Ubi offers DLC to compensate for DRM

By Ellie Gibson Published 26 March, 2010

But ACII Black Edition owners not happy.

Ubisoft is said to be offering compensation to gamers who experienced problems with its controversial digital rights management system.

According to posts on the company's official forums, Assassin's Creed II owners are being sent the following message: "Following the recent temporary game server outages which may have caused disruption to some Assassin's Creed 2 players on PC only, we would like to reward your patience if you have experienced any problems by offering you some additional content - previously only available with special editions."

The content is comprised of maps previously only available with the premium Black Edition of the game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, those who shelled out for the Black Edition and therefore own the content anyway are not too happy.

"It seems those who own the Black Edition are being compensated by receiving the Black Edition DLC," one poster wrote. "Surely wouldn't hurt to give your more loyal customers (BE owners) something a bit more useful than content we already paid extra for at launch."

Another poster claims to have been offered a full free game, from a choice of Hawx, Heroes Over Europe, EndWar and Prince of Persia. This is yet to be corroborated, however.

Ubisoft's new DRM system requires users to be online at all times while playing its games. The recent problems affected both Assassin's Creed II and Silent Hunter 5, and were attributed to an attack on Ubi's servers.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • Segnit #1 2 years ago

    Please drop Draconian DRM. That is all.

  • matrim83 #2 2 years ago

    How about you compensate for it by getting rid of it you fucktards.

  • Segnit #3 2 years ago

    Matrim83 expressed it much more eloquently I think.

  • bad09 #4 2 years ago

    Such a shame, I really do fancy Silent Hunter 5 and AC2 would of been a launch day buy. The DRM isn't going anywhere as they technically did beat the pirates (for a while at least, apparently there are ways to get 'em working fully now, if a little complicated).

    Oh well, at least I get to play a 2nd hand AC2 on a 360 in a few weeks. Still a shame I really want to support the devs on AC as I love the first and sure I'll love the 2nd.

  • dingo75 #5 2 years ago

    A Silent Hunter 5 buyer in the US got a "Metaboli" download code for either
    Shaun White Snowboarding or Prince of Persia.

    Ironically both games have ZERO DRM and their shit sales were used by Ubi to justify DRM
    (regardless that simply no one bought those games because they sucked).

    I think they are really funny down at Ubisoft HQ.

  • SYS64738 #6 2 years ago

    Shaun White Snowboarding eh. Adding insult to injury.

  • RobotRocker #7 2 years ago

    So when everything else fails? Try bribery?

    Good job Ubi, good job.

  • ignatiusjreilly #8 2 years ago

    Setting themselves a dangerous precedent here. There will be more outages, both for these games and others, and soon they will run out of free hats to give away.

    Either start building a fund to compensate with cash when the games are unplayable, or just admit that this is gonna happen and tell your customers that it's a by-product of the DRM and they will just have to put up with it.

  • SYS64738 #9 2 years ago

    More outages could be a good thing for Ubi.

    At least they could get rid of their Shaun White/Prince of Persia stockpiles without harming the environment.

  • jambo74 #10 2 years ago

    The next time at work where you put in you all on a project only for some new 'joker' to walk in and take all the credit & your bonus - remember what you all typed here.

  • ignatiusjreilly #11 2 years ago

    The next time at work where you put in you all on a project only for some new 'joker' to walk in and take all the credit & your bonus

    I will have the 'joker' fired, plus all other employees of the company. They may not have done anything this time, but let's face it - all employees are potential credit-stealers.

  • _tangent #12 2 years ago

    @jambo74: I wish people would stop falsely equating complaints about an unreasonable DRM system which unfairly restricts customers, with an advocacy of piracy. Developers trying to protect themselves from theft is perfectly understandable, but not when such protection comes at the customers' expense.
    Edited by 1 at 26/03/10 @ 10:55

  • tiny_Eggy #13 2 years ago

    Although it's a gesture made with good intentions it will only further anger the people that have bought the special edition. I'm sure they still have some DLC in the pipeline, they should have given that away for free.

  • henben #14 2 years ago

    It should be "The content comprises maps...", not "is comprised of". You can say "is composed of". Remember the informative rhyme: "If the word has an R, using 'of' won't get you far."

  • septimus #15 2 years ago

    Attributed to an attack.... an attack of games connecting so they are allowed to play.

    Convenient bullshit excuse for a rubbish drm system not geared up for the load.

  • jambo74 #16 2 years ago

    @_tangent

    Simple, don't buy the game - you have a choice.

    If People keep buying, DRM stays.

  • KillerMonkey #17 2 years ago

    No thanks Ubisoft, I'll spend my money elsewhere...
    Plenty of other great games out now that don't have shit DRM.

  • webcider #18 2 years ago

    Hah what a bummer from Ubisoft this is a total joke :D

    "Ohh we fucked up, here get some crap from us to enjoy while we fuck up the next game" Haha totally woth a news spot ^^

  • Nightster #19 2 years ago

    It's hard but I'm not going to buy any new Ubisoft titles until they relent on this ridiculous drm scheme. It will be second hand or not at all. If there's any EA style money grabbing "Project 10 Dollar" bullshit then goodbye Ubisoft.

  • Slipstream #20 2 years ago

    The whole idea seems overly ambitious and expectant. We surely can't be expected to maintain a connection for a single player game? This whole, constant connection thing is wholly disruptive, ill-thought and judging by your consumers; glaring issues, unessasary.