Ubisoft DRM - The Original Always Online DRM that broke games

[@theshadowdirector]

I remember having to apply a crack to my legitimate PC copy of assassin's creed II Just so I could enjoy the privilege of playing it on my own timetable.

[@user-lj4lo7cx7m]

Me too, i remember downloading the whole torrent just to get the crack

[@JustJustKen]

That is the case for me as well. I was in grade school when it was released and had to save every allowance I got to buy it only to find out that you need internet connection for it. That pissed me so much but on the bright side, that is also what introduced me to the piracy community. lol I still buy the games I really wanted to support the devs, especially now that I can afford it but if I were to choose whether to stay online just to play or pirate it so I can play it offline at anytime, I would gladly choose the latter.

[@chamoo232]

For me it was AC Brotherhood. I played AC2 on console but I had a better PC when Brotherhood came out. I still didn't buy it at full price because reviews said it was not AC3 but just more of AC2. When I finally bought it on sale on Steam I was forced to make a Uplay account. Then put in my CDKey... that didn't work. It took me 2 minutes to find a crack. Then Revelation came out and it was yet again not the true AC3 so I didn't get it at launch and by the time it was on sale I just didn't care about the franchise anymore.

[@oatsie8727]

See, this is the thing, DRM more often than not punishes legitimate owners of a game way more than the pirates it claims to stop. It's ridiculous.

[@Agret]

​@@chamoo232by the time brotherhood came out Ubisoft weren't using this dlc anymore. Brotherhood is playable in offline mode.

[@ThunderStruck115]

If you want pirates to target your game, all you have to do is implement always online DRM

[@Shimashimatchi_]

piracy is a blessing

[@AntiGrieferGames]

@@Shimashimatchi_ Agree

[@TheWolfSharp]

Not really, sadly, nowadays with the rise of Denuvo and the increasing use of this type of always online DRM, more and more games are becoming uncrackable/unpreservable for the average joe. ☹

[@Matanumi]

Drrrr

[@mb00001]

​@@TheWolfSharpwhats going to happen is we will start making our own games and leave the big companies crying about lost revenue, then they will probably get rid of the worst drm, come back and then repeat themselves because money money money 🤷‍♂️

[@novelezra]

Always online... Until it's not and the game is literally dead. I cannot believe we are in 2023 and still allowing companies to legally destroy games to the point that no one can play them. Kills me a little inside.

[@lucasn0tch]

According to the WEF, that shit is legal now. "Own nothing and you will be happy."

[@neoasura]

Blame literally ANY person thats paid for even one of these games.

[@mistakenot.6556]

You are not here to play games but to buy always now games so that the shareholders can get fatter

[@novelezra]

@@neoasura I don't agree with this sentiment at all; people want new experiences and whilst some of the onerous is on the consumer; the actual fault is with the American and British Legal System which is currently asleep at the wheel. Even Italy haven't hit back at this as much as they usually do and that Country is hard mode when it comes to consumer rights. We literally need just one rich guy to take this to court and set a precedent but the problem is that anyone who would have the funds to do a lawsuit that could reach the courts that actually matter; is already morally and ethically bankrupt and thus it will never happen. The only reason emulation went to court is because Nintendo took the underdog to court and lost. We need that to happen for GAAS.

[@AntiGrieferGames]

@@neoasura I would agree too. But also Blame Companies for anti consumer. Most anti consumer is denuvo drm.

[@LethalProtector8000]

I remember how bad AC2's DRM was when it got released on PC. I was 13 and had no consoles at the time, so I had to wait an extra 5 months to play and I was super hyped for the game. And wouldn't you know it, a single-player game wanted you to always be connected online, otherwise it wouldn't work. And the console versions of the same game never had such a requirement. So I waited an extra month and a server emulator for the game was released in the "yo-ho-ho" sites which tricked the game to think it was connected even without an actual established connection. And this was how I beat the game the first time.

[@KopperNeoman]

Software pirates are the quintessential capitalists. Provide a better service than the entrenched activist corpos and take BTC donations.

[@vincentvega3093]

@@KopperNeoman didn't empress me...

[@Eichro]

Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't Brotherhood the first game to introduce that? (I haven't actually watched the entire video LOL im watchign right now. he might address that, but I do remember vividly the controversy starting with Brotherhood...)

[@DiogenesTheCynic.]

I didn't have to wait for an emulated server, the one I yo ho'd just disabled the online. Funny enough I ended buying a PS3 just to buy Brotherhood that next release lol.

[@LethalProtector8000]

@@Eichro Nope. Brotherhood was the first game to make it more bearable by making it a one time connection to activate the game. 😂 However they did also patch AC2 and all the other games that had the original online only DRM to work the same.

[@HackedGlitch265]

Heavyhanded DRM just pushes us towards pirates.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Or just playing old games

[@flamingscar5263]

Not really, people always say that and maybe your being truthful, but DRM stops SOME pirates, sure it makes others but it stops more pirates then it creates, being overall a net gain They may lose 1,000 sales, but they gain 1,100

[@histhoryk2648]

@@JohnSmith-xq1pz Plot-twist corporation removed older game from sale and you can now legally buy only "Upgraded deluxe remaster edition" that's even more broken than original

[@histhoryk2648]

or GOG

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

@@histhoryk2648 Laughs in ever growing collection of original physical copies that have been backed up. My games are mine from now to when they put me in the ground

[@t1coon2048]

Piracy helps preserve the legacy of games while greedy corporations destroy what we love.

[@Krushak8888]

Piracy is only piracy if the game is still being sold. If its not being sold/cant be played normally because of say like old consoles. I think its free game to do so

[@t1coon2048]

@@Krushak8888 This is a complex issue and in each country the law is different, but usually they are not punished for this. :)

[@KopperNeoman]

Greedy ACTIVIST corporations. What you love is problematic and never happened. Year Zero.

