Ubi's DRM servers vulnerable to attacks
Ubisoft's DRM servers were bought down by hackers attacking the system, claims Ubisoft.
Speaking to Eurogamer though, a Ubisoft spokesperson remained adamant that the server downtime only affected 5 percent of players, while the remaining portion wouldn't have even noticed.
"Ubisoft would like to apologise to anyone who could not play ACII or SH5 yesterday," said a press statement released yesterday.
"Servers were attacked and while the servers did not go down, service was limited from 2.30pm to 9pm Paris time [1.30pm - 8pm GMT]...95 per cent of players were not affected, but a small group of players attempting to open a game session did receive denial of service errors."
"All players with an open session during the attack were not affected.
"We also confirm that, at this time, no valid cracked version of either Silent Hunter 5 or Assassin’s Creed II are available."
Meanwhile, unofficial reports from pirates continue to circulate that cracked versions of the game are available, though that's unconfirmed. It's also worth noting that, even if only 5 percent of gamers were affected by the downtime, Ubisoft has still revealed that their servers are vulnerable to even basic attacks.
Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Discuss in the forums ReplyAre they going to allow one official cracked version, :D
The tracker i use for linux distros begs to differ....
it dose exicst i found it last night i only found it on someones website (hosted themselfs becasue it was jsut an ip address)
the reason they are saying that a working one dose not exicst becasue the beta patch had a bug that you could get into the animus (in first 10mins of game) that has now been fixed
and it was never done by skid-row ignore these rumors
i htink its more likely that only %5 were willing to pay 60p a minute for there support line
i think it was an attack, only the attack took the form of paying customers trying to connect to play the game they bought.
"This is all because of pirates"
"We also confirm that, at this time, no valid cracked version of either Silent Hunter 5 or Assassins Creed II are available."
You, sir, get +1 rep for that witty remark.
They're not exactly going to turn around and say 'It's ok, you can get the cracked version from bit torrent. It doesn't have this problem.
yup, we talk about this a few months ago i remember :|
Honestly I didnt espect we would be proven right so quickly, this completely sucks, you cant even start a single player game if the servers go down, and they do :@
And yes, a pirated copy will have no problem at all, that just great .@
Back to the article, I read about this yesterday that Ubi was blamming hackers for the downtime which almost everyone agreed with "They didn't have the capacity to fulfill the needs of the amount of players being online and since admiting that is lack of knowledge and profissionalism"
PR must have though: "Let's blame it on the hackers! Yeah, hackers, that should do it!"
....
artikleawticklearkitlethe OP.However, despite a few claiming that the cracks worked, the majority claimed otherwise.
I think the idea is, ruin Ubi's DRM and the experience of legitimate customers all while saying pirates are getting a better experience (not yet true), and hopefully Ubi will get such a bad rep they'll ditch the system.
Now as much as I'm against draconian schemes, I think Ubi's might actually be worth while since it appears to be working. I'm not saying it's uncrackable, however due to the way it functions, I don't think a crack will be out for a long time.
The AC2 disc you buy is not a complete game. At the start of missions and other key points it downloads encrypted temp files, which are essentially keys that unlock the mission and allow you to continue playing. This is why people (shanky887614) are claiming "the reason they are saying that a working one dose not exicst becasue the beta patch had a bug that you could get into the animus (in first 10mins of game) that has now been fixed". Right, so far the first key has been cracked... you can get into and run around the world, but you cannot accept any missions, so what's the point?
Essentially to crack any Ubi game from now and into the future, a hacker must complete the game 100% to get all the temp files, decrypt and finally crack them, and with a game as big as AC2, that is going to take a lot of time and effort. In that time, Ubi has a huge boost in sales they wouldn't have otherwise. Now that there can't be any pre release leaks, all the pirates who were lost sales because they could get something they wanted for free have to buy it... and the rest weren't going to buy it anyway. With the amount of effort required to completely crack a game I don't think we'll see half the releases get cracked either.
It is still too early to call, but it seems to me that Ubi has defeated piracy on the PC (as much as it possibly can be). I for one applaud them for it.
thats a rather sweeping statement for something still too early to call isnt it?
just remember, every DRM system has been called uncrackable when it was introduced. if that were true why would we need new types?
This isn't just a phone home system that can get bypassed (they've already cracked that part), it's also system which you need to get data missing from the game itself. I'm sure it is crackable, and I'm confident we'll see a cracked AC2 within weeks, which is why I added the "as much as it possibly can be" caveat. But the point is that it could take weeks, and that's for each individual game (I'm going to assume Ubi isn't dumb enough to not differentiate the keys).
There are a surprising number of people that are happy to buy games they want if they can't get them for free. That is why PC releases are spaced so far from consoles, and that is also why this system will work. If each game Ubi releases has to be completed to 100% before the crackers can get all the encrypted keys, they get all the sales from impatient people. Even when I was browsing the release sites, sites where you'd think people would be most adamant against buying DRM riddled games, a good number of the posts were "this is taking too long, I'm just going to go out and buy it".
Razor released Mass Effect 2 a full 5 days before it was out. Think of how many potential buyers completed that game before it was even released, and then forgot about it. This effectively can't happen anymore, which I'm sure most publishers would see as victory enough, even if the rest of the system doesn't work out the way they (and I) hope.
Or the 5 and % are the same key and it saved time to say 5%
Free DLC? They're pumping the paid stuff out fast enough on the consoles.
Oh and I know I was advocating this DRM earlier, but I just noticed this "UBISOFT MAY CANCEL ACCESS TO ONLINE FEATURES UPON A 30-DAY PRIOR NOTICE".
If you're going to have the most intrusive DRM ever made, you don't have to be a dick about it... Sigh.
On topic though, i am all for DRM that cuts down on piracy, and can anyone say this system is worse than StarForce was?
well considering it only stops you from playing the game instead of bricking your hardware, id say starforce was worse.
Im disapointed by this. I was a fan of the first one, i could look past the failings and constant repetition so i had high hopes (especially the console crowd at the office bragging at me). but when ubisoft announced the DRM i thought 'nah, if they are going to be assholes about logging in then i wont bother'. id rather go buy BC2 or wait for metro 2033, since they arent treating their paying customers like pirates.
+1 and the fact that in 5-10 years, the game wi be unavailable in its "full" Form.
dunno if you remember the kronic and vow clans.. I wrote the kronic website =] played against maimin matty in the player hosted tourney too- now that guy is something else.. he techs so fast and even makes comments on when you tool (cause you could see how many pop the other guy had)- adjust his game.. probably the best to ever play that game
I remember running around after he walled me off and totally ruined my rush lol
oh well off topic.. drm sucks!!
Despite this I think I'm going to go grab BC2 instead. Regardless of DRM I don't think AC2 worth full price for me.
You are obviously in a different league to me. I was never all that good at it (in fact I haven't finished the game, ever) but I have always enjoyed it.