PC Assassin's Creed II stumbles on Ubisoft DRM server snafu

Crap like this is why I gave up on PC gaming. You can keep your superior visuals, good luck getting games to actually run though lol. Hassle free console gaming for the win.

And what a stupid idea. ac 2 will be fully cracked within a week maximum, and will be all over the internet.

I don't have an internet conection, so that means I'll pay 50 dollars and I won't be able to play it because some crap like that. Big deal PUbisoft, if you don't return my money or put down this Demental Retarded Mark thing I'll just pirate it, because I payed for something that I won't be able to use, because of some unspecified crap on the game's box, and I want to see them to sue me because of that, because at least in my country paying for something that I won't recieve can even shut down their asses

@helborhamy "has anyone seen a cracked half-life 2 game yet? if you have please tell me." You fail on impressively high levels. Do you know how to use the internet?

I just don't get the reasoning behind DRM. 1. It's doesn't work (first clue) and 2. it's a waste of time, resources and money. You can't stop your game from being pirated and DRM isn't getting you any extra sales, if anything it turns honest paying customers away from your product. This is just the latest incident where customers take it in the *** thanks to this kind of set-up. Guarantee that pirates will be playing AC2 before actual customers do.

epic ubi fail!!! players should return their copies and demand their money back. that would be the end of this brilliant new DRM.

This game was never Pc worthy in the first place. It's a free bee for the Pc at best, but to a console gamer it's a great game.

Well, the simple fact is, I have a 360 version of AC2 and I can play it whenever I want to. So there's not even a reason for me to pirate it.

360 owners don't have to put up with this garbage and piracy exists there too. I say they deserve a dos attack.

Wow... This is truly surprising. This type of DRM protection I thought EA would've thought of, not Ubisoft... This is stupid, forcing gamers to have a internet connection to play a game. From what I read, the Steam version of AC2 also requires an internet connection during gameplay. I am definitely NOT going to buy any more Ubisoft games until Ubisoft removes this type of DRM which is unfortunate because I am a big fan of Splinter Cell.

2 words sums this whole article up/drm measure/ubisoft...... "EPIC FAIL!!!!."

it was such a stupid idea to begin with.

Now, Now. Maybe we are looking at this in the wrong way. Ubisoft says we need an active internet connection for their single player games? Fine, but lets force them to spend billions laying down Fiber Optic cables for internet service for everyone. :)

@dakan45 the videogame industry doesnt care about second hand games or old games. As long as they sell well enough, retailers will buy more from the publishers. Once the publishers have sold them to retailers, it doesnt matter if they stay on the shelves. Publishers get absolutely nuthin from second hand games as well.

this is why i turned to consle

Hey Tom Magrino, do me a favor and find out who is the brainchild behind the implementation of this DRM. You know, the person (fool) at Ubisoft who must have woken up one morning and decided it would be a good idea to alienate a good portion of their paying customers by "protecting" their products with a draconian DRM. And please include an address so I know where to direct my hate mail.

@helborhamy All I will say is take a look at what happens to the paying customers. Once again, this is why people pirate games.

Sounds like Ubi is trying to pull our collective leg here. A DoA that lasted SEVEN hours? I don't think so, somehow. Exceptional demand? Hardly, at least not from what I've been hearing. Whatever the cause of this cock-up of monstrous proportions, it just goes to show what a bad idea this was from the beginning. If you bought AC2 or SH5 knowing full well what you were getting into, that's your own fault.

@disposition000 People pirate games because its tempting to play the game for free and not pay anything for it.

I fixed Ubi's apology letter. "We are sorry you cant play the game you gave us money for. We didn't anticipate our server to crash so we think its best to blame hackers just to shut every one up. 95% of the users could not play their game. But a small group of players on our local network did not receive the denial of service errors"

@D1zzyCriminal I didn't think of steam when I wrote my previous comment. Yah, whats wrong with using steam, has anyone seen a cracked half-life 2 game yet? if you have please tell me.

The company is doing the right thing, I just hope they get the problem fixed quickely.

what about the gamers that wanted to play this that doesn't have any internet? :( the game doesn't offer online multiplayer, yet it requires internet to finish up a campaign, it's like you'll be forced to subscribe internet so you can find out what's inside >_

So i got to ask, lets just say that in 4-6 years a pc gamer decides to pick up assasin creed for the low price of 5-10 bucks or lower (Come on, we all buy old games because they are cheap as dirt nowadays) So what happens that day? I cant play the game because ubisoft no longer supports it? Also there are savegames out there that have 100% completed games or saves that have diffirent choices like mass effect for example. Those user saves can help us when we need them. So what now? We cant have 100% saves and we have to play or replay the game 100% with the results we want while connected 100% and supported by ubisoft? Seriously, things like that drm should not even been thought when it comes to pc gaming.

the companies have a problem if they don't get one thing "if isn't one way is another---since the cassette and even the vinyl piracy exists, they always gonna find a way to copy and uncopyable item" this is the story. get over it

That's what to expected from this new & lame DRM. :(

"I know lets kill the PC games industry because we can't apply common sence" - "Sounds good to me what dumb idea shall we use this time?" Whats wrong with using Steam? It's as pirate proof as people need, and it works offline.

at least it'll convice people to go to consoles, although i like Pc

They lost many customers with their DRM.

