Assassin's Creed Mirage PC: Denuvo Day One Controversy

[@deckverse]

Thanks for discussing this! I’m grateful that my findings gained traction. And yes, it’s a vile move. Just adding this after the reviews went live is already quite anti-consumer. For me, the most significant concern, aside from potential performance impacts, is that Denuvo locks the game for over 24 hours when launched on different devices, such as handhelds. This essentially turns any extensive handheld benchmarking session into a nightmare.

[@George-um2vc]

Lesson is, don’t buy Ubisoft games, problem solved.

[@Mene0]

Worst type of DRM. Eventually it gets cracked and pirates can pirate just fine and the paying customer gets fucked by it. Essentially punishing the ones that are doing everything legal and only slightly annoying the ones that aren't

[@steel5897]

I'd love to hear your evidence on how "customers get fucked" by denuvo, it's always a bunch of cope and fake articles being used as evidence. The often cited RE Village issue was caused by Capcom's anti-cheating code, which could be disabled with praydog's REFramework mod since day 1 and the issue would go away (that code causes issues to this day btw, RE4 remake crashes on startup if you have a modified steam client unless you use REFramework) The denuvo outrage is all NPC bandwagoning and fake news, and when you call that out you get called a shill. People can't think for themselves and have no interest in the truth, it's all BS narratives and I hate you all for it.

[@hueypautonoman]

Exactly! It's like airport security. Only the honest, paying customers are inconvenienced by it. Actual criminals always find a way.

[@balaam_7087]

Pretty shady on Ubisoft’s part.

[@phant0mdummy]

So surprising to see Ubisoft shaft their customers.

[@dragons_red]

You don't say.

[@zaleskar]

1:38 This is why Alex is a legend. Spot on explanation. #FCKDRM.

[@PaperlessWriter]

These kind of deceitful tactics are indeed vile, period, end of story.

[@joseijosei]

The thing with DRM is that people who are thinking about pirating the game are not going to buy it anyways. I don't think that, for example, people who were thinking about buying Starfield day one, didn't buy it because it got cracked, or that people who were waiting for the pirated version are going to rush buy the game because no one made a crack. Sure, there will be a few exceptions of people who were waiting for a crack AND really wanted to play the tame asap, and then they got tired of waiting and got the game, but I think that there are EVEN MORE people who were thinking about buying the game, but now they aren't going to just because of Denuvo. The worst part is: once they crack the game, the pirated version RUNS BETTER.

[@giannis_tar]

What you are saying is the general consensus indeed, but the fact that companies keep using Denuvo anyway makes me think that maybe they have data that suggests otherwise.

[@1chrisanderson]

Honestly after buying Starfield and putting 100hrs in, i WISH i'd just torrented it

[@joseijosei]

@@1chrisanderson Really? I think it's a good game. It's hard for me to understand how people can play a game they don't enjoy for 100 hours.

[@1chrisanderson]

@@joseijosei I spent at least 25 hours trying to fix the game with mods, and then as I got further in I realized what I was seeing was extremely repetitive so I started digging and trying to find all the unique content. What really cemented it for me was playing Phantom Liberty....for $30 I feel like I had an incredibly immersive, engaging experience compared to how hollow and 'meh' the StarField aftertaste was

[@joseijosei]

@@1chrisanderson I agree Phantom Liberty has a lot more quality, but my experience with Starfield wasn't boring or repetitive. Maybe that depends on what you do, but if you stick to the main story, factions and few quests that are in your face (besides outpost and ship building), it's hard to find a repetitive experience. Sure, first half of the main story is very repetitive, but other than that, the game doesn't stop with the tone changes.

[@phant0mdummy]

These companies continually double down. They know that we all hate it, so they devise more infuriating ways to implement it.

[@michaelmonstar4276]

This isn't a first that they do it after reviews...

[@santiniperico8627]

You have Denuvo, I don't touch you, simple as that.

[@jforce321]

You guys made it pretty obvious they wanted to get the money from people who would normally boycott the game for having it but then be too lazy to return it once they found out it was added

[@michaelmonstar4276]

4:05 - AND existing customers. - I have this game sitting in a box (the Collector's Edition) and refuse to install it now until they remove it. - Dead product for me, I just got the figure and other stuff out of it. - Of course, they have my money, and I also don't think the Ubisoft Store does refunds (or maybe they do for non-activated/played games). But anyway... As if getting to run Connect on Linux wasn't enough of a hassle...

