Ubisoft kills always-on PC DRM - report

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 4 January, 2011

Controversial system bites the dust.

Ubisoft appears to have stopped forcing PC gamers to maintain an internet connection while playing its games.

Gamers on Reddit (via PC Gamer) noticed the PC versions of Assassin's Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction were playable with web connections turned off – and took screenshots to prove it.

In the past a dropped internet connection would cause Ubisoft's PC games to pause. That no longer appears to be the case. However, as is standard practice, an internet connection is still required to validate the game install every time it is booted up.

Ubisoft's controversial DRM launched with The Settlers 7 last April, but was scrapped for the release of the PC version of real-time strategy game RUSE.

Last year Ubisoft's online verification servers suffered digital attacks, which prevented thousands of gamers from playing their games.

In January Ubisoft claimed the goal of its then new PC anti-piracy solution was to "provide added value" and "enrich the gaming experience".

"We know this choice is controversial but we feel is justified by the gameplay advantages offered by the system and because most PCs are already connected to the internet," said the company.

"This platform also offers protection against piracy, an important business element for Ubisoft and for the PC market in general as piracy has an important impact on this market.

"Any initiative that allows us to lower the impact of piracy on our PC games will also allow us to concentrate further effort on the creation and expansion of our intellectual properties for the PC - our goal is to deliver the best gaming experience to our customers."

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (32) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Shakey_Jake33 #1 1 year ago

    Great. Now, if they'd of announced this whilst the Steam Christmas sales were going on, a lot more people (myself included) might have bought it. Seems like a missed opportunity.

  • levitate #2 1 year ago

    I wouldn't touch Ubisoft's games with pliers as long as that DRM is being used. The road to hell is filled with good intentions and this "solution" is one of them.

  • arcam #3 1 year ago

    However, as is standard practice, an internet connection is still required to validate the game install every time it is booted up.

    Standard practice? By whose standards?

    And it's pretty disappointing that Eurogamer can't just pull the internet cable out of a computer to test this, rather than relying on screenshots taken a week ago on Reddit. PC gaming coverage on this site sucks.
    Edited by arcam at 04/01/11 @ 10:00

  • apoc_reg #4 1 year ago

    If they were gonna cave and sort this out why did they allow all the bad publicity to ruin the launches *facepalm of death*

  • bad09 #5 1 year ago

    There seems to be confusion as to whats happened as the press report varying things, and of course gamers friend Ubi are silent.

    It's likely they have not killed it but this it the new DRM in on the older titles we already know about. Basically you only need to activate your legally bought video game you own each time you load it. If your connection goes screwy you won't get booted out. As far as we know it only applies to older titles not new releases and only when gamers friend Ubi secretly decide it's worth giving legal gamers some slack on their chain.

    You are still chained to the internet on legally bought video games you own and are still powerless to play your legally bought video games you own if you have connection problems.

    Keep up the boycott of gamers friend Ubi people, it's nowhere near enough. Single player games rendered useless with no internet connection need to die just like the wankers pushing them.
    Edited by bad09 at 04/01/11 @ 10:09

  • Shakey_Jake33 #6 1 year ago

    @bad09 - It's basically the old door-in-the-face technique, isn't it.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the...

  • space_ace #7 1 year ago

    this news will make us pause and reconsider :)

  • Ryuken #8 1 year ago

    However, as is standard practice, an internet connection is still required to validate the game install every time it is booted up.

    Euh, people went crazy about such a thing when EA first proposed it for Mass Effect 1 on PC and EG think it's standard practice now? An online authentication when installing the game is (unfortunately) standard practice yes, NOT authenticating every time you launch the game itself. That is still as dumb and restricting as ever and still rightly deserves a boycot.

    And afaik the DRM is still like draconian old times for Settlers 7 or other Ubisoft titles btw. Some actuall follow-up on this from journalists contacting Ubisoft would be appropriate, why would they only remove the permanent online part of their DRM for Conviction and AssCreed 2? Because it takes too many bandwidth? Just thinking out loud here.
    Edited by Ryuken at 04/01/11 @ 10:25

  • scoobydooX64 #9 1 year ago

    UBI need to worry about other things like recent PS3 piracy.Oh.........Console gaming piracy outstrip PC gaming piracy in a way develops haven't imagined.

  • bad09 #10 1 year ago

    Oh by the way everyone just a reminder on the effectiveness of Ubi on stopping pirates with this nonsense, they (the ones the DRM is supposedly protecting us poor PC gamers from) actually play Ubi games with NO chain around their neck. Yes "steal" the game and you get a better experience.

    Now THAT is how you combat piracy folks, GO UBI \o/

  • mkreku #11 1 year ago

    Geez, wish I had known that when they sold Assassin's Creed 2 for cheap on Steam.. The annoying DRM is actually what stopped me!

  • Spekingur #12 1 year ago

    Don't you have to activate your copy of Starcraft 2 online to be able to play it?

    Btw, this new DRM does not seem to be active yet on Settlers 7 but seems to be active on Assassin's Creed 2 and Splinter Cell. For Settlers 7 it's the 'always-on' method.

  • Salaminizer #13 1 year ago

    when it goes cheap again I might get AC2 or Conviction then, and I'll let them know that I bought it because they removed the "always connected" thing. but with the sale that just ended I bet that it will take some time for the next one...

  • FutileResistor #14 1 year ago

    As bad09 points out there has been no official word from Ubisoft that they have dropped always-on DRM.

    Always-on DRM on single player titles means that people on the move with laptops, netbooks or otherwise do not have internet access cannot play the game they have bought.

    The launch-game check may seem to be better but it really isn't. If I don't have access to the internet, for example, I've just moved house, I cannot play the games I have bought. This is completely unacceptable.

