Ubisoft officially scraps always-on PC DRM

In what can only be described as a victory for consumers, Ubisoft has scrapped its controversial always-on DRM for PC games.

It marks the end of a long and painful saga for the company although some observers will be disappointed that Ubisoft does not concede that aggressive DRM is an ineffective anti-piracy measure.

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,” Ubisoft’s worldwide online games director Stephanie Perlotti told Rock Paper Shotgun.

Whenever you want to reach any online service, multiplayer, you will have to be connected, and obviously for online games you will also need to be online to play. But if you want to enjoy Assassin’s Creed III single player, you will be able to do that without being connected. And you will be able to activate the game on as many machines as you want.”

Despite the fact that you must surely be able to count the number of PC gamers whose machines aren’t connected to the internet on one hand, the previous require for even single-player games to maintain an internet connection was undoubtedly draconian.

Particularly when Ubisoft’s online validation servers went down.

And the public let Ubisoft know it, with hackers actively targeting the system to highlight the issue and even bypassing the protection altogether.

But despite the pressure, Ubisoft has until now maintained that its DRM was here to stay, even going as far to call it a success”.