It was a lie ofcourse, damm him!
Keboo, there are PLENTY of reasons for the NPD numbers to show a decline in the retail sales of boxed PC games. Piracy may be one of the reasons, but you simply cannot ignore all of the others: digital-only distribution, facilitated by broadband just as much as piracy has been, for one. Steam is not the only game in town, either. And, let’s face it, the current generation of consoles plays most action-oriented games just fine in high-def resolutions, with a minimum of fuss and bother, which, as the population ages (you do realize that is happening in the U.S., right?) people have a lot less time and patience for. There are online sellers, which still sell boxed copies but (I don’t believe) are counted in the NPD numbers. Hell, Wal*Mart isn’t counted in them, and they probably sell “shloads” of copies.
And I can tell you that, for my part, I’ve bought console versions of certain games vs. the PC versions because I wanted to avoid the onerous or damaging DRM. TOCA Race Driver 2 was one of them-- the PC version had Starforce, and I wasn’t knowingly putting that shit on my computer. This despite the fact that the Xbox 1 version ran at SD TV resolution, clearly inferior to what was available in 2003 or whatever on PCs. Think of how much more reason people have now to choose the lower-hassle high-def console version of a game. Assassins Creed 2? Bought it on 360, not just because it came out sooner, but because I snagged it on sale for 40 bucks during the holidays. This is before I knew about the DRM on the PC version, admittedly, but the choice there is a no-brainer: if my internet goes down I can still play the 360 version, the other one not so much.
Heh. They even thank Ubi in the NFO for “the opportunity of telling the sharpies from the fakers again”.
Not a lie at all. I have it on good authority that pirates have torrented the gravitational field. We are currently looking into ways to make sure total mass is being accounted for. Possible solutions are to require that all posters consume twinkies while browsing the thread (and providing at least 2 forms of documented proof thereof) or create an alt account for Derek Smart to post with.
The problem is that Twinkie consumption isn’t necessary for people who only want to browse the thread, which means you’re now at the mercy of snack cake distributions systems even if all you want to do is enjoy gravity.
- Alan
I find this post made 2 years ago strangely prophetic and interesting… I wonder if Brad has stock in Ubi? ;-)
Funny thing is, people laughed at this, and Brad of course meant this in jest…now look who’s the fool…
Save Anywhere is a member benefit of the PC Using Master Race!
And it’s not by the hour but by the 30 seconds :P
Now it looks like the new Tom Clancy game, Splinter Cell Something, has been cracked as well. It does seem as if it is taking less time now that this DRM has been out for a little while and the cracking groups have gained some experience with cracking them.
Given the length of the game that’s really not a surprise. Linear and short, just takes a play or two I bet to record it all.
Talk about incentives to extend the gameplay duration, hah.
You mean adding value to the customer? Insane!
Or pointless busy-work.
Splinter Cell’s multiplayer is cracked, too again by Skidrow.
Give it up Ubi and drop this DRM.
Regarding the multiplayer cracking, I’m gonna go with “CALLED IT!”
They just totally lost on Splinter Cell, then, and maybe this DRM as a whole. Multiplayer has been one of the major aspects in play with getting someone to buy a game, one of the things that very, very rarely can be cracked. You want that aspect of the game, you have to buy it.
Now people have no reason other than doing the right thing, and doing the right thing isn’t a powerful motivator when it gets you treated like a criminal anyway.
Is this multiplayer crack one that enables pirates to play with legitimate users too, or just with other pirates? I think that makes a difference in the degree of d0medness for this DRM.
I think Ubi needs to step out in front of this. Considering how slammed the DRM was in both reviews and forums, it’s tough to imagine they can actually consider this a success.
I doubt there is any way a corporate entity like UBI will ever admit to failure like that, and drop its DRM. While “face saving” is a japanese concept I think that applies here. We will not see the day where they will remove the DRM from their new games, ever.
Every time something like this happens, I think of The Wire. Public perception of people staying silent is so much worse than actually jumping out ahead of the problem. Unfortunately it’s probably true that people will just throw it back in their faces anyways if they did own up to it.
