DRM Case Study: Assassin's Creed 2 - Why you should not buy this game for the PC...

A emulator to run Xbox 360 Probably wont exist till 2015 > 2020

And i would agree, you can't hack a game to make it run on a different platform. That requires magic hax skills.

 

Im sure in theory to run an emulator full speed (maybe wrong) i can vaguely remember you need about X amount of times power of the console and the cell architecture wich developers have struggled with who have HUGE budgets can manage to get there games onto a pc and you expect within a couple of years of its release for there to be an emulator? Then your crazy People never fully finished the ORIGINAL xbox emulator. So the only PLAUSIBLE thing i can think of is something that ghosts the required connection, Or removes it from the game but i was really looking forward to AC2 on PC (own it for ps3) guess consoles win this one :/

 

To run a PS3/Xbox360 Emulator. You would need a computer running a Duo Core at 12ghz per core.

 

I love the way that business's claim that every single copy of a game/movie/album = 1 lost sale

I know alot of people who download thousands of gb's per year and let me tell ya alot of them do it out of curiousity about the product. There is no way they would pay £40 for whatever game.

Pirates are not always downloading software to avoid paying for something. The guys i know who are heavily into it download purely as they do not value the product at the price being asked (Microsoft office is a good example) or if the company behind it is making using the software legitimatley a pain in the rear (such as this case of DRM)

Personally i think the devolpers and publishers are trying to hold thier gamers to ransom. For me that wont work, ok if they enforce some DRM of that i gurantee that there will be a pirated copy in a week and i will get one of said friends to get one for me

In this instance they have lost a sale and the people to blame?

Well Ubisoft caused this lost sale

 

Probably not the best example to use, as I''m not sure why people pirate MS Office beyond them simply not knowing that a free, open-source, and (arguably) better alternative exists, which even has 100% compatibility with Office documents. I've been using OpenOffice for over a year now (I was one of those who pirated Office 2007 because of M$ setting their new versions up to save in .docx by default, causing most files my professors sent out for school to be incompatible with my old version), and when Microsoft's DRM (Office Genuine Advantage) detected it pirated, I didn't immediately run out and buy their product like they wanted, but I found something else that does the same job, for free.

 

The original XBox is loosely based on PC hardware, not the 360. And funnily enough, no emulator exists that can emulate commercial XBox1 games to a reliable degree.

 

back in the day when i was doing it there was no alternative

 

These days free alternatives for numerous programs exist ... although, not for everything, and even then, numerous alternatives cannot replace the paid product if they are an accepted standard and the free one isn't.

Take 3d software for instance ... you have various different programs such as 3ds Max, Maya, LW, etc. ... none of which are free, though Blender is.
Although, there is one crucial difference.
Each of those programs can be used to accomplish the same things, but the process which demands of a person to do something is fundamentally different in each program.
So if an employer is looking for a person to do work in Maya and all the employee did was work in Blender, the employee would have to go through a lot of retraining just to get a grasp of Maya (because despite the fact you have numerous similar terms, each program does things in it's own way and therefore it will take some time to learn a new one ... and employers usually don't like wasting time like that ... they will simply take on a person who has been working in Maya all the time).

Problem is that you have individuals who want to do something in a specific field yet cannot train themselves (at least not without usually breaking the law because they cannot obtain it any other way) using software that is way above their means to afford and an accepted standard in the industry.

Essentially, plenty of people are stuck in a catch 22 situation.

So what this really comes down to is that you have those who think people with less money/means aren't supposed to have access to the things others pay for.
I find that a double standard which is extremely dangerous since not everyone grew up under same circumstances or are able to get well paid jobs that will afford them these things.

Of course, companies, and people who usually can afford to pay for things and are offended by torrenting things, don't care.
Even if you are dirt poor and they catch you doing something such as downloading/using their software illegally, they will fine you with millions (which is absurd to begin with).

Reality of the situation is that numerous people who act all 'high and mighty' and can actually afford things often hide behind the 'law' which ignores facts and details, plus they have a tendency of seeing things in 'black' and 'white'.

A simple solution is the following: if you cannot afford it, then live accordingly.
And yet, virtually no one in the world does that.
Society shoves things down your throats and flashes various things in your face, and in order to achieve certain things, on numerous occasions, people will have to break the law because the present system doesn't allow them any other options.

Furthermore ... I find it interesting that this game requires a constant Internet connection to play it.

What about legitimate customers that buy the game and are on different (say expensive) connections to begin with and cannot afford to play the game and be online while they are playing?

