Ubisoft's Always-On DRM System Subverted

A warez scene release group called SKiD ROW has managed to subvert Ubisoft's controversial always-on DRM control. The crackers thank the major game publisher for the challenge and advise it to focus on games from now on instead of invasive copy-protection solutions.

In January, Ubisoft, one of the largest computer and video-game publishing companies in the world, announced a new digital rights management (DRM) system it dubbed "Online Services Platform." The new technology, which shipped with much-anticipated games like Assassin's Creed II or Settlers 7, requires an active Internet connection for the games to be played.

The system has been strongly criticized by the gaming community for being too invasive, restrictive and harming gaming portability. Not only are users unable to play the game unless authenticated on Ubisoft's servers, but the gameplay is also paused if the Internet connectivity is lost at any time, posing serious problems for players in public hotspots.

In an NFO file accompanying the release, SKiD ROW members refer to the crack as "an accomplishment of weeks of investigating, experimenting, testing and lots of hard work." The group goes on to mention a different Ubisoft DRM hack released back in March under the form of a local server emulator that eventually proved buggy.

"We know that there is a server emulator out in the open, which makes the game playable, but when you look at our cracked content, you will know that it can't be compared to that. Our work does not construct any program deviation or any kind of host file paradox solutions," the release notes read.

SKiD ROW suggests that the DRM subversion was done for the benefit of all gamers who bought the title. Furthermore, it claims to have protected the modified files in order to prevent competing groups from reverse-engineering the cracking method.

"Thank you Ubisoft, this was quiete [sic.] a challenge for us, but nothing stops the leading force from doing what we do. Next time focus on the game and not the DRM. It was probably horrible for all legit users. We just make their lifes [sic.] easier," the group writes.