Does DRM really work? I've always believed that the people who pirate games never intended to purchase them. It seems to always be the case that DRM hurts the consumer.

I avoid this whole issue by not buying or playing Ubisoft games.

I don't think any DRM is uncrackable. Are there any games that haven't been cracked by pirates? Every once in a while you'll hear a funny story about "wacky" anti-pirating measures like phsyics-breaking Batman in Arkham Asylum, but even those don't stop people for long. I'd like to say "if games were cheaper, people wouldn't pirate them", but I know that's not the case. Even cheap $5 games get pirated. I think publishers are aiming for an unattainable goal.

I think it's a principle thing for some people.  "I should not have to ask Valve to play my boxed game purchase."  I mean I get that... imagine having to ask Warner Bros. before you watch Bladerunner on a Saturday night, it's a little hinky.  That said on the PC no one can really take your games away, the open nature of the platform means someone will always get those DRM'd games working down the line if there is no official means.  Just like there are mods and tweaks that get old games like Thief to run well on Win7 there will be mods, tweaks and hacks to get Portal 2 running on Win16 if need be.  That's just the nature of the platform and one of its main benefits.  Personally for me buying content on Xbox Live or PSN, closed systems that will be shut down someday, is a LOT worse.

Glad I bought Bastion over this. I was actually looking forward to playing From Dust but all this talk about it being a poor port has put me off, unfortunately.

Question, do you need Live to run any games you downloaded from live? Like From Dust. I haven't bought games from it, just some DLC things for Fallout 3 and NV, so I'm not sure how that works with full games.

I bought Settlers 7 a little while after it was released. At first I didn' have any problems with the DRM, but two months later I moved to a different country to attend a University. This year I have lived on campus and for some reason the Uni had decided to block all online gaming on the school network, making it impossible for me to start up the game.
So there I sat, more than a little frustrated that I couldn't play a game that I had legitimately bought in a store.
 
I'm sure that a lot of people have been in the same situation as me, and I don't understand how Ubi fails to realise that they are pushing their customers away. Their "War on Piracy" ends up punishing legitimate buyers even more than the pirates. People will always find ways to crack games and can enjoy them as they want, while the buyers are left with rediculous restrictions. Does that seem right to them?

I only bought From Dust because I believed their bullshit about it don't having DRM. I won't fall for that next time. 

THis is BullShit We Should RIOT

"The key phrase here is "for that session," whereas Ubisoft's original statement suggested "no sessions.""
 
Ehhh ... not really. At least that's not how I read it. I read it as logging in each session. It doesn't make sense otherwise. I can see how it could be misread, but I don't think the statement necessarily implies what is suggested here. I know gamers don't like this, but Ubi said that it was doing this on a case-by-case basis. I can imagine some frustration, but the over-the-top anger about this seems a bit silly to me.
 
"That said, Ubisoft has no one to blame but themselves for this situation."
 
Ehhh ... again, no. Gamers asked for clarification, and got it. They didn't like what they heard. I like the sly justification offered by Klepek for the torrenting of the game, though. Never realizing, of course, that that's the point of the DRM in the first place. Everyone knows that Ubi is going to use this sort of DRM on games. It's not a surprise. Hell, it's not even inconvenient. People are bitching about the principle of the thing, not that it actually causes them any difficulty. Ubi knows this, which is why they haven't backed down on the DRM.

@zaglis said:

Yeah, I dunno. Magicka sold like 800k copies. Awful for a 10$ niche digital-only game, right?

800k? Sweet, didn't hear about that. I know Torchlight did over a million before the XBLA version.

This release has MANY more issues that shitty Ubisoft DRM. I mean a crack can easily circumvent the DRM, but there's nothing short of an official patch to fix the frame rate cap and control issues and overall "console backwash" this port reeks of.

@Buzzkill said:

Another reason to stick with Steam over Origin. Valve is a company for gamers who stopped a scumbag publisher. +1 Valve

What the fuck does this have to do with Origin? Jesus Christ, internet, I swear.....

Too bad more companies don't think about DRM and piracy like Team Meat.