[@Krushak8888]

@t1coon2048 regardless of laws, anyone can agree it's theft. Regardless of how lax countrys laws are. This isn't a gotcha moment, nor is it complex. I merely was stating that if the game has no way to be played or sold, fair game.

[@Krushak8888]

@iaqh I'm not telling people what to do... merely gave my opinion and console sales usually go to the companies. Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft make money off the consoles. Third party devs do not and only as fsr as I know Nintendo is the only company for the last three gens made money off consoles.

[@Vitreia]

"The crack is only 80% complete. Please be sure to buy a retail copy of our game so you can experience 0% of it, as intended!"

[@vincentvega3093]

It's not the crack that incomplete, but the game.

[@krazycharlie]

That's the wet dream of every single videogame company out there. Getting money from their customers while giving nothing in return.

[@Matanumi]

@@krazycharlie at least the Japanese want to craft a beautiful game..... Fucking western gaints...

[@hilbert8925]

@@vincentvega3093 in the specific case of AC2, Yes the game is incomplete

[@ethai1]

Not the same DRM, but I'll never forget that in 2016 I wanted to play Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones on my Windows 10 laptop. I still had the original disc of the game that I bought in 2007! It used Starforce. After installation was completed, it required a restart. I did, and windows couldn't boot up. Not even into safe mode! Eventually I fixed it by going into advanced boot settings and I had to disable one of the settings, something with pre loading drivers but I don't remember exactly. In the end I had to use a pirated version to play the game. All because of an obsolete DRM that wasn't supported since Windows 7 I think.

[@dustojnikhummer]

I think MS blocked Starforce with Windows 8.1

[@beezanteeum]

​@@dustojnikhummer Not 8.1, but 10 Microsoft drops support for SecuROM, StarForce, and some version of license dongle on Windows 10, starting from RTM version And Microsoft also drops various anticheat system from Windows 10 2019 update

[@ethai1]

@@beezanteeum Thanks for the info!

[@MrAdminaras]

ah yeah, the device driver level DRM... where you give access to everything that happens to your PC to a game publisher :D

[@pawnstarrickharrison7225]

A bit late now but My advice would’ve been just get console version. Play the console versions if there is. They don’t usually have any DRM on their own (unless you’re Nintendo and used CIC chips.) Just make sure you computer can handle emulation fairly good.

[@MegaManNeo]

Ubisoft's biggest success was that CD Projekt Red brought us GoG due to this DRM nonsense.

[@adroharv9213]

yup i have close to 100 games there. I don't touch steam

[@anchorlightforge]

GOG is just legendary. The work they put into compatibility for older titles in their library cannot be understated and buying legacy titles anywhere else is simply a bad decision.

[@AhmadWahelsa]

This is why is still respect them despite the issues that happened on their last game, they are not afraid releasing it drm-free despite knowing many people will likely to pirate it.

[@anchorlightforge]

@@AhmadWahelsa There's a few interesting interviews with the company, and they sort of detail how the rampant piracy in Poland at the time of their founding was in a way how they got their start. If I remember correctly, CDProjekt started as a Polish localization and distribution company, and slowly grew in scope.

[@TurtleKwitty]

@@AhmadWahelsa Considering that time and time again research into game piracy shows it doesn't actually negatively influence sales there is no reason to not release without drm, ubi is just too fucking pigheaded to look at reality

[@liaminwales]

Ill never forget the Sim City 5 DRM, they lied saying they where doing compute workloads in the cloud. A lot of players went back to Sim City 4 with mods (Mostly the NAM Mod). The studio was shut down after the game and ended the Sim City games, a sad end to an amazing line of games.

[@mrbisshie]

Then Cities Skylines took over.

[@cormoran2303]

The moment that lie fell apart was one of the funnier EA moments.

[@undrhil]

They did eventually release a patch that made it to where you could play it offline.

[@dingojones]

EA still does this. The EA PGA Tour game that just came out needs to be connected to EA servers in order to play the offline, single player campaign. You don't buy games anymore. You license them until the developer decides on a whim to stop supporting them.

[@mockier]

I black listed that game. Original Sim City was the game that got me into PCs and PC Gaming. I have never played Sim City 5. Without the always online requirement I'd have gotten it on release.

[@pjavilla]

DRM is among the reasons I'm a patientgamer. Wait long enough and it'll either be released on an unencumbered platform, or it'll be available unencumbered to bootleggers. Anyone paying for always-online services needs to pay some friggen attention to what they're spending money on before they come whining about companies making game preservation difficult or messing with your ability to play your older purchases. Don't be part of the problem.

[@histhoryk2648]

If any game is being released I'm waiting for GOG release because I own the game and I can download offline installers

[@bobmcbob4399]

@@histhoryk2648 Damn straight! Same here. I am fucking patient.

[@Blink_____]

@@histhoryk2648 until they remove what you bought from your library and replace it with another version. yes, they have done that. It even retroactively modifies your purchase history to the new thing

[@fesyuki-kun2332]

Don't you love it when your offline game requires online access

[@SHADOW17018]

GTA 4 on PC...

[@sebastianx708pl]

@@SHADOW17018 if you mean GFWL, you could create offline account for it, maybe you mean activation from SecuROM. Honestly I don't know because cracked it. And don't forgot GTA V requires a weekly online renewal activation if you run in only on offline mode like "-scofflineonly"

[@howaboutsomesoyfood]

Hitman

[@SHADOW17018]

​@@sebastianx708pl No, I got the Rockstar version. Its a old asf single player game but I cant play it offline? Should have just got the cracked version

[@DingaLingu]

Im gonna become ted

[@SRC267]

"I have a constant internet connection so online drm doesn’t affect me" - MVG

[@chemistry9130]

It will after the servers go offline

[@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2]

mine is 9mbps download and 500kbps upload

[@KopperNeoman]

I have a constant online connection and have ZERO interest in things phoning home. Remember that Amazon locked a guy out of his own house for a week because a delivery driver thought he said something politically incorrect.

