Ubisoft Steals 'No-CD Crack' To Fix Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 434
Ariastis writes "UbiSoft has long been against No-CD patches. Referring to them on their forums would get you warned or banned. But now, they have just officially released a patch for Rainbow 6: Vegas 2, which, when opened in a hex editor, can easily be identified as coming from the RELOADED scene group, not from UbiSoft programmers. A picture of hex analysis is shown in the story. See? Piracy isn't that bad! It saves you from having to code fixes for your own games! (Watch the drama on the Ubi Forums before it gets scrubbed clean.)"
NO-CD cracks are what saves the gaming world (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously. If there were no NO-CD cracks, I suspect companies like Ubisoft would make lots LESS money than they do now. I usually buy the game, download the NO-CD crack, and play. I'll never forget how the CD in my previous ThinkPad almost died from overwork before I saved it (and myself from going insane) with the NO-CD for HOMM IV.
It has come to the point that I do NOT buy a game until a NO-CD crack exists for it.
Re:Is anyone really that surprised? (Score:2, Interesting)
its always easier to break and destroy than to fix and create.
I'm sure there are some very talented people making nocd cracks. I wish those people would actually use their efforts to create good new games, rather than just encouraging games devs to spend yet more time and yet more money creating better stronger DRM.
We are all very impressed with their l33t coding skills. Maybe now they could do something constructive with them?
Re:Nope, (Score:5, Interesting)
Higher-ups (Score:2, Interesting)
But TBH I have a feeling this was a decision from the higher ups in the organization, there has to have been a programmer that was aware of this but wasn't listened to.
DRM for games (Score:5, Interesting)
mp3's have, despite the music companies best efforts, proven to be what buyers want - not "you can only listen to this track on 2 machines" DRM files. That has been enforced by media coverage and scrutiny - pointing out and badgering the music labels that people don't want DRM junk.
This unfortunately hasn't happened with PC games - I guess they are less "mainstream" as far as media coverage is concerned.
I used to buy a lot of games, and enjoy playing them - but the situation has deteriorated very badly in the last 4-5 years. Games not only have the usual "key & cd/dvd in the drive" requirements, but I have encountered a number, which I paid hard money for, that refuse to install if I have CloneCD installed - others that refuse to install if I have Daemon Tools installed - both programs that I legitimately use (and not for games, just to avoid having to take tens of cd's around with me).
I bought HL2 - but haven't been able to play it for a couple years as I am behind a tight firewall and so can't register it. Consequently I haven't bought Ep2 or 3.
The games companies have to wisen up - I used to by 3-6 games per year - I now haven't bought a single one in the last 2 years - I can't be bothered with games I paid hard cash for treating me like I am a criminal. I am not interested (nor should ever need to) apply the various circumvention cracks to get around the DRM just so I can play a game I have bought.
The farce from Ubi-Soft only reinforces the situation - the same crackers who they decry as "destroying the games industry" are the ones they rip-off when they can't be bothered to write a patch (for a bug caused by all their neurotic DRM crap). Ubi-soft better hope there were no trojans in the crack - or they could find themselves on the end of a hefty lawsuit.
Re:Stealing? (Score:5, Interesting)
I think that in the books of many /. readers, stealing credit is actually worse than stealing a product. Many people here have an academic background, so they are very familiar with the problems of credit stealing, few, OTOH, are in sales, so the problem of stealing a product isn't so much of a topic.
I have to admit, I'm in the same boat. Personally, I'd give it a shrug and a "turnaround is fair" comment when UBI simply said that they didn't want to reinvent the wheel so they just took an existing crack and used it for their own purposes. Not saying anything and claiming it as their own development is what irks me.
Re:Unethical? Yes. Illegal? Hmmm... (Score:5, Interesting)
Hold it right there!
UBIsoft not only distributed someone else's work without their permission. They didn't just go and do what the usual release group does, taking someone else's work and publish it. At least crackers usually have the decency to keep the producer's name on the product. I can't remember any cracker group claiming they actually made some game.
Looking at it this way, what UBIsoft did was even worse. They didn't only violate copyright and distribute someone else's work without compensating the original author (granted, it would first of all be hard to find him and second, it is distributed for free anyway, so there is no immediate loss for the author), but they didn't even give him credit! This is the problem here, not that they distribute someone else's work. As stated above, this work would have been distributed freely and without any benefit for the creator anyway. They refused him the acknowledgement!
