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- nlatimer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+19"Ubisoft takes its customer concerns very seriously"
It also takes them a long time to reply to those concerns. - Gaferion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11I dont think they would just get rid of protection all together ... its expected they find something else ... have to say that any protection is better then starforce. Rather deal with securom or safedisk any day.
- mattjb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Looks like Starforce is going to have to go back shopping for a big customer, either that, or we can say sayonara (finally.) JoWood seems to be in their pocket, too.
- DEFSMAC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8i don't know about you, but i got no problems with alternatives, like securom 7. beats the hell out of starforce any day.
- theWaterboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7anything that even REMOTELY suggests the demise of Starforce use get a big ++digg from me!
- aurifex, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I will never buy another Ubisoft game again. Both Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and Scrapland were "defended" with that defective piece of ***** software. I wasted $100 on two games I can't play.
- Azewaldo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I hope this sends a message loud & clear that our computers are our property & that customers do not take lightly bad software design of invasive DRM technology (First4Internet, Starforce). DRM won't go away, that's clear, so this kind of major feedback is needed to keep DRM-makers in line.
- Rhaegal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Also, if any Ubisoft customer has any problem with Ubisoft products, they should call the Ubisoft at (415) 547 4000 and let Ubisoft know what their problem with Ubisoft is.
- Rhaegal, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Ubisoft.
- NaughtyRobot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Definitely sweet - there have been websites dedicated to boycotting Starforce games for some time - finally all that bitching paid off - Starforce was a terrible 'solution' - bad company - bad product.
- intent, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6It was a horrible thing to include, and hurts customer loyalty to game companies.
Why do companies bother with copy protection? The hackers will always find a way around protections, and supporters will buy games to get online functionality. - fmaxwell, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Starforce was the sole reason why I did not buy the Ubisoft game Silent Hunter III. I was an eager potential customer and would have purchased the product sight-unseen were it not for Starforce. But I will not, ever, purchase a product with FUP (Fair Use Prevention) software which intertwines itself with my operating system. I don't care how awesome the game is. I'm not going to put myself at risk to spend, literally, weeks reinstalling my OS, several hundred apps, configuring everything, and restoring my data. It's simply not worth it. If Ubisoft is betting that I'm a criminal, then they don't get my money.
- MacGeekGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Someday these companies will realize that the more aggressively they employ DRM schemes that go above and beyond what could be considered fair and reasonable, the more users resent it. The more a user resents a company, the more likely they are to steal from it, because they become the bad guy. Nobody feels bad about screwing over a "bad guy."
Recently Aspyr started shipping discs that could not be copied (in this case I tried because my other half and I like to play games together over LAN and feel alright about sharing one license, which I think is fair) but when I found the disc could not be copied, it was more of a "Curses! Foiled again!" reaction. Had the disc instead employed a root kit or the like, I would have said they could eff off. Locks keep honest people honest, companies should realize that copy protection is the same way. Don't penalize the average "honest" end user beyond what is reasonable or they WILL react strongly every time. - TestFar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Fair play to Ubisoft, Starforce is a vile protection scheme. I glad they saw the light, even if this is just a campaign for sales, after the success of GalCiv2...
- phpirate, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7"alternative copy protection system"
I don't like the sound of that. - doit3d, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4What Ubisoft really meant to say:
"Ubisoft takes its customer concerns very seriously when we get sued and are investigating the complaints about alleged problems with Starforce's software. Ubisoft's goal is to keep from paying out anything to our customers from this lawsuit." - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Ubisoft, the RIAA, the MPAA, and like companies of every generation.. have ALWAYS been pirated, copied, and traded.
And lets look at them. All of the companies are multi-billion dollar companies. Pirating didn't hurt them one damned bit. In fact, the viral networking and advertising is what made them so very profitable.
People say the dynamics have changed b/c technology has but i don't think this is true. I'm a huge music collector.
I have at least 500 cassette tapes i've purchased. I also have about hundred tapes where i record sessions off the radio, where i made mixes, copies friend's tapes, etc.
Same goes for my cd's, but on a much larger scale. I've purchased close to 5,000 cds. I probably have another 3,000 made from pirate songs off the web, or from friends, and complation mixes i've made from both pirate and legally purchased songs.
