From Dust's DRM
ngon master
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/18/from-dust-does-need-online-badly-ported/
Ubisoft announced in one of their forums, "From Dust PC will release with DRM requiring a one-time-only online activation" but this was not the case when the game was released yesterday, "It’s impossible to launch From Dust from Steam in offline mode. Launching the game fires up their new Ubisoft Game Launcher, which refuses to work unless it can find a connection." So far Ubisoft and steam have been both denying refunds and there's already a cracked version of the game, less than 24 hours later, floating around on major torrent sites.
I know we have drm threads every few months, everyone here pretty much hates it. But saying one thing and completely back tracking on that statement, and having no official response yet is pretty ridiculous.
Ubisoft announced in one of their forums, "From Dust PC will release with DRM requiring a one-time-only online activation" but this was not the case when the game was released yesterday, "It’s impossible to launch From Dust from Steam in offline mode. Launching the game fires up their new Ubisoft Game Launcher, which refuses to work unless it can find a connection." So far Ubisoft and steam have been both denying refunds and there's already a cracked version of the game, less than 24 hours later, floating around on major torrent sites.
I know we have drm threads every few months, everyone here pretty much hates it. But saying one thing and completely back tracking on that statement, and having no official response yet is pretty ridiculous.
Replies
Hopefully this backfires massively for Ubisoft; they're evidently not worthy to develop games for the PC. I don't mean to sound elitist - oh wait yes I do; dicking over customers by lying in pre-release announcements, then releasing something that doesn't work half the time, and works technically poorly (caped framerate, have to manually force AA, apparently it's a massive resource hog) makes you sub-human. Fact.
Though on the other hand, it's EXTREMELY unfortunate that it happened to From Dust. By all means it's a fantastic concept, and the gameplay is pretty good. The controls SHOULD have suited a PC (it's Terrain Painting: The Game), too.
It's sad that another good game will be affected by Ubisoft's policies
And yes, they can do whatever the fuck they want with their DRM before release, its peoples choice to buy it or not. And yes, ubi uses this DRM because of the 95% piracy they had, and the only other choice would have been to stop developing for PC.
Now Diablo 3 will also have always on DRM, and yet i cant hear the same extreme amount of whining from self-entitled PC gamers? Its the future, sooner or later everyone will be using it. Piracy is a bitch, no point in even arguing against it.
Actually scratch that, I didn't have proper internet in Norway either
I don't want to be a dick, but it's the first time I've ever heard of the 95% piracy rate figure. As far as I know, Ubisoft had never released any specific numbers to back up their DRM claims and had been very ambiguous about the whole thing.
And my point against their DRM is; even if it stops piracy (although only temporarily) does it create any new sales?
Ubisoft really needs to figure out what their priority is. Stopping pirates from playing their games? Or selling more copies? If it's the latter, then they should stop the negative publicity first and make the experience of their customers as hassle free as possible. The fact is, people hate their DRM, no matter the form.
I'm seriously wondering what's really the case here; if they really want to have a DRM in place why won't they make their games Steamworks exclusive? Steam's DRM is not impenetrable, but for a majority of people, dealing with no-steam cracks will be too much of a hassle. Also, PC gamers love Steam, so no one would have a problem with it.
edit:
Also, I'm not really sure if this has anything to do with self entitlement. I believe that when folks buy games they want to be sure they can run the game at any given time, in any circumstances.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/05/blizzard-vp-surprised-by-diablo-iii-reaction/
came out.
Blizzard games are 100% focused around multiplayer, it makes sense they'll protect the game from hackers or exploiters to make sure they don't ruin the game for anyone else. If Blizzard focused on single player games, like From Dust, you could have a point, but comparing Diablo III to Assassins screen doesn't make sense. SC2, DIII, and WOW are all about the community and playing with your friends.
They're a business. Ubisoft is a business.
They're not just decreasing sales with this turd of a system. They're actually driving people away. To think how easy it would have been to avoid this, and have more happy, paying customers. So easy. So simple.
Now a business that drives people away is called a failure. They deliberately lost sales.
What's better?
2 paying customers and 5 pirates?
or 3 paying customers and 50 pirates?
What about 4 paying customers and 500 pirates?
Brendan: I REALLY hope you are not serious with that argument... :P Please show me the statistics that show decreased sales for Ubisoft PC titles then, or anything that supports your argument. Why do you think they started using this DRM, because of all the happy paying customers? Pirates created DRM, without pirates, DRM would never have been an issue. Cause and effect.
the sad thing is that pirates are the ones least effected, some cracker gets their challenge for a day or 2 and then the pirates get a non DRM game.
Except like AC2 and SH5, which were not cracked for months :P
they're the exception rather than the rule though. or atleast it seems that way everytime i go to certain friends houses and see them playing what ever the hell they like when they like.
I bought the game myself, spent two hours trying to get it to work. Got an hours play. Internet died. Gamesave lost. Rage quit, ticketed for a refund. Shitty days.
sucks to hear about all the drm drama. fun game
" despite the fact that it wasnt actually a complete crack."
That's Ubisoft's claim. The reality is it was cracked in a month. I think creating the ability to play offline is a pretty successful crack for a SP game.
Self-entitled? Really? Is it self-entitled to demand that a game not be designed to treat you like a criminal despite the fact that you paid for it? Pirates are not your customers and it's a waste of time trying to fight them, because you will always lose. It's better to focus your efforts on making the actual paying customers happy rather than driving them to find alternative sources for their beloved games.
Pirates created DRM? Really, you're going with that? DRM is a response to a problem created by a poorly thought out business plan by the developer/publisher. Focus on generating good customer relations and ignore the pirates. It'll save you money by not having to develop that DRM scheme and supporting paying customers that have issues with it because it won't play nice with their computer. DRM is just another level of complexity and therefore another potential point of failure. Get rid of it.
I played it for about an hour or so and it just became a bit samey. Pretty visuals, but I can only shift sand from one spot to another for so long.
The only thing thats bothering me are all these damn floods...;)
I'd dead serious.
Here's some things that decrease future sales:
And in a way that only some company that is truly stupid can manage, here's some things that support their stance on decreasing past sales:
http://www.ps3trophies.com/forums/pc/66928-steam-offers-dust-refunds-because-ubisoft-lying-sack-shit.html
Gotta love TF2 players.
As of the last day or so they've been declining the refund requests due to the updated ToS they wedged in just as the refunds were picking up pace. Whether that will hold for long is yet to be seen. Heck, you could easily make a case for a persistent internet connection being part of the system requirements (or not). I remember having some internet access (not even permanent) being on damn near every PC retail box I've seen in the last few years...
The full numbers won't be out for a bit, it's barely been 3 days since release.
But your cause and effect analogy would indicate that sales from day 2 onward will be absolutely terrible.
And again, I ask you, which is better?
2 paying customers and 5 pirates?
or 3 paying customers and 50 pirates?
What about 4 paying customers and 500 pirates?
If the game fails to make a profit - whose jobs get cut? - certainly not the management/publishers..
And same for any other developers whom have no choice over what their publisher's (wether internal or external) do..