Wait, but they already launched it without Denuvo. So pirates can easily crack the launch version without it, and only paying customers need to deal with the antipiracy bullshit? Nice, they took a pro-piracy hyperbole and made it actually real.
I’m thinking this too… like what’s even the point of using denuvo if it’s not applied day one? The whole point is to delay piracy so they sell more copies during launch week (in theory), so waiting until after day one completely ruins that since you can just pirate the easily cracked launch version.
The point is that they purposefully left (or created) bugs in the day one version that are fixed in this patch after you install denuvo
It’s not the first time they’ve done something like that, they broke another assassins creed game and leaked it to get people to buy the real copy, this is no different
I mean, decompiling an obfuscated binary down to each individual CPU instruction is pretty nuts to compare two separate releases, even at that level, denuvo can be injected into game assets everywhere, so it gets hard to tell what’s an actual patch and what’s denuvo. I’m guessing it’s sort of on purpose, by combining legitimate updates with denuvo, it’s harder to tell what’s denuvo. If denuvo was included in version 1, it would be easier to tell what was a legit update in the patch, and rule out those pieces of the install being denuvo. But that’s all sort of the whole point of denuvo is that it’s all over the codebase, all over the binaries, the assets, the libraries. It’s hard to nail down every spot it exists
If non DRM version is given to reviewers, it will leak to crackers, unless you control 100% of reviewers you give a copy. This does not make any sense.
Eh, I only meant hyperbole in terms of antipiracy affecting the pirates that had to figure out how to crack it. As a broad gesture at the fact piracy (consumption) depends on piracy (effort) to work
You’re right, according to Ubi the update on PC was ‘included in the 41.6 GB game files ahead of Oct 5’. It was a prerelease patch, not day 1.
Nice of Epic to start directly exploiting the lack of PC physical media around the same time people are talking about getting rid of disc drives on consoles.
I think the primary method of PC sales for this game is on the Epic Game Store. Yeah I neglected to consider it’s also available from Ubisoft+ or whatever but also does anyone actually use that
Epic Game Store also doesn’t have any preloading, meaning they had all the opportunity to deploy Denuvo pre-launch but post-embargo without having preloads as a loose end.
Yeah, at least if they’re not free-to-play. Publishers have shown time and time again that you can NOT trust them with your money. Only pay for something if you know exactly what you’re getting.
One reason I’m glad to be a pretty broke parent gamer. I can only afford to spend money on games a couple times a year at best so I have to be really patient and picky about what I do decide to buy. I end up having no choice but to wait a year or more to pick up any games I’m excited about.
I’m happy paying for psplus and enjoying the free monthly games and whatever games get uploaded there. Aside from that, my city has a great library with a huge selection of games you can borrow for 3-6 weeks at a time, plenty of time to finish them.
Still is, my dude. The “All pods launched” sound effect from the first level will be stuck in my head forever, I’ve heard it so many times. If you haven’t played Q2RTX, I highly recommend it. It’s like a fresh coat of paint on an old classic.
I’m a patient gamer so I don’t normally preorder, but I made an exception with CyberPunk as a tribute for paying $5 for Witcher 3 (which was my first game of the series, I went in blind and I couldn’t believe how good it was).
I wasn’t even mad with the shitshow but I decided wasn’t going to play the game in that state.
Fast forward a few years, the game runs almost 3 times as fast (went from 25 to 70 fps on my computer) and they fixed a lot of problems people were complaining about for the DLC release. Now it’s ripe.
Pretty much the same story here. Finally playing it now, and I can barely put it down. It’s story is nearly as good as W3, and my car doesn’t even take random hard lefts off the road for no reason whatsoever in this one. Actually, gameplay is a massive step up in general.
I'm glad to hear the game's gotten much better! I purchased the game on sale but have left it sitting in my Steam library for a little while, knowing that it is playing much better means I'll move it higher on my playlist.
Well, I meant a step up from the overall quality of Witcher 3. But, it is really smooth and solid combat with a real variety of styles/builds. I’m digging katana/guns/mantis blades/sandi. And I know the 2.0 skill revamp made a huge and smart impact on the gameplay.
