Real question: will you buy this with Ubisoft DRM?

Tress · Unread postby **Tress** » 22 Sep 2010, 16:49

There is some good things about such DRM as I got myself licensed Splinter cell, and it basically ties your coppy to your ubi account. That way they can tie bonuses with other games and so on. Also they can give extra content that way, although it is largely unused and need for being connected is just needless pain.

Nelgirith · Unread postby **Nelgirith** » 22 Sep 2010, 18:18

I'm thinking Ubi will do what 2K Games has done with Civilization 5, and they'll make Steam mandatory to play Heroes 6.

Raelag84 · Unread postby **Raelag84** » 22 Sep 2010, 19:26

Honestly I may not buy the game even if connecting is not a requirment. The reasons for not buying the game become more and more numrious as time goes on.

OliverFA · Unread postby **OliverFA** » 22 Sep 2010, 22:56

ThunderTitan wrote:I wouldn't buy it without DRM either until the complete collection comes out anyway...

And haven't they figured out that an offline mode is always a good idea... even Steam implemented one a while back.

I agree. I am not paying 2 or 3 times for the game. I'll wait until the complete edition to get it.

vicheron · Unread postby **vicheron** » 22 Sep 2010, 23:40

I have Splinter Cell: Conviction, which uses their always connected DRM and it's so damn annoying. Their servers have problems all the time. I can't connect to them at least 10% of the time. There are problems with the saved games stored on my drive and on their server not syncing correctly. I also had a lot of trouble authenticating the Insurgency DLC. For some reason, it only gave me access to one of the four new maps on the DLC.

The most annoying thing is that they download advertisements to the game in their updates. I was playing the game a week ago when I noticed that there was an ad for "The Event" on one of the televisions in the game.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 23 Sep 2010, 07:55

You want that to go away, stop buying games with it, and especially stop buying the DLC...

Actually a god idea would be to stop playing the game too... make them see it's costing them everywhere.

Roman · Unread postby **Roman** » 01 Oct 2010, 16:41

The poll now seems to be closed, but were it still open, I would have voted "NO". There is no way I would purchase any game with Ubisoft's online DDRM - not even HOMM 6.

Variol · Unread postby **Variol** » 02 Oct 2010, 13:22

...couldn't find the voting buttons, but NO; what the heck is with that??? Let's discriminate towards the people which have no internet! Are they trying to steal info from me or something?

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 02 Oct 2010, 16:33

Out of some 300 votes on the main page, the result was 30-60 % yes-no.

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 02 Oct 2010, 20:03

Variol wrote:...couldn't find the voting buttons, but NO; what the heck is with that??? Let's discriminate towards the people which have no internet! Are they trying to steal info from me or something?

Haven't you heard, everyone has the internets... and the ones that don\t can't really complain on forums anyway.

Mirez · Unread postby **Mirez** » 02 Oct 2010, 20:10

What if I wanna play on my laptop in the train on my way to college?

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 02 Oct 2010, 20:44

Then you must be a dirty pirate...

(Ok, Steam has offline mode, if you already activated the game it should work).

Roman · Unread postby **Roman** » 02 Oct 2010, 22:06

I have a good internet connection, but still automatically boycott all games that require the internet to install, activate or play. I do this because of the artificial obsolescence these games have built-in - once the servers are taken down, the games no longer work. Think about it, how many of us still fire up HoMM 3 from time to time? I know I sometimes do! Yet, 3DO and NWC no longer even exist - so if it had online-based DRM, the servers would long be down and HoMM 3 would not be playable/installable/activatable.

It happened to NWC and 3DO and it can happen to Ubisoft. It's not as if Ubisoft is a company with such enlightened decision-making that bankrupcy is unthinkable. Heck, it doesn't even need to go bankrupt, it can just decide to no longer pay for activation servers, because it feels there is "insufficient demand" for an old game. This stuff happens. EA has just this year shut down its support for multiplayer (that was deliberately designed to be online-only) for a whole host of games citing this reason - sure they were not DRM servers, but the principle is the same. Heck, a company can even do so to deliberately invalidate an old product and force people to 'upgrade' to the next version of the game....

In short, no, there is no way I would buy HoMM 6 with Ubisoft's online DDRM - I would not even buy it with Steam or any other online-based DRM system.

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 02 Oct 2010, 22:53

It is unlikely that Ubisoft will go bankrupt any time soon; their business is going very well, and M&M is only a small part of their total portfolio. They have games for consoles, portables ... The only thing that could have killed them is the credit crunch, and it didn't - not by a longshot. The only other thing that could end Ubisoft is a hostile takeover, and I don't see that happening either.

