Ubisoft Scrapping Always-On DRM For PC Games

[Greybriar]

According to an interview by Rock, Paper Shotgun, Ubisoft is scrapping its always-on DRM for PC Games.

That's the best gaming news I've heard in quite a while.

[MIGMaster]

+1

[tgb]

About time.

[Bison]

Long term sales must have tanked on their big name brand titles.

[Shelldrake]

Except they will probably replace it with something worse.

[Anguille]

sounds much better...

[Gusington]

Smells like victory.

[MarkShot]

Shelldrake beat me to it ... maybe StarF*ck 18.03 or something.  If you attempt to install the game on a second PC (or modify the hardware attached on your first), it reflashes with null bytes your motherboard BIOS.  But, of course, if you are not a pirate, why should you be worried?  :)

[Huw the Poo]

Yeah, I'm cautiously optimistic (I would've been all over Anno 2070 if it didn't have that DRM) but I won't believe it until I see it.  It will take more than an interview to win me back.

[steve58]

I was very close to picking up Anno 2070 during the Summer Steam sale, but held off because of the DRM.  Anyone know if the DRM has been removed from their exisiting games or if this will only affect their games going forward?

[Nefaro]

I was very close to picking up Anno 2070 during the Summer Steam sale, but held off because of the DRM.  Anyone know if the DRM has been removed from their exisiting games or if this will only affect their games going forward?

I would wait until the whole thing is a done deal.  It's Ubi, after all.   I'll believe it when I see it since just one person mentioning it may not indicate a final decision.

After all the bad press, obviously lower sales, and the server/client issues.. I'm surprised it took them so long to even mention the possibility, however.  ::)  I suppose that their F-Up with accidentally installing a major security breach into our OS'es was the final straw that broke the DRM Peddler's back.  Actually, I'm half-convinced that they didn't wanna have to pay for all the upkeep on the stuff for much longer, especially when it gets screwed up like that. 

It never made much sense, spending a bunch of time and money on crazy DRM schemes, when their official reason is to force a relatively small group of people (pirates) to change their ways and give them money.  Dog chasing it's tail, and the only winners in that situation are the DRM Peddlers thriving on publishers' piracy fears.  ::)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Maybe they see it as redundant now that you have to go through their UPlay front end client to play.

GameFly has a decent sale on Ubi titles right now but I refuse to buy anything through GF until they provide access to all the titles I bought via D2D.

[Nefaro]

GameFly has a decent sale on Ubi titles right now but I refuse to buy anything through GF until they provide access to all the titles I bought via D2D.

I'm beginning to believe that it's gone for good.

I'm concerned about the next digital retailer to have a change of ownership, or go under, and the similar loss of property (rentals?) that will disappear along with it.   :-\

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Maybe.  Every time I think that they've stopped bringing old D2D titles over, they manage to add another one or two from my list.  I've got 3 holdouts left, only one of which I care about.  Once it's added, I'll use their service again.

[Arctic Blast]

Actually, this has pretty much been the deal for most new Ubi stuff for the past 6 months or so...activate once, done. I guess they've just stepped out and made it official.