Ubisoft's reputation as a company that makes use of draconian DRM, was pretty well cemented until recently when it began relaxing some of its more disliked protective features. Looking to the future, it plans to go a step further and make its games almost DRM free, requiring only an online activation to play and with unlimited installs.
Speaking with Rock Paper Shotgun, Ubisoft's worldwide director of online games, Stephanie Perotti and corporate communications manager, Michael Burk, said that the company had listened to feedback - though gamers would suggest that it took a while - which is what led the company to remove always-on DRM back in June 2011. They also said further consideration had led Ubisoft to implement a new DRM setup for its forthcoming games: practically none. "If you want to enjoy Assassin’s Creed III single player, you will be able to do that without being connected. And you will be able to activate the game on as many machines as you want," said Perotti.
However even with a statement like this, RPS didn't let up the pressure, pushing Ubisoft to admit failure on the part of the heavy DRM employed in the past, as well as to show some sort of figures about how it helped reduced piracy - since Ubisoft still claims that the always-on system worked very well in that respect. Perotti seemed to lose some of his patience towards the end of the interview, stating: "We’ve heard you. We’ve heard customers. We want to find a balanced way to protect our IPs and our games, and at the same time trade off frustrations or issues for PC gamers, and improve the policies of our games and services. But I guess the answer is, we’re still discussing it."
When asked if Ubisoft had any regrets about its DRM past, Perotti said: "Again I would just say that we listened to feedback, we adapt, we will continue to listen and adapt, and hopefully we will continue to prove to the PC gaming community that we listen."
So what do you guys think? Does this make Ubisoft look a little better in your eyes? Or is it still a company to be avoided?
