

oh and Silent hunter 5 is 12.98 on Amazon, i wonder if they will drop the DRM or pack in retail Pc games


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## debaser (Apr 21, 2010)

Bout 2 months? Not long at all. Its been cracked! SKIDROW's managed it. Big fucks to you Ubisoft.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Apr 28, 2010)

Looks like a neater way has been managed by skid row. 



> Thank you Ubisoft, this was quiete a challenge for us, but nothing stops the leading force from doing what we do. Next time focus on the game and not on the DRM. It was probably horrible for all legit users. We just make their lifes easier.
> This release is an accomplishment of weeks of investigating, experimenting, testing and lots of hard work. We know that there is a server emulator out in the open, which makes the game playable, but when you look at our cracked content, you will know that it can't be compared to that. Our work does not construct any program deviation or any kind of host file paradox solutions. Install game and copy the cracked content, it's that simple.



Link


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## Sunray (Apr 29, 2010)

ExtraRefined said:


> You fail to appreciate how dedicated release groups are.
> 
> The sky comparison is specious for the simple reason that Sky control the hardware - Ubisoft don't



If done correctly by Ubisoft, it would be >impossible< for hackers to prepare something that could be a working copy.


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## ExtraRefined (Apr 29, 2010)

Sunray said:


> If done correctly by Ubisoft, it would be >impossible< for hackers to prepare something that could be a working copy.



And how exactly do you imagine that would work?


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## Silva (Apr 30, 2010)

Fuck that. Last week I noticed The Settlers 7 on Game, and since it looked fine, I've came home thinking about buying it. However, most comments on the game were on that awful piece of shit DRM, and guess what.

I don't even about the game anymore. 

Any copy protection method should require a bigger hassle from the part of the "pirate" than from the paying costumer. However, this is only possible when the manufacturer has control of the hardware (consoles, mostly), like ExtraRefined said. Most other methods are just a pain in the arse - dongles, manual checks (some of them _really_ bizarre), root drivers, and now all kinds of online checks and activations. There's a reason why I've spent more money on the past few years on consoles than on PC games.


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## Sunray (Apr 30, 2010)

ExtraRefined said:


> And how exactly do you imagine that would work?



I refer you my previous post above detailing exactly how.


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## Chz (Apr 30, 2010)

debaser said:


> Bout 2 months? Not long at all. Its been cracked! SKIDROW's managed it. Big fucks to you Ubisoft.



It was playable a month ago with the server emulator, but Skidrow's done a good job of packaging something that just works out of the box. Or rarfile. Whatever.


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