What about paying customers who don't have Internet access at all (because such people do exist)?

Ubisoft is shooting themselves in a foot with this DRM, and the 'anti-piracy' crowd will always have an opinion on why people shouldn't download games or software illegally.
I cannot say that I don't approve of illegal downloading of software for example ... because for one thing, I've been on that side and I know the realities of why people do it.

Money is a blockade to numerous people, and they end up having a miserable existence because of it.

I don't deny the fact humanity has to clean up it's mess, but the entire system needs to be revamped if you want to end illegal downloading of software for example.

 

I cannot proceed furthur within the rules of this forum on the topic of running Xbox games on PC hardware.

Suffice it to say that the xbox is a now ancient piece of technology... and it is indeed possible to do so... and indeed may already be so.

FYI I want ALL of you to understand how stupid the above comment is...
Hz is a measurement of cycles per second... NOT SPEED.

The important factor of what you are missing is WHAT THE PROCESSOR DOES IN A CYCLE. Note, that not all processors are as potent at all things as others.

It is theoretically possible for processor A to be faster at 1GHz than processor B at 12GHz.

 

Man, I thought you'd be smart enough to stop with your "emulation" argument.

First off, emulation is not a viable way to pirate something. Emulation is not "hacking" something to work on another system. Emulation is building a virtual system to translate its native architecture to the architecture of the hardware that you are working on. Running a virtual system is not by any means "hacking". You have not altered the source code of the game that you are trying to run.

Second, you cannot "hack" an Xbox game to work on x86 architecture, which is exactly what you proposed.

Third, GHz IS a measurement of speed. It may not be the be-all end-all for speed measurements, but what Ikuto says makes perfect sense. Basically, it would require a much faster computer than the original to be able to emulate a system. No need to break down into technicalities to try and save face here. You didn't know what you were talking about and you were wrong. I called you out on it. Live with it and move on.

 

AFAIK consoles use a different instruction set compared to PC's. Thats architecture would probably a pain to emulate.

 

Clearly Ikuto's post shouldn't be taken literally - the basic point was that it would take a significantly more powerful computer than what currently exists to be able to emulate a 360 or PS3.

As for the implication that there are actually working Xbox emulators out there, there aren't, at least in any practical sense. There are a handful of Xbox emulators, but they don't really play commercial games outside (bar one or two that happen to work). Most of the just display title screens. Feel free to see for yourself.

 

My home internet connection drops all the time lol I would be stuck in the intro forever! dammit!

 

AC2 is not the first game to use this. Rise of Flight (flightsim) also uses this DRM and has had good success from countering piracy. I think more and more PC games will go this route. IMO both AC2 and RoF are just a test bed for what's around the corner to counter piracy.

I don't like this DRM but if it helps publishers counter piracy I don't have a problem with it.

 

But AC2 is mainly a 1-player game and I really only play 1-player games when I don't have an internet connection :S

 

My post was an example. As thats what the developers of PCSX2 Said. It was Example that for a PS3/Xbox 360 Emulator would take alot of CPU power to run as most High level Emulators (PCSX2) are very CPU depended.

To Emulate a PS3 you would need a SINGLE 15ghz core. (Thats a Rough estimate);

So I was partly wrong.

 

Ugh...I just saw the pre-order notification for AC2 on Steam...60 freaking dollars? I guess Ubisoft took a lesson when we all ate up MW2 for the same price.

Ah well. At least Steam has the decency to warn customers about the DRM, in ALL CAPS!

 

The price increase I can live with. Just with plain inflation, prices have to go up eventually, and they have been at $50 for a LONG time now.

 

Yeah, prices inflate but my wages sure don't. I'm making 8 bucks an hour now, and I was making the same over a year ago.

 

And games have been $50 for what? A decade now?

 

And they've been fine by me at that price. Console games have been $60 for years, they're not $70 now.

 

to end the discussion (hopefully) of emulation:

1. Hz is a measurement of speed, or more accurately in this case, rate (they are really similar). The important part is that the units in the denominator are seconds. You were trying to say that Hz isn't related to performance, or isn't a measure of performance. But it still pretty much is. More powerful processors have faster clocks. They also can have more cores and more on die cache, etc. Anyway, it makes perfect sense to talk broadly about a 15 or 25 Ghz processor to mean 5x or 10x as fast as modern consumer processors, or whatever.