The hope we do have with this online DRM thing is that it will affect sales in a way not envisioned by the producers, and that the guys in charge of it will be sacked given severance packages and asked to sod off retire.

Roman · Unread postby **Roman** » 03 Oct 2010, 15:00

Kalah wrote:It is unlikely that Ubisoft will go bankrupt any time soon; their business is going very well, and M&M is only a small part of their total portfolio. They have games for consoles, portables ... The only thing that could have killed them is the credit crunch, and it didn't - not by a longshot. The only other thing that could end Ubisoft is a hostile takeover, and I don't see that happening either.

I wouldn't exactly say that their business is as stellar as you portray it. Ubisoft is losing money (the last loss was $72 million) and although the stock prices of all major publishers declined during the crisis, Ubisoft's stock price collapsed more than any other. In fact, Ubisoft is now only worth $8 per share down from $35-40 two years ago, whereas stock price of EA or Activision-Blizzard declined by a much lower proportion (though the declines were still hefty).

That said, I do agree that Ubisoft is not on the verge of bankrupcy. Not that it invalidates anything I said about the artificial dependence its DDRM system (or other online-based DRM systems) creates. Just because it is not on the verge of bankrupcy now doesn't mean it won't go bankrupt (much bigger companies that seemed unassailable and appeared to have much stronger financial fundamentals have collapsed). Nor does it invalidate the other (more likely) possibilities of Ubisoft deciding that activation servers are no longer worth maintaining for old games (this was already done for many games, some only a year old, by EA and Yahoo, Microsoft and Walmart have done the same with music) or outright shutting them down under some excuse to force players to 'upgrade'.

In conclusion, no, I won't be buying any Ubisoft (or other) games that require online activation/installation/checking/monitoring.

The hope we do have with this online DRM thing is that it will affect sales in a way not envisioned by the producers, and that the guys in charge of it will be sacked given severance packages and asked to sod off retire.

I share this hope. I do not wish Ubisoft ill and I like what they have done with HoMM V and Tribes of the East, so I hope they continue the HoMM franchise, but I won't support it with my money if they keep an online-based DRM system.

Kalah · Unread postby **Kalah** » 03 Oct 2010, 16:47

Roman wrote:I wouldn't exactly say that their business is as stellar as you portray it. Ubisoft is losing money (the last loss was $72 million) and although the stock prices of all major publishers declined during the crisis,

We shall see, but the credit crunch is pretty much over, and although Ubi lost money last year, Q1 sales of 2010 went up 93 % from last year. Although things could still change before the end of the year, it looks promising. The console market alone keeps the company afloat.

I like this too - that the producers are solid and seem unlikely to fail like 3DO and NWC did. Then the series remains alive, at least - and then we can always debate whether we like the direction it is taking.

Roman · Unread postby **Roman** » 03 Oct 2010, 16:56

I wish them luck and hope their sales continue to recover (though there is evidence that another downturn in game sales started in the summer - I hope it is just a temporary blip, but one can never know). I think they can be good custodians of the MM and HoMM franchise. They should just loose the online DRM - pronto!

ThunderTitan · Unread postby **ThunderTitan** » 04 Oct 2010, 06:33

Kalah wrote: We shall see, but the credit crunch is pretty much over

Maybe for you guys... over here we're just getting started...

corleone · Unread postby **corleone** » 19 Oct 2010, 16:51

So, if the rumors are now true (but they definitely are still rumors) they may release Heroes 6 on Steam or Impulse (I greatly prefer Impulse); I may buy Heroes 6 afterall.

Yes, I would prefer that they would have NO online DRM; but I do love the Heroes games, they do provide me with a lot of Entertainment; and if all I have to do is get on-line once to get installation and patches, thats not terrible. Especially if UBISoft lives up to their pledge that if they would ever turn the servers off; they would provide a patch that would eliminate the need to talk to the servers.

I know I"m waffling; but I love my Heroes; why do they make paying customers have to even consider this.. maybe I won't buy it after all,
Corleone

Thelonious · Unread postby **Thelonious** » 19 Oct 2010, 17:28

I don't know what Ubisoft is fretting about. HoMM is a fan-game. Make a colectors edition available and fans will buy it. Just add (a good) booklet, some other random stuff and they'll be fine.

Just wait, this DRM can and will be cracked. It won't stop hackers.

Making it easily available (online) for a reasonable price will help as well.

The Heroes Round Table

Real question: will you buy this with Ubisoft DRM?

WILL YOU BUY HEROES VI WITH UBISOFT DRM?

I would think that if its Steam or Impulse I might buy

Who is online