With Denuvo Broken, Ubisoft Doubles Up On DRM for Assasin's Creed Origin, Tanking Everyone's Computers
from the destroying-reputations-monumentally dept
There are really two themes when it comes to DRM, software supposedly created to stop video game piracy. The first and most notorious theme is what an utter failure DRM has been in accomplishing this core mission. Even once-vaunted DRM platforms like Denuvo have been reduced to code-bloat within the games they're meant to protect. And that's the DRM on the effective end of the spectrum, relatively speaking. But the other theme, one that is arguably far more important and impactful, is how absolutely great DRM software tends to be at annoying customers and prohibiting them from enjoying the games they legitimately purchased. This theme presents itself in multiple forms, from people being flatout unable to use the software they purchased at all, to performance hits due to the DRM software slowing down the customer's computers, to opening up grand new security holes through which malicious actors happily dive into the lives of those very same customers.
The track record for DRM, in other words, is almost laughably bad. That AAA publishers haven't acknowledged this reality and still use various forms of DRM is an absurdity. But what Ubisoft did in reacting to the demise of Denuvo, essentially to double up on DRM, is backfiring in predictably frustrating ways. Ubisoft, being Ubisoft, included Denuvo's DRM for Assasin's Creed Origins. But with all the news for Denuvo being bad, the company knew the game would be cracked in hours or days using Denuvo. So, instead of simply removing the customer-annoying DRM, Ubisoft decided to add another layer of DRM on top of it, in the form of VMProtect.
According to Voksi, whose ‘Revolt’ team cracked Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus before its commercial release last week, it’s none of these. The entire problem is directly connected to desperate anti-piracy measures. As widely reported (1,2), the infamous Denuvo anti-piracy technology has been taking a beating lately. Cracking groups are dismantling it in a matter of days, sometimes just hours, making the protection almost pointless. For Assassin’s Creed Origins, however, Ubisoft decided to double up, Voksi says.
“Basically, Ubisoft have implemented VMProtect on top of Denuvo, tanking the game’s performance by 30-40%, demanding that people have a more expensive CPU to play the game properly, only because of the DRM. It’s anti-consumer and a disgusting move,” he told TorrentFreak.
If the VMProtect name sounds familiar, that's because it was the company that actually accused Denuvo of using its software in its product without properly licensing it. And if layering DRMs on top of one another and expecting it not to have a negative effect on legit customers sounds like the product of insanity, that's because it is. Basically, unless you're running an upper end processor, the game is likely to be unplayable.
“What is the normal CPU usage for this game?” a user asked on Steam forums. “I randomly get between 60% to 90% and I’m wondering if this is too high or not.”
The individual reported running an i7 processor, which is no slouch. However, for those running a CPU with less oomph, matters are even worse. Another gamer, running an i5, reported a 100% load on all four cores of his processor, even when lower graphics settings were selected in an effort to free up resources.
“It really doesn’t seem to matter what kind of GPU you are using,” another complained. “The performance issues most people here are complaining about are tied to CPU getting maxed out 100 percent at all times. This results in FPS [frames per second] drops and stutter. As far as I know there is no workaround.”
Well, gentle Steam user, there is a workaround, but it mostly involves buying games from a company that is more interested in providing a great gaming experience to its actual customers than attempting to stamp out game piracy when doing so has proven the most futile task in the industry. If even lowering the graphics settings doesn't keep the game from stuttering noticeably, it won't be long before the refund requests start pouring in. Especially when this decision to layer DRMs like sweatshirts causes customer machines to overheat.
The situation is reportedly so bad that some users are getting the dreaded BSOD (blue screen of death) due to their machines overheating after just an hour or two’s play. It remains unclear whether these crashes are indeed due to the VMProtect/Denuvo combination but the perception is that these anti-piracy measures are at the root of users’ CPU utilization problems.
Ubisoft is always going to Ubisoft, I suppose.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: assasin's creed origin, denuvo, drm, video games
Companies: ubisoft
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
When you buy Ubisoft....
Fool me once, shame on you... fool me for the 15th game... yea STFU and stop bitching!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: When you buy Ubisoft....
But it hasn't happened and it's not going to happen. Gamers don't have the self-discipline to make it happen.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: When you buy Ubisoft....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: When you buy Ubisoft....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: When you buy Ubisoft....
