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Topic: Ubi DRM: Their Side of the Story (Read 121702 times)
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eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11844
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Would wer rather it not be mentioned? Having it plainly stated in all caps seems like something we should be thankful for. It could only be improved by being put at the top in giant flashing colored font.
I tend to agree. Personally I don't think the warning is prominent enough. (example from steampowered.com : http://store.steampowered.com/app/21970/)
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"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson "Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
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sinij
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2597
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I was planning to buy new Settlers but there is no way I am going to tolerate such obnoxious DRM.
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Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.
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NiX
Wiki Admin
Posts: 7770
Locomotive Pandamonium
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I was planning to buy new Settlers but there is no way I am going to tolerate such obnoxious DRM.
I forgot Ubi published Settlers. Very disappointing.
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naum
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4263
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I was planning to buy new Settlers but there is no way I am going to tolerate such obnoxious DRM.
I forgot Ubi published Settlers. Very disappointing. Yeah, entertained a notion of purchasing that particular title too, and will definitely not now.
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"Should the batman kill Joker because it would save more lives?" is a fundamentally different question from "should the batman have a bunch of machineguns that go BATBATBATBATBAT because its totally cool?". ~Goumindong
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LK
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268
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UBI'S DRM practices also prevent their games from working properly behind firewalls. I had a friend who had to return Settlers because he couldn't connect to Ubi servers.
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"Then there's the double-barreled shotgun from Doom 2 - no-one within your entire household could be of any doubt that it's been fired because it sounds like God slamming a door on his fingers." - Yahtzee Croshaw
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Tarami
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1980
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I don't know if this has been covered (mostly skimmed through,) but doesn't the phrase "UBISOFT MAY CANCEL ACCESS TO ONLINE FEATURES UPON A 30-DAY PRIOR NOTICE" mean that they effectively have the right to simply void your purchase, for whatever reason they see fit as long as it's tentatively covered by the EULA or whatever make-believe legalese that they add to games nowadays? Sure, those clauses have in theory been there for a long time, but this would mean they have a perfectly viable way of enforcing all their bullshit policies.
Software calling home and destroying itself because I've been fiddling around in its files doesn't make me happy.
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- I'm giving you this one for free. - Nothing's free in the waterworld.
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tgr
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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Software calling home and destroying itself because I've been fiddling around in its files doesn't make me happy.
Welcome to the future, it's a happy place.
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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Ingmar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 19280
Auto Assault Affectionado
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I don't know if this has been covered (mostly skimmed through,) but doesn't the phrase "UBISOFT MAY CANCEL ACCESS TO ONLINE FEATURES UPON A 30-DAY PRIOR NOTICE" mean that they effectively have the right to simply void your purchase, for whatever reason they see fit as long as it's tentatively covered by the EULA or whatever make-believe legalese that they add to games nowadays? Sure, those clauses have in theory been there for a long time, but this would mean they have a perfectly viable way of enforcing all their bullshit policies.
Software calling home and destroying itself because I've been fiddling around in its files doesn't make me happy.
That particular phrase has been on every online game in the history of ever, I'm pretty sure. It came up recently in a WHO thread too. In any case it isn't really saying anything about canceling YOUR access with a 30 day notice, it means everyone. As in, you get 30 days notice when they end of life the game and take the servers down for it. You could be individually banned without 30 days notice at all by any of these companies. Mark me down as another lost sale to their DRM policy, though, I was going to check out the Settlers game until I saw that it had that.
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The Transcendent One: AH... THE ROGUE CONSTRUCT. Nordom: Sense of closure: imminent.
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tgr
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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Figure I'll just pop in with this: http://www.guru3d.com/news/ubisoft-drm-completely-cracked/Quietly hoping they've gotten it now. I'm still going to avoid their game (I've suddenly got way too many old games I figure should give a try again), but they need to get their face rubbed in over this at some point.
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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Tebonas
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6365
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I fear the only thing they've gotten is that they were too lenient on their customers and need to be more draconic in their copy protection measures.
Because customers are people paying for the right to be their enemy...
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Azazel
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Skid Row! kicking it old-school! 