[@bruhtholemew]

@@KopperNeoman He wasn't literally locked out of his house. He was locked out of the stupid Amazon smart home integration he had all over it.

[@RoryFrenn]

It's depressing how the overton window has shifted so much when it comes to online only DRM, it's becoming more and more acceptable. IMO shutting down severs for a single player game without patching it to work without internet should be illegal.

[@xFluing]

I would like to mention that EVERY game you pay money for / in should remain playable after the developers close the servers. They dont even have to give away sensitive information like encryption keys, they could AT THE VERY LEAST provide instructions on how to rebuild the server software so you can run it in your bedroom to keep it going, not to mention the modding possibilities it opens up (think what Corporate Clash did for Toontown)

[@alexatkin]

While I agree, they've literally always sold software as "a license". The Internet just allowed them to finally follow through with enforcing it. I think they should be forced to refund every game (at the original price you paid) that you can no longer play, might finally motivate them to remove the DRM instead.

[@xFluing]

@@alexatkin that is the distinction to be made. They are selling the game as a PERPETUAL LICENSE but treat it like a SUBSCRIPTION which is super illegal. Perpetual license means "i bought it once i get to keep it forever and do as i please with it" as long as no infringement or griefing is at play of course we are talking about common sense usecases after all

[@KopperNeoman]

@xFluing This. A perpetual license means you own THAT copy. You can redistribute THAT copy. THAT copy cannot be taken away from you. And, yes, you can crack THAT copy to make it run better.

[@spacebassist]

Ross scott from accursed farms has talked about this (passionately) before. One time was in darkspore, and I learned "games as a service" from him years before shit like avengers and it's just as bad today as whenever he made that video

[@the_motherfucker]

Fix your caps lock key

[@kamikaze00007]

If I recall correctly, currently, EA's DRM requires that you connect to the internet at least every 30 days or else you can't access your "offline" games. Also, it has been discovered that if you change even ONE part of your computer, or even just remove and reinsert your GPU back into its slot, the DRM will detect your PC as a different device and lock your game down asking you to buy the game again for that "new device".

[@RJARRRPCGP]

I never had this happen, even with Windows 11. Windows 11, currently the strictest of Windows, reguarding UEFI-BIOS requirements and security standards requirements, TMK, won't get sus, unless the CMOS gets reset, especially if you accidentally boot Windows 11 with Secure Boot disabled in the UEFI-BIOS, because disabled is the default. This is also a heads-up, for people who update the UEFI-BIOS!

[@kamikaze00007]

@@RJARRRPCGP I saw this first reported with regards to EA within the Wild Hearts game community. People encountered the error message when they changed parts/cleaned their GPU and so had to remove and reinsert things to their slots.

[@AshnSilvercorp]

they always say stuff like this causes a problem "for a small percentage of users." It's almost like Apple and all these tech companies have this ready on all of their scripts...

[@TomLehockySVK]

Stop buying "alway online DRM games". The argument "everyone has internet today" means less than nada when the publisher's servers don't work a lot of times and once the servers are offline completely, the game won't work anymore !

[@rockpie.iso.tar.bz2]

And some have trash internet.

[@flameguy3416]

Ubisoft always on DRM

[@histhoryk2648]

Easier to say than to do, not every game has a GOG release you know?

[@Ryan-uc6ui]

Imagine being a game developer who pours their heart and soul into creating a masterpiece, only for their company to brutally slaughter it with tactics like this. If I became an indie dev, I probably wouldn't bother with DRM knowing that it only affects legit consumers and not the pirates who have proved that it is ineffective towards them.

[@KopperNeoman]

When a plucky young dreamer wants to feed his family, then runs headlong into fascist corpos who only care about getting a high ESG.

[@grn1]

You might still want to have some sort of DRM at least for a little while. I don't know how valid this thinking is but from what I've heard from people in the business many people who might pirate a game will end up paying for the game if it's a pain in the ass to pirate or takes too long to get cracked. I honestly don't know how true that is though, it may very well be the case that the people who are going to pirate games were never going to be paying customers anyway. I've heard both arguments. The safest bet would probably be to have some DRM/anti-cracking measures for the first few months then remove it later. I think a decent form of DRM would be a one time internet check that downloads a token that lets the game be played and gets rechecked maybe once a month, so long as the DRM gets removed before the servers go down and there's some logic to ensure the game remains playable in the event of DDoS attack or other downtime (maybe check some other sites to see if the computer is connected to the internet but can't connect to the validation server then extend the expiration date and keep checking/trying to validate the token, everyday for maybe 15 days before actually enforcing a lock down). Alternatively it might be possible to go back to product keys using something like a QR code (regular product keys are probably too short to effectively slow down crackers).

[@Brunn0121]

Ubisoft goes Steamworks bye bye, always on DRM.

[@flameguy3416]

Ubisoft always on Steamworks goes bye bye always on DRM

[@firstnamelastnamesb]

The uninstall button...The game is great, Ubisoft goes Steamworks bye bye, always on DRM. But you oft go work, always on work DR. Check out the junk it leaves behind in you.

[@Brunn0121]

@@firstnamelastnamesb Ubisoft goes Steamworks bye bye, always on DRM.

[@MrMegaManFan]

The first time I ever experienced this was when Sony had the PS3 hacking scandal that took down PlayStation Network for a month. Several of my digital games became completely unplayable because the authentication couldn't be done and there was no workaround.

[@BallzMcGavin]

Try 3 months in Australia

[@Tyranitar66501]

You know its a good video when you see "MISTAKES WERE MADE" in the title.

[@krazycharlie]

This is a friendly reminder of why to avoid always online games like the plague. I can't honestly remember the last Ubisoft game that I played but I think it was either Prince of Persia The Sands of Time or The Warrior Within, both PS2 games and guess what? None of them require internet connection!

[@kenrickeason]

DRM was really bad for people living in rural areas.. Especially back in the day when internet infrastructure wasn't all that good in rural areas..

