Ubisoft’s done it again. Here’s why online DRM needs to completely vanish from PC gaming.
Watch Dogs! It’s out and it’s everywhere, but maybe not quite for the reasons Ubisoft wanted. Uplay fell over on launch day, meaning many people couldn’t play the PC version. Uplay does have an offline mode which allows PC gamers to play whether or not Uplay’s live, but you still have to sign in to authenticate. If Uplay’s down, no game.
Ubisoft has a long history of trying and failing to make DRM work on its PC games. This is the end.
Dear Ubisoft: here’s why Watch Dogs should kill any kind of online requirement for your single-player PC games forever.
1 – People can’t play it day one.
Why you’d want to stop people playing a game on the day it comes out is beyond me. Because by implementing always-on DRM that’s exactly what you’re doing. A popular game with this style of lock always breaks at launch.
2 – All the people who pre-ordered will probably never do it again.
They might, of course, but they’re certainly going to think twice. Isn’t your triple-A business built on pre-ordering?
3 – Your PR story turns from talking about the game to fire-fighting thousands of pissed off gamers.
Sucks to be Ubi PR. You’ve got a great game people can’t get enough of and the mood’s gone from, “These NPCs are really cool,” to, “Why the fuck can’t I play Watch Dogs?” We feel pretty sorry for the guys having to “manage” that message.
4 – And it isn’t just the gamers. You get headlines like this.
And this.
And this.
And this.
And this.
And this.
And this.
And this.
Like, dur.
5 – User feedback matters on PC games.
User feedback on PC products is vital. People can see what other people are saying. You have to be the good guy online. All anyone thinks of Ubisoft in the PC games community right now is that yet another triple-A PC launch got screwed. That’s not good.
Head through to page 2 for more incredible logic-based anti-DRM points.
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