We have an ever rotating crop of fresh minds to dupe. There's plenty of evidence that lots of smaller publishers and gaming devs are learning their lesson. GOG's growing popularity is just one of the stronger ones.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: When you buy Ubisoft....
Next time I wanted an Ubisoft game I went to buy it, saw it used this annoying DRM and so I said "Fuck that shit" and I pirated the hell out of it. (glad I did too, was a shit game anyways)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Well, gentle Steam user, there is a workaround, but it mostly involves buying games from a company that is more interested in providing a great gaming experience to its actual customers.
Or, as many of these people will no doubt do, downloading a pirated copy of the game which has stripped out the DRM. Is there an analogue to the Streisand effect for DRM and pirates? The Sparrow effect?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Call it “The Blu-ray Effect”. After all, the first such piracy-specific Streisand Effect was arguably the breaking of the AACS encryption key used in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD—and the subsequent controversy surrounding the sharing of that key.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Ah, shit, that’s right. I wasn’t sure how big the DeCSS thing got, in hindsight. Shoulda done more reading on it. Then again, “Blu-ray Effect” rolls off the tongue a bit better. 😛
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Because anybody not using Windows and playing a DVD is obviously stealing your movie. /s
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
Which, funnily enough, I am almost dead certain would be just as illegal as someone who skipped the 'buy a legal copy first' step and went straight to downloading the infringing copy, leading anyone who bothered to think about it to question why they were paying in the first place.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
You could make that argument, but I'm not sure how well it would hold up in court. You're not taking the copy you purchased and removing the DRM(which would be a crime in itself, regardless of the legality of 'format shifting'), rather you are downloading an additional copy without paying for that one.
Now, I can certainly see the logic in what you are presenting, if someone has paid for a copy of the game exactly what 'harm' is being caused by them downloading a working copy and playing that instead, but given how utterly insane copyright law is I suspect that it's not an argument that a company or a judge would buy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
If you use BitTorrent - where your computer is sharing the files with other user users as you download them - then you're not prosecuted for how or why you downloaded. You're prosecuted for sending it to others.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
I doubt that's the case legally, and even if so it would be a defence presented in court when you're sued for pirating, not something that would stop legal action in the first place.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
When I used to game on the PC (before crap like this put me off entirely), it was routine to buy & install the legal version of the game, then immediately go to dark corners of the web to install a no-CD crack or other way of circumventing DRM so that I could play the game properly.
Unfortunately, this will have been interpreted not as "paying customer wants to be able to play on a flight / not have to search for the CD every time they launch the game" but as "OMG lost sales!". So, instead of realising that they were just inconveniencing paying customers, they double down on the DRM. "Stronger" DRM causes more problems for more paying customers, leading to more pirate downloads to make the product useful, and so on.
I wish there was a way to quantify the amount of money actually lost to piracy vs the amount of money lost directly due to DRM and money wasted on its development and deployment. I wouldn't be surprised if they're at least equal, but alas there's no way to accurately quantify these things. But, middle managers will always want to cover their backs to make it look like they were trying to "stop piracy", even if their actions only lead to more of it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
Or spare an optical disc reader from unnecessary wear. I always assumed game publishers had a deal with the hardware industry here. Many who play a game frequently and aren't using the drive for anything else are simply going to leave that disc in all the time.
IDK did optical drives ever get "smarter" and not leave the lasers on all the time, whether the drive is actually being used or not? (And i remember them polling incessantly for no good reason under older OSes as well, which was just annoying.)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
I would laugh but this is sad
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
From what I have been reading, the cracked version bypasses the protection but it is still there. So unfortunately in this case the cracked version is just as slow
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Gentle Steam User
The situation is funny enough that it might be worth buying the game just to return it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DRM (noun; initialism for “Digital Rights Management”) — closed-source black-box code that gives control of at least part of a given electronic device to the company that either owns or operates that code; the digital equivalent of an ankle bracelet tracking device for paying customers that does nothing to actually prevent copyright infringement by non-paying customers; a stupid fucking idea
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Wrong - Digital Rights Management
Right - Digital *Restrictions* Management
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
no its russions steeling our computer cyclez
oblitagory xkcd:
https://xkcd.com/908/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Whoever stopped snorting coke and sexually harassing co-workers long enough to declare "Let's put a speedbump on the speedbump!", needs to be used AS a speedbump.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/11/ubisoft-denies-pc-drm-is-slowing-down-assassins-creed-or igins/
Should be easy to verify by people running the cracked version faster...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Great at protecting your property from your loyal customers, Ubi. Maybe try an interactive data-check every 2 minutes that makes the gamers press an "OK" prompt or the game shuts down. That'll keep them pesky gamers from gaming with the game they bought!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
On one hand, I could believe the explanation offered by Ubisoft. AC: Origins looks like a game that would make even the most powerful gaming PC work hard to achieve maximum results. That explanation has an air of plausibility.
