Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Ubisoft's DRM Cracked — For Real This Time

Posted by Soulskill on from the see-you-next-scheme dept.

therufus writes "A few days after the release of Assassin's Creed 2, naughty piracy sites were announcing they had cracked Ubisoft's Online Services Platform. Turns out, that wasn't entirely true. While it was possible to load into the game, players were unable to advance past a certain memory block. But now, it seems Ubisoft will need to draft a new response. A new crack has begun circulating that removes the DRM entirely."

18 of 443 comments (clear)

  1. Let The Excuses Begin by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm not a fan of 'Piracy' at all, but Ubisoft DRM tactics are draconian, ridiculous, and are just begging for the attention of those who break DRM for fun or profit.

    Ubisoft has brought this upon themselves and now they'll use the fact that their "unbreakable" DRM has been broken to justify their further efforts. Asshats!

    1. Re:Let The Excuses Begin by causality · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ubisoft has brought this upon themselves and now they'll use the fact that their "unbreakable" DRM has been broken to justify their further efforts. Asshats!

      The reasonable approach would be "Unbreakable? Yeah we've heard THAT before, no thanks, let's not waste money bothering with this. Lets use the programmers who would be designing complex DRM systems and have them join the team that's actually creating the game." Unfortunately I think that what you said will come to pass. They won't recognize that "try harder" is not the correct way to deal with a failed idea.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    2. Re:Let The Excuses Begin by Dachannien · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In that respect, DRM is like a witch trial directed at legitimate paying customers. If the DRM stays intact, the witch sinks and dies, and the DRM perpetuates its own myth by "proving" its own success. If the DRM is cracked, the witch floats and lives only to be burned at the stake, and the DRM perpetuates its own myth by "proving" the need for harsher measures.

      Either way, the DRM isn't really doing anything but killing witches - I mean, eliminating paying customers.

    3. Re:Let The Excuses Begin by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Indeed, different company, but same issue here: I was going to buy Spore when it came out, because it sounded cool. When I found out about the DRM that amounts to their installing a rootkit on my system, I just downloaded the cracked version instead. I figure if they're going to treat me like a criminal from the get-go, why not earn the punishment? Turns out I had a much easier time of things than most anybody who actually paid for and installed the software. Go figure.

      It's like the parents who leave the house for the afternoon, and tell the kids they have to do chores/homework and aren't allowed to watch any TV. Instead of trusting the kids at all, or even waiting till they get back to determine if they broke the rules and watched TV, the parents decide to punish the kids ahead of time because they know they'll break the rule anyway. Well, since they've already been punished for it, why wouldn't the kids watch TV when they aren't supposed to?

      These fucked up DRM schemes are exactly the same - if I'm going to be punished for following the rules (heavy restrictions on use, rootkits, compatibility issues, etc), why the hell would I follow the rules? A lot of people already know most cracked versions are easier and more convenient to play compared to the retail versions, so where is the incentive to buy retail? Some people are honest enough to buy retail and then get the cracks, but you're still breaking the law so why bother buying in the first place?

      --
      Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
  2. I wish people would act more ethically by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The only ethical response to ubisoft is not to buy their product, not to use their product, not to infringe upon their product and then tell them you are doing it and tell your friends.

    I'm irritated at the pro-piracy attitude, it hurts open source as well. Without respect for at least copyright-driven IP you can't have real opensource that allows the creator to specify how it is propagated (GPL). All you would have would be the BSD, and we saw what Apple did with that eh?

    1. Re:I wish people would act more ethically by celibate+for+life · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Except Ubisoft doesn't know whether you illegally download their game or not, so pirating it and not playing it at all have the same effect, that is: Ubisoft will assume piracy.

    2. Re:I wish people would act more ethically by laparel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So... You don't like Ubisoft's DRM but since you really really like AC2, you wait for a crack then still buy the game?

      Look it's your money and everything so you're free to use it however you want, but to me buying their game whilst hating their DRM is very short sighted and counter-intuitive. If the current DRM-Crack arms war continues to escalate, I fear we'll just end up with a subscription model or something so draconian that pirates might just not be able to crack. You might be able to play Assassin's Creed 2 for now; but come Assassin's Creed 3, we'll all be fucked.

      I'd rather we just all stop buying Ubisoft's product now, even if that means we won't be playing their latest games, and hope that they shape up. Send a clear message to them that they're going to lose their customers and sales unless they remove their fucking DRM.

