Assassin's Creed Shadows Will Feature Denuvo & Account Linking + EULA also requires you to allow Ubisoft to "monitor" your RAM (80.lv)
from N00b22@lemmy.ml to games@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 18:09
https://lemmy.ml/post/23006191

cross-posted from: lemmy.ml/post/23002452

#games

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N00b22@lemmy.ml on 28 Nov 18:09 next collapse

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Will Feature Denuvo & Account Linking + EULA also requires you to allow Ubisoft to “monitor” your RAM

The game’s EULA also requires you to allow Ubisoft to “monitor” your RAM.

As Ubisoft prepares for the 2025 launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows – a game some view as the developer’s last chance to break free from a year marked by financial setbacks and controversies – the game’s Steam page has finally gone live, revealing two major caveats about the Steam version of AC Shadows that will, unfortunately for Ubisoft, likely drive away some gamers.

If you’re in any way familiar with the PC gaming industry (or have read the title of this article), then you’ve most likely already guessed one of the caveats, and yes, the PC version of Assassin’s Creed Shadows will feature Denuvo, a controversial DRM software detested by the community for negatively affecting loading times and framerate in games, something Denuvo’s creator Irdeto categorically denies, blaming its low reputation on pirates and gamers.

While Denuvo’s presence in Shadows isn’t much of a surprise – considering it’s been used in Ubisoft’s previous games like Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Star Wars Outlaws, the Far Cry series, and others – the decision to keep the DRM could be seen as questionable given the growing trend of developers ditching Denuvo or choosing not to include it in the first place, as well as Ubisoft’s apparent need to steer clear of further controversies and reputational damage.

The second caveat relates to another requirement the community generally dislikes: the mandatory account linking to the studio’s Ubisoft Connect platform when buying Assassin’s Creed Shadows on Steam. Even though, much like Denuvo, this isn’t anything new for Ubisoft fans, it could still negatively impact the game financially and reputationally considering what happened with Helldivers 2 earlier this year when Sony’s now-retracted mandate to link Steam accounts to PSN caused an uproar, buried the game in negative reviews, and, as some believe, tanked the game’s player numbers, with many blaming this backlash as the sole reason we’ve heard so little about Helldivers 2 in the second half of 2024, despite it being universally acclaimed and considered a strong contender for Game of the Year when it first launched.

To top it all off, Shadows’ EULA also includes a provision that allows the game to monitor your PC’s RAM to ensure you’re not running any unauthorized programs like macros, cheats, or hacks, a well-intentioned clause that nonetheless feels a touch out of place in a single-player game and could potentially scare off some of the more suspicious players who aren’t comfortable with their hardware being monitored.

And what’s your take on those requirements? Would it be beneficial for Ubisoft to get rid of Denuvo and account linking while there’s still time?

Don_alForno@feddit.org on 28 Nov 18:57 collapse

Well intentioned my ass. If I want to cheat in my single player game it’s my damn right. They just want to make sure you buy their cheats (microtransaction time savers) instead of making your own for free.

BroBot9000@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 18:15 next collapse

I already wasn’t going to pay for another Ubisoft game ever again but this is absolutely the final nail in the coffin for me. Fucking atrocious.

dditty@lemm.ee on 29 Nov 01:05 next collapse

Shadows’ EULA also includes a provision that allows the game to monitor your PC’s RAM to ensure you’re not running any unauthorized programs like macros, cheats, or hacks, a well-intentioned clause that nonetheless feels a touch out of place in a single-player game

Why the fuck would I allow Ubisoft to monitor my RAM while playing a SINGLE-PLAYER GAME. They just want to datamine my PC or something?

lost_faith@lemmy.ca on 29 Nov 19:02 collapse

All it took for me to never buy Ubi again was their launcher

DoucheBagMcSwag@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 28 Nov 18:27 next collapse

Eyyyyyyy fuck you Ubisoft.

Jrockwar@feddit.uk on 28 Nov 18:28 next collapse

Can we do something like reporting Denuvo or the kernel anticheats as malware in Windows defender?

A game with a built in system lever logger that could theoretically monitor even your bank transactions should be reported as spyware/malware and users installing it should have to expressly acknowledge / authorise this.

YourAvgMortal@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 18:51 collapse

Normally I would say that Microsoft wouldn’t care and they would just make an exception, but after the CrowdStrike error, they might be just a little bit more careful. Or maybe I have too much faith in them

unconfirmedsourcesDOTgov@lemmy.sdf.org on 29 Nov 16:01 collapse

Yeah Susan, I’m sure Microsoft TOTALLY learned their lesson from the Crowdstrike incident. Y’know, since they’ve never had an anti-malware company cause worldwide outages because of a configuration error before.

TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 18:30 next collapse

Thankfully there is a very simple, no-effort solution to this: Don’t play their trash.

I already don’t play their excruciatingly mediocre games and this just reinforces my avoidance is justified.

Also good gods they’ve been milking this tired franchise for almost 2 decades now.

reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 28 Nov 18:49 collapse

Pirating also allows you to play it without the BS if you’re interested in the game.

accideath@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 19:41 next collapse

Thanks to denuvo and there currently not being any active group capable of cracking denuvo, it’s not a guarantee the game will be cracked. Assassin‘s creed mirage took until last month, over a year after release, for a pirated copy to be available and it uses a debug executable, which may not become available for any other games or at least not in a timely manner. It might not be possible to play those games without the BS. Or on Linux, if it doesn’t run without kernel access for RAM monitoring

reseller_pledge609@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 28 Nov 19:45 next collapse

What happened to Empress or whatever they were called?

statler_waldorf@sopuli.xyz on 28 Nov 19:49 next collapse

I haven’t paid close attention but I think she started a cult or something.

accideath@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 19:52 next collapse

On hiatus, apparently. Hasn’t cracked anything since July 2023. Not sure why.

Grimy@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 23:32 collapse

From what I understand, she received flak for her anti trans views and decided to call it quits. She is Russian, so maybe she was drafted into the war effort as a hacker, or mosy likely she got paid off by these companies.

Most crackers are in countries where extradition for this would be difficult even with solid evidence. Companies have changed tactic to just paying them off so they just don’t do it, or so the rumor mill says. 200k a year to a handful of people is a drop in the bucket for the denuvo cartel.

howrar@lemmy.ca on 29 Nov 01:33 collapse

Denuvo works on a subscription basis. Sooner or later, they’re going to decide it’s not worth paying for anymore and the game will be available to pirate. Waiting a year is nothing.

accideath@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 07:28 collapse

Well, they haven’t so far removed denuvo from a single game, even those that have been cracked already. Ubisoft is big enough, that they might have their very own deal with Denuvo

chiliedogg@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 15:14 collapse

Denuvo is used by these companies because it’s shockingly effective. IIRC it has yet to be cracked on any game.

Games that end up being available on the high seas have generally stopped paying for the Denuvo license.

MushuChupacabra@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 18:47 next collapse

Are they trying to usurp EA as the most reviled or something?

twinnie@feddit.uk on 28 Nov 18:47 next collapse

Didn’t Helldivers ditch the account linking idea before it even happened?

daggermoon@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 21:56 collapse

Yeah, only because we bullied them enough. I don’t care about account linking for all-online games though. The minute you add that to single player games I get pissed off.

entropicshart@sh.itjust.works on 28 Nov 18:56 next collapse

Will how unfinished and buggy these games are all coming out, I’ll pick them up on sales after they have been finished and their spyware removed.

I forget the last title Ubisoft worked on that I was actually eager to play.

solsangraal@lemmy.zip on 28 Nov 18:58 next collapse

i don’t know how many years ago i got completely bored with the entire AC franchise, but it was long enough that i find this hilarious

TexasDrunk@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 20:11 next collapse

I loved the first couple before I stopped playing games entirely for a decade. But I was a console player and didn’t have to think about things like this.

SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org on 28 Nov 22:19 collapse

AC IV Black Flag was my last one and it was pretty good. It also came out over a decade ago. At what point does it become retro?

Empricorn@feddit.nl on 28 Nov 19:20 next collapse

Ubisoft can monitor nothing but my balls.

RDAM_Whiskers@lemmy.ml on 28 Nov 20:41 next collapse

Make sure they are unwashed while being monitored

SatansMaggotyCumFart@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 04:53 collapse

You’re supposed to wash your balls?

Ookami38@sh.itjust.works on 29 Nov 11:46 collapse

I don’t want that disease vector anywhere near my dangly bits, thanks.

RightHandOfIkaros@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 19:24 next collapse

That one Ubisoft shareholder was right. Ubisofts current management is trying to sabotage their profits. Thats crazy.

ByteOnBikes@slrpnk.net on 28 Nov 19:49 next collapse

I saw AC Valhalla was on sale and shrugged. I usually would buy a Ubisoft game and around $10-15. But fuck that.