On the other hand, we are talking about Ubisoft; I would sooner infect my PC with a bitcoin miner than give that company my trust. When did they even disclose their Inception-styled DRM to consumers—if they ever even disclosed it before news got out about these claims?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
A previous game 'protected' by Denuvo apparently had the game suffering serious issues thanks to the DRM calling home an insane number of times, so there's at least some evidence that the infection can have notable negative consequences as far as gameplay goes.
Add an additional DRM infection on top of that and it's not hard to suspect that yes, it is the DRM causing if not all of the problems, then a good portion of them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Some significant portion of the compiled game code (significant enough to attempt to deter piracy) is running in a VM with a different instruction set than the underlying physical CPU, and this is supposed to have no perceptible effect?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DRM FREE!
Games makers should have learnt that the only thing drm does these days is slows the pirating of a game by a few hours at most and makes the hackers/crackers a lot of money or whatever they get for breaking the drm.
If they removed all drm and sold the game a little cheaper they would sell more and make more money.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
There's no excuse for these issues.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
We should be calling encryption "Digital Rights Management." Which it is, of course; it's only a matter of who manages the rights to the encrypted data.
That way, powerful people who have declared jihad against encryption would be declaring jihad against DRM.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
IT HAS TO BE PIRACY!!
And in a fucked up way, it is.
Pirates who aren't going to ever pay you, have all of your attention.
You invest large portions of the budget in the DRM that somehow magically this time won't fall.
Lets put more DRM in!!!
Lets see the result -
The pirates are playing the game more than paying customers.
Paying customers are having their machines fail.
Pirates get awesome performance.
Paying customers are expected to upgrade to liquid nitrogen coolers.
Paying customers are wondering why they bothered.
Pirates notice a surge in new recruits, some who paid & some who saw the horrible way paying customers were treated & signed up.
Somewhere there needs to be an adult in charge, who can remove the execs who are destroying the company.
You spent more on DRM that is going to drive people to pirate the game. Period, there is no upside, you tripled down on 'we'll bet the pirates this time!!!' at the cost of the people still stupid enough to pay you for the game.
Imagine a burger place fighting a war against raccoons raiding the dumpster.
To get more money for the next weapon to repel the trash pandas, they decide to let the coolers run warmer.
Meat spoils, customers get sick, sales stop, more meat ends up in the dumpster... but this new 'Trash Panda Repelling Rock v4.5' is totally going to work.
You have a few people who still come in to get burgers, but they get sick 75% of the time and are thinking perhaps its time to try a new place.
Meanwhile in the back of the restaurant the trash panda's have stolen a lighter & are using the rock to cook up the meat.
A normal person would tell you that this is so far fetched and stupid no one would do it... but they never bought a Ubisoft game.
You are actively screwing people who want to give you money for your product to chase people who are NEVER going to pay you. You are shocked that there are growing numbers of people who will never pay you, while you keep punching that last few paying customers in the nuts every 3 minutes they play the game with the latest nutbuster DRM.
The company exists to sell a product.
You have focused more resources on those who won't pay, than offering the best product possible.
Maybe its old fashioned but maybe focus on making sure the paying customer gets the best possible game instead of worrying about dumping real money chasing imaginary money. You no longer care about paying customers. Pirates can play for hours and not have their machine crash... and you can't put your finger on why more people pirate the game....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Interestingly, most publishers have gone to less oppressive DRM schemes and have learned to accept some "losses" from piracy over the years. Back in the day, I spent more on a Lattice C compiler than I did my car, but publishers learned that by cutting the price they actually made more money so things changed.
