Ubisoft Proclaims Restrictive "Always On" DRM a Success
The company's restrictive digital rights management (DRM) system, which was recently announced to be included in upcoming release Driver: San Francisco, became infamous after being featured in the two most recent Assassin's Creed Games and a few of Ubisoft's other titles. The DRM requires users to constantly be connected to the internet while playing their games, lest they be signed out of their Ubisoft accounts and lose all of their progress since the last save.
The bad news is that, according to a Ubisoft representative, the exceedingly strict security has actually been effective at combating piracy. The rep said that Ubi has seen “a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection, and from that point of view the requirement is a success.”
Driver: San Francisco will be released on August 30 in the U.S. and September 2 in Europe. How well the game will sell in the face of such harsh restrictions remains to be seen.