AfterDawn: Tech news

New 'Splinter Cell' title will include Ubisoft 'always connected' DRM, as well

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 02 Mar 2010 6:48 User comments (24)

New 'Splinter Cell' title will include Ubisoft 'always connected' DRM, as well Last month we reported that Ubisoft had begun implementing a new DRM scheme into their PC games, making it so gamers must be always connected to the Internet, or not be able to play the game. If you are ever disconnected from the Internet, you are forced back to the main menu, losing any progress you made between save points.
Today, Softpedia is reporting that the DRM scheme has been confirmed for Splinter Cell: Conviction, Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic, Assassin's Creed 2, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and the all new Ghost Recon games.

Says an Ubisoft rep: "It's hard for us to say, yes, from now until the day that we all die all of our games are going to include this but most will."



I can only imagine how many would-be buyers are going to be pushed to the cracked, pirated versions that Ubisoft is so desperately trying to curb.

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24 user comments

12.3.2010 19:05

have to say. I would love to see the their faces when this get cracked and they see all those who would have bought their games torrent the game due to this crap their are pulling.

the only question now is will this be cracked as 0day. pre retail or shortly afterwards.

22.3.2010 19:15
scum101
Inactive

usually before retail.. or within hours of it hitting the shelves..

they will of course use this as yet another excuse to rant about "piracy".. when in reality they are forcing people to the superior and free "product" ..

soon we will dance on the corpses of these defunct business model companies.. abandonware FTW!!! all will be abandonware in 10 years.

32.3.2010 19:16

Like I've said before, when the game dosen't sell who will ubisoft blame, the thicko exec who came up with the idea to knobble the game or all their wouldbe customers who didn't want to buy a knobbled game ?

42.3.2010 19:18

Well since the russian pc version is already out, I'd say Reloaded or Razor is already at it. Guess we'll know by Friday.

52.3.2010 21:30

must say that doing this hurts them no matter what they say sales will be down cause of this they'll still blame piracy ...when it is leaked they'll still blame piracy and wont have no one to blame but themselves so they'll blame the pirates as always

62.3.2010 22:39

It is really too bad, they make some fun games...and some powerful iddiot is trying to alienate the customers.

72.3.2010 23:08

I read that the idiots over at EA are considering this always online DRM too. not that we need reasons not to buy EA games

82.3.2010 23:43

Originally posted by jos22:
I read that the idiots over at EA are considering this always online DRM too. not that we need reasons not to buy EA games

wouldnt be suprised if theyre negotiating the terms for it as we speak

93.3.2010 00:38

Originally posted by jos22:
I read that the idiots over at EA are considering this always online DRM too. not that we need reasons not to buy EA games
I've read this too. Guess who won't be buying any new PC games from EA in the future, or Ubisoft right now, if that becomes fact?

103.3.2010 00:49

I'm sure this game will sell a lot, but there's no question that DRM will hurt sales. Hope this isn't for game consoles too. I remember having DRM on a free Bioshock download for the 360, had to be connected to the internet just to play my saved game because of this download, huge pain in the ass.

113.3.2010 05:53

Basically the message they are sending to the honest game buying customer is simple. Like to follow the rules and actually pay us? Thank you, your money will now be used to screw you over and give you more restrictions. If people want freedom to use their product freely, they will be forced to use the cracked/pirated versions. This will drive otherwise legal buying people to piracy. What idiot thought this marketing strategy up?

123.3.2010 07:55

Another game that I would have bought, but now I'll download it after they crack it. No way I'll ever buy a game that requires internet access (neither continously, nor just to activate).

133.3.2010 09:53

I read the title and thought, "Hey, look... another game I'm not buying."

Unrelated to what I just said, you can't bitch about piracy when you do stuff like that and I do realize how cyclical my argument sounds :P I'm not going to bother defending it :)

143.3.2010 13:23

I rarely purchase games for PC. If and when I get games, I usually get them in my console formats (PS3 and PSP). My computer is just too old (Jan '07) to run new games halfway decently. Crap like this just makes me say 'screw it.' It's kind of ironic they are starting the same DRM crap that the music industry is finally starting to smarten up to and phase out. There's a reason you are starting to see more and more 'DRM free' lines to push online music sales.

153.3.2010 13:46

I never pirated but it's things like this that can turn me to the Dark Side.

163.3.2010 14:29

This is assinine. 'Nough said.

Sadly, this was only a matter of time. Thanks but no thanks. I'll stick to playing games I actually own.

F*ck this sh*t.

173.3.2010 17:16

ha ha ha SKIDROW has cracked Silent Hunter 5 Battle of the Atlantic
ha ha ha ubisoft ha ha ha ha ha.

had to be done .

there are a few bugs apparently which are being fixed but ha ha ubisoft

183.3.2010 17:30

Originally posted by jos22:
ha ha ha SKIDROW has cracked Silent Hunter 5 Battle of the Atlantic
ha ha ha ubisoft ha ha ha ha ha.

had to be done .

there are a few bugs apparently which are being fixed but ha ha ubisoft
What's even funnier is the release date for Silent Hunter 5 is tomorrow according to Ubisoft's website.

194.3.2010 07:31

I'll pass on those games thanks....

204.3.2010 09:52

Yet another wonderful game that in my opinion has been turned into a piece of $hit by it's company. Oh well ... one less game to play.

214.3.2010 09:55
gixxer07
Inactive

Just a thought, I'm sure most do, but what about the customer's who simply don't have internet? They can't play the game unless they spend another 40.00 a month on internet... this is out of control they are trying to stop piracy but they are forcing out good customer's who would have bought the game but just don't have an internet connection.

224.3.2010 11:13

Originally posted by gixxer07:
Just a thought, I'm sure most do, but what about the customer's who simply don't have internet? They can't play the game unless they spend another 40.00 a month on internet... this is out of control they are trying to stop piracy but they are forcing out good customer's who would have bought the game but just don't have an internet connection.

i think it's already been asked and sort of answered. Basically, folks w/o internet access not worthy enough to play the games, yeah, they're screwed...

234.3.2010 20:01

I won't be buying from any softco that uses this sort of game protection.

244.3.2010 22:26

What about the few people like me that play offline or in my own personal network, guess they don't care about that since most kids play online.

I won't be buying these games or I guess I'll have to look at hacking them.

Dumb move on their behalf but nothing new these days.

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