14 DAY TRIAL // Ubisoft has unveiled the new measures it plans to use in order to reduce piracy of its titles on the PC. The French company has long sought to find a technical way of deterring pirates but the use of heavy handed Digital Rights management solutions, like StarForce, has attracted a backlash from gamers and talks of boycotts.
The new method, which is built around authenticating videogames by connecting online with an official Ubisoft account, could be easier to implement and manage.
The company is also saying that save games will no longer be stored locally, on the player’s computer, but will be transmitted through the network to official Ubisoft servers for storage and future access.
On the bright side, players will be able to install a Ubisoft title on as many computers as they like and will not need to have the game disc in the drive to actually play. Of course, a vocal minority will say that the requirement for Internet access is too much and that those who play on laptops on the go will be lacking a way to enjoy a videogame they have bought.
Brent Wilkinson, who is the director of Customer Service and Production Planning at Ubisoft, stated that “If you own a hundred PCs, you can install your games on a hundred PCs,” adding that “We think most people are going to be fine with it. Most people are always connected to an Internet connection.” The first game using the new system will be Settlers 7, which is now in beta stage and requires a Ubi.com account to be played.
It will be interesting to see how Ubisoft handles the issue of save games. For some titles, these can be pretty big and having to wait to download for a long time before actually playing might be something gamers are not prepared to do, especially those who have an Internet connection but one restricting download speed or size of files.