[@alexatkin]

Plenty of areas still aren't, and it doesn't get around DDoS/server issues or closing down old games, as mentioned.

[@CyanRooper]

90% of PC games in Third World countries are pirated copies due to absurd exchange rates. They almost never had to deal with DRM issues because of this. DRM and Always-Online bullshit both do nothing but prevent people from playing games.

[@kenrickeason]

​​​​​@@alexatkin You're right.. I grew up in Rural Alabama and was so lucky to have Charter and Windstream in my town.. but down the road to the next town over to where my sister stay they are just now getting highspeed internet (last year) which is a damn shame.. So me saying that to say this.. Always Online is a bad idea cause like I said before that some towns/rural areas are just now getting high speed internet and some have not gotten it yet.. I do agree with the check and run feature being used only once to make sure your copy my copy of the game is legit (New or Used)...

[@exalented]

Surprise surprise it's still not

[@kenrickeason]

​@@exalentedI know..

[@evgenyreshetnikov3483]

Ubisoft then proceeded to a genius DRM measures by making their game so crap, nobody wants to pirate those.

[@JynxedKoma]

Always loved SKIDROW. They're heroes.

[@hideakibanno7540]

Shitrow steals cracks from other groups in the scene though

[@pickle93]

​@@hideakibanno7540they really don't their quality of cracks have degraded tho but they were monsters at this time

[@goldbergshekelstein]

@@pickle93 Dude they literally got their own crack nuked 3 times, they are and always have been incompetents that steal from better groups

[@PennyroyalHammersmith]

I remember how much of a stink occurred when Diablo III launched with always online DRM. Seeing that Diablo IV launched with the same restrictions in a market where that kind of garbage is taken for granted really angers me.

[@armyofninjas9055]

D4 is a multiplayer game. Still would love an offline mode though. But you're 100% right about D3 on pc (on console it can be offline).

[@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz]

​@@armyofninjas9055is it though? can you not beat it solo?

[@Herkan97]

@@AlexanderMartinez-kd7cz Yes, he's probably talking about the world bosses. Not necessary, doesn't require it to be online. The game can be played just fine alone. It's like..Just Cause 3 or/and 4 with the leaderboards. Crap you don't need that requires an internet connection. They presumably won't do what Diablo 2 did because then they may not be able to push micro-transactions on you. Did JC3 or/and 4 require internet connection to play for that or did it only mean the leaderboards didn't work..I can't remember. It would be funnysad if the entire game was unplayable because the leaderboards don't work. Played Diablo 3's Switch version emulated for this reason, I think there is an offline PC version now but I've not checked it out and I'm not replaying Diablo 3 anytime soon. I thought the new roll mechanic was also a reason to play through the Switch version, but I only bound a key to it and tried it twice at the start and it was a pointless mechanic I never bothered with after. Hopefully it works like the Switch version and not like WoW offline where they re-create online behaviour. That stuff seems to take forever and only gets worse for each expansion's server emulation projects as the oldest games have had the longest development and there is only more and more stuff to re-create for each new expansion. Plus they may change a lot of things that existed in the previous expansions, so you can't just copy all code from vanilla to Burning Crusade for example and then just write code for whatever new in that next expansion. Probably easier to start each expansion from scratch and go from step 1 to 100, presumably why video game devs make new games instead of adding in new mechanics in their already released games. That and money because new mechanics worked into released games may not bring significant amount of new sales for that game. I am counting an expansion as everything before it plus the new expansion, so WotLK expansion is vanilla+Burning Crusade+WotLK. I didn't play all of vanilla, but it seems to work well, I think even PvP works but of course it's with bots unless there is a way, that I'm not bothering with, to play with other humans. But then I try Shadowlands and install the live Shadowlands and almost nothing works in an offline project I found at the time I tried it. To progress in the intro island I had to use GM commands for almost everything and that makes the game a text-based adventure with GM commands, so I stopped. I wonder where the project is now..It's been a year or two. It's a sub-project of this core thing, the sub-project is called KyrianCORE. I think the main project is called TrinityCORE and then one can build upon it or whatever it means.

[@ferdgerbeler8494]

Wow, thanks for the reminder, i had honestly forgotten why i refused to ever pay for a ubisoft game again... the 'free' versions always run better than their official releases..

[@E2STOPTV]

Other than drm most of their games are pretty generic now, at least imo lol.

[@ferdgerbeler8494]

@@E2STOPTV eh, i pretty much quit paying attention to them, rehashing the same bs over and over while becoming more and more woke... just nothing appealing about them as a company or their games anymore.

[@dan_]

@@ferdgerbeler8494 What's wrong with being woke?

[@mjc0961]

@@dan_ Do not engage with the deranged Trump supporter. Just keep scrolling.

[@ferdgerbeler8494]

@@dan_ umm, everything? Siding with the children of the devil against humanity is an act of evil... r*ping children is evil, genociding Whites is evil, woke is just trying to celebrate evil....

[@yuseiyamoto]

its strange how we nowadays need to thanks pirates for taking care of game archiving, and of course also the people behind fan servers to keep online games alive with fan servers

[@平和-v1z]

*"putting an expiration date on the games"* Very true and very well said!

[@dawbra]

I was in a russian forum when they try to make AC 2 crack, yes there was few versions, as we need to decode any checkpoint and emulate every server response. And to get that we need to debug the original game by playing it and dumping server responses. Skidrow , cuts all of that later on so there was no server or responses asked in first place.

[@EroFelipe]

that outlander ad is everywhere, I end up watching it with my wife and we like it.

[@MrReese]

Just over the last weeks MGS V on PC had an issue where several players could not connect to the online service and thus were very limited in their ability to play the game because 9/10 of all in-game funds are stored online and online missions to level your squad etc. were not possible. It took Konami almost a month to fix it.

