POP and Shaun White for PC DRM-free

By Tom Bramwell Published 22 December, 2008

Ubisoft confirms.

Ubisoft has confirmed that two of its most recent PC releases have gone on sale in shops without any form of digital rights management software (DRM).

"I can confirm that Prince of Persia and Shaun White Snowboarding on PC do not include DRM but we have no further comment to make," a spokesperson told Eurogamer today.

The move - first spotted in POP - had surprised PC gamers, who had argued against the measures in both Assassin's Creed and Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

When POP was found to be DRM-free, community developer Chris Easton said, "A lot of people complain that DRM is what forces people to pirate games but as POP PC has no DRM we'll see how truthful people actually are."

There's no word yet on the piracy rate of either game relative to their DRM'd-up contemporaries, but expect the results to be interesting when they do emerge a few months down the line.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • kangarootoo #1 3 years ago

    "A lot of people complain that DRM is what forces people to pirate games but as POP PC has no DRM we'll see how truthful people actually are."

    Well I suppose we will.

    /already knows the answer

  • DFawkes #2 3 years ago

    Indeed, these are the best games to trial this on, because the majority of people with a console will buy it on PC. In opposite land.

    I still admire what they're trying, but if it doesn't sell well they'll cry "Pirates!". If it sells well they'll cry "Pirates! Would've sold more without them!". Do it with a game best played on PC (an RTS for example) would be fairer.

  • kangarootoo #3 3 years ago

    There are more reliable ways of gauging piracy than just looking at sales. It isn't tough for those in the know to count torrent seeds and measure other peer-to-peer distribution networks. They will be able to literally see how many people are pirating these games, and put those figures alongside known sales, to get a pretty accurate picture of things.

    I honestly think Ubisoft want to know the balance of things. They don't just want to sit there and cry "Pirates!" on some kind of principle. I think they would much rather see that people AREN'T pirating the games, just as they said they would.

    Some publishers are starting to realise that DRM is really bad PR at the moment, and they are trying other solutions. In that regard Ubi should be applauded for taking the risk on a new avenue, rather than simply nailing twice as many planks to the window like EA.

    And if this experiement shows that pirates will still download the games regardless of DRM (as I firmly believe they will), they only have themselves to blame when the PC games scene turns into the Mary Celeste and they have no choice but to buy a console or stop gaming altogether (the kangarootoo prediction engine gives it 4 years if things don't change).

  • PearOfAnguish #4 3 years ago

    "(the kangarootoo prediction engine gives it 4 years if things don't change)."

    Nah, PC games have been pirated for decades and they still sell a healthy number of games. If piracy could kill a system the DS would have died a long time ago.

  • kangarootoo #5 3 years ago

    But the PC was the primary gaming platform for decades. That is no longer the case. As gaming becomes more and more mainstream, consoles become more and more the platform of choice. PC gaming is already on the decline, and in minority numbers compared to the consoles, and a new publisher pulls out of PC gaming every month.

    The DS has a massive installed base that allows it to absorb the piracy. The PC platform simply does not.

    And right now, as in today, PC games are NOT selling in healthy numbers. Just ask Ubisoft, or Epic, or EA. The only people doing ok are those with security built into their model (WoW and Steam, to name but 2).

  • Bitkari #6 3 years ago

    It would help if Ubisoft sold their games on Steam (in Europe).

  • kangarootoo #7 3 years ago

    Absolutely. There are a few other online PC game delivery systems out there - don't know how they compare to Steam. They are one potential future for the platform. I'm all for DLC, so that would suit me to the ground (if I still played PC games).

  • Ryze #8 3 years ago

    All this will do, is encourage those who can run the game, and who like the game to buy the game instead of avoid if they've been burnt by dodgy DRM in the past.

    It wont make any difference to the serial pirates, or to people torrenting to try them out - especially as they're technically demanding using the Ass Creed engine.

  • theloz #9 3 years ago

    I think it's a bold move and Ubisoft should be applauded. I wasn't terribly interested in this game, but when I heard about the missing DRM, I demanded it for Christmas. I hope you ungrateful bastards will support Ubi in doing this!

  • Melan #10 3 years ago

    Kind of hope they really will sell well. I quite like the three other POPs, but i think i will finish them first. Im one of these cheap ass games who waits to buy the games until the hit the budget line/bargain bin.

    And i also hope they and other publisher will not use these "tests" ass an excuse from her and until doomday, that drm free games is not selling ass well as they could have been.

    On last thing. I hate the publichers whining. If they believe that the PC is dying and only deserve shoddy bug ridden ports. Then get the hell out of the PC gaming business. Somebody else will be able to make PC games and be profitable. There is a market maybe not as big as the console market, but nevertheless a market.

  • rodpad #11 3 years ago

    DRM forces people to crack their games, not pirate.

    Stupid nonces.

  • Farfarer #12 3 years ago

    Rigged test. Sod them.

  • kangarootoo #13 3 years ago

    "DRM forces people to crack their games, not pirate.
    Stupid nonces."

