Ubisoft's website hacked by pirates

[InsaneNutter]

It would appear Ubi.com has been hacked because of the extreme DRM included with there latest games. Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5 require the player to have an internet connection and be connected to Ubi's servers to play the game, if you loose connection to the Ubi servers you carnt play the game until a connection is re established. Sounds like a great idea huh?

A message was posted on the Piratebay encouraging people to denial of service (DoS) atack Ubi.com

The message stated:

The network was a massive protest against the DRM protection from UbiSoft.

This new method of digital rights management, which requires a complete game for #the availability of a permanent Internet connection.

DRM does no longer start the game and record the checkpoint passage in case of absence or break the Internet connection.

Games that already have this mechanism: Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5.

Join the protest!

Remember Only Moscow Time! 15:00, 18:00, 20:00, 22:00, 00:00 <<<Today 13 Th Of March! Change Local Time To Moscow...

The Ubi.com website currently displays this message:

It would appear angry gamers have spoken, thinking back to what happend with EA's Spore could Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5 be the most pirated games of this year when cracked?

 

[Harcroft]

Not to say this is the right way to go about things, or that ubisoft deserved it...but we all saw this coming. This is not the right way to go about getting a game that isn't crippled. If you don't like that it's crippled, just don't buy it, and if you did buy it, harass their customer service or your local game store for a refund until they refund you in full. When their sales drop to a low enough point that they're losing money on a game, ubisoft will be forced to either remove this new DRM entirely, or substantially loosen it. Logging onto an online server during first installation, fine that's fair. But for every play? What a joke.

While I'm all for a well organized protest, this could have been done in a legal and non damaging manner. Acts like this will likely just tighten the grip big game companies have on the games we buy. I'm a huge fan of Assassins Creed as well as Beyond Good and Evil and bought them both. I WILL NEVER pay for the sequels that I would have no rights to. One more lost customer means just a little less money, a lot of lost customers is a LOT more money lost. That's what everyone really needs to do.

Boycotting a game because you think it was released too early after it's predecessor is pretty childish, while boycotting crippled garbage just makes plain sense.

 

[Icharus_Falling]

at amazon.com, Assassins Creed 2 has a 1 star review with 70 reviews posted. thats impressive. I've seen products that are complete garbage get better than 1 star reviews. there was nothing but protest about this bullshit DRM before the game was released. Digiex even had a post about it. Ubisoft cant say they didnt see this coming. and getting your money back from a gaming store will accomplish absolutely nothing. i like the fact that they went straight to the source and let Ubisoft know exactly what the public feels about their unwarranted invasive methodology.

C&C 4 was released today, and a review at amazon states that it has this very same constant connection DRM. remember the DRM that was introduced with Red Alert 3 that was protested? it limited the amount of installs and got enough protests that it was eventually removed. i hope EA is scared shitless now that Ubisoft got DoS'd.

according to the post on amazon, you can find the following in very small print on the back of the box:

"Persistent internet connection, EA account, registration with enclosed serial code, and acceptance of end user license agreement required to play."

 

[KillerWhiteMan]

I don't necessarily think that this was the way to approach the DRM uproar that's been caused by Ubisoft, but I can't say I'm not impressed that someone took such a bold stand either. As Icharus mentioned, EA (and other companies) should seriously consider any decisions they plan on making in the near future. If an unhappy customer did this to Ubisoft, they wouldn't think twice about doing to EA if they pissed off their own demographics. Maybe this will cause Ubisoft to wake up and actually think about how a stupid-assed decision like their DRM one will affect their customers. Should be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few days.

 

[Dark Scyth]

Though I don't think that Ubisoft necessarily deserved it, it'll definitely get their attention. You pay around $60 for a legal copy of the game yet you have to be connected to their servers just to play it...who in the hell spends $60 just to rent a game, as thats pretty much what it is, you don't really have any rights to the game so your really renting it for the price of buying it.

 

[Assassin]

It was a hoax. Skidrow didn't do this. But I think Ubisoft is getting what they deserve. I really want to play the game but I'm not paying for this DRM.

 

[Icharus_Falling]

There is a functional crack for the EA DRM in C&C4, took less than a week. I guess the Ubisoft software is proving more difficult.

 

[Slaz]

C&C4 is focussed on online play, so the problem for that game would be less intense than, for example, a game like Assassin's Creed 2.

Online activation hasn't been a true problem as long as publishers gave their customers the ability to play offline. A good example is Steam and Half-Life 2. When Valve released their blockbuster sequel, both the game and the Steam client were blown with negative responses because players thought you always had to be online to start your game. However, the problem was solved with Steam's 'offline play' mode, thus basically it required to be online just one time.

 

[Icharus_Falling]

yeah, online activation is reasonable, and is standard for most programs (except games? wtf?), but are easily crackable.

for instance, AutoCAD (or any Autodesk product) must be activated online. I used cracked versions at home because to buy it would cost $6500 (for the suite i use). i have no problem pirating this software, but i only use it to mess around or do school work without the "Educational Version" stamp. i have no moral or ethical problem with, nor do i agree with the legal consequences of pirating software for personal use. however, i have no sympathy for people who get busted using pirated software for profit.

 

[InsaneNutter]

Stuff like that i understand, when you charge $6500 for a product your average user at home pirating your software is not a lost sale, chances are that person could never afford to buy software costing that much or even justify it if they had $6500 laying around doing nothing. If that person ever did use that software and made money from producing something in it chances are with something as complex as Autocad they would soon have the skills be making more than enough to spend the money and buy it legally anyway.

 

[Slaz]

Game and software developers also like to give 'over-the-top' reactions to the press in reaction to the eventual problems with piracy. In the end, this will attract attention from anti-piracy organizations and governments, which will then cause more trouble and endless talks..

It's basically that in most cases, the person who downloaded and played a pirated game wouldn't have bought it in the first place, which means that person wasn't even a potential customer in that case. It's like that with all forms of piracy that's in the news lately.

Like with music. The fans of a certain artist or band will surely buy their new albums, while the 'common listeners' will probably just download the songs or, maybe, spend a few bucks on iTunes. Those people wouldn't buy the album in the first place.

So yeah, piracy is another thing that's pulled off as a major problem due to governments and the press, but in reality, it's only the growing IT market and entertainment industry that makes it look like that.

 

[Titcher]

I concur with others opinions. I've never pirated anything in my life ever, but if I had, it'd be stuff I otherwise wouldn't have bought, and sometimes after trying the product fully, I'd buy the full version to show support. This is all hypothetical though of course.