[@joshuaDstarks]

Remember when day one meant “have a lot of fun”?

[@James-gj8rn]

These days it's wait for the game to install FROM A DISC or wait while this update takes HOURS to download

[@G360LIVE]

@@James-gj8rn ...or wait while COMPILING SHADERS. I think the most fun I had was when I bought an Xbox on launch day. I brought it home with Halo, Dead or Alive 3, and Project Gotham Racing, hooked up the console to my TV, and played for hours and hours and hours and had so much fun. No worries about installing. No worries about my online connection. No worries about anything. I just played games and had fun.

[@kushsrivastava7465]

Will there be a DF PC review of mirage?

[@dmer-zy3rb]

Anyone with a brain doesent play games day one anyway. The pirates will enjoy the game in 1 or 2 years with all patches,DLCs and Denuvo removed and have the much better experience.

[@Cheynanigans__]

Scummy move no matter what way you look at it. As if we didn't already have enough reason to avoid Ubisoft. It sucks, really, because Ubisoft make some damn decent games.

[@MassivePaper]

DRM sucks, it will get cracked and pirates get better copy. Cyberpunk and Witcher are examples how if the game is good, people will buy it.

[@deathtrooper2048]

Cyberpunk is terrible and teaches that you should lie to your audience and release a terrible product thay you eventually abandon (Xbox one and PS4 version).

[@xhappymasksalesmenx4092]

Companies have now been waiting until after reviews to add denuvo and its scummy af. I’d never support it. Single player games? Really?! And you can’t trust denuvo to tell the truth. They already say it has zero impact in games

[@sblantipodi]

I can't disable chromatic aberration in Mirage.... WTF? :D

[@Cheynanigans__]

Living dat Ubisoft life

[@sblantipodi]

@@Cheynanigans__ they said that they are releasing a patch for this

[@michaelmonstar4276]

When does that effect happen?... Is it a constant-on thing?... Because then it doesn't make any sense.

[@sblantipodi]

​@@michaelmonstar4276yes it's a constant on thing

[@atatek]

Vile move to be sure!

[@ViolenceCity]

All they did was make sure I never buy it. But will take a free Epic copy in the future.

[@stephenmeinhold5452]

we live in a crazy world if you download a cracked game and it works perfectly you now own that game you can pass it on you dont have to log in to anything as its yours. if you buy a game its not yours you are just renting it and they can pull the plug anytime they like, which they have done to perfectly good single player games. so you get a better deal downloading a cracked game than buying it legitamatly? that is insane.

[@aaronlauretani8921]

Life is so much easier for a gamer once you decide to just stay away from any game made by Ubisoft.

[@HeretixAevum]

@@JokerX350 And then peak easy when you just quit video games entirely.

[@aaronlauretani8921]

Hah I knew someone would say that, but I've had a great time with a lot of modern games in 2023. I just perpetually despise Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft.@@JokerX350

[@michaelmonstar4276]

Shows how much you know... Which is not a lot.

[@michaelmonstar4276]

@@JokerX350 You know just as little, boomer.

[@unknowntiger9108]

I wish Denuvo went bankrupt.

[@George-um2vc]

At this point, if the game has Denuvo, I’m either NEVER going to buy it, or I’m going to pirate it after the finale patch 🤣 good job Ubisoft (not that I was ever gonna but this AC trash anyway)

[@pedro.alcatra]

I just think the same. When they give up paying denuvo I download it. I am not buying anything anyways

[@George-um2vc]

@@pedro.alcatra I WANT to buy games, but these companies make it so hard, so, until things change, I either don’t play at all, or pirate.

[@pedro.alcatra]

@@George-um2vc You may be that a good man. But I won't pay in anyways until it is possible. Never had a console for the same reason. Paying to play online and being bound to the console store is complicated. I hate the pc problems but they just consumes, time not money. And I can wait one day or more anyway

[@George-um2vc]

@@pedro.alcatra I would never have a console unless money wasn’t an issue, the cost of games and how bound you are is terrible, it’s really a shame gaming is divided like this, it should all be one open platform, like PC, but even PC has its bs with all the different launchers, still I’d take PC any day, however I recently sold mine due to all these terrible releases of games I was looking forward to, I had a 1600k and 3080ti, but so many releases were so bad my hardware was irrelevant, that being said, in 2023 I 100% support piracy.

