14 DAY TRIAL // Will Ubisoft continue to push its new Digital Rights Management scheme for future titles? Despite the fact that there have been some problems with the titles using it until now, the French publisher seems determined to make sure pirates do not touch its upcoming line-up so the new system is here to stay, although with the caveat that this is still a work in progress, which will receive improvements as time goes by.
Talking to Eurogamer, a representative from Ubisoft stated that “Most forthcoming Ubisoft PC titles will use our online services platform” and that “as with any online technology, we are constantly working to evolve and improve it.”
The upcoming PC line up from Ubisoft includes: Splinter Cell Conviction, R.U.S.E., I Am Alive, Pure Football, TrackMania 2, Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands and Ghost Recon Future Soldier. All those who plan to pick them up must have an always-on Internet connection in order to play them and accept that when the connection drops, the game goes too.
Ubisoft believes the new system will make it near impossible for pirates to get to its games and that this will lead to a big leap in sales on the PC, one of the platforms most affected by breaches of copyright.
The problem is that until now, Ubisoft has had quite a bit of issues with its always-on DRM. Assassin's Creed II, the first game to sport it, had a couple of days when it was unplayable because of problems with the servers and similar issues have plagued those who have bought Settlers VII: Paths to a Kingdom.
The thread detailing the issues on the official Ubisoft site had more than 10,000 posts and last week, the company said that “matchmaking in multiplayer mode and that keep track of profiles, campaign progression and stats in both solo and multi modes” were still affected.