The DRM system recently introduced by Ubisoft for the launch of Silent Hunter 5 and the PC version of Assassin’s Creed 2 has reportedly come under attack by third parties, leaving players unable to to play either game. The new DRM system forces players to maintain a connection to a central server in order to play the game that uses this particular form of copy-protection. With this server inaccessible at this time, players find themselves unable to authenticate their game and as a result, are not able to play Silent Hunter 5 or Assassin’s Creed 2.
Players were informed by means of a set of Twitter messages, found below.
“Apologies to anyone who couldn’t play ACII or SH5 yesterday. Servers were attacked which limited service from 2:30pm to 9pm Paris time”
“95% of players were not affected, but a small group of players attempting to open a game session did receive denial of service errors”
“[…] All servers were up and running but the attacks had the effect of blocking new requests from legitimate users”
“Our servers are under attack again. Some gamers are experiencing trouble signing in. We’re working on it and will keep you posted”
Ubisoft has also stated that despite the problems the authentication servers are currently facing, the method seems to be an effective anti-piracy measures. The company has detected multiple attempts to provide ‘cracked’ versions of either games, but maintains that none of these versions are ‘valid’.
This form of DRM can burn in a fire as far as I’m concerned.
Both of these games are already cracked and completely functional (valid) on major torrent sites.
I can’t believe how in denial Ubisoft is.
Punishing paying customers with this crap is old.
Doing disk check physical copies and steam etc for digital downloads is the way to go.
I’m glad so EA woke up in regards to this in time for Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2. I still cringe at the fact that I installed SecuROM onto my PC for Mass Effect.
I totally agree. DRM free seems to be the way to go (you actually own a digital copy), but forcing players to connect to a central server to play a game is bullsh*t.
What if you can’t connect to the internet? No game for you.