Steam Pulls Two Ubisoft Games, Ubisoft Deny DRM is the Issue
By Sam Jordan on Friday, March 19th 2010
Steam, Valve’s digital content delivery system, has removed Assassin’s Creed 2 and Silent Hunter V from its UK site. CVG, citing an anonymous ‘œindustry insider’, has said that the DRM measures used in both titles is one of the reasons behind the decision.
Ubisoft has spoken to CVG and have claimed that it actually stems from a ‘œlocal business discussion between Ubisoft and Steam in UK’ and not the troublesome DRM. They also point out that they’ve only been pulled in the UK, with the US versions still available.
Do note that this is an unnamed source that is claiming that DRM is the reason for conflicts and right now and we have no idea of his/her reliability. They have said however that “Steam doesn’t want to lose its reputation for customer service, and these games have angered its user-base”.
Both games use Ubisoft’s DRM which requires titles to be connected to the internet at all times to play. Ubisoft’s servers crashed however, meaning that players could not play the games.
Valve boss Gabe Newell also recently told devs at GDC that overly restrictive DLC ‘œmakes your products worth less’. His attitude on DRM is well documented.
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This is a no-brainer. DRM is at least a big factor in removing those two games from Steam, if not the only reason.
I for one hope that Valve can put enough pressure on Ubisoft to release a DRM-less version that they can then put on Steam, which is a form of DRM in of itself. Stacking Steam’s reasonable DRM on top of Ubisoft’s asinine DRM is a big drawback for Valve. If Steam could offer a version without Ubi’s ridiculous DRM on Steam, that would make it all the more desirable.
Man, Gabe is really layin down the law here
I’m imagining a scene like Ronald Reagan at the Brandenburg Gate in ’87.. Gabe Newell at a podium flanked by the rest of Valve, before a breathless crowd awaiting the crescendo. He states with the resolve of the ages, “Mr. Ubisoft, tear out this DRM,” and the world erupts.
News is fun when you imagine it in a nonsensical historical context.
@ouched: “Ich bin ein DRM!”
Well this is an awful precedent. I don’t care how restrictive the DRM is, if it can be bought off the service, I want to be able to buy it. This could well be the first step towards, once again, region locking games, and that’s not something I look forward to.