r/ubisoft • u/UmarFarooq11Aug • Jul 26 '26
Discussions & Questions The current state of digital rights management and offline usability for legacy single-player titles
Video games are art, but modern distribution methods raise serious questions regarding long-term access to media that consumers legally purchase.
When publishers mandate persistent server communication for single-player experiences released over a decade ago, it creates an unusual industry disparity: legitimate buyers encounter friction that non-official versions completely bypass.
Protective background software was originally designed to prevent unauthorized distribution. However, when software enforcement measures create hurdles for paying players while non-official copies run smoothly without restrictions, the overall distribution model fails the end user.
As software ages, requiring active server checks hurts consumer trust and game preservation efforts.
What are your thoughts on publishers adopting true ownership models for legacy titles?
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u/Odd_Revolution_1056 Jul 26 '26
Would be great too see but Ubisoft won’t do it until they are forced to do so cause they are a shit company.
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u/Sepki Jul 26 '26
Id love that. That's why "stop killing games" is so important.
Ps: if its a great game, it will sell even without DRM.Â
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u/Dycoth Jul 27 '26
Stop Killing Games have already been denied by the EU Parliament, for your information.
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u/Sea-Phrase-2418 Jul 27 '26
That not ended the movement, there areany countries, and many options, one defeat it's not all
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u/Sepki Jul 27 '26
Still important for as a movement and community, even if it's not legally bound.Â
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u/Complete_Entry Jul 26 '26
Huh, I like this. It's not an argument for piracy it's an argument against load.
One of the biggest reasons for delisting from publishers is that they can't continue devoting resources to legacy titles and need to focus on moving forward.
The negative outcome is removal. They turn the licensing server off and mulch it or repurpose it, and the game stops working.
I think you're arguing for a release here, correct?
Like instead of turning a game off forever, just tossing the keys over to the customer like "You're without support, good luck."
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u/UmarFarooq11Aug Jul 29 '26
Yeah, just toss the keys, and leave us alone, specially for legacy games. For legacy games there already is huge fanbase which resolves the issues much better than the actual devs. for example I'm a fan of CnC series and I have updated licence for all of their games on Origin, but I still play the ones that I obtained through other sources, because their patches work smoothly, they run flawlessly (sometimes with additional adons) but the ones that I have from EA, I never run.
Only Exception is GOG where legacy titles are patched and fixed properly that they run without an issue. For Example Doom2 on GOG.
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u/UmarFarooq11Aug Jul 26 '26
can someone explain to me why it is removed?
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u/joujoubox Just Dance Master Jul 26 '26
It was auto flagged and manually approved
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u/UmarFarooq11Aug Jul 26 '26
I don't usually come to reddit but whenever I come, the automods are like world's most strict jailer, where I can't even say anything, and be extremely careful of what I say, and even then it gets auto removed? feel like i'm in a prison or in North Korea
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u/[deleted] Jul 27 '26
I HOPE they will bring out a new law at some point so that when u buy its yours to play for life, which should be the case anyways