5 ms·

Ubisoft’s Uber DRM Cracked Within a Day

69 points by jeff18 17y ago

GrandMasterBirt 17y ago
I thought that the big drm issue was that the game saves on ubisoft's servers vs your harddrive. To me that in itself is very unappealing, but that is what is "missing" from the game. If that has been cracked already then that just goes to show that good DRM can at best delay cracking the game, meanwhile there is a saying "Whenever DRM prevents a customer willing to buy the game form buying it, a pirate gets his wings"
- bbatsell 17y ago
  I don't own (the PC version of) the game, but I've read in multiple places that storing saves in the cloud was optional; you could go into settings and store them on your HD if you didn't want to play your saves elsewhere. No personal confirmation of whether that's true or not.
  - Freaky 17y ago
    I saw a screenshot showing exactly that option, so it appears to be true.
lmkg 17y ago
I still think that the Steam platform is the golden standard for DRM. The Assassin's Creed 2 DRM still comes from the old-school plan of restricting the legitimate needs of cash-paying customers, which makes the cracked version superior to the original. Steam, on the other hand, gives me more features rather than less: I can install the game on multiple machines, or the same machine multiple times, even if I lose the hard copy. It saves me a trip to the store, which was half the reason I pirated games back in college. I can pre-load the game and play it literally the second it comes out without having to camp outside a Fry's two hours away. They're by no means essential features and I rarely use any of them, but that whole thing about making sure your copy is legitimate is a hell of a lot easier to swallow when it's sold as the price of a new feature. (obligatory: http://xkcd.com/488/ http://xkcd.com/488/ )
- pquerna 17y ago
  strangely, I agree, I love using steam, even though its completely DRMed and I don't get any control over the game -- but at the same time I can download games on new computers, pre-load games before release day, and do it all painlessly. Yes, the first versions of steam were pretty terrible, but they have turned it into my preferred way of buying PC games over the years -- it really is a great platform now days. They don't do stupid shit with DRM affecting the rest of your comptuer, or hacks on the DVDs, etc. They keep it clean and simple for the user.
  - barrkel 17y ago
    Apart from the fact that Steam versions are typically 80-100% markup in price over shrinkwrap versions. For example, Bioshock 2: 30GBP, "down" from 40GBP http://store.steampowered.com/app/8850/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/8850/ 16.74GBP http://www.amazon.co.uk/Take-2-Bioshock-PC-DVD/dp/B00175SOS2/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Take-2-Bioshock-PC-DVD/dp/B00175SOS2...
    - potatolicious 17y ago
      This may be true in the UK, but in the US Steam games are price-competitive with shrinkwrap versions.
      - bartl 17y ago
        Competitive feels like not low enough, to me. After all, you don't get any physical copies, which is something a collector may like.
        matasar 17y ago
        I vastly prefer being able to redownload software that I've paid for, but some people may prefer physical copies.
        potatolicious 17y ago
        You do get other perks though - not having to keep track of discs, not susceptible to damaged disks, download-anywhere, unlimited times... etc. The online features are also not too shabby - being able to join a friend's game in a single click is a pretty nifty feature that I use often. Also, Steam generally gives 10% off for preorders, which is something brick and mortars aren't doing.
teamonkey 17y ago
No it wasn't. http://twitter.com/Ubisoft/status/9968383494 http://twitter.com/Ubisoft/status/9968383494
- CWuestefeld 17y ago
  The OP addresses this. The pirates claim that there's nothing missing besides the DRM; this makes it incomplete in Ubisoft's estimation. And Ubisoft isn't citing any particular things that it might lack.
  - teamonkey 17y ago
    It says that Ubisoft's opinion is that the DRM makes the game package "complete". That's not true - it's missing actual game data. Maybe not in the first 30 minutes of gameplay or so, perhaps.
    - shrike 17y ago
      How do you know that?
      - teamonkey 17y ago
        I work for them. I don't know the specifics as I don't have anything to do with the DRM, but I believe that the general idea is similar to what NateLawson says above.
        dirtbox 17y ago
        Well, not to troll, but I downloaded SH5 from a newsgroup to see if this claim is true (not a file sharing site as I don't have any wish to perpetuate the infringement and upload to others) and it's fine, I haven't noticed a single thing missing from the gameplay. I'll be uninstalling shortly and deleting the ISO, but I'm currently about 3 hours in. Can you give specific info as to exactly what is missing? It's a great game, I'll definitely be buying it when the DRM is gone despite not really being much of a gamer anymore. I stress when, because it's the biggest backfire in copy protection history and Ubi know it. After all the development time and resource that has obviously gone into the DRM, I was surprised/amused to see that the hack is pretty much just a cracked exe.

