Ubisoft is buckling under the backlash from angry PC gamers and removing the DRM on From Dust. Originally the company promised the game would have a one time activation and then players could enjoy the game offline. That turned out to be very much not the case when the game actually released.
After promising no DRM, Ubisoft released From Dust with DRM that required players to be online every time the game was booted up. Not only did the company go against their original promise of a one-time activation but they actively avoided addressing the reason for the change and even went so far as to pretend they had never promised a less cumbersome DRM experience in the first place.
Now, Ubisoft has decided to patch the game and remove the DRM all together, allowing players to play the game completely offline. The patch will release in two weeks. Ubisoft forum manager, bukowski113 addressed the patch in a post on the forums saying,
“We recognize that one of our posts in the From Dust forum regarding the need for authentication in the game was not clear. We sincerely apologize for the misunderstanding. Our tech teams are working on a patch that should release in approximately two weeks that will eliminate the need for any online authentication. This development time is required as we are working to ensure that those who have already started the game, and who’s progress is currently saved on our servers, will receive and save their game information locally. Once the patch is ready, players who already have the game will automatically receive the update on their next login and subsequent game sessions will be 100% offline.”
The first response in the thread, from user jokomul, simply said “I’ll believe it when I see it.” That post exactly echoes my sentiments on the matter. A certain amount of this might be too little, too late. Unless the patch will also address some of the technical issues with the game, fixing the DRM almost a month after the fact seems silly. If all of this had been discussed and addressed up front, or if Ubisoft had simply kept their word on the DRM for the game, all of this could have been avoided.
