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Ubisoft Officially Drops Starforce
totalbasscase writes "Starforce, the copy protection scheme hated by most who've had reason to use it, has lost a customer. Ubisoft has confirmed that not only will Heroes of Might and Magic V ship without Starforce copy protection, the publisher is discontinuing its use in all its games." From the article: "We'd venture it has something to do with the lawsuit raised against Ubisoft for using Starforce as copy protection software. When we asked why they were dropping the company Ubisoft representatives said, 'Ubisoft takes its customer concerns very seriously and is investigating the complaints about alleged problems with Starforce's software. Ubisoft's goal is to find solutions for its customers if there are problems with Ubisoft products.'"
I mean, c'mon, I don't want a converted WWII battleship flying up and launching the Wave Motion Gun at me!
This sig, aah-ah, is comin' like a ghost-sig...
*Scratches Ubisoft off the "Completely Evil" list, and puts them on the "Evil, but I'm not so pissed off I won't buy their stuff" list.*
Since game companies absolutely depend on the goodwill of the consumers of their product, I'm glad to see they made the right choice, and I hope other companies *coughSONYcoughcough* will see that the right choice can also be the smart choice.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Games using Starforce
Boycott Starforce Campaign
Wikipedia article
This way, I might some day be able to buy a copy of Heroes of Might & Magic 5, and actually play it without ill feelings in my guts.
:%s/Open Source/Free Software/g
YTARY!
Actually, I've had far fewer frustrations with securom then with starforce.
I can live with some copy protection. I don't agree with the idea, but I can accept some compromise.
However starforce has caused me too many problems for me to accept it. I've written several publishers/developers to tell them that if their game includes starforce, I won't buy it. (And of course, appropriate information as to why I won't buy it.)
Good move Ubisoft.
Tommorrow on Slashdot: Ubisoft to look for a new Copy Protection system!
Now what Ubisoft should do is patch all of their games that use StarForce so not only upcoming games will not use this protection system, but the previously released as well. Then only will I believe them when they say "Ubisoft takes its customer concerns very seriously".
Or maybe it has to do with the forum fiasco where StarForce goon handed out links to warez and whatnot.
Starforce is of the same level of ilk as adware/ransomware vendors.
Behold a toast to hoping these Russians are looking for jobs in Siberia within the next 3 months.
... when the first thing you do when you are thinking about buying a game is check what sort of copy protection it uses before even considering the purchase itself. And what if the game happens to have one of the more offensive copy protection schemes? (Safedisc, Starforce) Well, you're forced to download cracks from questionable websites if you want to avoid dealing with them. This is coming from someone who wants to buy their products. This is a good first step for Ubisoft, but they should realize that all restrictive copy protection schemes do nothing but hurt their business in the long run.
The company is happy to announce it's copy protection system is changing names from Starforce to HappyFriendlyStuffedBear in order to revamp our bruised image. We're also glad to have Ubisoft's HoMM5 as our new flagship product. As always, we will continue to strive to redefnie the phrase 'haha you're screwed' in many different ways.
What about the poor saps who bought the games already? What about the games unsold on the shelves? Somehow I just can't see Ubisoft doing a recall or releasing anti-Starforce patches.
If enough people do this, it will create a large enough blip in the demographics that maybe, just maybe, these companies will sit up and take notice that non-copy-protected stuff can actually make money and all that. And they'll even save money on being able to skip buying some outrageously expensive CP thing.
After all, about all the copy-protection thing ever did was nail the average user. Anyone with any knowledge at all can find hacks on the web to get around it (or, for that matter, a full copy of it for free without the CP). And those with a lot of knowledge can flat out get around it anyway. In short, it doesn't affect those they declare themselves as targeting.
In the mean time, here's hoping that Ubisoft continues their way on the return to sanity, and learns a valuable lesson from all this.
Z
Can't say that I've had any problems with Starforce recently, but a few years back a Starforce-protected game did trash a CD-ROM I had at the time. On the first run of the game (I think it was Broken Sword III) there was a kind of "seek of death" sound, and the drive never worked again. Yeah, it was an old drive, but it worked great up until that exact moment.
I don't know what the current state of Starforce is, and I'm assuming they've improved its compatibility. What I have a problem with is the arbitrary installation of a device driver into a system without any form of notification to the user, no explanation of the risks involved, and no way to back out of it.
Software developers really should have a legal declaration that accompanies their software, in which each major component is declared with an explanation, and an inventory of the files that comprise it.
Actually, it's pretty easy.
Recent games without copy protection:
Gal Civ 2
There you go, that's the complete list TTBOMK.
1.7 million sales for Oblivion says that limited or no copy protection works.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
I've been having trouble finding torrents of Ubisoft games. Now there'll be no problem!
In Soviet Russia, backwards is everything.