69 points by jeff18 17y ago

I thought that the big drm issue was that the game saves on ubisoft's servers vs your harddrive. To me that in itself is very unappealing, but that is what is "missing" from the game. If that has been cracked already then that just goes to show that good DRM can at best delay cracking the game, meanwhile there is a saying "Whenever DRM prevents a customer willing to buy the game form buying it, a pirate gets his wings"

bbatsell 17y ago
I don't own (the PC version of) the game, but I've read in multiple places that storing saves in the cloud was optional; you could go into settings and store them on your HD if you didn't want to play your saves elsewhere. No personal confirmation of whether that's true or not.
- Freaky 17y ago
  I saw a screenshot showing exactly that option, so it appears to be true.

lmkg 17y ago

I still think that the Steam platform is the golden standard for DRM. The Assassin's Creed 2 DRM still comes from the old-school plan of restricting the legitimate needs of cash-paying customers, which makes the cracked version superior to the original. Steam, on the other hand, gives me more features rather than less: I can install the game on multiple machines, or the same machine multiple times, even if I lose the hard copy. It saves me a trip to the store, which was half the reason I pirated games back in college. I can pre-load the game and play it literally the second it comes out without having to camp outside a Fry's two hours away. They're by no means essential features and I rarely use any of them, but that whole thing about making sure your copy is legitimate is a hell of a lot easier to swallow when it's sold as the price of a new feature. (obligatory: http://xkcd.com/488/ http://xkcd.com/488/ )

pquerna 17y ago
strangely, I agree, I love using steam, even though its completely DRMed and I don't get any control over the game -- but at the same time I can download games on new computers, pre-load games before release day, and do it all painlessly. Yes, the first versions of steam were pretty terrible, but they have turned it into my preferred way of buying PC games over the years -- it really is a great platform now days. They don't do stupid shit with DRM affecting the rest of your comptuer, or hacks on the DVDs, etc. They keep it clean and simple for the user.
- barrkel 17y ago
  Apart from the fact that Steam versions are typically 80-100% markup in price over shrinkwrap versions. For example, Bioshock 2: 30GBP, "down" from 40GBP http://store.steampowered.com/app/8850/ http://store.steampowered.com/app/8850/ 16.74GBP http://www.amazon.co.uk/Take-2-Bioshock-PC-DVD/dp/B00175SOS2/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Take-2-Bioshock-PC-DVD/dp/B00175SOS2...
  - potatolicious 17y ago
    This may be true in the UK, but in the US Steam games are price-competitive with shrinkwrap versions.
    - bartl 17y ago
      Competitive feels like not low enough, to me. After all, you don't get any physical copies, which is something a collector may like.
      - matasar 17y ago
        I vastly prefer being able to redownload software that I've paid for, but some people may prefer physical copies.
      - potatolicious 17y ago
        You do get other perks though - not having to keep track of discs, not susceptible to damaged disks, download-anywhere, unlimited times... etc. The online features are also not too shabby - being able to join a friend's game in a single click is a pretty nifty feature that I use often. Also, Steam generally gives 10% off for preorders, which is something brick and mortars aren't doing.

teamonkey 17y ago

No it wasn't. http://twitter.com/Ubisoft/status/9968383494 http://twitter.com/Ubisoft/status/9968383494

CWuestefeld 17y ago
The OP addresses this. The pirates claim that there's nothing missing besides the DRM; this makes it incomplete in Ubisoft's estimation. And Ubisoft isn't citing any particular things that it might lack.
- teamonkey 17y ago
  It says that Ubisoft's opinion is that the DRM makes the game package "complete". That's not true - it's missing actual game data. Maybe not in the first 30 minutes of gameplay or so, perhaps.
  - shrike 17y ago
    How do you know that?
    - teamonkey 17y ago
      I work for them. I don't know the specifics as I don't have anything to do with the DRM, but I believe that the general idea is similar to what NateLawson says above.
      - dirtbox 17y ago
        Well, not to troll, but I downloaded SH5 from a newsgroup to see if this claim is true (not a file sharing site as I don't have any wish to perpetuate the infringement and upload to others) and it's fine, I haven't noticed a single thing missing from the gameplay. I'll be uninstalling shortly and deleting the ISO, but I'm currently about 3 hours in. Can you give specific info as to exactly what is missing? It's a great game, I'll definitely be buying it when the DRM is gone despite not really being much of a gamer anymore. I stress when, because it's the biggest backfire in copy protection history and Ubi know it. After all the development time and resource that has obviously gone into the DRM, I was surprised/amused to see that the hack is pretty much just a cracked exe.