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bhodi
Moderator
Posts: 6817
No lie.
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Skid Row! kicking it old-school!  Wow, I am glad I am not the only one who thought that.
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UnSub
Contributor
Posts: 8064
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UbiSoft didn't expect this kind of protection to last forever. Cue phase 2, sometime around their next big release.
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42666
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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I bet they expected it to last longer than it did. 
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tgr
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did.
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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Musashi
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1692
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Hey! Now I could play Settlers in a morally responsible way, you know, if I wanted. 
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AKA Gyoza
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ffc
Terracotta Army
Posts: 608
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Figure I'll just pop in with this: http://www.guru3d.com/news/ubisoft-drm-completely-cracked/Quietly hoping they've gotten it now. I'm still going to avoid their game (I've suddenly got way too many old games I figure should give a try again), but they need to get their face rubbed in over this at some point. Out of curiosity from reading guru3d's article title I went spelunking. The original cnet article guru3d quotes is talking about an .exe crack and/or multiple files for AC2 (I can't follow the erratic writing), not a general Ubisoft DRM crack. And cnet was unsurprisingly wrong about everything. There is no .exe or multiple files, the "crack" is a .dll which does nothing beyond what is already available, and the .dll isn't even Skid Row's work product despite Skid Row taking credit for it. I figured this out in a few minutes of reading. I'm too sleepy to figure out why neither cnet's Josh Lowensohn nor guru3d's Hilbert Hagedoorn could be bothered to do the same. Maybe they were sleepy too.
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UnSub
Contributor
Posts: 8064
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Lots of posts claiming it was cracked and working through.
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ffc
Terracotta Army
Posts: 608
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AC2's single player campaign can be completed without connecting to Ubisoft's servers by emulating Ubisoft's servers. That isn't a crack. The values used for AC2 cannot be used with Settlers 7, Splinter Cell: Conviction, etc. To say "Ubisoft DRM Completely Cracked" is an incredible overstatement.
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lac
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1657
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This is what Razor1911 has to say about it in their Settlers 7 .nfo file. Scene-related rants & stuff: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As far as previous 'cracks' of Ubisoft's new DRM system are concerned:
Both of Skidr0w's releases show us they haven't had a look (probably even didn't find) the actual protection code and everything hints on em using parts of publicly collected 'challenge/response' pairs. Luckily Assassin's Creed II is probably the only target ever where this approach of 'emulating' the server by a static lookup will yield any measurable success (due to a basic design flaw in an otherwise pretty neat idea of software protection). In fact, we considered this approach as generally too unreliable and 'unworthy' of a scene crack, so we didn't care about doing it. Instead we opted for going for the arguably most challenging implementation of Ubisoft's new DRM first (emulating actual server-side game code). So here it is: The first Ubisoft DRM crack!
@RELOADED: Congrats on your recent advances in automating your Solidshield VM cracks. We actually respect that. However, we wonder why you didn't go all the way and recompiled the fixed decompiler output to optimized native x86 code as we did as early as with Perry Rhodan (followed by Anno 1404).
Although we think there's not much merit to discussing technical details in .nfos (mostly because it's impossible for anyone lacking the skills and sources to fact-check these statements) we feel the need to preempt all that made-up "they-ripped-it-from-some-unprotected-tuvaluan-multi12-binary" bullshit that's sure to follow:
We invite anyone who is able to and interested enough in this to check the history of scene-released Solidshield VM cracks taking into account things like availability of possible alternate sources for the protected code fragments at the time of release, similarity to compiled code (i.e. 'copy & paste cracks' from differently protected or unprotected binaries), the rebuilt code's resemblence of the original VM instructions regarding sequence of mnemonics etc.pp. We're pretty confident (read '100% certain') you'll come to the conclusion that we were first with respect to rebuilding actual Solidshield VM code.
Nvm, 'mild respect'! ;)
P.S. Finally, there's a chance of the good ol' times coming back (when protections had to be dealt with on a per title basis by skilled individuals) and an opportunity of telling the sharpies from the fakers again. Thanks Ubi! (Yup, we're actually serious about this :))
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« Last Edit: April 28, 2010, 06:48:43 AM by lac »
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Musashi
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1692
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AKA Gyoza
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LK
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268
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I would have been interested in checking out Settlers but the whole "Need to connect to server" shit pretty much negates that.