Microsoft, benefits from their OS being pirated believe it or not. The more people pirate and use it, the more it's monoculture is enforced onto society. How many people do you know used pirate copies of MS 95? 98? 98 SE? Hell most people i knew who had it installed had pirate installs, or pirate upgrades. It would've never infiltrated the work force like it did without this either. And corporate america is it's main customer, not much pirating going on, more like bulk license purchases.
Now i'm not making any moral or legal arguement here, i'm just saying it helps them more than hurts them. They're looking at "potential" profit here.
Well where's my couple thousand dollars the RIAA got off of me when they were found guilty of illegal pricing schemes through a case suit? I got 15 bucks. 15 freaking dollars. I've purchased more than 5,000 cds. 80% of which were purchased in the time period they were found guilty of illegal price fixing.
I say no, to all forms of DRM. To say you cannot profit without it sounds like a rich rockstar cry about how bad his life is. Gimme a break.
Tom Petty said it best folks :
As we celebrate mediocrity
All the boys upstairs want to see
How much you'll pay for
What you used to get for free - paul_c, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Wow, Ubisoft notice that countless posters on the net have so much hate for Starforce that some of these users post on forums, start anti-starforce websites, uninstall/stop using they games they had paid for, refuse to buy future starforced games, incite others not to buy starforced games, etc etc; so they decide to stop using starforce. Sounds like they care at least as much for their profit margin/corporate reputation as they do for their customers.
I will feel a lot less cynical about this if Ubisoft and other Starforce users either provide patches for those games that they released with Starforce, or better yet give us new disks without Starforce.
I just hope that the new copy protection systems that they are talking about are not just as damaging. I know I won't be buying another game from any of the current starforce users until their new protection systems have been properly examined. - Arkitan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2These companies need to just drop their copy protection because it doesn't work. I bought Pandora Tomorrow and thanks to whatever they were using at the time I had to crack the game just to play, that should raise a red flag but it seems they don't care about their customers.
The only people that copy protection bothers is paying customers.
The only reason they are doing this is because they got sued, it seriously boggles the mind how out of touch these gaming companies are with their customers. - bacon_skoda, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4what about refunds on the old games with starforce?
- c0uchm0nster, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4While hackers will always find a way, starforce did a few things: It made the hackers work for months (almost up to a year) to crack a single game, and by then most people who would buy the game already would have. Secondly, the starforce hacks available involve things that the average "I wanna blow stuff up now!" joe wouldn't have the slightest clue about: I know far more people who don't know if their cdrom drives are primary master, secondary slave, etc etc - god forbid they actually open their case and start unplugging cables as the alternative... starforce is the best at what it does, but making things easy for legitimate customers is not one of those things.
- CaptainSpork, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That's good to hear. Ubisoft puts out some solid games, it will be good to be able to play them without worrying about that Starforce crap.
- Splitt3rxx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3well, I guess I can end my ubisoft boycott. They are finally ditching thi ***** copy protection. Starforce just got OWNED
- PastimeGamer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah! I love many of Ubisofts games and luckily I was able to buy them for the Xbox and avoid the starforce crap but now it looks like I'll be able to play their games on my PC I think they will get more of my business now.
Thanks Ubisoft! - JustEvk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1http://www.glop.org/starforce/remove.php
I got starforce'd after installing Hammer and Sickle (that'll teach me to buy games). I did everything they said on here, and my DVD drive is still kind of messed up (won't recognize some disks, etc.) but it's a start. - joxrox22, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2How do you remove Starforce??? Any serious suggestions? Don't say format and reinstall. I Hate ***** XP's activation scheme.
- SanityInAnarchy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Format and reinstall. I hate ***** Starforce's deactivation scheme.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+3Portuguese: http://www.htk.com.br/noticia.php?noticia=500
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http://www.htk.com.br/ - bradk50, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1>and feel alright about sharing one license, which I think is fair
Are you serious? So if I think killing someone is fair, that makes it ok for me to do it? Its thinking like this that leads to these hairbrained copy protection schemes...If the license doesn't allow you to play it on multiple computers, you can't, whether you think its fair or not. If you don't like the license buy another game. - fitzdingus, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3Which company is that number for?
- snoozzell, on 10/12/2007, -13/+1UNDIGG This is a dupe of the same story from gamespot
- Hexxagonal, on 10/12/2007, -18/+1dupe
edit: my bad I didn't realize this is 17 hours(!) old
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