[@d4mterro320]

1:30 Idk why that guy was crying about performance. Way before launch u were promised a 4k60 experienced with a 3080 at specific Ultra settings, and you get just that on PC, what do you mean? You should ve expected that if on a 3080 you had way better performance on a pre-release version at 4k. Without denuvo, pirates will demolish it because you don't understand pirates.

[@Koozwad]

*DENUVO = DENOBUY*

[@selohcin]

That settles it. I'm not buying this game.

[@louisrharmony]

Wasn’t it disproved that they added it after? I’m pretty sure that it was always there.

[@orriblecol6587]

if drm worked wouldn't movie studios been on that bandwagon by now

[@doltBmB]

every gpu and monitor comes with movie DRM built in

[@Goblue734]

It is vile

[@Goblue734]

I played it at the 1 AM launch on PC and it was fantastic came back the next night to play nothing but stutters and four second freezes completely ridiculous🤦🏻‍♂️ I’ll never buy UBISOFT title again. They’re complete garbage and they do this way too often.

[@brutlern]

The thing is, this was never "snuck" in. It was known for months that it will have Denuvo. It was never even a possibility that it would not have it. The only question is why it didn't have it for the review copies. I can only speculate, but knowing that Denuvo is a subscription style service (I am actually surprised that a lot of people don't know this fact), it's possible that the service would only be active from launch day, so any copies in the wild would not work prior to that, meaning Ubisoft had to remove it for the review copies to be able to work for the reviews. But all this is moot, as the game runs beautifully with or without Denuvo, I have no issues with the game (except HDR being broken, but that's not on Denuvo), and whether or not Denuvo is there it really doesn't matter to me. What would have mattered to me is that if the game didn't have Denuvo, it would have been pirated to hell and back, and me, the legitimate user, who bought it, would feel really dumb as everyone else would be playing it for "free". So you don't want DRM in your games? Stop pirating them.

[@akalalaimranrp]

Buying dayone released games for PS2 and PS3 where amazing. Now buying these modern games are waste of money now. It unfinished and bugs. I buy used xbox series x and ps5 games from facebook marketplace. Just bought ps5 mortal kombat 1 from marketplace for $55 Canadian. No more helping developers and publishers.

[@91ludesit]

Ubisoft has been on my do not buy list for years, and will remain on it. I'll spend my gaming dollars elsewhere.

[@GameslordXY]

How do you know it affects gamers negatively before Benchmarks?

[@AuntieAliasing]

​@@GameslordXYBecause benchmarks have been released already for other games with Denuvo when it was removed. Their reputation is already ruined

[@Koozwad]

@@GameslordXY Sometimes it's also a matter of principle.

[@michaelmonstar4276]

Sounds like a you-problem.

[@Badgrammarterry]

Pc games just keep coming out broken or not working. I love my PC! But the big titles I’m buying on Console now. I Wait to here what system it runs best on, then I buy accordingly.

[@oropher1234]

Yet there still are 0 games that run better on consoles.

[@Knuffol-j9m]

That depends highly on the hardware in your pc.@@oropher1234

[@michaelmonstar4276]

@@oropher1234 That's false. Do you research.

[@michaelmonstar4276]

Denuvo exists on consoles.

[@oropher1234]

@@michaelmonstar4276 lol, on the best PC hardware it's still always a better experience.

[@cozyboy3129]

Why even bother? Its not really that anticipated. Even pirates are not asking for it.

[@GameslordXY]

There are many fans that don't come to KZbin or Metacritic. Or ignore them altogether. They just buy whatever comes from their favourite series. A silent majority

[@beingbeyonddat]

Ubisoft is going down reeeeally fast. Every game they launch is bad and soon people will just start thinking about Ubisoft as bad as ''I want nothing from them, even if it's free to play''. And that's well earned. That company have done nothing good in the last years.

[@totty2524]

Joke's on them. I don't even want to pirate this

[@darkmaster539]

Day 1 patch always changes performance so it isn't anything new. DRM sucks, but given cyberpunk's launch, Jedi survivor etc this one does not run poorly. The issue people are taking is the DRM itself.

[@ammanus356]

Cyberpunk didn't launch with DRM and doesn't have it now. The whole reason CDPR created GOG is to have a storefront without DRM as they don't agree with it.