Rather wait until they’re bankrupt and someone unfucks their games.

Celestus@lemm.ee on 28 Nov 20:10 next collapse

Makes no difference to me, since I wasn’t interested in playing it anyway

mrfriki@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 20:27 next collapse

And they wonder why they are flopping.

UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml on 29 Nov 14:57 collapse

Ubisoft

sukhmel@programming.dev on 30 Nov 00:24 collapse

You be soft, hmm… 🤔

OminousOrange@lemmy.ca on 28 Nov 20:30 next collapse

Imagine if they took all that ‘piracy prevention’ effort (that doesn’t really work in the end anyway) and put it towards actually making enjoyable games.

s_s@lemm.ee on 28 Nov 22:41 next collapse

These things don’t cost effort, they just buy a library and pump up the cost of the game and make the fucking publishers feel better about themselves.

altima_neo@lemmy.zip on 28 Nov 23:52 collapse

It’s certainly working because I’m not gonna bother playing the game

OminousOrange@lemmy.ca on 29 Nov 00:25 collapse

Right, and if I do I won’t be buying it.

KeenFlame@feddit.nu on 29 Nov 13:29 collapse

See? Piracy prevented

OminousOrange@lemmy.ca on 29 Nov 17:07 collapse

Let me clarify, I will not be purchasing this game if I want to play it.

KeenFlame@feddit.nu on 29 Nov 19:20 collapse

Doesn’t matter, had sex

Trilobite@lemm.ee on 28 Nov 20:39 next collapse

Oh look another ubisuck game I won’t buy

daggermoon@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 21:54 collapse

seconded

Jumi@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 20:57 next collapse

Man, and I was still looking a bit forward to this game. Why can’t you just be normal, Ubisoft?

Mandy@sh.itjust.works on 28 Nov 21:10 next collapse

Their trash games ain’t even worth to pirate anymore

SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org on 28 Nov 22:13 next collapse

The ultimate piracy protection

TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 08:42 collapse

Thank you for putting my thoughts into words

SaharaMaleikuhm@feddit.org on 28 Nov 22:12 next collapse

They afraid of me cheating in a singleplayer game? Not that I’m ever going to play it in the first place.

CaptPretentious@lemmy.world on 28 Nov 23:02 next collapse

Can’t have you accessing skins and items they plan to sell!

mp3@lemmy.ca on 29 Nov 00:26 collapse

Especially stuff already shipped in the game code!

Keegen@lemmy.zip on 28 Nov 23:03 next collapse

Companies realized they can sell cheats as microtransactions instead and people will pay for them. They will likely also include some cosmetic microtransactions like their previous game, which they definitely don’t want people just cheating in. It’s why so many single player games require being always online as well.

Anticorp@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 09:19 next collapse

“Cheating in”, aka doing something with the thing you paid for that you want to do with it. Fuck this company.

localhost443@discuss.tchncs.de on 01 Dec 04:57 collapse

You’re not even paying for cheats in a ubisoft game, you’re just buying back the time they added in with pointless grind so you can play through the short storyline without having to run fetch quests for an extra 50 hours to pass through the level gates.

[deleted] on 01 Dec 04:56 collapse

.

Linktank@lemmy.today on 28 Nov 22:20 next collapse

That’s okay, I was done buying Assassins Creed games anyway.

Jimmycakes@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 00:54 next collapse

Not the version I download

NONE_dc@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 02:07 next collapse

Can’t they just… Make a “normal game”? One that you install, play and that’s it?. Why the fuck do they need to monitor Ram? What the hell?

victorz@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 09:04 next collapse

Honestly also curious why this is necessary.

victorz@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 09:07 collapse

Ah, it’s in the article.

To top it all off, Shadows’ EULA also includes a provision that allows the game to monitor your PC’s RAM to ensure you’re not running any unauthorized programs like macros, cheats, or hacks, a well-intentioned clause that nonetheless feels a touch out of place in a single-player game and could potentially scare off some of the more suspicious players who aren’t comfortable with their hardware being monitored.

Anticorp@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 09:18 next collapse

WTF do they care if you’re modding your own single player game that you paid for? They sound like assholes!

victorz@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 10:30 next collapse

Is there maybe an online multiplayer component to the game which might otherwise experience cheating? I dunno. 🤷‍♂️

ampersandrew@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 18:01 collapse

They sell level boosters that you could otherwise circumvent with Cheat Engine.

victorz@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 18:15 collapse

Oh ffs 🤦‍♂️ If I bought the game and want to cheat myself out of the experience, just let me do so…!

