Valve boss and co-founder Gabe Newell spoke openly about the subject of DRM on PC games during the GDC conference yesterday.
“One thing that you hear us talk a lot about is entertainment as a service,” Newell said. “It’s an attitude that says ‘What have I done for my customers today?’
“It informs all the decisions we make, and once you get into that mindset it helps you avoid things like some of the Digital Rights Management problems that actually make your entertainment products worth less by wrapping those negatives around them.”
Develop says that Newell’s comments about the subject were met with cheers.
Ubisoft is the latest company to institute a type of DRM that restricts a player’s usage of their games (in this case, a constant internet connection is required, or else the game is unplayable), and this decision has caused a lot of negative feedback from the PC gaming community on the subject.
Bundles, bundles, bundles, bundles. With the huge amounts of greatly anticipated games coming in 2010, Special Edition Bundles seem to be coming out of the woodworks.
Microsoft announced today an Xbox 360 Splinter Cell Conviction Special Edition Bundle. Try saying it five times fast.
The bundle will be available in North American, Europe, Australia and New Zealand for $399 in April. It contains a standard edition copy of Splinter Cell: Conviction, a 250Gb hard drive and two Wireless Controllers.
This was confirmed by the good Major himself
Well, PC Gamer wrote a rather disturbing piece about Ubisoft requiring a constant internet connection to play their games, and Ubisoft stepped in to clarify what all the hubbub was about.
Ubisoft claims that not all the progress one had achieved would be destroyed should they lose connection to the internet while playing Assassin’s Creed II (actually, any Ubisoft game, for that matter).
ArsTechnica, a representative of Ubisoft, said that you would be reverted to your last checkpoint in Assassin’s Creed II should you lose internet connectivity. In a game like Settlers 7, a player would be restored to the exact moment when connectivity was lost.
“There are many checkpoints, so you’re back to the point where you got disconnected in no time.”
Apparently, the only time you actually lose progress is if you manually quit the game or are disconnected for a lengthy amount of time. If your connection stops for a few seconds or slows down at all, your gameplay will not be affected at all.
Representative ArsTechnica has also stated that members of the armed forces will have trouble playing Ubisoft games due to unstable internet connections.
Unlike Peter Molyneux, Ubisoft has managed to piss off a lot of people.
Expect a lot of pirated, DRM-free copies of their games in the very near future. Or a rise in 360 and PS3 systems purchased.
Assassin’s Creed II gets released for PC March 5th and 16th in the UK and US, respectively.
Splinter Cell: Conviction will be hitting store shelves in April, in the UK (probably Europe as well), North America and Japan.
This was confirmed by Major Nelson himself
“Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction will release at retailers starting April 13 in North America, April 16 in the United Kingdom, and April 28 in Japan. ”
It might get its own Xbox 360 bundle, but that’s yet to be confirmed by Microsoft
Remember that big announcement Ubisoft teased us with last week? Said announcement was a new installment in the Ghost Recon series entitled “Future Soldier”.
The game is being developed by Ubisoft France in Paris, and is set to be released during the Holiday season. A public multiplayer beta is due out in the summer for those who buy Splinter Cell: Conviction for Xbox 360.
There are no other details thus far, but Ubisoft have confirmed that it’s coming to Xbox 360
“We aren’t communicating the formats just yet,” a Ubi rep told VG247, “You will have to wait for further announcements in the coming months.”
Full press release after the cut
I’m not a big fan of Twitter, but if it’s one thing that particular online service is good at, it’s creating a buzz around particular games or companies.
Aumeric Evennou, the Community Developer at Ubisoft has tweeted about a “thrilling new project” he’s working on with Community Developer Kimi Matsuzaki.
He continues to tease in a second tweet, stating: “I’d only say : “Big announcement coming up next week.” and I mean BIG!”
What could it be? Neither of us have any idea, unfortunately, but the title might possibly be revealed at Microsoft’s X10 event. We’ll just have to wait and see.
The Battle of Forli, Assassin’s Creed II’s first piece of DLC, was released today on Xbox Live Marketplace and the PS Store.
The Battle of Forli is one of the missing sequences from the end of Assassin’s Creed II. As the name suggests, Ezio returns to Forli, the second city visited in the game where we all did fuck all the first time around except learn how to pilot a boat.
Within Forli Ezio will be joining Machiavelli and Caterina Sforza to defend the city from the Orsi brothers, not to mention preventing a Piece of Eden from falling into Templar hands. The sequence adds six new memories, one in which you will once again pilot Da Vinci’s flying machine.
The second sequence, Bonfire of the Vanities, releases next month, but no official date has been given. The DLC sequences will not have Trophies or Achievements, as confirmed by PS3Trophies.
I’ll be honest right off the bat and just come out and say it: I love Ubisoft. To me they’re almost the Pixar of gaming, they deliver quality stuff time and time again and can hardly do anything wrong. Yet they do have a slight tendency to take their sweet time with their games.
