Ubisoft Defends New Copy Protection

22 Feb 2010 at 13:50:48 by Tim McDonald

Ubisoft has defended its decision to implement a new and controversial copy protection system.

The new system, which requires players to be permanently connected to the internet when playing games, will allow players unlimited installs of their games, no disc checks, and remote saves, meaning that you can access your save files from any computer in the world.

Nonetheless, requiring players to be permanently connected to the internet while playing, and not just demanding online authentication when launching the game, has resulted in a vociferous response.

Speaking to MCV, Ubi's UK marketing director Murray Pannell said that it's required if you want to see more PC games.

"The impact of piracy on the PC market is enormous and working to thwart it is crucial to our future ability to continue developing for this platform," said Pannell. "We know requiring a permanent online connection is a controversial decision and has been seen as a disadvantage to several PC gamers. But we hope that they feel the additional services we are able to offer via this platform are worth it."

Pannell went on to explain that the impact on players' connections will be minimal, with the games apparently sending less than 50 kilobits of data per second, and that most players won't experience problems.

"We are aware that some players will not be able to connect to the internet but with the proliferation of WiFi, the majority of people can connect most of the time, so these instances should be very limited."

This doesn't really please everyone here at IncGamers Towers, though, being that I at least suffer from an internet connection that attempts ritual suicide once an evening.

You can read up on more details from when the service - which will be included in Settlers 7 and Assassin's Creed 2's PC version - was first announced over here.

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