[@sw1zzy940]

Cyberpunk ran fine since day 1

[@Koozwad]

Improving performance is different from reducing it. Denuvo can also massively change the game not to mention lock people out from playing the game at all. Lower performance, increased wear/tear on hardware, phoning home taking user data, longer loading times and of course being forced to go online to play the game.

[@kylerclarke2689]

I really just could not force myself to care about/be mad about denuvo. Uplay however should be outlawed

[@michaelmonstar4276]

Uplay doesn't exist anymore. - Then also outlaw Steam.

[@dragons_red]

It's more Ubisoft trash, why would anyone buy this? The problem starts before Denuvo, it's supporting all these big companies that keep serving worse versions of the same gaming slop with a shiny new coat on it.

[@michaelmonstar4276]

Your ignorance is showing.

[@James-gj8rn]

I got it on PS5 physical because Ubisoft didn't put it on Steam so i dodged a bullet there (phew)

[@basshead.]

How many DVDs the physical version has?

[@James-gj8rn]

@@basshead. one disc

[@basshead.]

@@James-gj8rn How did it fit on a single DVD? The PC version is like 40gb.

[@James-gj8rn]

@@basshead. It's a Ultra HD Blu Ray Disc, i don't know how all that works though

[@GameslordXY]

​@@basshead. Ultra HD Blue Ray is 100GB capacity

[@fvallo]

denuvo = artistic choice

[@HeretixAevum]

Imagine releasing a game with the subtitle "Mirage" and then doing this. How much more lacking in self awareness or irony could you possibly be?

[@garethperks7032]

I don’t mind denuvo if the game runs well, and Mirage runs very well. As long as the subscription option is there; I’ll be paying my dues, although uplay should have regional pricing like game pass.

[@Novskyy621]

Game is garbage anyways so it won't affect a lot of people

[@michaelmonstar4276]

Affects loads of people. It's not garbage, it's your understanding of it.

[@Novskyy621]

@@michaelmonstar4276 It's a pitty because that means you probably didn't play the actually good Assassin's Creed games. But still i'm good if you are having fun with it. But many don't including me

[@tektight]

It's Ubisoft/Assassin's Creed, who cares? Even without Denuvo Ubisoft can't optimize for crap. Also it's just another boring Assassin's game with nothing new. Even less then other games in the series in fact.

[@wizzenberry]

pc master race

[@mikeuk666]

2023 shader stutter race

[@michaelmonstar4276]

White supremacist talk.

[@reyjimenz]

If PC gamers stop pirating this would never happen.

[@leonro]

Can I even play a denuvo DRMed game offline if I *don't* pirate it? With PC handhelds becoming quite popular nowadays, there is even more demand for offline games.

[@reyjimenz]

@@leonro you can play pc games offline tho. No need for pirating.

[@leonro]

@@reyjimenz Some of them yes, but Denuvo requires periodic online verification (timer depends on game I believe), and demands an online connection when you first launch a game after an update. Some DRM solutions require a constant online connection, even. So you might be able to play offline, but your game might get updated in the background and you might get spooked by the DRM when you first launch it.

[@kylerclarke2689]

Oh yes. We should all pre-order the $140 deluxe editions of games. Then companies will surely back off on the anti-consumer stuff!

[@mikeuk666]

​@kylerclarke2689 and that has what to do with pirating?

[@unscripted3209]

Little gamer boys getting mad about nothing 😂

[@michaelmonstar4276]

Yet here you are.

[@unscripted3209]

@@michaelmonstar4276 Incredible observation 👏

[@gamingoptimized]

The game does run very well though on PC!

[@phant0mdummy]

Besides the point. Also totally subjective.

[@steel5897]

@@phant0mdummy no it's not subjective lmao, the game scales well, it's a good pc port. Performance also has 0 to do with DRM on modern CPUs, that entire discussion is BS. Elden Ring and Callisto Protocol both had massive scaling and shader cache stuttering issues that were very similar in nature at launch, dumb NPCs blamed it on denuvo on Callisto, and yet said nothing about Elden Ring because it had no DRM. People have no clue what they're talking about they just push narratives like useful idiots.

[@Koozwad]

@@steel5897 IIRC Elden Ring had EAC which is another huge problem for PC gamers and gaming in general. I'm all for Anti-Cheat but highly invasive ones owned by Epic no less are no good at all.

[@JoeWayne84]

Those assassin creed games are so fucking boring haha idk I’ve tried like 3 of em and couldn’t get into any of them.

[@michaelmonstar4276]

Sounds like a you-problem.