[@awii.neocities]

I honestly hated MGSVs online stuff. Sure FOBs and that stuff were fun, and MGO3 was an amazing mess, but locking most of my money because the server shat itself is annoying.

[@arbayer2]

@@awii.neocities Y'all ready for MGS Delta? :D

[@awii.neocities]

@@arbayer2 Yup. I've actually almost finished MGS3 on an Xbox 360 emulator, gotta finish it soon haha.

[@bill5974]

I have personal experience with this; sometimes I work in areas with no internet (mountainous regions, offshore etc) and yes, even in 2023 this can be a real problem.

[@InfernalMonsoon]

Stuff like this is why I almost always buy my games on GOG and other non-DRM PC gaming retailers. Having that freedom to back my games up however I want with zero strings attached is so liberating nowadays in a world full of always online nonsense and such. When I buy my games, I want to make sure I can always keep the things I own.

[@TangoBunnie]

Three things I'd love to be made illegal, with hefty fines or jail sentences for those involved in spreading it: 1 - Selling a 'permanent licence' and then not having permanent access to the product. 2 - Selling a 'permanent licence' and then, in a EULA, saying "by buying this licence, you agree that it is worth $0 and cannot be transferred." It's your licence, you can do what you want with it, and it is worth the value you paid for it. 3 - Claiming that you cannot resell the products you buy, when there are sophisticated systems like Steam that can easily track when the products were bought, which account currently owns them, and has an entire marketplace system for buying and selling.

[@pelgervampireduck]

big rant: I'm pissed off and I think i'm done with Steam because in 190 days it will stop working on Windows 7. A lot of people don't get it and say "get with the times" "if you are so poor you can't upgrade your PC you shouldn't be buying games" "Windows 7 is obsolete", but they are missing the point. They are completly valid reasons to not want to install Windows 10, or maybe even if I wanted to, I want the Windows 7 computer to be able to run the games that were made for it and run perfectly on it. It's ridiculous and not acceptable that they are going to take away things I paid for. I'm not asking new games to run on Windows 7, I'm asking the minimum basic: to be able to keep playing the games that already work and I paid for. It's absurd that I can install Age of Empires on a Win98 computer and play it all I want, but in 190 days the Steam version won't run anymore in a more recent computer that's like 15 years newer. All they have to do is leave a Windows 7 client alone, not update it, display a "warning: new games won't work" or "you'll only be able to play what you already have but other features won't work" and that's it, but they are going out of their way to remotely block my perfectly working computer from playing games that run perfectly on it. It's frustrating it's not a big deal and people don't see the big picture or that it's not only about "get a better computer, install windows 10 or 11". THAT'S NOT THE POINT. It's like if Sony came to my place to take away my PS2 games because I didn't buy a PS5. -but I want to keep playing those! -we can't allow that, the PS2 is too old, it's not supported anymore. -I know, but mine works perfectly and I have the games, I want to keep playing them. -we can't allow that, you should buy a PS5 if you want to play games!. That's how stupid the "Steam will stop working on Windows 7" situation is, but some people don't get it. The whole concept is a nightmare for preservation, and it's an horrible anti consumer practice. I wish there was more people pissed off so some kind of legal action could be taken, but nobody cares, they all say "bro, just install windows 10, it's not a big deal". It's insane.

[@BouncingZeus]

@@pelgervampireduck I have seen people use steam on XP still. Supporting legacy hardware is difficult and a security risk. The solution is to put steam into offline mode and use what you have already.

[@SLZeroArrow]

Pentation to get these acts forbidden by law!

[@oblivieon1567]

​@@pelgervampireduck You're confusing what Steam is. It's a service not a product. They open themselves up to security vulnerabilities by supporting older OS'. Sony isn't going to come and get your PS2 because it's a product that doesn't connect to their servers and doesn't offer you any real time services. The reason people don't care is there are solutions. Win 10 is offered as a free upgrade, it works with Win7 product ids. The machine I'm typing on was a Win7 machine at one time. So really their service isn't supported by your machine anymore and you need to do something about it, whatever you decide to do about it is up to you.

[@TangoBunnie]

@@oblivieon1567 No, don't go there. You're buying into the misinformation. The only thing Steam needs to do, for games you've already bought, is check what games you own. If the 'full steam application' won't be supported by previously-supported Windows versions, then they should just make a lightweight version for older OSs without the storefront, without the community tab, or without any other bells and whistles, where all it does is check the internet to say "hey do they own this game? yes? great!" and nothing more. There's no reason they can't make that to replace the 'full' Steam version that needs a newer OS.

[@JazzemYT]

5:13 Imagine a tweet in 2023 from a big publisher starting with "Rumour control", then proceeding to read like a forum post 😅 Let alone acknowledging piracy and having only one like!

[@FilmfanOliver1992]

For me, the DRM horror really began with Half Life 2 and the Steam obligation.

[@ryobibattery]

Thanks GabeN

[@zerorig]

Steam itself is fine though, it's had an offline mode for as long as I can remember and the only real problems are when you have to stack other DRM launchers on top of steam.

[@uncleho1945]

​@@zerorigyou eventually have to go online at some point to "check in." I think it's 180 days or something like that.

[@xbestation5031]

@@zerorig It's still DRM at the end of the day. I prefer to just play a game without having to have a program open in the background every time. That's why I love GOG.

[@Krushak8888]

​@uncleho1213 yeah but if your buying games off of steam at large you surely can connect ever so often.

[@Dbzlatino27]

I learned a lot with this video thanks so much, i have to say this is one of my fears when it comes with having an digital copy of an game over an physical, the hack community actually is saving the games by itself i mean i have most of my consoles with custom firmware and i can play the games without any problem. When i comes to the last cycle of an console and the company behind them start giving less support until basically not is the people involved on the pirate scene who is making available to this day those games, and this practices show how little they care beside making a profit. Really good video hope seeing a continuation of it its pretty interesting and many things i didnt knew.

