It's clear that as a tool in the fight against piracy, Always-on DRM is a double-edged sword with one very blunt edge; and that edge is facing the wrong way. Only Ubisoft so far has seen the folly of the system and seen fit to abandon it. In September of last year speaking to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Ubisoft’s worldwide director for online games, Stephanie Perotti said, "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," she said. "From then you are free to play the game offline." Hopefully the rest of the industry will catch wise and follow suit.
The saddest part, as always, is that honest gamers have to suffer. Quality games like Assassin's Creed II, Diablo III, SimCity should be rewarding their early adopters. The guys that take off work to stand in line at the stores, or attended the midnight launches, those people are your ambassadors. They're the ones that are going to shout about how awesome your game is and convince others to buy it as well. Instead they get punished for their enthusiasm with long queues, error messages and a buggy experience.
There is no upside to Always-on DRM. It wastes publishers money, it causes headaches for the developers and it aggravates the gamers. And at the end of the day, the very thing it's meant to prevent happens anyway.
Mweb gamezone: Always-online is a turn off
