Ubisoft's new DRM scheme

[Al3xand3r]

[Team Andromeda]

[Al3xand3r]

Feel free to have all the doubts you want, again, plenty of PSP games have sold good, not just MH or GTA, we've already gone through that, and PSP's popularity isn't so hot as it only currently sells better than the PS2, not the actually current systems (despite the better than PS3 install base). It's no surprise software sales aren't among the best if interest is dwindling, especially when the majority of games are like those we discussed already, and likely actually aid that loss of interest.

Give it a rest. Found out because you can't comprehend a simple sentence? And what's it to you anyway? Maybe I don't like JRPGs so much so a JRPG can never be the best game ever to me. You can call that an educated guess if you want, something every normal person can do. A game will never be 100% objectively judged after all. How does that mean anything for this discussion? But no, I never said anything about how good FFXIII is or isn't, you're just grasping at straws as usual.

[Team Andromeda]

The PSP is one of the best selling systems of all time , yet you can probably count the amount of Million plus sellers on one pair of hands , everyone knows software sales are poor , and it has massive issues with Piracy even SONY have come and said so.
You only have to go into the shops , to see the that the PSP isn't getting great retail support ( a sure sign Software sales aren't great) and the fact that the PSP GO is getting outsold by the older Model , just paints a more depressing picture .

And as for the last part , just don't say " that didn't make it the best game ever". Giving the clear impression you played it , never mind JRPG's aren't your thing now its seems . So why you like to the praise the DS and its list of RPG's, I don't know :P
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©STARWATCHER GRAPHICS INC, 1995


MADE IN JAPAN

[Al3xand3r]

The concept of hypothetical statements clearly escapes you. I also like PDS, you know, so yes, I obviously do enjoy JRPGs, at least some of them. I was simply stating you cannot know my personal preferences. And once again, I didn't say it's not the best game ever, and didn't make any comment about its quality. Even if I did, there's 99.9% chance I was right. But I didn't. I was clearly discussing the effect the budget can have on a game in relation to the same game with less money spent on it, while acknowledging money alone will not also make it a better game than other titles since development conditions will differ. This is the third or fourth time I explain this and you keep grasping at straws.

I never said PSP software sales as a whole are great, I merely said there are several titles in the history (recent history as well, like MH) of the PSP that sold great (great isn't only past the million mark depending on the title) so developers should try and figure out what made people buy those, so that future games can sell as well, instead of keep putting out titles from their c and d string teams or make questionable design choices or even questionable choices over what games should be put on the portable and then wonder why they don't sell. Plenty titles became succesful despite piracy and it's up to everyone else to try and do the same. If the software is lackluster like AC or even if it's a good game that simply doesn't appeal to the mainstream like VC then not many will buy it even if it's impossible to pirate, hence why VC didn't sell on the piracy free PS3 either, hence why VC2 didn't sell even in Japan where you claim piracy isn't a major issue.

The Go is a joke of an SKU hence it sells lower than the previous models, it has little to do with this discussion. Even Sony didn't make it to replace the older models considering they keep manufacturing and selling them alongside it. The fact it offers less but costs more is quite absurd and thankfully consumers didn't fall for it. It should also be noted that even retailers weren't all that happy with the device considering it's basically designed to take software sales from them since it can only play games downloaded from Sony, and not sold through stores. That probably had some effect in its downward spiral.

[Al3xand3r]

Just adding that Ubi's DRM has already been cracked and pirates all over the world can play Silent Hunter V (which uses the same system as AC2 will) just fine, while paying customers lose progress and get their experience interrupted every time their internet connection happens to crap out for any reason. This includes today's 1.1 patch which was also cracked within minutes of release. Resources well spent in putting off potential customers and not affecting pirates in the least. Good job. Maybe they'll some day catch up with the music industry who realised intrusive DRM doesn't work out years ago.

[D-Unit]

Ubisoft claims the pirated version of the game isn't complete, it"ll remain to be seen if that statement is true. I can imagine certain parts of the game have to be streamed and without internet connection those can't be accessed, but even if that's the case it's probably not difficult to circumvent.

[Solo]

Thanks for updates Alex and D-Unit. It will be interesting to hear what content is missing from the pirated version and how Ubisoft (and the pirates) will go about distributing this.

[D-Unit]

Seeing how people are posting Youtube videos showing the pirated version crashing at certain points, Ubisoft's statements seem to be valid. As I thought, the DRM functions very much like an MMORPG would and needs to download parts of the game. The crack disables that, but that means the game is incomplete. This probably won't be trivial to circumvent, as a crack would either have to contain the missing parts or fool the server into thinking they're running a legit copy.

[Al3xand3r]

There are conflicting reports, the game itself seems to be buggy and crashing for people with legit copies as well, while for many pirates it works. There's also been a new crack to go alongside the game's patch. There may as well be borked cracked copies distributed (even by Ubisoft), it wouldn't be the first time.

It's still different to a MMORPG. Ubi merely seem to have withheld certain content from the disc to be downloaded while you play (likely not significant content since they say a 50kb/s connection is required). It may be as simple as getting one legit copy and acquiring the files it downloads for further distribution in regards to Silent Hunter V. AC2 has been told to crash at a certain early point while for now it's being bypassed by acquiring later save points, as it's only the tutorial section that is skipped that way.

Edit: checking the comments under the most popular Silent Hunter V torrent on pirate bay it appears to be fully functional. I'm sure it will cleared up next week, but for now it seems that the people reporting issues were simply too hasty and didn't follow the exact instructions provided (which aren't anything special from the sound of it, just not the usual procedure). The game apparently needs to be run directly from the crack and not a shortcut, and for whatever reason that makes a difference. Most seem to have figured it out, but it's not like I'm gonna download it myself to verify, complaints have mostly died down while various people are posting the solution and reporting positive results.

[D-Unit]

The good news is that Ubisoft says that they might provide an offline patch if there is a 100% functional crack for the game.

[Shadow]

According to reports on Ubisoft's forums and based on GameSpot's firsthand experience with the game, the publisher is experiencing technical issues with its Online Services Platform that prevent gamers from playing Assassin's Creed II. While attempting to play the single-player campaign, GameSpot has received error messages stating that Ubi.com's online servers are down and that an accurately inputted user name and password are invalid.

Sauce: http://uk.gamespot.com/news/6253104.html

I lol'd, does this make me a dick?
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Power gives birth to ambition... and ambition to war...

[D-Unit]

This was posted on their twitter a few hours ago:

[Solo]

http://i.imgur.com/rGN4K.gif

[Al3xand3r]

:P