In an interview with Rock, Paper, Scissors today, Ubisoft’s Worldwide Director for Online Games confirmed that they will be doing away with DRM for their PC games.
We have listened to feedback, and since June last year our policy for all of PC games is that we only require a one-time online activation when you first install the game, and from then you are free to play the game offline.
As mentioned, the policy has been in effect for several months now but has at this time been declared official.
You can now play games without needing to be online; you pay once, activate the product and then are free to play online.
Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?
Needless to say, gamers have felt strapped with the online limatation many DRM’s require — which from the gamer’s perspective has made little to no sense, in addition to making it feel like we didn’t even own the product we had paid 6o dollars for.
Interestingly enough, Ubisoft was asked whether or not DRM was in the first place a mistake:
No, I wouldn’t say that. This is a process, and we listened to feedback.
It wasn’t a mistake yet they are boldly moving away from it? All that matters is the latter part of that statement, which we can only hope more members of the industry will be transition towards soon.
Paul Nyhart – who has written 891 posts on The Jace Hall Show.
Paul Nyhart is the Head Editor and Writer of JaceHallShow.com covering everything from game reviews and previews to the cultural impact of video games.

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