Ubisoft DRM cracked

Silent Hunter V's DRM cracked in just 24 hours...

Ubisoft was left with egg on its face after its recent attempt at digital rights management was cracked within 24 hours.

Ubisoft managed to generate a storm when it announced its latest DRM policy last week. With previous attempts to protect against so-called 'piracy' failing miserably, Ubisoft thought that by disallowing offline play it could persuade gamers to toe the line.

The whole system revolved around a set of servers, run by Ubisoft, to authenticate gamers through their Ubi.com accounts. When asked by Gamespy how gamers would react to its latest scheme, the French publisher replied, "we think most people are going to be fine with it." Lets hope it put more careful thought into its game titles.

Ubisoft's myopic view was highlighted when PC Gamer asked what would happen if Ubisoft shut down its servers years from now. The Ubisoft spokesperson fell for the loaded question, admitting that at such a time the publisher would release a patch enabling offline play. For crackers that must have sounded like an open invitation to break out the hex editor.

Gaming scene group The Skid Rowdies managed to release a crack for the DRM present in Silent Hunter 5 and proudly posted a NFO file with the release outlining the ease with which downloaders can circumvent Ubisoft's latest attempt to stop 'piracy'.

What is amusing is how publishers such as Ubisoft do such a good job of making themselves targets for undoubtedly talented coders who love nothing more than spending their spare time embarrassing big corporations.