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"Then there's the double-barreled shotgun from Doom 2 - no-one within your entire household could be of any doubt that it's been fired because it sounds like God slamming a door on his fingers." - Yahtzee Croshaw
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ffc
Terracotta Army
Posts: 608
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I'm disappointed about Settlers as well because it looks like a friendlier version of Anno I can enjoy. In an attempt to curb piracy and generate more sales, Ubisoft's DRM has accomplished the following: 1) Chased away everyone wary of mandatory internet connectivity for single player games. Ubisoft's DRM created current lost sales. 2) Frustrated legitimate purchasers of Settlers 7 who suffer from the repeated server problems preventing single player gaming. Ubisoft's DRM created future lost sales. 3) Pirating Settlers 7 offers a superior experience over buying it because the pirated version has no mandatory internet connection to prevent single player gaming. Ubisoft's DRM fails to generate sales. Ubisoft's DRM punishes everyone except pirates. As an added bonus pirates get to hear catchy stuff like this. 
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UnSub
Contributor
Posts: 8064
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Sooo... what are the sales for the Ubisoft titles under their current DRM regime?
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Ceryse
Terracotta Army
Posts: 879
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I'm disappointed about Settlers as well because it looks like a friendlier version of Anno I can enjoy. In an attempt to curb piracy and generate more sales, Ubisoft's DRM has accomplished the following: 1) Chased away everyone wary of mandatory internet connectivity for single player games. Ubisoft's DRM created current lost sales. 2) Frustrated legitimate purchasers of Settlers 7 who suffer from the repeated server problems preventing single player gaming. Ubisoft's DRM created future lost sales. 3) Pirating Settlers 7 offers a superior experience over buying it because the pirated version has no mandatory internet connection to prevent single player gaming. Ubisoft's DRM fails to generate sales. Ubisoft's DRM punishes everyone except pirates. As an added bonus pirates get to hear catchy stuff like this.  I don't know. Most people I know that pirate games have actually passed on pirating the latest Ubisoft games that are loaded with the current DRM scheme. Of course, they've also all foregone buying the games. Most because its just a general pain in the ass and Ubisoft is fairly fanatical about tracking torrents and sending letters to ISPs. Personally I'm somewhat glad Ubisoft games tend to be extremely low on my play-list even disregarding DRM. Part of me wants to pirate their games and then delete them, just on principle, though.
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ffc
Terracotta Army
Posts: 608
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Most people I know that pirate games have actually passed on pirating the latest Ubisoft games that are loaded with the current DRM scheme. Of course, they've also all foregone buying the games.
That's exactly it. Piracy doesn't always equal a lost sale, but DRM always punishes the legitimate consumer.
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tgr
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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Sooo... what are the sales for the Ubisoft titles under their current DRM regime?
They'll never tell you. Hell, they even went out and said that prince of persia PC edition (...or one of them, I forget the exact details) was copy protection-free to test the theory, but that was only announced on their forums. The box still said it had CP I believe. I bought a copy just to try to influence them, but they never went on record to specify what their expectations were (except "people suck and we hate them"), and they certainly never released any specific sales numbers. Of course, 6 months later they went all Mr Hyde on us with the latest creation, so I suppose either PoP didn't sell as well as they wanted it to, or they were dead set on going down this path anyways, PoP was just a kind of publicity stunt. I was sort of interested in AC2, very interested in settlers, and probably a few other ubisoft games I've forgotten about already because they've pissed me off with their latest DRM. Same goes with a few of my friends. I guess they didn't want those sales anyways. Hell, I'm not even going to bother pirating the games to see what they play like, I certainly don't want to give them the satisfaction of being able to point at numbers I helped grow and say "see? see? them thar ebul piwates, we hatses them and they must die". lac: good thing you posted that razor announcement. I was shown that by a friend of mine yesterday, but I didn't get around to copy/pasting it. It'll probably have to be customized still for each game, as ubisoft'll probably keep making minor changes to "defeat" the pirates for a few days, but I'll take this as a victory for the "good guys" nontheless.
