Ubisoft Officially Kills Always-On DRM!
Ubisoft, the pioneer of the much-hated always-on internet-based DRM for PC games has officially stated in an interview that it’s killing the technology after receiving user feedback. Instead, it will be replaced by a one time activation, which will allow all games to be installed on any number of PCs, which seems much more reasonable. Rock Paper Shotgun managed to secure an interview with Stephanie Perotti, Ubisoft’s worldwide director for online games, accompanied by corporate communications manager, Michael Burk, where this revelation was revealed.
RPS also asked several very pointed questions, to which the replies tended to be somewhat oblique and evasive. For example, does Ubisoft have any regrets over using it? Perotti replied, “We’ve listened to feedback, we will continue to listen to feedback, we will continue to make sure that we deliver great games and great services, and are now operating under this policy.”
RPS also asked if Ubisoft acknowledges that always-on DRM has been extremely damaging to their reputation, to which they replied that they had made these changes in response to user feedback, saying that some PC customers had been unhappy with this DRM scheme. So, was it damaging? Ubisoft won’t say. Ultimately though, always-on DRM couldn’t have done Ubisoft’s bottom line much good, or they would continue using it. After all, the bottom line and lawsuits are all that big companies really respond to at the end of the day.
The full interview is available at the link below and is well worth reading.
RPS: So you say you’re not talking about data. I find that quite interesting bearing in mind data is the one thing that’s lacking in this entire discussion, across all publishers, the whole spectrum. The one thing no one’s ever shown is any data whatsoever to show DRM’s efficacy. Why do you think that is?
Perotti: I think they are complex topics, and as a company we do not disclose this kind of data for confidentiality reasons. As I said earlier, the situation can be very different, from different games, from different territories.
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