Ubisoft punishes purchasers and promote piracy

Like anyone that actually buys their computer games, I loathe Digit Rights Management (DRM) software. It’s invasive, insulting and irritating. It also does nothing to prevent software piracy, as it’s always possible for clever people to break software. This is evidenced by every single game being available for a dodgy download at most a day or two after a launch. However those of us that, for whatever reason, like to own originals will normally tolerate the DRM software’s intrusions and buy the game anyway. Particularly as after a day or two, should the DRM prove to be a real pain in the arse, we can download a cracked exe file to use on our legitimately purchased software and get rid of the annoyance of DRM. Ironic really.

I used to think people just whinged about DRM and that it wasn’t so bad, but then after a previous Ubisoft title (using infamously bad DRM software) killed 3 of my DVD drives by spinning the discs to buggery, I realised actually yes, these DRM people are indeed tossers. So imagine my immense annoyance to discover that Silent Hunter 5 is not only using DRM, but using the single most awkward, pile of horse turd software to ever curse PC gaming.

Check out their DRM FAQ.

Here are the key points:

What are the key elements of this platform for PC gamers?
Although a permanent online connection is required, this means that a CD/DVD is not required to play the game after installation. The protected game can be installed as many times and on as many computers as you like. Saved games are also synchronized online so the user can continue playing from any location with the game installed.

Uhm… so Ubisoft are selling this as a benefit, as long as you have multiple gaming PCs scattered around the world. So as a normal 1 PC person, the benefit is what exactly? Loading saved games from he internet is NOT a benefit, quite the opposite in fact.

What will happen if I lose my Internet connection when I play the game?
If you lose your Internet connection the game will pause while it tries to reconnect. If the Internet Connection is unable to resume you can continue the game from where you left off or from the last saved game.

Will I need to be online the whole time when I play the game? Including for single player?
Yes. You will need to have an active Internet connection to play the game, for all game modes.

Hang on a minute… If my internet connection drops, my game pauses? And then if it doesn’t return I get to continue, but as the saved games are online, I can’t save the game… I have to be online the WHOLE time? But this is a single player game. And if my internet connection is down, I can’t actually play the game at all!

What about people on dial up connection, or low bandwidth, or without internet at all...?

Will this system be available for every Ubisoft game?
Most upcoming Ubisoft PC games will make use of this system.

Well there you go folks, consider yourselves warned. Don’t buy Ubisoft games. They will be much easier to set up, play and just all round “user friendly” if you pirate them. I won’t be buying Silent Hunter 5 until a cracked exe is available; no way I’m putting up with that DRM crap, so I will have to crack my purchased copy of the game. Of course I’ve read on their official forums that a cracked copy of the entire game is already available for download. LOL! So that DRM solution worked well! Must be tempting to just download it and not go through the hassle eh?

This is completely insane.