Assassin’s Creed ll and the "new" DRM scheme

We don’t have a "Gaming News" section, but if we did, I think this would qualify….

Assassin's Creed 2 DRM by Koroush Ghazi of TweakGuides.com

Assassin's Creed 2 (AC2) was delayed for release on the PC, coming roughly four months after its release on the XBox 360 and PlayStation 3. Unfortunately, it seems that aside from the delays, AC2 will be remembered primarily for introducing a new form of copy protection/Digital Rights Management (DRM) developed by Ubisoft. In the face of the widespread hysteria and misinformation on this topic, I've prepared this page in the hopes of providing some factual information based on personal experience with the system in question.

Source - TweakGuides.com - Assassin's Creed 2 DRM

I agree with a lot of what this guy is saying and it is something we PC gamers have to worry about as more and more games are going the way of the consoles

If you've never visited TweakGuides.com I urge you to do so. The guy is pretty knowledgeable and has a host of gaming tweak guides as well tweak guides for XP, Vista, and Window 7.

Good site.

PS - Since this is a touchy subject for most, I'd like to say that as passionate as people on both sides of the coin are, let's not get banned over them.

I like the efforts of UBI, but alas there will always be a way to crack zero's and one's

Its already been cracked. the Always on was already on a recent release and was cracked rather quickly

smarteyeball said:

cloud8521 said:

Its already been cracked. the Always on was already on a recent release and was cracked rather quickly

Silent Hunter 5? Cracked in under 24hrs.

i know exactly.

Another good read by the same author - TweakGuides.com - PC Game Piracy Examined. Long but interesting.

Thanks for the links. Interesting reads.


I dont like DRM anymore than anyone but , since its something we really must deal with,

I actually prefer EA's solution for DRM. It requires the DLM, and must connect to the internet to activate the game, the first time its launced. After that no internet connection needed & No disc needed in the drive.

5 activation limit but you can de-activate and activate as you choose, which is really nice if you want to re-install Windows. simply de-auth the game and get the activation back.


But, sadly, it looks as if many games are moving to this always needing a internet connection type of DRM. Which really stinks if you do not have access or your connection is down for whatever reason.

i personally do not mind needing a connection to activate. but after that, I honestly do not think it should be required, unless it wants to re-check when applying a patch/expansion etc.

Here's Ubi's solution with Assassin Creed (taken from the article)...

The official details of the new copy protection/DRM implemented in Assassin's Creed 2 are provided here, but basically it requires that you have a permanent Internet connection to play the game. Note however that it has no install limits and does not require keeping the DVD in the drive to play. This DRM has not been secretly introduced - it was announced several months ago by Ubisoft, and is noted prominently on the front of the AC2 retail box, as shown here.

One of the things I find most annoying is the need to have the CD/DVD installed.