Despite promises otherwise, the PC version of From Dust does require an always-on internet connection. Is Ubisoft lying or merely grievously ignorant?
It's always a bad sign when a game publisher's left hand does not seem to know what the right hand is up to. That's what yesterday's announcement that From Dust and the upcoming Driver San Francisco will not need an always-on net connection now seems to illustrate - that Ubisoft simply doesn't know what it's talking about.
As reported in the comments in yesterday's article, it appears From Dust does in fact require your PC to be in constant connection to Ubi's DRM servers. Games site (and one of our personal faves) Rock Paper Shotgun even has screenshots of the game and has reported on the disappearance and reappearance of official forum posts regarding the matter.
We saw the announcement on Ubisoft Australia's Facebook page, and as of writing it's still stating that "Both games [From Dust and Driver] will require online authentication but can be played offline in single player modes."
Given that folks are commenting about making pre-order decisions based on that news, it's pretty poor stuff from Ubisoft. We've contacted the company for comment, but have yet to hear anything as it needs to go up the PR chain and back down to us again.
For now, we'd recommend that anyone who's made purchasing decisions based on this news seek a refund, and to hold off from any future purchases until this is cleared up.
Issue: 137 | June, 2012