If I’m understanding you correctly, level boosters are things you can activate to… skip levels? Reach character levels quicker?

ampersandrew@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 18:50 next collapse

Correct. They make games that are dozens of hours long and filled with repetitive content, and if you skip the content you don’t want to do, you tend to be under leveled for the stuff you do want to do, and they’ll sell you boosters to hit that level instead.

victorz@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 19:42 collapse

So they make boring games on purpose, and charge you (extra!) money to activate the fun in the game. That’s fucking insanity. Boycott that model, right now.

ampersandrew@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 19:45 collapse

It didn’t even require a boycott for me. I think plenty of people like the repetitive stuff, so they play it all without thinking about the microtransactions. I was never once tempted to pay for them, so my feelings about the game represent what the game is like without paying for them, and it was a poor experience. So rather than a boycott, it’s just not buying games that I don’t like.

victorz@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 08:24 collapse

Makes sense.

By the way, I like your punny username. 😄👌

TwanHE@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 18:51 collapse

Yeah they let you skip the artificially inflated grind in your single player experience.

Buying them is not cheating yourself out of the experience, but instead it brings back the intended speed of progression.

GhiLA@sh.itjust.works on 29 Nov 10:51 next collapse

…th…they are.

Ubisoft is usually exhibit A when it comes to asshole-ry.

SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 12:10 collapse

Micro transactions

UpperBroccoli@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 29 Nov 15:41 collapse

unauthorized programs

No one gets to authorize programs to run on my PC but me.

victorz@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 16:06 collapse

It’s honestly very odd that it needs to do this for a single-player game.

Anticorp@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 09:17 next collapse

Data mining, baby! It’s worth more than gold.

KeenFlame@feddit.nu on 29 Nov 13:29 collapse

Anti cheat (it’s actually anti piracy which is not possible also they oops sell massive data dumps for cash oops)

doomcanoe@sh.itjust.works on 29 Nov 04:05 next collapse

All you have to do to get my money is let me be a pirate, a jedi, a ninja, or a samurai. My inner child can’t help themselves.

So how can Ubisoft be so terrible that I have literally not wanted to play their Pirate game, their StarWars game, and now their Ninja/Samurai game!?

deeves@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 06:12 next collapse

Hey now! Ubisoft is still enabling your desire to become a pirate! Just … In a different way than they wanted.

victorz@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 09:04 collapse

Arrr! 🏴‍☠️🫡

UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml on 29 Nov 11:06 next collapse

Pirates VS Vikings VS Knights

Its been a while since i played. Probably dead these days. Back in the day everyone memed they were gonna add ninjas one day.

GoodEye8@lemm.ee on 29 Nov 12:29 collapse

I think that’s really the issue with Ubisoft, they just don’t make “must play” games anymore. Seriously, what’s the last universally liked Ubisoft game that everyone wanted to play? Far Cry 3. Close second is probably AC: Black flag but that was already suffering from AC fatigue and its critical acclaim has come retroactively. Those games are over a decade old. Ubisoft hasn’t released anything in the last decade where the mainstream gaming goes “We must play that”. Ubisoft simply doesn’t make exciting games anymore. They make games that are for everyone which also means they’re for no-one.

explodicle@sh.itjust.works on 30 Nov 00:38 collapse

Honestly I just read Ubisoft and pass on it. They’ve been too hostile to customers for too long for me to consider.

Jocker@sh.itjust.works on 29 Nov 04:17 next collapse

Hahaa… Keep it.

desmosthenes@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 09:06 next collapse

hard pass

UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml on 29 Nov 11:04 next collapse

Search for ubisoft in steams store page, click the gear on the right hand side, click ignore to take out the trash.

There had always been more then one lifetimes worth of stuff to do. Be picky

_sideffect@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 14:00 next collapse

Next up, they monitor your bank account to warn you that you don’t have enough money to purchase all the dlc to fully complete the game.

HK65@sopuli.xyz on 29 Nov 15:55 collapse

Or they just charge you for the DLC each time you enter the DLC areas without asking.

NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 00:21 collapse

don’t give them any ideas

localhost443@discuss.tchncs.de on 29 Nov 15:00 next collapse

I love them paying for a denuvo license on a game no one even cares enough about to pirate anyway.

Ubisoft may have given up making entertaining games a long time ago but they still provide me with entertainment.