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@serieus China is a prime example. They restrict the BBC and google and so on because their government deem it "inappropriate". How long do you think it is before others start to put similar measures into place? maybe not as extreme, but theres loads of controversy over sites that promote things like self-harming. Im not too sure about the US, but I can imagine that sort of thing happening. As for the cracks, well it depends. I had the original pokemon gold, but it broke cos of the battery. Is it copyright infringement to download it for an emulator? With the cracks I suppose it depends on what exactly those cracks are for and how they work.

And I'll never purchase another Ubisoft game because of this.

if ubisoft keeps experimenting on the paying costumers, they will eventually stop buying games for pc and that will make stronger the piracy ....and this is what i think expects ubisoft's costumers ... << LINK REMOVED >>

This bullsh*t is why people pirate games.

@krytorii China's already started that mission of restricting the internet. I hear some countries of Europe also have anti-Holocaust websites banned. The US obviously tracks your everyday happenings if you happen to cross the "wrong" websites, but I don't think anything is banned, just restricted from your favorite search engine. I don't personally condone anyone doing acts of piracy, but not all pirates are greedy. I know I've used cracks for games I own, yet downloading these is illegal? It's not about becoming a pirate guys, it's about putting your money where money is well spent. Quit supporting those that screw you over and you'll soon notice that your money is worth more than any letter of complaint you could ever write to your most hated company or congressman (cough Thompson).

Anti copy protection should only go so far as to make it difficult for the casual copier, using methods like CD checks or something similar. Because the people who crack and pirate games are going to do it no matter what method you use. Just use a simple system to keep the average joe from burning a copy for all of his friends, and don't worry about the people who will hack and torrent your game. Because they will no matter what you try to do so all you end up doing is screwing over your honest customers and that's a surefire way to fail at business.

@PvtRyan3 I completely agree with you, an I think that alot of people use DRM as an excuse to justify their actions to themselves.

On the consumer side of the argument, it's not appropriate to sell an item that the consumer may not be able to use based on Developer's internet connectivity. On the Developer's side, security is a major concern for them. Piracy is becoming out of control and if steps are not taken to slow the uprising of theft, then eventually original content will be difficult to provide on the PC. A consensus must be made. The security team needs to sit down with their PR team and they need to work something out. Find a way to insure security, while not discouraging customers.

I don't have a problem with DRM as a way for companies to protect their right to make a profit on their products, but this one is simply ridiculous. Was actually looking forward to buying this for PC but Ubisoft just lost my business.

There is one question that still remains unanswered. Pirates, or ninjas?

I think its high time I become a pirate instead of buying PC games. These companies dont deserve anyones business would be better off not having any protection and lowering the price then u would see more people actually buying their games.

Thank god I already own AC2 on the 360. I'm not buying anymore of Ubisoft's products on the PC. I don't have a problem with companies trying to protect their software from pirates, but when that attempt starts to affect me when I try to play the game, then that's a no-go in my book.

kungfumushroom without any kind of drm people will download the game more, as it makes it quicker to pirate without having to crack the DRM (I assume)

Anti-piracy things will always be cracked. They only affect the people who pay for the game. People who bought the game get frustrated and download their next game illegally. The developers lose profits. I wonder why the developers don't see this and keep punishing people for buying their game. Maybe they don't want to make any money, just spend it on developing new ways to make their games unplayable.

People complain, but tell me then, what could they have tried instead of this to combat piracy? I'm aware it's cracked, but with people literally "lol'ing" and stating they pirate/support piracy because of this is not funny.

Brilliant... because of their attempt to stop piracy, the only people who can play their game now are the pirates themselves. Just brilliant, guys.

@serieus Thats all very well and true, barely anyone can claim to be 100% copyright non infringing (if that made any sense lol). I know I cant, and I love the freedom of the internet. The restrictions are coming in tho, and the problem is that a relatively small amount of protestors could in the future convince politicians to ban, say pornography on the internet, or being homophobic, sexist or racist. This means a certain web community which is known for its freedom of speech is pretty much screwed within the next 50 years (at a long estimate). Its like CCTV in the UK, thats slipped in more and more and now people think its too much.

ok here's another update...I got the message "failed to store saved games online. Do you want to disable saved games from being stored online?" so what if i say yes? are they stored locally?

Haha! That's what you get for DRMing your games.

Its funny that people who have the game right now and try to play it, simply just cant :lol: and they are tempted to use cracks. Nice job ubisoft, nice job.