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The patch been pulled, over a week ago! (Score:5, Interesting)
Since I work in 3rd tier support now, let me translate that into human language:
The working fix was removed as soon as management of department responsible for actually releasing fixes complained very loud. The matter is being thoroughly investigated, but as of now no easy scapegoat can be found, since "fix" actually worked. Also, manager of sales asked me to retype here the stuff from our business booklet: "we do no support or condone copy protection circumvention methods." Nice. Gamers have to thank some poor chap from support department who put the fix up so that gamers can play the game they have paid money for, but please remember, since you already paid to Ubi, we can care less whether you can play the game or not. Ha-ha.
My theory would be that Ubi support manager had authorized that one of his subordinates would put fix on their site. Because they had a flood of complaints and they had to respond to customers. Luckily, support departments are least responsible for anything. Since it takes that long, the dispute between support, development and D2D folks really heated up. From my experience, I'd say, some manager had intentionally authorized that - just to have a chance to say something (probably about game quality) aloud.
Re:Stealing? (Score:5, Interesting)
The label of 'stealing' is in the story headline itself. If Slashdot ran a story on music/software piracy with a headline labelling those people in the same way, I am sure there would be far more critical posts.
Re:Is anyone really that surprised? (Score:4, Interesting)
I frankly stopped buying PC games. Or to put it better I have improved my game buying routine:
1. Go to review sites and pick game which has good user comments. Official reviews are written by some score-whores and rarely reflect actual gaming experience.
2. Go to torrent site of your choosing and download the game. If game downloads fast: +1
3. Try to install and play game. If it plays without crack: +5 (== the game is popular)
If crack is needed - continue.
4. Find a working crack. If crack is found easily: +5
If no crack is found or cracks are not working: throw away the game. If it wasn't worth time to crack, doubtfully it would be worth my time to play it.
5. Actually play the game. If game is good: +10
6. If games plays good (with easy to find crack), buy it.
Now it all boils down to simple fact: was game compromised with DRM or devels instead choose to make game better and not waste their time on crippling users' experience.
Re:So... (Score:4, Interesting)
That aspect of EULA's has never been tested in court. It's quite possible that it would be deemed null and void.
Re:So... (Score:2, Interesting)
I Would love to see the group of crackers follow a Lawsuit against Ubisoft!!
Now, THAT, would be Poetic Justice.
Another Scenario (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually... (Score:5, Interesting)
...had to call up a car thief to open it for you.
That happened to my uncle.
A cop showed up seeing him trying to break into his own car, hollered at some kids sitting in the grass by an overpass, and told them they wouldn't get in trouble if they unlocked the door. It was open in about 30 seconds.
Re:Is anyone really that surprised? (Score:3, Interesting)
I frankly stopped buying PC games.
I stopped buying PC games in shops.
Nowadays, I fire up Steam, browse to the game I want, click "Buy", enter my details, confirm the order, go away, come back a couple of hours later, and play it.
This is a heck of a lot easier, especially as I can look up reviews while browsing.
Oh wait! I'm defending Steam. That must make me (-1, IDon'tAgreeWithYou), I suppose!
Re:So... (Score:5, Interesting)
Look at the music industry... Pay a lot of a drm'd music file that won't play in your car's mp3 player, or get a high quality mp3 for free? And what would you choose if both were free? What if the DRMd junk was free, and the mp3 was not? Amazing how the better product usually wins regardless of price.
Re:Where do I find these? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't usually have any trouble with viruses when downloading from www.megagames.com or www.gamecopyworld.com. Still, I always scan the files first, and I'd suggest that anyone else do the same. Torrents are probably a pretty good place to look nowadays as well. Find the pirated game, but only download the crack. ;)
Re:So... (Score:3, Interesting)
I actually can't play games with the CD in the drive - my laptop slows to a molasses-like crawl whenever data is being read from the CD drive. This is true whether it's a music CD, a DVD, or a video game's CD. If I don't make a disc image and use something like Daemon Tools, then my games are literally unplayable.
Some might say it's my fault for buying a computer with this issue (as if I knew before I bought it), and others might say it's Dell's fault, or whatever - but while I find piracy morally wrong (and extremely hypocritical for a non-OSS programmer), I find nothing wrong with using images of discs I personally own, especially if it improves performance and reliability. Keeping them in the case (as morari points out) protects them from scratches and whatnot, too.