Game makers haven't changed, however. Yes, their target demographic generally tends to have less money to spend so they're more likely to pirate to play. Still, the fact that their content plays much more poorly with DRM installed drives ever more of their customers to pirate solutions. I know that I would be tempted to go that route if I were a young gamer these days just because the DRM sucks and causes more problems than it's worth. Being an old fart, however, I don't need to play the latest games this very second to have cred with other gamers. I can wait until both the price comes down and the DRM goes away, so I do.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
They have dreams that every pirate DL is costing them tons of money, ignoring that in all honesty there are people who pirate first to see if its complete shit.
You want someone to plunk down $60+ in the age of bought reviews, day 1 patches, DLC shipping on the disc. Can't trust reviews on YT, can't trust released images (because they render them on super computers), the entire industry (well the big boys) seem bent on lying to paying customers... then are shocked, just shocked, that piracy happens.
System requirements are a joke, as wide as possible to sucker more people to buy something thats gonna run like crap... but why do we care? We got paid, we don't need to worry about them... now lets chase some pirates.
I'm old enough to remember getting a demo disc from ID where they offered single playable levels of their games. I could see how well it ran on my setup & if the game lived up to the hype.
Perhaps it's time to run the MBA's out of the business.
They focus to much on deadlines, cutting costs, & keeping control... at the cost of the game experience for paying customers.
Gone should be the days of 2 yrs of promises of new releases soon, but at the same time stop shipping broken crap because the release date is here. Gamers would have way more respect for a delayed release because they refused to ship crap thats broken day one.
Put the focus back on the people who want to pay you money, hell even giving them half the effort you waste on pirates and you would have the best studio rep ever.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hmm, the EULA...
"IN NO EVENT SHALL UBISOFT BE LIABLE IN CONNECTION WITH THE COMPONENTS THAT MAY BE INSTALLED ON YOUR COMPUTER BY ANY DRM SOFTWARE OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE ANTI-TAMPER TECHNOLOGY."
(Copy-pasted. Blame them for the capslock.)
Translation: We won't give you a refund for the game because the DRM makes it unplayable, so there.
...Hey, I wonder; if you sent someone something (like a funny cat video) with an EULA that basically said 'in order to view this video, you must consent to have software installed which will access your personal information for the purpose of withdrawing $100,000 from your bank accounts', would it be enforceable in court?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Hmm, the EULA...
It's worse than that. They're refusing liability far beyond their game. Think Sony Root Kit, which caused crashes, "disappearing" CD-ROM drives and security problems outside of the game.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Will get something else and wait for this to be re-released on GOG
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I bought Amos Proffessional
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I bought Amos Proffessional
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: I bought Amos Proffessional
But I was hooked, and I paid for the Amiga version and then every version for the PC - plus many add-ons - for over 20 years until Microsoft stopped making it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: I bought Amos Proffessional
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: I bought Amos Proffessional
Just the opposite. Back in the early '90s I picked up the Aircraft & Scenery Designer add-on. This let you compile a text file full of commands into Flight Simulator scenery. Mountains, buildings, signs, etc.
And so our inventory system, written in-house, which would output data to Excel for graphing, suddenly got Flight Simulator 4 as an alternate graphing package. You could fly through the mountains and valleys of your product class history report.
Granted, it was more demoed than actually used.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: I bought Amos Proffessional
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mob reacts without evidence-Internet shocker
Nope, no proof of any sort that DRM has any effect on the performance of Origins. None. Just a crowd and a grudge.
Yep, Techdirt isn't what it used to be.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Mob reacts without evidence-Internet shocker
"Mob reacts without evidence"
Mob? Speaking for myself Cupcake, I don't need to see any "evidence". I've experienced this shit 1st hand for myself.
And I'm betting I'm not the only one.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Mob reacts without evidence-Internet shocker
None. Apart from user complaints. And common sense, since the systems in place will absolutely use system resources. But, you won't read the article, you just need to bitch about the site you voluntarily visit, for some reason.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Mob reacts without evidence-Internet shocker
To think that this is the sort of rodomontade that MyNameHere wants elevated and respected. It's telling.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]