Latest Ubisoft DRM measure - all SP saves stored on a cloud server

Nameless Voice on 16/3/2010 at 14:49

What do you guys think of the Starcraft 2 system?

From what Blizzard have said so far, it seems to be going for a "wants to be online but doesn't absolutely require it for singleplayer" model.

As I understand it:

They want you to activate it online / create a Battle.net account before playing, and it will save your campaign progress and achievements to your account, but you will still be able to play it singleplayer in offline mode (though you won't receive achievements).

Also, at least one person needs to be online for multiplayer, even for LAN games, which seems highly idiotic to me.

Jason Moyer on 16/3/2010 at 14:51

Isn't that pretty much how GFWL works?

Matthew on 16/3/2010 at 16:00

Quote Posted by N'Al

Matthew, you might also want to look at (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/command-and-conquer-4-tiberian-twilight-review) this.

I'd been waiting for Alec's review to get posted, thanks for the heads-up N'Al. I'll still buy it, but I think I'll wait for the price to drop a bit now.

WingedKagouti on 16/3/2010 at 16:21

Quote Posted by N'Al

Matthew, you might also want to look at (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/command-and-conquer-4-tiberian-twilight-review) this.

So, it's basically C&C in name only?

The game sounds fun enough (except the "spend an eternity to unlock everything beyond a few starting units"-part), but couldn't they have tried that with a new IP?

Malleus on 19/3/2010 at 15:39

Quote Posted by Matthew

So, it sounds like Command and Conquer 4 is also using a similar system for its single-player games.

Not just CnC4, it seems:

(http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2010/03/18/ea_follows_ubisoft_will_sell_titles_with_always_on_drm) EA follows Ubisoft, will sell titles with 'always on' DRM

Matthew on 19/3/2010 at 16:44

The game is sitting on my desk, unopened. I can't decide whether to return it or keep it and wait until someone hacks the shit out of it.

N'Al on 22/3/2010 at 10:18

(http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/c-and-c4-drm-causing-problems) C&C4 DRM causing problems.

Shadowcat on 22/3/2010 at 13:02

Well hell. I think Ubisoft and EA have just about solved my probem of there always being too many major releases out that I want to play.

Ignoring everything they release from here on might just make things manageable!

Ostriig on 22/3/2010 at 16:46

The really sad thing about this shit is that it may just be here to stay. Ubisoft didn't back out of it after they started having trouble, and EA went forward and implemented the exact same system despite Ubisoft's problems. At this point it might not be excessively pessimistic to consider the possibility that, in a couple of years, all major publishers may embrace this otherwise perfectly ineffective but painfully assfucking copy protection scheme.

WingedKagouti on 22/3/2010 at 18:14

Quote Posted by Ostriig

EA went forward and implemented the exact same system despite Ubisoft's problems.

It's not like EA had much time to change C&C4 after seeing what happened with AC2. Unless you expect them to just change something so thoroughly integrated in the game in two weeks. They had it planned (and most likely implemented) before the DRM announcement from Ubisoft.

Anyway, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Green_(writer)) Jeff Green, editor-in-chief of EA.com, had this little gem about the DRM on (http://twitter.com/Greenspeak/status/10779486078) twitter:

Quote:

Booted twice--and progress lost--on my single-player C&C4 game because my DSL connection blinked. DRM fail. We need new solutions.

While he isn't a decision maker on the project, he might have a decent chance at getting them to work on a more useful solution.