  3. There WILL be unbreakable DRM, heres how: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here is how unbreakable DRM will eventually work:
    When internet connections are high enough bandwidths and low enough latencies, you will only have video transferred to you, all game assets will be entirely stored and run on their hardware, never will anything be stored on YOUR end that you will can manipulate.

    That is, you will play "unbreakable" games remotely.

    1. Re:There WILL be unbreakable DRM, heres how: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      At which point prices will have to drop significantly because you're no longer selling a game; you're selling a subscription to a game.

      Hahahahahahahahahaha

    2. Re:There WILL be unbreakable DRM, heres how: by sowth · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You think they will drop their prices? Obviously, you don't know anything about the greed of the media companies.

    3. Re:There WILL be unbreakable DRM, heres how: by TavisJohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And that sort of "Streaming" of a game will totally eliminate the re-playability of the game.

      I have games that are 5, 10, 15, 20+ years old that I STILL go back and play. Some of the companies that made the games I have do not even exist anymore! No game company is going to pay to keep servers running so customers can continue to play the game that long after it was released.

      I will NEVER EVER buy a game that is not totally contained on the media I am purchasing. I like to go back and re-play games for DECADES to come.

    4. Re:There WILL be unbreakable DRM, heres how: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      and this is why a high school level economics education is not sufficient to properly understand market forces.

    5. Re:There WILL be unbreakable DRM, heres how: by qubezz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And that would be relevant if they had equivalent sales. As things stand, it actually argues against your point: ebook sales in the US last year come to about $13 million dollars out of a (roughly) $23 billion dollar a year industry, according to the AAP. If the quality of the product and the price of the alternatives are the only driving factors, then I conclude that people are unwilling to pay equal amounts for a product that has no associated baseline costs and a product whose cost is dominated by those factors.

      The low numbers are partially because the baseline cost is free - go to the library (or Project Gutenberg for pre-1923 works, the last year to probably ever be public domain). The truth is, the product you buy is not a product, it's a one-platform non-transferable DRM encrusted unresaleable bunch of words that will be disabled when the dot.com at the other end of the wire decides it's profitable to abandon or goes out of business, sold for the same price as a tangible product. Ebooks are massively crippled so they are worth even less than a sherlockholmes.txt ASCII file, and yet have still been priced uncompetitively, almost so they won't make a dent in the centuries-old paper codex business.

      The only sheeple customers who can't say no to DRM seem to be those who respond to marketing that tells them they need to buy the latest gadgets to be cool and fashionable. Why do you think iPhone buyers were so upset when the price of the phone dropped from $600 to $400? Because more people could afford to join the fashionista club.

  4. Re:Skidrow didn't do the hard work by TheLink · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There is a difference between plagiarism and copying.

    One involves deception or not telling the full truth.

    --
  5. I could *not* care less. by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wouldn't play Assassin's Creed 2, Command and Conquer 4, or any other game which required a constant internet connection for single player use, regardless of the state of cracks or how low the publisher dropped the price.

    Fuck Ubisoft. Fuck EA. They've both lost a paying customer by pulling this bullshit, and I buy a lot of games.

    Fuck 'em both.

    --
    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  6. Re:The next step (an insider's view) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Oh, I'll be leaving soon, but for other reasons. Mostly because they work you into the ground sweat shop style, they are hellbent on NOT making innovative fun games (it's always about how it looks, not how it plays), and because the place is full of greedy capitalist douchebags.

  7. don't use the crack, don't play the games by blueworm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do not use the crack and do not play the games with DRM if we want to really see an end to DRM. Even playing the game without buying it can be good publicity that generates sales for those who would complain they are not selling enough. Resisting the temptation to consume products instead of creating our own is the real problem. Instead of consuming things because we feel we need to, if we do not agree with the product we should instead work to create our own. We cannot let self-doubts and temporary failures prevent us from being creative if we are to bring about a new creative renaissance without DRM.

  8. You're missing the point by wall0159 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This isn't about price. This is about the freedom of the internet, which is slowly being eroded, and with it our personal freedom. It's easy to take the path of least resistance and simply seek technological circumventions to censorship and other online restrictions. But, while we keep playing with such toys, those that would control knowledge are busy building both the legislative and technological systems that will make this battle that much harder to fight in another decade or so.