Ubisoft revisits Internet-at-all-times DRM Ubisoft has revealed that in order to play its forthcoming title Driver: San Francisco on a PC, users will require a permanent internet connection. The news was Tweeted by a Ubisoft community developer, who in response to a Driver related query, simply stated "PC version requires permanent Internet connection." This is …
...but perhaps the reason this game will require Internet at all times is because the game will be online-ONLY? If so, then it makes perfect sense to piggyback the DRM requirement to the game requirement. Will the new Driver game have a single-player component, or will it ALL be online?
Its really about locking in consumers so they can be milked longterm. Making sure we cant escape and then delivering pay as you go services which we have renew to continue our habit.
Everything seems to be going this way these days including things like books whose access I used to take for granted.
With a connected pay as you go service they can get us to agree to anything using those seditious continously changing T&Cs which we blithely accept without reading, its already a habit.
They will be able to delete content considered unprofitable and out of date, Market directly to their consumers, levy charges at will and decide what content should be available. Its an everdecreasing net as we swim happily along with the rest of the herd. I often wonder whether they believe that we will find the cash from somewhere if they can make us want their offerings badly enough.
Lots of services insist on a connection to use their services, a Kindle can have its content deleted remotely. These people could rewrite history in their own image.
Perhaps we should not so much be worrying about Internet freedom as Freedom from the internet and the potential control that connectivity through it implies.
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