Ubisoft scrapped their controversial “always-on” DRM system on its PC releases, the publisher issued a statement this morning.
Ubisoft’s worldwide director for online games, Stephanie Perotti told RPS that always-on has actually been gone for quite a while, “We have listened to feedback, and since June last year our policy for all of PC games is that we only require a one-time online activation when you first install the game, and from then you are free to play the game offline.”
He added, “Whenever you want to reach any online service, multiplayer, you will have to be connected, and obviously for online games you will also need to be online to play. But if you want to enjoy Assassin’s Creed III single player, you will be able to do that without being connected. And you will be able to activate the game on as many machines as you want.”
Ubisoft declined to acknowledge that their controversial “always-on” DRM system policy was a mistake, and it was damaging publisher’s reputation.
Ubisoft’s corporate communications manager, Michael Burk was asked if he was willing to admit that the publisher’s heavy-handed DRM measures were a mistake.
He replied, “No, I wouldn’t say that. I’ll let Stephanie say what she thinks, but I wouldn’t use those words. This is a process, and we listened to feedback.”
When asked about Yves Guillemot’s statement about their 90-95% PC games being pirated, when Ubisoft exclaimed that DRM was working. He said, “I’m not going to comment on data, That was an unfortunate comment, with regard to the numbers, the numbers are coming from both internal and external research.”
“Research showed that it can reach that rate for some specific or popular PC games, and that number often varies depending on the territory. So we are not saying that it applies to all PC games for all territories, and we’re not saying that the same situation would apply for any game.”
What’s your take on this?
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