    The only acceptable response from Ubisoft is to drop both always-on and launch-game check from all titles and to officially announce this. Until then everyone should carry on boycotting Ubisoft's PC titles.

    Pirating the titles is not the answer, apart from being morally wrong, Ubisoft just points at all the piracy and carries on with their always-on drm idiocy.

    If you must play a Ubisoft title get it on the consoles. If the game you want is not on console. Well, nobody said it would be easy. Write to Ubisoft and explain to them exactly why you have not bought their latest PC title.

    If we don't stand firm all publishers will start doing this.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #15 1 year ago

    I'm still hoping they will patch the Steam version at some point to remove the DRM from that game as well. Steam offers more than enough protection against piracy and I will happily buy it, like I do with so many other titles.

    At least new titles will dial it down a bit; Online activation at install does not bother me at all.

  • dingo75 #16 1 year ago

    Settlers 7 still dies when the internet connection is cut for more than 5-10 min.

    Apart from that Ubi doesn't matter on the PC anymore.
    Their share of all published titles on all platforms crashed down from 13% to 6% according to figures released in Q3 2010.
    Ubi made itself obsolete on the PC well done Yves!

  • FutileResistor #17 1 year ago

    Online activation is a battle long lost. It doesn't affect many people but there is a tiny fraction of people who have PCs which are not connected to the internet. Online activation was the first step to what eventually became always on.

    I seem to remember reading something like 40% of PS3 owners have never gone online with their console so Ubisoft would never dream of using always-online for their console titles.

    Dressing up always-online as a benefit to PC users was the funniest PR spin of 2010.

  • Haloboy #18 1 year ago

    And yet many still believe console piracy to be a minor issue. You have to laugh.

  • bad09 #19 1 year ago

    "Online activation is a battle long lost."

    Yeah the consumer lost out and now online activation is the norm, but online activation EVERY time you play is not a battle lost yet. With none of the protection against times with no internet connection (offered to pirates for free) it's a battle we can't lose either so do your part people vote with your wallets.

    Pirating won't win, and cracking will only prolong the war with these fools who step on us constantly and lets finally start fighting back as consumers. I know I'm getting to the point where I'd rather not play games at all than support these increasingly hostile companies.

  • sneetch #20 1 year ago

    @bad09
    Keep up the boycott of gamers friend Ubi people, it's nowhere near enough.

    Sadly true, oh well, I've gone a year without Ubisoft games and I can carry on. Pity, I'd pick up Settlers today if they actually removed it.

  • Darren #21 1 year ago

    There's nothing wrong IMO with using a DRM system that validates the game online at start up but it was a stupid idea to force constant online checking for single player only games such as Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Assassin's Creed II. Although I didn't have any real problems with the former, the latter was plagued with issues for the first week or two with constant disconnections, extremely long logging in times and the game even exiting to the desktop suddenly and without any warning losing whatever progress I'd made. Very frustrating for people like myself who'd paid good money for the game.

  • bad09 #22 1 year ago

    @sneetch

    Over this last year I turned my nose up at so much Ubi both old and new games, it would actually turn out very expensive for me if their suits did suddenly grow a brain so it's probably for the best now they don't! :)

  • Alestes #23 1 year ago

    @17, yeah, it's unfortunate, but true. The online activation is a battle long lost, and I really despise Valve for starting with it. Before Half-Life 2 there were no single player games that required online activations, HL2 is what started it all, the rest has only been a natural snowball effect.

    Valve is good for PC gaming? Pffft, they are the destroyers of PC gaming.
    Edited by Alestes at 21/01/11 @ 03:57

  • EthanWoods #24 1 year ago

    @Alestes

    You have to activate your games once on Steam, big deal - they've never taken it any further than that, AND they provide a crap load of services that far outweigh what you'd have to pay for on XBL, and what any other publisher offers.

    We give a tiny bit, they give a tonne back (and at delicious prices too).

    If you believe no one else would have suggested online activation pretty soon then I think you're kidding yourself.

  • Rack #25 1 year ago

    I'm confused, could the buyers of the affected software launch a class action against ubisoft for getting rid of the "added value" this DRM provides? They'll have to pause their own game when the Internet goes down now.

  • Keivz #26 1 year ago

    I played through retail copies of both AC:2 and SC:C without any problems. I remain surprised by the number of complaints. You'd think online multiplayer was a more of a concept rather than a current standard. Stable internet is the norm here in the US, though, and hardly anyone plays these games on the go.

  • arcam #27 1 year ago

    @Rack

    Agreed! How dare they stop enriching my gaming experience without even telling me? What about the gameplay advantages of the Ubi's DRM? I don't want to lose those.

  • SEVQA #28 1 year ago

    @Scotty269

    The PC is still the single largest platform for games!

  • InvisibleCrane #29 1 year ago

    "Fuck off Ubisoft"

    Oh come on now, Ubisoft does something that should make all you hard to please people happy and you still complain?!?...I'm going to facepalm now

  • arcam #30 1 year ago

    Ubisoft are still using the most anti-consumer DRM that has ever been seen in the games industry - this should make us happy?

    They've been pissing in the face of gamers for over a year and now we should cheer because it's slowed to a trickle?

  • bad09 #31 1 year ago

    @EthanWoods

    To be fair steam is no angel on the DRM front, if you suddenly lose internet offline mode can fail to kick in locking you out of installed and activated games. Happened to me recently with a busted ethernet on my motherboard so I no longer consider Steam for new retail, only cheapo sale stuff while back to boxed hoping steamworks is used less.

  • Spekingur #32 1 year ago

    I'm pretty sure that there was talk about an always-on feature in Battle.net before Starcraft 2 got released. Am I remembering something wrong?

    Of, Blizzard ain't Ubisoft - and everything Blizzard does is okay. Right?