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I think is one of the first times (I want to say the first time, but someone on this forum will correct me) I've seen a company do this.
Keep in mind:
1) They are selling Marathon: Durandal on XBLA -right this minute-
2) But they are still allowing people to download the trilogy for $FREE
3) And now, instead of doing it themselves, they are fully endorsing a fan-made serial generator.
I still have all my CD's and their keys and their instruction books. Every now and then I download Aleph One, load the files off my CD's, and make the Western Arm of Pfhor Battlegroup Seven my bitch.
I'd say that's pretty different. In this case Bungie is endorsing a fan-made patch that allows their old games to be played.
What Ubisoft did was literally take a crack off the internet and try to pass it off as their own (which is really surreal when you consider that they must have had the unprotected executables).
Yeah, I thought the whole deal was Marathon was free to all through AlephOne. I have them on my mac right now and never once did I have to use a CDKey. That said, I found a copy of Durandal at the thrift store one time and bought it, but never actually got around to using the disc because of the aforementioned AlephOne.
I still have all my CD's and their keys and their instruction books. Every now and then I download Aleph One, load the files off my CD's, and make the Western Arm of Pfhor Battlegroup Seven my bitch.
I still got a boxed set lurking in a closet that I never unwrapped.
I'd say that's pretty different. In this case Bungie is endorsing a fan-made patch that allows their old games to be played.
What Ubisoft did was literally take a crack off the internet and try to pass it off as their own (which is really surreal when you consider that they must have had the unprotected executables).
In short...
Bungie: Cool move
Ubisoft: Dumb move
Why is what ubi did dumb? Some low level engineer was just lazy. The end result was the same. Maybe he wanted to give a sly nod to the modding community.
What Ubi did was dumb because they, themselves, had the unprotected code. They, themselves, had the ability to comment out the required code, recompile, and make the patch. Instead they open themselves up for liability by taking someone else's copyrighted stuff (while it was for devious means, it's still copyrighted code of the piraters) and just stuffing it into their game, a huge liability. One, because it opens themselves to a suit, 2 they don't know the code so they can't audit it.
What Ubi said in effect was "Our DRM is so broken that the best solution when there are problems with it is to hack your way around it".
It pretty much undermines their DRM entirely. They spent a not insignificant chunk of money/effort on licensing broken DRM, passed the cost of that onto their customers, and then recommended people hack around it when it prevents them from paying the game they legally purchased.
Posts
Edit: I completely forgot I had a Marathon sig/avatar. Now I look like I'm totally crazy for it, heh.
You're just mad over that whole "got destroyed" timeline.
Pretty sure Ubisoft did this with one of their games a while back.
Yeah.
I'd say that's pretty different. In this case Bungie is endorsing a fan-made patch that allows their old games to be played.
What Ubisoft did was literally take a crack off the internet and try to pass it off as their own (which is really surreal when you consider that they must have had the unprotected executables).
In short...
Bungie: Cool move
Ubisoft: Dumb move
XBL - Follow Freeman
Well I hope you've learned to properly tag all joke related posts with the relevant [/JOKE] tag now. SOME of us are without humour you know.
I still got a boxed set lurking in a closet that I never unwrapped.
My master chief is quite friendly with it.
Why is what ubi did dumb? Some low level engineer was just lazy. The end result was the same. Maybe he wanted to give a sly nod to the modding community.
It pretty much undermines their DRM entirely. They spent a not insignificant chunk of money/effort on licensing broken DRM, passed the cost of that onto their customers, and then recommended people hack around it when it prevents them from paying the game they legally purchased.
Edit: and what Firewolf said.