Ubisoft Offers Compensation for DDOS-affected Gamers

By this point in time, I’m sure most are aware of the asinine DRM scheme that Ubisoft employs with Assassin’s Creed 2. You might even recall that during the first weekend upon release, the company’s servers were DDOS’ed which resulted in no PC gamer being able to play. Being that AC2 is an offline game, the mere thought of this happening incites nothing but frustration.

There’s been a great deal of negative publicity regarding Ubisoft’s utilization of what seems to be the worst form of DRM ever employed, but the company doesn’t seem to be swaying towards reneging it. Prior to AC2’s release, Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic was released with the exact same DRM scheme. And just last week, we saw that The Settlers 7: Path to a Kingdom not surprisingly uses it as well.

The fact that the DRM has been in effect for almost a month with no word from Ubisoft on removing it concerns me, because if the company keeps with it, I feel like most other publishers are going to follow suit. We saw an example of this just last week with Electronic Arts’ Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, which uses an almost identical form of DRM (in some regards, it’s even worse).

For the sake of not ruining PC gaming, I hope these companies figure out soon that this current form of DRM is far from good, and it honestly can’t be that hard to come up with a far better, yet still very secure solution (I have many ideas of my own). Not to sound like a broken record, although I will be, treating your legal customers like this is not the way to handle DRM. It’s the customer who’s directly responsible for the company’s revenue, after all.

That all aside, Ubisoft seems to sympathize with its users that found themselves locked out of the game after launch, and as a form of apology, the company is offering a free download copy of a limited selection of titles, including H.A.W.X., EndWar, Shaun White’s Snowboarding and Prince of Persia. Unfortunately, these titles aren’t exactly brand-spanking new, but at least it’s something. If none of these games suit your fancy, you can upgrade to the Gold Edition of AC2 for free.

Were you unable to play on the weekends because naughty children DDOS’d the servers? Well check your email, because Ubisoft is giving out free stuff to say sorry. Goodies on offer vary between countries and the original purchase, but in general there’s a selection between H.A.W.X., EndWar, Shaun White’s Snowboarding, the cel-shaded Prince Of Persia, and Heroes Over Europe. The irony being that most, if not all, are DRM-free.