[@Jamesssssssssssssss]

Some games like mmos make sense to always be online. When mmos shut down unless there is an emulator for it, it dies. (Rip Wild Srar)

[@ILazzarus666]

Always the highest quality content. Always the best walks of nostalgia.

[@dankvader420]

Your second phrase pretty much sums it up: it only benefits the software pirate, since people will turn to them if they want to play the games they paid for, whenever they want.

[@anon_y_mousse]

@@hello7431 I was going to respond to your other post but when I clicked reply it popped up an error message, so I refreshed the page and it disappeared. Now I've forgotten what I was going to say and what game you mentioned, but somehow remembered your ID. I think that's a sign I'm getting old, but what game was it again?

[@dankvader420]

@@hello7431 Yeah but if it gets to the point where you can't play a game you paid for, the blame starts shifting towards the company instead of the pirate.

[@ScientificZoom]

I always love to watch Modern Vintage Gamer🎉

[@killertruth186]

I actually wished more people would pay attention to practices like this. If they are comfortable for a more reputable publisher does this, Ubisoft WILL DO THIS! We need to let new players know this and educate them without scrutinize them, in order to get rid of this worst DRM mechanic once and for all.

[@benn87]

I'm honestly shocked at how many people don't care about this. The most common response from these people is: "What's so bad about it? don't you have internet? I have internet, so I don't care...

[@98SE]

Always love watching MVG videos!

[@mattlandry]

I love this crack scene history. Brings back so many memories from the pre denuvo era.

[@jediguy634]

One of the big reasons i started purchasing from GOG was their stance on DRM free games.

[@MoviesNGames007uk]

DRM doesn't stop people using trainers to cheat at games

[@alexatkin]

It may or may not (well try to), depends how they implement it. What especially grinds my gears is how they will sometimes ban your account entirely for modding your single-player game, absolutely disgusting.

[@Manic_Panic]

Someone who gets it ;) I have Hitman 3 and Crash Team Racing on PS4, both have content locked behind online servers. Though I jailbroke my system and now have all of the content thanks to a custom save file. Other games with nasty DRM like Gran Turismo 7 also have custom saves with debug features that allows you to unlock all cars. So their always online implementations aren't going to stop people from preserving games or preserving game content.

[@KopperNeoman]

Do you expect [Corpo] to waste time stopping people from cheating!? They have to stop people modding the Pride flags out of Spider-Man PC! Think of the ESG!

[@OriginalityDaniel]

i remember buying settlers 7 at launch, being in Australia i couldn't connect to their servers at all, when i contacted ubisofts livechat support no joke they directed me to download a crack from gamecopyworld i returned it to eb games the next day lol

[@Jizzrazz]

Similar thing happened to me with anno20270, ubi basically told me to bugger off. Havent bought another ubisoft game since.

[@MagikarpPower]

"-offline" launch option is really nice on steam

[@Krushak8888]

You still have to log in ever so often

[@Goldfire345]

@@Krushak8888 pretty much why I keep cracks handy even for games I've bought

[@J0k3r399]

They did have some short phase of experimenting before the always-online; for example Prince of Persia (2008) released completely DRM free.

[@markusTegelane]

You can't buy always online games, you can only lend them for an unspecified amount of time.

[@edstar83]

Unless you get the Piratebay Special Editions.

[@billcook4768]

Always great to see a Mistakes Were Made video.

[@gblargg]

It was years before I understood that "telemetry" was a euphemism for "remote monitoring".

[@sokoloft3]

I remember people being pissed that Sim City had always online DRM. iirc it sold badly because of it.

[@zwete]

Let's be real Valve was first with online only single player DRM. I could not play half life 2 for a year after geting it for xmas because I couldn't update it while on dial up.

[@EDUB9X3]

And the harsh reality is if we want to remove the internet/WiFi out of our lives due to financial problems, mental health problems or ("tinfoil hat on") Ai becomes a problem then you the company get out our money but we have nothing.

[@SDogo]

I still remember the old days with AC2 and Brotherhood... In fact. I still have the server emulator in one of my old drives :D

[@arieljesuscolon7723]

DRM is the reason I mostly stopped gaming. Especially now that it's affecting more single-player experiences.

[@tyrellwellick5152]

The knowledge about video game history I get from your videos is incopmaprable to any other channel.

[@randomprotag9329]

the ubisoft DRM went a step further in being bad DRM it did not just not limit the expierence quality reduction to buying users but it also encourages free due to buying users wanting a free copy that is a playable copy. it expanded the crackers to serve the buying audience as well making cracking jobs more indemand than if the brought copy worked.

[@JelloFluoride]

I think my favorite aspect of this channel is the subtle narrative of integrity on the part of devs and gamers. In the end, we ALL love gaming.

[@GURken]

I remember when I lost my saves with 80% completion due to internet connection loss. I didn't touch Ubisoft games on PC for 6 years after that.

[@chamoo232]

I had to get a crack for AC Brotherhood because Uplay was saying the CDKey that Steam gave me was not valid. I have avoided Ubisoft games on PC ever since. I also avoid EA games because they are just as bad with their forced storefront.

[@SpudCommando]

the worst are games that combine two drms together. looking at resident evil village at launch where it gave worse pc perfomance because denuvo AND capcoms drm were fighting each other for system resources.

[@Manic_Panic]

To be fair, Capcom removes the DRM a year after launch from their games. I wish others did the same.

[@Halcos]

@@Manic_Panic Two years

[@randomprotag9329]

@@Manic_Panic thats still terrible with it being a year. imagine buying a game and needing to wait a year for it to function as it should.

[@CptFitzgerald]

You know he's mad when he doesn't drop the beat at the end. Respect.

[@Ratich]

That's why I support software Piracy in the end it forces developers to compete with themselves

[@osaka_phong]

Reminds me of an old rant video I watched here on KZbin years ago about a guy complaining about FEAR's DRM, making the game unable to run because he had dual disc drives, and in the video he downloaded and installed a crack just to play the game he legally purchased.