Fans have been clamouring for ages about a sequel to Beyond Good and Evil, but good news are on the horizon. In an interview with Gamekult, Ubisoft France boss Geoffroy Sardin revealed that Beyond Good and Evil 2 is still in production.
Sardin was asked if both Beyond 2 and I am Alive, another of Ubisoft’s many ambitious ongoing projects, were still in the works, to which he replied (via google translate):
“They are still in production every two…”
The last we heard was that the game had apparently been put on hold, after what appeared to be footage from the game was leaked online a few months before.
Fingers crossed everyone. Fingers crossed.
Can’t get enough of Assassin’s Creed 2? Then you’re in luck, because Ezio will be returning in another game by March 2011, and this one will feature multiplayer to boot.
A Ubisoft rep, has gone on record stating to CVG that “The game will take place with the same hero, which is Ezio, and will follow-up the story that took place in Assassin’s Creed II.”
It will be a full priced product, and will see release in the fiscal year ending March 2011. This should be worth keeping an eye on.
Ubisoft has revealed in a press release that Splinter Cell: Conviction has been delayed until April 2010 Citing sales targets for the third-quarter and full-year of 2009 to 2010, the press release also announced that R.U.S.E has also been pushed into 2010-11 fiscal year.
An exact April release date has not been finalised. The game was originally scheduled to hit stores in February.
We’ll give you an exact release date as soon as we get one.
A recent announcement of Assassin’s Creed DLC was followed today with the release of further details from Ubisoft. The two pieces of DLC are called Bonfire of the Vanities, and The Battle of Forli.
The Battle of Forli will be released in january for $3.99 and features Machiavelli and Caterina Sforza fighting alongside Ezio to defend against the Orsi brothers. The DLC consists of six new missions, one in which Leonardo’s flying machine will be used once again.
Bonfure of the Vanities releases in late February for $4.99. Bonfire opens up an area of Florence previously roped off in the main game, and covers the historical events surrounding the monk Savonarola. Ezio will be assassinating members of Savonarola’s cadre throughout ten new missions, and will be given a new spring-jump move.
According to 1Up both pieces of DLC will take up a full gigabyte of space, which makes the prices pretty low.
Ubisoft has released the first details on their latest addition to the Prince of Persia franchise, providing information to the trailer released this weekend.
Forgotten Sands – release May next year – is set to “expand the Prince of Persia universe with a new storyline, the introduction of new characters, and new powers of nature and time,” according to Ubisoft.
The game, which takes place between The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, sees the Prince visiting his brother’s kingdom after his adventures in Azad. Once there he finds the royal palace under siege by a mighty army.
“When the decision is made to use the ancient power of the Sand in a desperate gamble to save the kingdom from total annihilation, the Prince will embark on an epic adventure in which he will learn to bear the mantle of true leadership, and discover that great power often comes with a great cost,” says Ubisoft.
The game will be out on all platforms, but the Wii, DS and PSP versions will be “a different gaming experience” from the XBox 360 and PS3 versions.
Personally I want them to continue the storyline established in the previous Prince of Persia game. The reboot wasn’t that bad. Full list of features after the break.
Ubisoft has announced the Limited Edition of Splinter Cell Conviction, which will be hitting stores on February 25th alongside the game for both the 360 and PC versions of the game.
The special edition will include the following:
- An exclusive Sam Fisher statue
- Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction game in SteelBook™ case
- Infiltration Mode : Eliminate all hostiles in the mission area without being detected
- A special playable skin: Shadow Armor
- Early access to 3 weapons: SC300, SR2 and MP5
- The official Splinter Cell Conviction Soundtrack (more than 17 tracks)
Ubisoft also announced that they will be showing off the multiplayer modes via Xbox Live at 6pm Paris time on the 16th December.
The video game was already announced, but gamers had to wait until this weekend for a trailer to hit. In The Forgotten Sands, Ubisoft has elected to deviate from the storyline established in 2008’s Prince of Persia and is revisiting Sands of Time canon.
Not a lot is shown in the trailer, just a whole lot of sand and what appears to be the parkour style platforming the series is known for, though the graphics are not in-game. However, the trailer does give off a vibe of being a film tie-in. The Forgotten Sands is slated to hit stores at the same time as the upcoming Sands of Time movie by Mike Newell.
You can view the trailer after the cut.
A short while back we reported on a rumour about the upcoming announcement of a new Prince of Persia game. Well, the time of that announcement is now, as Ubisoft has confirmed a new title in the Prince of Persia franchise is being produced. Subtitled “The Forgotten Sands”, the new game will be released for “consoles and handhelds” May 2010. Other than that there are few details.
What’s interesting to note is that the storyline does not continue where Prince of Persia of 2008 left off. The Forgotten Sands returns to the Sands of Time storyline. How, you ask? Only Ubisoft knows. According to a tweet by Geoff Keighley a trailer for the game will be revealed at the VGAs on December 12.
As much as I love the Sands of Time series, why can’t Ubisoft just finish what they’ve started? They did this with Beyond Good and Evil as well. Why must you toy with our feelings so, Ubisoft?!
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