Ubisoft backtracks on Driver San Francisco’s PC DRM. Sort of.

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I am not a fan of obnoxious, draconian, intrusive DRM – and always on internet connections are one of the most egregious ways to perpetrate the sort of DRM that gets right up my nose. A certain Ubisoft game set on a lush  jungle island has an obviously crazy person stating that “Insanity is doing the exact same fucking thing over and over and over again, expecting shit to change."

Well, the suits at Ubisoft are obviously insane, because they saddled Driver San Francisco on the PC with the same always-on DRM that caused uproar with Assassin’s Creed 2, expecting people to just shut up and take it. They didn’t. Ubisoft has now said they listened to the vociferous community and fixed Driver’s DRM – but closer inspection reveals that they bloody well haven’t.

“We’ve heard your feedback regarding the permanent internet connection requirement for Driver,” says Ubisoft “and have made the decision to no longer include it. So this means that Driver PC gamers will only need to sign in at game launch but can subsequently choose to play the game offline.”

At first glance, it seems like they’ve employed a more reasonable single online activation – but reading it more carefully suggests that you’ll need to sign in online every time you launch the game but can then choose to play offline. Sure, it no longer requires “always on” internet, but you still need to log in every single time you play, whether you play multiplayer or not. It’ll be a boon to those with temperamental internet connections who’d have just been constantly booted out of the game, but it’s just not enough.

I understand the need to protect ones interests, but treating your customers like paroled criminals? Not cool.

Source : Rock, Paper, Shotgun