Posts tagged with “Settler's 7”

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Posted 2 years ago

Ubisoft Continues The Silent Treatment As BlueByte Fights Off Furious Settlers 7 Customers

Nothing seems to be working for Ubisoft and their notoriously-hated DRM. From preparation, marketing, testing, implementation, right up to its execution – nothing is going right at the moment. Their most recent response and intentions to make drastic revisions upon their DRM has been marred by their unvoiced concerns over Settlers 7 customers who are still waiting for a DRM solution into their third week.

To think that their patience in the debacle is saintly, but it’s completely understandable if they are nothing short of furious at having to deal with one Ubisoft employee who just happened to be on vacation. (Source: Internode, BlueByte struggling with Settlers 7 DRM problem; Ubisoft remain silent). And, to plainly put it, they are furious.

To make matters worse, the developers of Settlers 7, BlueByte – the same group who developed the Tages-protected Anno 1404 – are in the same boat with Ubisoft as they, too, are unable to sort out any of the Ubisoft DRM-related issues. There is a clear certainty in all of this – both the developers and the publishers are not invested in what is now a clear example of poor customer service and relations. Their (in)actions are nothing short of objectionable, intolerable and, most of all, abhorrent.

If Ubisoft’s clearest intentions five days ago was to improve upon their DRM, then it’s clear they must do something about this mess they themselves have shamelessly created. It’s bad enough to see their DRM in the industry; it’s far worse to see their level of commitment to all consumers because of their in-house DRM.

You can read/discuss more about Ubisoft’s DRM HERE at Reclaim Your Game

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Posted 2 years ago

Ubisoft “Improves” Upon Its Shallow Promise

It’s hard to imagine what they can improve given one of their invisible spokesperson in their European offices stated that, “as with any online technology, we are constantly working to evolve and improve it.” (Source: Eurogamer, Ubisoft: Our DRM will “evolve, improve”). Irrespective of any noteworthiness in the fact that they’ll only use this DRM on their ‘forthcoming’ titles, the fact remains is that to launch such an ambitious (and demonising) DRM scheme the way Ubisoft have would have required such vast amounts of resources, testing and marketing in order for the DRM system to function as they had intended.

And here’s the real issue that even their marketing staff are overlooking: they didn’t. To confirm this all one has to look for is to see that Ubisoft’s DRM have been, at times, ineffective, dysfunctional - almost discriminative even when it failed to work with Settler’s 7 within Australia. For a Ubisoft rep to explicitly state that they will continue to “improve” upon their DRM in the one instance and then have [Australian] gamers wait for days for a solution to a “problem that occurs when linking your keys to the multiplayer profile” in another hand is clearly something for gamers to feel concerned about. (Source: VE3D, Aussies Experiencing Ubisoft DRM Difficulties). Even if you take players within Australia off the DRM equation you still leave with a torrent of users still having issues with the DRM citing that they “have encountered difficulties playing the game over the holiday weekend due to issues with servers that run matchmaking in multiplayer mode and keep track of profiles, campaign progression and stats in both solo and multi modes.” (Source: MCV, Settlers 7 users hit by DRM trouble)

One would think they had enough sense(s) now that the obvious has been spelled out for them in plain sight. However, given their intent to “improve” upon what they have it’s clear that whatever the case is, Ubisoft’s DRM is here to stay, which doesn’t bode well for many gamers who feel incensed with the flagrant idea of buying a [Ubisoft] game is now buying a license to play a [Ubisoft] game.

You can read more into Ubisoft’s DRM HERE at RYG.

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Posted 2 years ago

Statutory Conditions

As many of you may or may not have noticed Ubisoft’s DRM and their issues have now extended to far beyond to what was observed and seen in Assassin’s Creed 2. People who have purchased Settler’s 7, particularly in Australia, have been having severe connection issues with some even claiming that the problem isn’t expansive from one specific location but to the entire nation.

One user asks: “Why is it 6 days after release of this game in Australia we are still not able to play this game???” and “Why is it we cannot even play a single player game, that in theory shouldn’t require an internet connection.” (Source: GamePolitics.com).

While people are entitled to exchanges or refunds by way of their consumer rights (see HERE) it’s obvious that those who bought the game clearly want to play the game. Refunds or otherwise, Ubisoft should wake up and smell the proverbial roses and offer the fans they’re demonising with this impractical DRM something more than just a gaming experience. Removing the DRM altogether wouldn’t be such a hard ask.

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Posted 2 years ago

Lacking The Foresight, Ubisoft-Style

It’s sort of understandable that some playing in ‘poor-Internet-connectivity’ regions can be affected by Ubisoft’s DRM. But to affect a country (like Australia?)

Internode, one of Australia’s larger ISPs, has this to say:


Seeming to affect players in every territory at random, and Australians in particular, the server error has caused both intermittent and continuous connectivity problems, with some players as yet unable to play the game at all.

Ubisoft’s response so far has included a generic “contact support” message repeated by besieged moderators, an extremely short list of troubleshooting tips, a call for further details from those affected, and the following comment on the “server not available” message:

“Apparently this problem is especially common in Australia - we will try to get to the bottom of this.”



And while Ubisoft has admitted the number of service faults they’ve experienced over the past weeks, namely in the areas of users being cut off from their servers, it hasn’t deterred them from removing their in-house service, opting with affected users a choice of 4 ‘sub-standard’ games they made during the past year.

You can find more information regarding Ubisoft’s developments over at Reclaim Your Game.

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