If you were planning to buy Anno 2070, you should know that it is limited to only 3 activations and if you replace your, say, graphics card more than thrice, you can say goodbye to the game. Now, this is absurd and baffling to me that a publisher would implement such a thing.
What exactly is Ubisoft’s thought process behind such a strategy for the PC market?
Yes, I know they have been talking about how piracy is rampant, and how almost “95% of the PC gamers would pirate it” anyway, and other nonsense. This to me, shows an utter lack of respect for the PC market, and while plenty of publishers are affected by piracy, they have shown us that there is a way to succeed and gain a lot of goodwill in the process.
Yes, I’m talking about Valve. But that’s probably not a right example, because they are quite established and know the market inside out. Now, when Guru3D found out about Anno 2070’s DRM, Ubisoft’s response to that was… well, terrible.
They said: “Sorry to disappoint you – the game is indeed restricted to 3 hardware changes and there simply is no way to bypass that. We also do not have 7 copies of the game for you.”
Why does Ubisoft have a problem with this when the other publishers don’t? Simple. They think that DRM will actually help them reduce piracy (lol). Hey, never mind pissing off your legitimate customers, the most important thing is to reduce piracy! There are so many things wrong with this logic that I don’t understand where to even begin.
If legitimate customers buy the game, then Ubisoft may think their DRM is a success, and if they don’t? They will say that “Piracy is killing the market… boo hoo”. So what good can come out of this? Ubisoft will never find out the state of the market this way.
You do make some fine games, Ubisoft, there is no doubt about that, but tying them up with ‘draconian’ DRM will just hurt you in the long run. Check out the Anno 2070 gameplay trailer below, in case you’re hearing about it for the first time.
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