[@delirious3479]

The whole always online DRM thing is a pain for people in countries that don't have a reliable internet source. Piracy FTW then

[@abadenoughdude300]

This is particularly ironic when you consider a good portion of the US falls under this restriction.

[@PickledPreserves123]

Video Games are the only form of media that are not officially preserved

[@s8wc3]

They say "DDOS attack" but I bet it's just their crap servers choking under real load

[@Daviex994]

I remember that at the time, I had bought AC2 but got myself the tool to produce the server data from my original game, and then released a fully (almost maybe?) file with all the codes for people to play. I remember playing it through like playing all day to give my file to people, in like 2 days I released a 90% version of the db. What a time 😂

[@longerthanthirtycharacters]

It's crazy to me that companies are even still using DRM when all it does at this point is just harm their users (Denuvo especially, yeesh). I mean, if people want to pirate your game, DRM isn't going to stop them, at most it'll slow them down for a couple weeks, but then they have the superior version of the game, seeing as their cracked version doesn't have any horrible DRM to worry with.

[@alexatkin]

Their argument is that day-one (or indeed the first few weeks sales) have shown that preventing piracy at that time DOES increase sales. Not sure I believe them, but its what publishers claim.

[@longerthanthirtycharacters]

@@alexatkin It might help a little bit, but honestly, if someone wants to pirate a game I doubt they're going to buy the game whether it releases with DRM or not (though how popular GOG is could refute that, who knows for sure)

[@bruhtholemew]

@@longerthanthirtycharacters I wouldn't say GOG's popularity refutes that when GOG reupload sites are incredibly popular.

[@longerthanthirtycharacters]

@@bruhtholemew That's fair, but GOG getting any sales at all is at least a good sign, and hopefully one publishers take as a reason to not put goddamn Denuvo in their games

[@ModernOddity728]

I remember the original Bioshock had SecuROM DRM that required internet to activate, my sister bought a physical copy and we didn't have internet at home at that time so she had to wait to be able to play it. Idk if that was a one-off activation or it regularly checked, but 2K had the sense to remove it in 2008.

[@MC-bh8ph]

If we all got together and didn't buy online only titles like gt7, they wouldnt be able to take advantage of us. The problem is the people that like getting abused, like everone who bought gt7

[@chamoo232]

The reason for GT7 being online is because of another problem that we should revolt when it happens, microtransactions. GT7 uses the online to keep the used car dealer and legendary car dealer the same for everyone. Cars can be sold out now because other peoples buy them. That gives a sense of urgency to get some cars before they sell out and then you don't know when they will be purchasable again. That could force some people to buy the microtransation game money to make sure they get a car in time.

[@wishusknight3009]

When they did this for Settlers 7, I swore I would never buy another title from Ubisoft... And since then I have enjoyed a premium experience.

[@golimonkey]

Ty fellow gamers for supporting DRM with your purchases

[@dhgodzilla1]

I am sick of the push for Online Only, even in Single Player Titles, it is ridiculous & a D Move

[@horsethi3f]

I remember playing a Prince of Persia game that had always online drm. It talked to Ubisoft servers each time a door is opened or a lever is pulled. Beautiful.

[@Operational117]

It's hard to believe that in order to play a game legitimately, you are sometimes forced to resort to piracy. Always Online DRMs to bad actors are like a lit lamp to a moth. Some who DDoS them do so out of protest, while some do so out of pure malice. It's hard to know what motives are involved, but the end results are the same: players will be unable to play the game they bought. I still remember freshly and vividly when Microsoft tried to enforce an Always Online DRM with their Xbox One during their first unveiling. It ignited a hellfire that burned them deeply and badly, and Sony poured gasoline on that hellfire by announcing the opposite for their PlayStation 4, which meant that even when Microsoft did a 180 on their Always Online DRM, people stayed away from them. It's the reason I got the PlayStation 4 on launch and waited at least a year to finally get the Xbox One. And yet these big corporations keep falling down the same old pitfall. I am so appalled and ashamed by the triple-A industry, they just show complete and utter unwillingness to learn from others' (and even their own) mistakes. *Mistakes were made. Mistakes keep being made.*

[@arbayer2]

Money has a rather predictable corrosive influence on the logic of the powerful it turns out

[@BetweenTheBorders]

I set my firewall to deny outbound connections by default. It's hilarious. You learn really quickly what silently calls home and what happens when it can't. NVidia Experience, I'm looking at you. (If it can't call home it retries once per second forever)

[@AdrianuX1985]

If nothing changes, archiving games for historical purposes for future generations will be impossible.

[@renakunisaki]

Fortunately, many of the games affected by this are trash anyway.

[@AntiGrieferGames]

I dont think this will be really impossible.

[@supbrotv]

Oh man skidrow and razor1911 i havent heard these names in over a decade. Brings back so many amazing memories.

[@GregAtlas]

The always online DRM really killed Might and Magic Heroes 6 for me. When I finally bought the game and managed to make a login, the servers were constantly going down. Now it's not uplay and is ubisoft connect, but I can't seem to log in using my old username and password. Hopefully when I finally get this resolved I can at least still play my old save file...

[@alexander1989x]

To be honest, Heroes 6 and 7 were already bad to begin with.

[@histhoryk2648]

@@alexander1989x Only broken thing in Heroes 6 is this DRM - you can't access your dynasty account and features. Additionally you can't receive Uplay rewards on new accounts because f* you that why - seriously Ubi stated that they are locked and they don't care about bringing it back. If the game would be re-released on GOG with normal offline profile it would get better. 10 saves only that are cloud only. Loosing connection causing loose of progress. Heroes 7 was just unfinished because Ubi had completely in ass if it succeeds or not. At least game don't have H6 DRM and can be played in offline mode.

[@palaashatri]

And Ubisoft still does this! The Division series, Ghost Recon Breakpoint, The Crew series, games that can easily be played solo!

