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Ubisoft's New DRM Gets Cracked Pretty Fast...

By Aloysius Low - on 04 Mar 2010, 11:50am

It seems like the pirates have risen to the challenge thrown down by Ubisoft and have cracked Ubisoft's latest game - Silent Hunter 5. The irony isn't lost on me: a game about ships getting cracked by pirates seems to be chuckle material.

The problem here isn't the pirating, it's the restrictive DRM that causes more harm to legitimate users than pirates. And face it, Ubisoft is going to just argue that the current DRM scheme isn't strong enough and will require even stricter measures. Expect to see them sending you a webcam, fingerprint and biometric scanner just so you can play the next latest and greatest Ubisoft game.

Of course, if you want to look deeper into the whole DRM anti-piracy thingy, it may seem that piracy is just an excuse to cover the other reason why DRM is implmented: resales. While the resale market isn't really big here in Singapore (or the general SEA region), in western countries and Down Under, it's a big industry where games are frequently traded in for new ones and the old ones are sold for a much reduced price that game publishes don't see a single cent of.

There are ways to see some returns of course, Bioware has implemented a marketplace DLC addon scheme that are free the first time purchases, but resale purchases will have to pay for the DLC. Seems like a workaround to me, so why not?

Anyway, the point I'm making is this, stop with the over-the-top DRM schemes and concentrate on making a better game. Good games sell, crappy games don't. You won't get much sales from crappy games with no DRM, but you will get much more for good games with no DRM anyhows.

/rant over.

p.s. Here's a slightly humorous and exaggerated graphic making my point:

(click for CSI Enhance)

Click for CSI Enhance!

 

 

 

Aloysius Low

Aloysius Low / Former Tech Writer

Tech writer, gadget nerd, cat owner and social media junkie, Aloysius loves exploring the wacky side of tech, while tackling his notebook reviews.

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