Thanks, Ubisoft

Update:

On a related topic, Blues News has wrapped up a few stories today regarding DRM-related installation issues with the PC versions of Far Cry 2 and Fallout 3. It seems that alternate installers are required in some cases. While we remain grateful to Ubisoft for helping us out, it's plain that current DRM methodologies continue to place an undue burden on legitimate consumers.

Original post:

For providing us with the means to use Far Cry 2 as a PC gaming benchmark for the next year or so, we'd like to give game publisher Ubisoft and its Ubisoft Montreal development division a quick shout-out today.

The game's DRM limits you to installing the game on only three systems out of the box, but we run our gaming tests on roughly 120 desktops and laptops each year. Ubisoft graciously worked with us to find a way to accommodate so many installs. You can expect to see the first reviews using Far Cry 2 as a benchmark next week (Crysis, Unreal Tournament 3...it's been a good run, sort of).

Far Cry 2' amazingly useful benchmark software.

(Credit: CNET)

We'd also like to point out that unlike pretty much every other graphically advanced PC game of the last year, Far Cry 2 does indeed include an extremely robust, easy-to-use benchmarking tool. Dig into the bin directory in your Far Cry 2 folder and you'll find the .EXE file. The game comes with three fly-throughs of various lengths, and it also lets your record your own runs. The settings options also provide all of the necessary toggles for adjusting the image quality, the physics, and the enemy AI. It's also well-designed enough so that any curious PC gamer can play with it

So again, thanks Ubisoft, both for enabling us to adopt Far Cry 2 as a test, and also for making the tool so easy to work with. DRM may remain an annoying reality for consumers, but for review purposes you've set an example for other PC game makers (and yes, Electronic Arts, that means you).

[Renegade Knight]

Fixed for you. What about the rest of us?

[rhbrown]

Fair point. If I could do away with DRM for everyone, I certainly would. If I could find a secure, non-invasive way for game creators to protect their IP I'd do that too.

[Renegade Knight]

What about the right of first sale? I want to resell my played out game, get back some of my money and buy the next one. With a limited intall method (rather like a limited number of reads in a book) you defeat this.

[rhbrown]

Tek-ed makes a good point below. I'll also add this excerpt from game developer Stardock's 2008 Customer Report, which you can read in-full here: http://www.stardock.com/media/stardockcustomerreport-2008.pdf

"We also address the issue of being able to resell games. This right, however, needs to be understood in context. The user has the right to sell their physical copy of their game but the publisher is not automatically burdened with creating some sort of user-friendly system. For example, someone may want to sell their physical copy of an MMO but the MMO does not have to allow the user to transfer their MMO character necessarily or if they do support this, they are not required to invest in the creation of some user friendly transfer mechanism that is free to use.

To use an analogy, a person who buys a book can resell their copy of the book. But they don?t expect the publisher to have to be involved in that transfer. Similarly, if someone wants to physically transfer their ownership of a physical copy of a game, they have the right to do that. But they publisher is not obligated to aid in that transfer."

[tek-ed]

Well, since you don't purchase the actual game, but instead you purchase a license to use the game as per the developers contract that you agree to when you open and install the product, and you purchse the actual physical CD that the came came on (not to mention the box and other assundry papers that are included with the purchase) if you resell the game, then you must do so under the purview granted by said contract. If you sell the game and it only has one install left, then your resale would necessarily be less than say someone selling theirs with 2 installs left. This gives you an incentive to be frugal if you indeed wish to sell the game at a later date.
Note: IANAL
Ed
web/gadget guru

[mmntech]

How much did this cost CNET? No Christmas bonus this year I'll bet. UBIsoft and EA are going to have to do a lot more than that to win back my trust as a PC gamer.

[rhbrown]

Thankfully, it didn't cost us anything. And we had a bonus?

[trojan destroyer]

This whole securom DRM rubbish is a total joke, and i;m sick and tired of being treated as a potential pirate by ubisoft, E.A games, Sierra, etc, as i used to be a legitimate customer, but no more....i refuse to support any company that puts DRM Securom "malware" on my computers hard drive, so i stopped buying your games like thousands of others now and play console versions of those games instead....In case you PEOPLE at ubisoft and E.A games dont get it yet i will repeat it louder.....DRM DOES NOT STOP PIRACY AND IT WAS NEVER INTENDED TO, NOR DESIGNED TO, ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY, MONEY, MONEY AND STOPPING THE CONSUMER FROM GIVING HIS BROUGHT PAID FOR VERSION OF THE GAME TO HIS FRIENDS OR FAMILY BY LIMITING THE AMOUNT OF INSTALLS THAT 1 IS ALLOWED TO DO........DONT YOU PEOPLE GET IT YET??? MORE PIRATED COPIES OF SPORE HAVE BEEN MADE AND DISTIBUTED ON THE NET BECAUSE OF THE CRAP DRM THAT IS ON THE RETAIL VERSION SO, ALL YOU ARE DOING IS FEEDING THE PIRATES AND PENALISING THE GENUINE CUSTOMERS............ and btw my GENUINE BROUGHT PAID AND LEGAL copy of "Painkiller" no longer works on any of my computers that have previous versions of Securom on it thanks to the genuises, hah, cough, cough, at E.A, games, Sierra, Ubisoft, bioware, etc, on fresh installs of my operating system Painkiller used to work fine, but any and i mean ANY game that has got that rootkit malware called Securom on it that i install AFTER Painkiller has already been previously installed, willl no longer work thus proving that this crap DRM just killed off a legitimate version of my game......are you guys going to give me my money back??..............i am holding you guys directly responsible for destroying P.C GAMING and driving consumers to the console versions of these games because consumers are waking up to this DRM crap and will no longer support your companies and the hassles, broken unplayable games, wrecked dvd drives, etc that accompany YOUR rootkit installed malware called securom...............not even the most insidious, clever programmed virus or trojan has there registry keys embedded in nullbyte language that i'm aware of, thereby making Securom almost impossible to delete from ones hard drive and that my friends is just another proof that Securom is indeed MALWARE

So 1 more time with feeling this time.......I BROUGHT YOUR GAMES LEGALLY SO I HAVE THE RIGHT TO INSTALL IT AS MANY TIMES I WISH OR NEED TO ON MY COMPUTERS, I DIDNT "RENT"? MY PAID FOR VERSION OK, END OF STORY

EX P.C GAMER