2. The PS2 had a single processing core as well, but that scales nicely with modern multi core machines in emulation. The 360 and PS3 could as well, regardless of the number of cores in those machines. It totally depends on the implementation. You won't be able to execute game code out of order, but the emulator is very abstracted from that. The emulator is executing cpu microcode. That is a very complicated and giant subject, and making accurate declarations about its implementation potential because of the original hardware specs is best done with serious education on the subject.

 

The $60 isn't too bad considering it includes the two DLC packs released so far which have to be bought separately for the console versions.

 

considering I've never heard of "Rise of Flight", the declaration that its DRM helped it fight piracy may be a bit of an overstatement. It's more likely that the community didn't care enough about the long-dead flight simulator genre to bother pirating it at all...rather than assuming the DRM foiled the hackers of the world.

Desire plays a big part in piracy.

 

My connection at home suffers drop outs

This will be fail for me at home, will keep getting kicked out...will be another sale thats lost due to silly DRM

 

It will be a fail anywhere. Especially if you want to put it on your laptop and use it on a business trip with spotty internet, on the plane, in your car, wherever. It's just not practical.

Why not everyone rate it a big fail at Amazon.com like they did with Spore. That got the attention of EA, but the terds at Ubi sound like they're just stupid.

Problem is that there will be those that are clueless and will pick it up because they're anxious about it,then get it and won't be able to return it.

I sure hope that it's plastered across the cover of the game about this DRM. That's pretty significant to not alert customers to something this significant, especially a game costing $60.

 

Remember the good old days when you could go outside with your friends for a game of pickup, kickball, street hockey, football, or even chase each other around with toy guns?

I have a feeling that sort of thing will be coming back in vogue soon.

 

Not unless kicking the ball out of bounds ends the game since it violates the EULA.

 

LOL. Nicely done.

 

$60 for a BROKEN game, not a chance. Buy a used copy for your PS360. Don't give these turds a penny!

 

/sigh I have to drop the rest, (due to forum rules) but from an education standpoint I cannot let you or anyone else continue to think you can compare dissimilar processor Hz ratings as a reasonable measurement of speed. The ONLY time this works is when the processors are of same manufacturer AND the same family.

Example:
A Pentium 4 3GHz is slower than a SINGLE CORE of a 1.8GHz core2duo.
Why? Because it does more in one clock than the other processor.
Note thew Penitum 4 is the OLDER chip!

While of different generations, at least those two processors are of similar purpose. Comparing a processor outside Intel's lines with Hz ratings is not even close.
This is why AMD developed numeric ratings instead of listing Hz ratings.
AMD chips compete and sometimes defeat Intel chips at much lower clocks.

Please stop the insanity... stop comparing clocks directly when they are not the same work done in a clock... ESPECIALLY when one is a limited scope older-generation processor.

This is similar to bragging how much faster 120KM/h is than 80mph because the number is bigger... (120km/h is roughly 75mph for the metric-impaired)

 

Perhaps it would have been better if you talked in terms of MIPS, MOPS or GFLOPS.

For economy of words purposes. Not that it changes the essence of what you are saying which is correct. That is to say, comparing processing power in a more objective manner.

 

No one other than you is talking about dissimilar processor Hz ratings. Ibuki made a generalized statement - a hyperbole not to be taken literally. Because guess what? 15-20 GHz processors don't exist, regardless of the processor brand.

What I find sad is that you're futilely trying to continue an argument where you are plain wrong. You made a stupid statement in saying that hackers are going to break the DRM on a console game to make it work on a computer in retaliation to what Ubisoft is doing. And after I refuted that statement, you are trying to pick on technicalities that have nothing to do with the topic at hand to make yourself sound relevant.

 

Pentium 4 ran on 130nm architecture while the C2D ran on 65nm. There are also other factors like instruction set architecture and microarchitectures

 

Alright, why don't we all try to stay on topic and complain about the DRM in AC2. The emulator argument can go elsewhere. Where to, I don't know

 

It was a ROUGH Estimate, it was never made to be taken seriously, nor to be argued over. And i agree with Lithus.

Yeah good idea.

 

Amen!


Give that man a cookie

More anti Ubisoft please!

 

Back on-topic, why this is bad for a lot of people: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/...tm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

 

Soldiers, people on the go, rural areas where there is still only dial up.

The death of PC gaming was predicted years ago. And this is perhaps how it begins. With desktop PC sales continuing to plummet and notebook sales continuing to rise, it's inevitable.

So consoles it is then.

 

... and will continue to be predicted many years from now, as well.