Sam_Bass@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 15:17 next collapse

So the story has ended in origins then

pyre@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 17:16 collapse

it ended in 3, they’ve been treading water ever since.

SuspiciousCatThing@pawb.social on 29 Nov 22:44 collapse

My interest died with Desmond.

pyre@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 23:07 collapse

yeah… for me I was willing to give black flag a chance to see if they would find a way to make a new series, maybe with a new current day plot, but nah. people seem to dislike the current day portion of those games but to me that was the main interest, along with the mythology…

black flag’s current day portion was so goddamn awful, they turned abstergo into a parody of ubisoft? I don’t even know what they were thinking… but it was so immersion breaking. completely killed my interest.

pirate stuff was fun, and it still had a nice plot twist near the beginning… but it was clear that the overall story was going nowhere so I just quit playing after that and decided that the series ended with 3.

roguetrick@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 00:17 collapse

Writing by committee doesn’t tend to produce anything worthwhile.

Railcar8095@lemm.ee on 29 Nov 17:01 next collapse

This game is already hard to want. Why make it hard to play too?

irotsoma@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 19:18 next collapse

Why TF does it matter so much if you cheat in a single player game that they have to take such drastic measures to prevent it? In multiplayer, competitive games, I sort of get it, depending on context, but single player games, no way. I mod single player games all the time. It’s one of the main reasons I like PC gaming over console. I’d never buy a game that went this far to prevent something that has no effect on them or anyone else.

Starbuncle@lemmy.ca on 29 Nov 19:33 next collapse

Lots of game developers started off as hobbyist modders when they were young. Maybe they’re trying to eliminate the future competition. More likely, Denuvo’s actual primary purpose is DRM and anti-cheat is just how it’s sold to players.

PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 16:05 collapse

Something I often find myself explaining to my friends who I game with is just how much objectively terrible shit you can get gamers to not only tolerate, but support as long as you promise to “get rid of cheaters”… which is a hopeless goal. It took a lot of explaining to get them to accept my argument of “I would literally prefer cheaters over a new root kit for every game”

Maggoty@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 23:59 next collapse

Can’t have you getting those cosmetics without paying for them!

NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 00:20 collapse

is this not about pirating if it’s a single player game?

Lifter@discuss.tchncs.de on 01 Dec 07:24 collapse

And micro transactions

MattTheProgrammer@lemmy.world on 29 Nov 23:46 next collapse

And just like that, I couldn’t be less interested in this game.

JDPoZ@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 00:46 collapse

Already lost interest in Assassin’s Creed after they abandoned the Desmond timeline…

Played a tiny bit of the Black Flag one for the fun shanty stuff but that’s been it for me now for probably a decade… so all this has done has lowered my already completely evaporated interest of “apathy” down now to “actively avoid as if it were a virus.”

AugustWest@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 15:58 collapse

The original AC games were really great for their time, and to be honest I enjoyed the ones that came after the trilogy despite feeling like the same game with a new coat of paint over and over.

But they really knocked it out of the park when they overhauled all the controls and mechanics with Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. Yes, there are issues with them like with every open world game, but it is really worth checking out. Valhalla is obviously beautiful and very refined but I favor Odyssey for the sheer fun factor.

Agreed on these new ones, though.

muculent@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 00:02 next collapse

So Ubisoft just sells malware now without the game wrapper. Great.

yamanii@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 00:25 next collapse

No, gamer you see, it’s really important that you grind these randomly generated kill quests to progress, it’s totally not to incentivize you to purchase the exp boost in our cash shop in this single player game, can’t have you using cheat engine to ruin your experience.

Hadriscus@lemm.ee on 30 Nov 02:39 collapse

They sell stuff for these games ? scum

FourThirteen@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 00:56 next collapse

Who’s playing this shit? Ubi games are all the same.

kaffiene@lemmy.world on 30 Nov 02:25 next collapse

Yeah, no

JackbyDev@programming.dev on 30 Nov 15:23 next collapse

Calling denuvo malware is sort of leaning towards hyperbole (barely), but, holy shit, “monitor ram”? That’s literally spyware.

[deleted] on 30 Nov 15:42 next collapse

.

echodot@feddit.uk on 01 Dec 17:43 collapse

It’s for a single player game. Who cares if people cheat.

JackbyDev@programming.dev on 01 Dec 17:54 collapse

Exactly!

kittenzrulz123@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 30 Nov 15:52 collapse

Their strategy has worked, their game isn’t even worth the storage space for me to pirate.