    Well this will maybe test that theory. Personally I think it is a rubbish excuse made up by pirates. And also, nothing is forcing anybody to do anything. If you don't like the product, you could always simply not buy or play it.


    "Rigged test. Sod them."

    In what POSSIBLE way could this be described as a "rigged test"? Seriously.
    Edited by 1 at 22/12/08 @ 12:37

  • kangarootoo #14 3 years ago

    It actually seems to me as if someone don't like this move by Ubi, because it calls them out. It risks showing that pirates pirate games regardless of DRM, and they do so simply to avoid paying for them.

    At least have the balls to just say that is the case. When people make up feeble excuses it just makes them look a bit simple.

  • Melan #15 3 years ago

    No drm=a good thing. Cant we all agree on that one?

  • ChrisOTR #16 3 years ago

    Great! Now, if you wanted the game, people, BUY IT!

  • tinyspark #17 3 years ago

    I can see POP being pirated heavily since it was fairly poorly reviewed on the consoles, anyone intrigued by it before the reviews came out might be tempted to download a freebie version rather than waste cash on a poor game.

  • muscleblade #18 3 years ago

    @tinyspark:

    What are you talking about. POP got great console reviews.

  • kangarootoo #19 3 years ago

    "anyone intrigued by it before the reviews came out might be tempted to download a freebie version rather than waste cash on a poor game."

    /raises eyebrow

    Again, I just see this as a bit of an excuse. If you had just stopped at "...tempted to download a freebie version." you would have hit the nail on the head.

    I don't want to sound like I'm trying to be the pope or anything here. My hands aren't completely clean. I come from a generation that swapped ZX Spectrum tapes like they were football stickers. I've owned a chipped XB in my time as well. I don't pirate games any more, but my music collection is probably larger than my CD collection (swapping rather than downloads, though that is neither here nor there).

    Pirates download extremely good games just as often, if not more often, as they download poor ones. And they do so because it means that they don't have to pay for them.

    That is it. Its no more complex than that. There is NO moral high ground to be claimed and nobody is EVER fooled by attempts to do so.

  • sneetch #20 3 years ago

    @Bitkari
    "It would help if Ubisoft sold their games on Steam (in Europe)."

    They probably will soon, now that they can ream us in Euros and Sterling.

  • StooMonster #21 3 years ago

    If the piracy rate is the same with and without DRM then Ubisoft can save money by not using SecuROM etal and make their games DRM free and therefore more directly profitable because of no licensing fees, and slightly more profitable through indirect means such as reduced cost of testing and support.

    If the piracy rate is the same it means no DRM creates more shareholder value, which means it should be a no-brainer for Ubisoft's management. :)

  • Nodebug #22 3 years ago

    @StooMonster

    Thats a very very good point.

  • kangarootoo #23 3 years ago

    "If the piracy rate is the same it means no DRM creates more shareholder value"

    What exactly does that mean?


    And also, you forgot to include the scenario where piracy increases as a result of the removal of DRM. That is of course a possibility.

  • paketep #24 3 years ago

    @kangarootoo: probably, sales will increase as a result of the removal of DRM.

    They will sell the same they would have with the DRM

    plus

    the sales usually lost to users who refuse to support DRM (count me in)

    plus

    the sales to users who don't really care about the game and want to support this move (count me in also).

    Piracy will stay the same, though. The pirates will pirate it just the same, DRM or no DRM. Those that don't want to pay, won't pay. An publishers thinking otherwise are just making our lives miserable for nothing.

    The only bad thing about this is that PoP has been released at the worst time, so it's possible that it doesn't sell that much. I fear that Ubi will use that as a excuse to say "See?. It didn't sell enough!".

    In any case, I hope the idiot that decided to call the game just "Prince of Persia" gets a kick in the ass. There is only ONE Prince of Persia.
    Edited by 1 at 22/12/08 @ 19:07

  • tinyspark #25 3 years ago

    @ muscleblade

    6/10 on here and 5/10 in Edge. Hardly glowing. To be fair those are the only reviews i've seen but thems the ones i trust. We are talking about the new one aren't we and not Sands of Time? Now THAT was a good game, didnt care much for the sequels.

    @ kangarootoo

    No disagreement there, i wasn't saying that bad reviews justifies illegal downloads, just saying that its more likely to happen to a poorly reviewed game that happens to have no DRM.

  • Discalceaterabbit #26 3 years ago

    PoP has been universally slated in the gaming press (if you ignore IGN). To me this seems like a revenue increasing exercise (hmm, how can we get people to buy our steaming pile, I know, lets remove the DRM on this monumental turd. Hopefully the anti DRM brigade will show support for our new stance by buying a game that they would otherwise have avoided like they would Vanessa Feltz at a gang bang.

  • UncleLou #27 3 years ago

    PoP has been universally slated in the gaming press (if you ignore IGN).

    Er, it has a Metacritic average score of 86. That's not exactly what I call "universally slated".

  • djed #28 3 years ago

    "A lot of people complain that DRM is what forces people to pirate games but as POP PC has no DRM we'll see how truthful people actually are."