I loved Assassins Creed I. Its one of the few games I played till the very end.
I love many of the UbiSoft games and have a lot of them at home, all legal and paid for. But... I won't be spending my hard-earned money on Assassins Creed II. Why is that you might ask?
Despite the fact that I can't wait to play this thing (it isn't out yet for PC) and that I think UbiSoft deserved every penny of the money I paid for the first installment, there is something going on that needs to stop so I'm boycotting Assassins Creed II and every other game that uses the same techniques.
UbiSoft and other game manufacturers are punishing gamers.
Why do I say that? Well, its simple:
- Games are overpriced.
- Increasingly bad if not non-existent customer support.
- They add DRM software to games that:
- Make them unstable,
- Damage computers and
- Prevent honest law abiding people from playing the game.
- Prevent me from making my backup as the law allows me to.
Why are they doing this? The
y say it is because of piracy but what they're actually doing is driving people like me to piracy. I want to pay for games I like. Paying for games I like is something I find natural and consider necessary to help support the development of new games.
However, because of the various anti-piracy measures they are putting in place, they are preventing me from playing their games through bugs in the DRM software to name just one factor.
The latest blunder is the announcement of UbiSoft that you'll only be able to play Assassins Creed II if you're online. When for whatever reason your internet connection fails, or you simply don't have one, you won't be able to play the game.
Spending something like 40 - 50 euros on games that:
- I can only play when and if I'm online,
- have increasingly bad customer support,
- I can't backup,
- Are becoming more and more unstable due to all the DRM protection they're putting in
- Clearly show the manufacturer couldn't care less about me as a customer nor my rights
Is something I can't create a business case for. I for one find all of this ridiculous and therefore won't be buying any game that uses this kind of customer punishment. Since I still want to play it, I guess I'll have to wait till someone cracks it, which shouldn't be long since crackers out there have better customer support than companies like UbiSoft.
Sorry UbiSoft: you've lost another customer.