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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Azazel
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In an attempt to curb piracy and generate more sales, Ubisoft's DRM has accomplished the following:
1) Chased away everyone wary of mandatory internet connectivity for single player games. Ubisoft's DRM created current lost sales.
2) Frustrated legitimate purchasers of Settlers 7 who suffer from the repeated server problems preventing single player gaming. Ubisoft's DRM created future lost sales.
3) Pirating Settlers 7 offers a superior experience over buying it because the pirated version has no mandatory internet connection to prevent single player gaming. Ubisoft's DRM fails to generate sales.
Taking the new laptop to work on Friday, since I have to mind the office for the day. Going to use my crappy work Lenovo machine for work, and when nothing is happening, particularly for the 90mins-2hrs I have to stay after everyone else goes home, I will use the Dell to play games on via offline Steam (since I can't connect to my secure work network with it). If I'd bought any of Ubi's bullshit DRM games, I wouldn't be able to play them, as opposed to a fucking ton of offline-mode Steam games. Not that I'd have bought AC2, Anno or Settlers, but I do buy a lot of games from Steam, and now Ubi's shit is excluded from my "I'll buy that" list...
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eldaec
Terracotta Army
Posts: 11844
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Sooo... what are the sales for the Ubisoft titles under their current DRM regime?
I'd wager almost exactly the same as they otherwise would have been. Nerd rage, even well justified nerd rage, doesn't sting as much as you'd hope.
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"People will not assume that what they read on the internet is trustworthy or that it carries any particular assurance or accuracy" - Lord Leveson "Hyperbole is a cancer" - Lakov Sanite
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Paelos
Contributor
Posts: 27075
Error 404: Title not found.
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Sooo... what are the sales for the Ubisoft titles under their current DRM regime?
I'd wager almost exactly the same as they otherwise would have been. Nerd rage, even well justified nerd rage, doesn't sting as much as you'd hope. I was literally clicking to buy Settlers. I read the DRM warning, clicked away and bought Mount and Blade: Warband. They lost an actual sale from me they will never get back until they remove that bloated, ridiculous shit.
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CPA, CFO, Sports Fan, Game when I have the time
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LK
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268
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I would have picked up Settlers were it not for DRM. The measures they took with Anno 1404 preventing me from accessing my game data from certain locations was the start of that.
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"Then there's the double-barreled shotgun from Doom 2 - no-one within your entire household could be of any doubt that it's been fired because it sounds like God slamming a door on his fingers." - Yahtzee Croshaw
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angry.bob
Terracotta Army
Posts: 5442
We're no strangers to love. You know the rules and so do I.
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The best copy protection Ubi and other publishers can get is to just hire Razor1911 to create it. I'm pretty sure anything they were satisfied with would take other groups a long, long time to crack. The problem is they're probably not interested.
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Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.
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Paelos
Contributor
Posts: 27075
Error 404: Title not found.
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The best copy protection Ubi and other publishers can get is to just hire Razor1911 to create it. I'm pretty sure anything they were satisfied with would take other groups a long, long time to crack. The problem is they're probably not interested.
Or they could just man up and realize me, and people like me with disposable income and an absolute aversion to piracy are really eager to toss at least $300 a year at their products. But we don't like being fucked for our patronage.
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CPA, CFO, Sports Fan, Game when I have the time
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tgr
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3366
Just another victim of cyber age discrimination.
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Sooo... what are the sales for the Ubisoft titles under their current DRM regime?
I'd wager almost exactly the same as they otherwise would have been. Nerd rage, even well justified nerd rage, doesn't sting as much as you'd hope. I'm pretty sure the "nerd rage" is going to go beyond just nerds, if it hasn't already. Unless, you know, they shrug and ditch the PC for gaming and go for consoles, where the games quality overall is so much higher. Oh god, I nearly fell into my own sarchasm.
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Cyno's lit, bridge is up, but one pilot won't be jumping home.
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UnSub
Contributor
Posts: 8064
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