Another reason to stick with Steam over Origin. Valve is a company for gamers who stopped a scumbag publisher. +1 Valve

DRM is lame indeed but what's worse is the quality of the ports they give us. Remember the Double Agent port?.. Phahahaha, Ubisoft, stop trying to make PC games.  You've already broke my heart :'(

@jrlyon: Just to contrast your horrible experience with steam with my own great experience I thought id share my recent story. I just got a new computer, so EVERYTHING has changed, yet all I had to do to get my 200+ gigs of games working on my new computer was copy over the steam directory.. Afterwards every game I started either worked immediately or after updating a couple files.. contrast that with reinstalling 200+ gigs of games or even worse, re-downloading them. That's one of the many reasons why I love steam. I've only ever had maybe 2 issues with steam, Once it failed to update and I had to rename the Steam.new to steam.exe and it was fixed. I can't even remember the other issue it was so minor... I've been with steam since they forced us to switch over from WON.net for half-life 1, so I've been around :-)

@digitalsea87: I think it's two things. The feeling that you're being restricted because of something you didn't do and not having the power to still play your game in the case that anything ever happens to ubisoft's servers or to your own internet connection.

I'm okay with always-on DRM in games. Sorry gamers, but freeloaders ruined it for everyone.
 
I'm NOT okay with a dev saying something in certainty then not delivering on that thing, like what Ubisoft has clearly done, even though I have zero interest in From Dust.

Honestly, a ton of the people who would more than likely be playing this will be somewhere that internet is accessible. Therefore, I still kind of feel like the "always-on DRM" that people are bitching about is just internet bitching happening because it's the internet and people will rage.

HOWEVER, Ubisoft not being clear and/or lying about the policy is pretty fucked. Beyond that, the increase in internet hacking for different accounts would definitely make me as a consumer weary of being online at all times with a game. That seems like a hacker's heaven.

Either way, I'll keep playing it on Xbox 360. It's perfectly fine on there, and from what I am to believe, the game is more stable on there anyways.

@Axelhander: So you're fine even if it doesn't actually stop piracy at all?

@brianbeatdown: Couldn't of said it better my friend!

DRM + Shitty port = more piracy, now and in the future. Congratulations Ubisoft, you just shot yourself in the dick.

I hate the DRM but it's something I can live with. The rumors about the PC version being a crappy port are a real bummer for me. Brad was talking about how the game is great but would benefit from more precise controls (and I love this genre of games) so I pre-purchased on Steam. I feel really cheated (even though I have myself to blame for pre-purchasing like a sucker).

""On one torrent search engine site alone, there are nearly 2,000 players downloading a "cracked" version of From Dust. Piracy would happen anyway, but it's easy to see how much of that would be fueled by From Dust unexpectedly having DRM.""  Laughable comment really trying to put forth that piracy is fueled by wanting to bypass DRM...when its fueld by wanting to get the game free exclusively.

You know, that tsunami shot on the top of the page - having finished the game on the PC I have never seen the tsunamis look that good. Basically looking like it is a wave that is about to crash down. I guess that this must have been one lucky screengrab.

" Vocal concerns over this type of DRM, principle aside, stem from an incident where hackers brought Ubisoft's authentication servers down, stopping some users from playing Assassin's Creed II." 
 
Wait hold up, I thought the incident was that Ubisoft's servers couldn't handle the large volume of gamers trying to connect to play the game and it crashed, since when did hackers have to do with it?

@Spekingur: I was looking at that too and I'm pretty sure it's gotta be concept art.

If you don't like the DRM policy of Ubisoft then don't buy the game or indeed any of their games.

Typical Ubisoft. 
 
Still waiting for Beyond Good and Evil 2...

I mean we all understand that if it weren't for pirates that this wouldn't be happening.  
 
I'm glad that devs chose to try and impliment a DRM rather than just ending PC development completely. However, if they can't realize that pirates don't have to deal with DRM and paying customers do... 
 
I suspect UbiSoft will not be making PC games in a few years. Half-Life Three will bring a rise in popularity to PC gaming, just like HL2 did, but it might die out after. 
 
It's sad because Steam only just came to Mac recently, so I've only just been introduced to the world of BioShock, Amnesia, etc. Not to mention my favorite games (Infinity Engine AD&D!) Baldur's Gate and IceWind dale are all on PC.

