Ubisoft has been the whipping boy for DRM opponents because some of its PC releases have required that the player be "always connected" to the internet to play its games. But this week the company is earning some good will. The first is the releases of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World game on PlayStation Network, a wonderful 8-bit beat 'em up that plays like a gussied version of River City Ransom. But for DRM opponents the best news is that the highly anticipated strategy game RUSE won't be using Ubisoft's usual DRM scheme.
A post on Ubisoft’s official forum for the game reveals that, because the game is using Steamworks, it won't require users to be always connected to the internet. Instead it will require you to login to Steam to validate the game once. Here's more from the forum post:
When R.U.S.E. is released in September, it will benefit from Valve’s Steamworks API to offer the best community experience to players. Consequently, a Steam account and Internet connection will be required to activate the game, as per Steam policy. For this reason, R.U.S.E. will not use the Ubisoft protection. Single player can be played offline."
So there you go. Hopefully Ubisoft will be smart enough to do this with all of its PC releases going forward. The only drawback is that other digital distribution channels like Stardock's Impulse may not carry the game because they don't support titles that require additional software to play - like the Steam client..
Comments
Re: RUSE Dumps Ubisoft DRM for Steamworks
our complaints didnt go unnoticed ! yay!
BCD303 "Speedy thing goes in. Speedy thing comes out."
Re: RUSE Dumps Ubisoft DRM for Steamworks
Apparently they still plan to use their DRM on future titles though. Just not this one in particular.
my vanity is justified
Re: RUSE Dumps Ubisoft DRM for Steamworks
This is a very positive development and they've now earned my business for RUSE. I was really looking forward to the game and it was going to suck to have to skip it and now I won't have to. If they remove the DRM from Settlers 7, they've got another sale from me right there. Unfortunately, they've said elsewhere that this is just an exception for RUSE at this point, not their new policy going forward. My guess is because this game is not being developed by Ubisoft internally but by Eugen Systems, an independent developer. I don't know if they own the IP for this or not but if they do, they probably have say in what protection scheme gets used for it.
Rest assured though, companies like this follow the money and if RUSE does better on the PC than their other games which use the hated DRM scheme, they will take notice. If you want this game, pay for it and send the message to them. If you pirate this, you're part of the problem.
Parallax Abstraction
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
www.digital-lifeline.ca
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Re: RUSE Dumps Ubisoft DRM for Steamworks
Thank you ubusoft from dropping your crappy drm for something so much better.
http://www.magicinkgaming.com/