Ubisoft PC DRM doesn't sound like such a good idea anymore
In January, Ubisoft revealed plans to streamline its DRM policy across all PC titles, making players log in to Ubisoft servers to authenticate before playing. Although it sounded dubious at first, Ubisoft's Brent Wilkinson assuaged our fears, explaining the new process would allow gamers to play on any computer and continue a game's progress through a cloud-based save system.
According to PC Gamer, tests of upcoming Ubisoft PC titles Assassin's Creed 2 and Settlers VII proved how flawed the system actually is. If, for whatever reason, your connection experiences an issue (be it router reboot or a momentary pause in connectivity) the software will immediately boot you to the main menu of the game. Oh, and all that progress you made after a previous save or checkpoint? That's gone.
But that isn't the worst part. If Ubisoft's "Master Servers" encounter any errors, then all players with working connections logged in to the servers will not be able to play their games until the servers are back online, and lose all unsaved progress if this scenario occurs during gameplay.
There is something to be said about protecting your property from rampant PC piracy, but when draconian concepts such as Ubisoft's new DRM policy are in place, the publisher seemingly punishes the players who do support its wares. The cloud concept is great, but not at the expense of saving every thirty seconds out of fear that a server on the other side of the world might decide to act up.
[Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