I got this and am super-frustrated with this DRM. One of the only times I've regretted my purchase greatly.

360 it is then. 

@Rockanomics: Yeah, it probably is. The game isn't far off though. It's a pretty looking game and frankly, I can't wait for From Dust 2 announcement :p

That is the EXACT same message Steam gave me when I tried to get a refund. Personally, I have  no problem with the DRM, but rather the poor job of porting it to PC. I'd like to get my money back so I can purchase the 360 version, but emails to both Ubi and Steam have yielded no results.

@PuppyKisses said:

Typical Ubisoft. Still waiting for Beyond Good and Evil 2...

Have fun with that. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited too, but at the rate Ubisoft is going, I can't imagine that game is high on their priority list assuming it's on there at all.

I don't buy UBI soft games any more as for the drop in Piracy, easy access and crazy sales make games more accessible through places like steam. EA is coping UBI soft too. I get back from work load up a game (EA products) via PC or Xbox360 and get a message can not connect to server so you cant play the game you bought ...... DRM can be done better but as long as Big Companies push horrible barriers to entry then gamers are going to not buy your shit..... be it game or tag lines about not having an active connection to play the game. Another example is when I bought front lines fuels of war for some reason the Disc read .... error put disc in tray and press enter. apparently the DRM was not set up for windows 7 64bit I bought the game and couldn't play it when I finally get to play I fined the game weak....

I purchased a legal copy of from dust and spent the weekend with friends in another city. They've just moved in (no internet). So, I couldn't run the game that I just purchased on my laptop. I'd have loved to show them.

Yeah, there will be internet in this apartment soon, and this situation rarely happens. I get it. But, it's disheartening. I legitimately paid for the game and I'm one of the ones really getting punished for it.

The entire concept of this DRM is shooting yourself in the foot. Sure Ubisoft has a right to do it. But it will never cause better sales, rather worse. For various reasons:

- It does not stop piracy. In fact it will make the pirated copy the superior one as you won't need to be online to play that one.

- It punishes honest consumers.

- It makes the collectability of a game useless. Aside from the pirated copy there is no urge to collect this type of game for collectors. Since it will stop working when Ubisoft pulls the plug. While perhaps not the biggest market, there are a significant amount of people who choose to buy original games not just because 'it's the right thing to do', but also because they are collectors. Their motivation will be a lot lower with this type of DRM.

I've taken dumps that could make better decisions than whoever is responsible for these moves over at Ubisoft.

An RTS port to the pc that has a shitty framerate and shitty controls on a mouse. Throw some shitty DRM in, is there really any fucking suprise here that pc gamers are pissed off?

Doesn't even sound worth pirating.

They only fucked themself when they went on the whole assassins creed 2 rampage, with their "UNHACKABLE DRM". Surely they went from say a 10 percent piracy to 75 percent piracy rate for that assfoolery. Just fucking accept that a percentage of pc gamers wont pay for your game under any circumstance and move the fuck on - Most of these piraters are seasoned veterans of gaming and if you dont fuck them around and offer a decent product they will purchase the fuck out of it. Have a look at how well battlefield bad company 2 sold on pc. And that was broken as fuck when it came out on pc.

I Wish Ubisoft would just learn to roll with the punches like everyone else. 
 
Skidrow cracked from dust before it even hit shelves. 
 
  Modern Warfare 2 was Pirated more times than it was actually bought. you know why? Because they we're angry about Dedicated servers. 

This is what happens when you anger the community. They got the Dragon Age 2 Treatment, and they deserved it.

Another reason I amm glad I play console games!

Ubisoft has lost a sale from me. I almost picked this up on Steam until I learned about their bullshit DRM scheme and even worse how poorly optimised this game is for PC. Lazy lazy lazy liars!

Do people really have computers that aren't connected to the Internet? What do they use them for? Playing King's Quest?

This is just the worst way of doing it, my internet's been going up and down lately (fixed it now like) but that would absolutely wreck my game play with this.

ubisoft continue to be shitty. shocking.

I think the poor port with terrible controls and bad frame rates are possibly even worse than the DRM.