[@Dal_9000]

Sadly it's not really accurate to say that the DRM for AC2 has been truly removed. Aside from Steam of course, you still need to make a Ubisoft account. Why you'd want to give a company like Ubisoft any money at all is beyond me, but at least you can get AC1 off GoG, and sailing the high seas is always the more moral option between giving those sex offenders at Ubi any money at all.

[@KopperNeoman]

Careful there. That's not very Woke of you. A bit homotransistaphobic. At least according to Actiblizz and what happened to NICKMERCS.

[@doublinx2]

​@@KopperNeoman ? It's not homophobic to call out sexual harassment at game publishers. Unless you think the homosexuals are the sex offenders.

[@cul-de-sac]

​@@KopperNeomanyou sound mentally unwell

[@offspringfan89]

Back when I played AC Brotherhood in 2021, the game still had online DRM for renovation system ("Rebuilding Rome" or something), which didn't work offline. And knowing how awful Ubisoft servers are, that feature was unavailable a lot of the time.

[@MrEstarion]

I can't fucking believe that fixing the DLC DRM in earlier AC titles costs more than the revenue from still selling the content. Surely people who pirated these games already figured it out?

[@CaptainKenway]

Why do that when they can sell you the whole game again as a "remaster" somewhere down the road? It even has the built-in benefit of creating demand for such a thing.

[@kain5056]

That Skidrow website looks super cool though, I wish more sites had this aesthetic.

[@Dead_Hitori]

Trying to fight piracy will always make them stronger

[@rightbehindyou9398]

That used to be true but now the pirates just gave up on the new games because they all suck, not even worth it

[@creatorsfreedom6734]

Any One Here Miss the Day's of Game Spy Multiplayer ? 😭

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

And the industry learned nothing...

[@danosdotnl]

Kool that Kreosan narrated the pcgamer review

[@Snyperwolf91]

Retrogames are now definitly better than modern games.

[@KaisarReinhard]

DRM only hurts the people who pay for the game. Pirates are ALWAYS going to find a way around it.

[@Gluurak]

Didnt it started with Half Life 2 where you didnt even cant install it without Internet Connection? And Diablo 4 is a MMO Light. So it seems logical for me its Online only. Especially for Anti Cheat.

[@histhoryk2648]

No, Diablo 4 isn't and MMO light. It has online connection requirement only to force putting skin-shop to the game

[@Wally17.]

Ubisoft: We have conducted an internal investigation and after thorough review we have determined that we’ve done nothing wrong. I hate that Ubisoft and any company does this. I’m pretty sure it’s why I lost access to a bonus map in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier that I previously had access to on Xbox 360. It was an unlock with Uplay points.

[@alexander1989x]

"The best way to combat video game piracy is by offering consumers better service than they might get from the pirates." -Gabe Newell

[@alexatkin]

The Tv/movie industry still haven't learnt this either, despite the music industry cottoning on many years ago.

[@SpeedyGoneFroglegs]

And then never did.

[@KopperNeoman]

Based capitalist GabeN.

[@fukuoka-musician]

Why am I not surprised to learn that Ubisoft were the pioneers of this heinous practice.

[@chuckthetekkie]

The first game that comes to mind where pirates enjoyed the game and legitimate buyers couldn't was EA's SPORE. I have said this many moons ago and it still hold true today. If you treat customers as pirates you create more pirates. If you treat customers as customers you get more customers. Always online DRM for single player games is ALMOST as bad as physical copies not having the full game on it and requiring a day 1 download to install the rest of the game (like Spyro Re-Ignited Trilogy for Switch) or a physical copy that is locked to a specific online profile (like Borderlands Legendary Collection also for Switch). If and when certain servers shut down you can never play the physical game ever again as you will be missing most of the game (unless you hacked your Switch, in this case) and backed up the downloaded part of the game. Single player only games should never have an always online requirement. Remember the Xbox One with its always online DRM and Kinect requirements?

[@mjc0961]

But MVG, “I have a constant internet connection so online drm doesn’t affect me” 🤡 Nah for real, screw always online DRM in single player games. If I know that it's in there, I won't buy the game at all. And the justifications people offer to defend it are bonkers. "But you're fine with [multiplayer only game] so why are you upset with it for [single player game]?" Well gee, it's almost like there's an obvious difference between a game that requires you to connect to other players via the internet and a game where you're playing completely alone! Or at least it's obvious to anyone who isn't making a bad faith argument in favor of unnecessary DRM. Heck, I was gifted Red Dead Redemption 2 last year, I was just trying to play the campaign, but because it's summer the power was out from a storm. We have a generator and I have a UPS so I had power for my PC, but the internet was still down. Tried to play the game, it would technically launch but I couldn't even get into the main menu to attempt loading the single player campaign mode. Without an internet connection it would not let me do anything. I paid $0 for the game and I was still irate and wanted to refund it. This is simply not acceptable. ISPs have outages, servers go down, companies get DDOS'd. We should not be locked out of games that have no online component, or at least modes in the game that have no online component, if there are internet or server problems. Also just gonna leave this thought here: GOG sells DRM free games, has been for several years, and yet people still buy games from them instead of waiting for someone else to buy it and put the DRM free files up for download. If a DRM free storefront works, we have absolutely no need for DRM in anything. People WILL buy things even without DRM.

[@mjc0961]

Oh yeah, I was just reminded of the Hitman World of Assassination games. Single player games with always online DRM because of some stupid leaderboards or some crap that I literally could not give less of a F about. And how they got on GOG for like a day, then the internet went hard on GOG for now selling games with DRM, and GOG had to pull the game to save their reputation. That's another series of games I would have bought if the always online DRM wasn't there, but I have no money to give to IO Interactive for a glorified rental.

[@Manic_Panic]

@@mjc0961 You can just get a savefile or a mod. I have the game on PS4 and with a custom save file, I have everything unlocked and fully playable offline. Even the "online" content like elusive targets and such.