The only game I’ve ever preordered is Animal Crossing New Horizons. I knew it wasn’t gonna be horseshit on release lmao. I wait until games are on sale and have been out for a while. My friends keep harassing me to buy Baldurs Gate and I’m not doing that until it has all dlc released and is on sale lol
I’m the same way but I bought bg3 because of how not asshole they are. It’s a great game and honestly worth the money. This is the first game I’ve bought at full price since games came on cartridges.
My thing is that I wanna wait until Larian comes out with all content for it. I don’t wanna get the game and immediately have to replay it because dlc came out. I’ve done that with games before and replaying just for dlc made the game feel like a chore. I’ve waited since the announce of cyberpunk’s expansion to even consider finishing the game. I plan on playing that one once I get myself a steamdeck later this year. My gaming computer became a total turd since 2020 lol.
I get that, but that game is so big, you’re going to want to play over regardless. You’ll probably start over anyways after at least 40 hours of game play. The game is really insane on how much there is and how much every choice you make matters. You could play this game for the rest of your life and I don’t think you’d have the same game twice.
The point is, the reviews represent a game that’s not the one being sold. Additionally, it’s reasonable to believe this was done on purpose. This should be simple to understand ?
You know what’s simple to understand? False advertising. They’re not advertising the game as “no Denuvo!!” and then putting in denuvo. A completely independent company doing a review isn’t the publisher doing advertising.
Of course it is.
Them sending a copy of a game in the hopes the media outlet will write a favourable review is marketing 101.
It’s practically free marketing, so it’s the best kind even.
If the review came after launch from a purchased copy, then your argument would have had a leg to stand on mate.
By your logic, if I release a drug not mentioning it will kill you while knowing it will, I am not guilty of false advertisement even if I send it out for free knowing this will be published.
Murder sure, but not false advertisement.
If a game is being sent out without a performance limiting software with a clear plan of introducing this for the retail version, I would argue it follows the actual definition.
Quote: «the crime or tort of publishing, broadcasting, or otherwise publicly distributing an advertisement that contains an untrue, misleading, or deceptive representation or statement which was made knowingly or recklessly and with the intent to promote the sale of property, goods, or services to the public».
It’s deceptive. There is no arguing it. You seem like a bright dude arguing a moot point in to deep to accept being wrong.
I’m not wrong though, which is why I won’t accept it. They didn’t publish an advertisement. End of story. It’s shady as shit, but it’s not false advertising because they didn’t advertise anything here, let alone “no denuvo!”.
Actually this guy is correct: What Ubisoft is doing here isn’t false advertising, it’s fraud.
False advertising is a very specific thing: You say something that isn’t true in an ad or as part of your product’s packaging. Like saying your product has a USB C port when in reality it has a Micro USB port and comes with an adapter. Companies that pull stunts like that rarely have legal consequences but technically it is against the law (why there’s not usually legal consequences is because most retailers will refund a product within 30 days without any penalty to the consumer).
Ubisoft is giving reviewers a different product than what they’re planning on giving to consumers. It’s like going to a car dealership, test driving a car, ordering that model, then when it finally arrives it’s a completely different car (e.g. smaller engine, different/weaker/flawed parts, etc). Case law is filled to the brim with scams like this. It’s one of the oldest and most widely-repeated types of fraud that’s ever existed: Bait and switch.
Denuvo has an impact on performance for many games, so they artificially inflated the performance, and some people don’t buy games with Denuvo on principle, many reviewers will note that in their video.
You’re arguing over semantics. Legally it’s not false advertising but it effectively is. You’re both talking past each other but only one of you is being stubborn for the sake of it. I’d have little patience for you too.
If Denuvo’s claim that their DRM has no negative performance impact were true, then why Ubisoft pull this shenanigan (adding Denuvo DRM just hours before release)? Ubisoft must’ve know their game run better without Denuvo so they want the reviewers to play the drmless version.
Everyone knows Denuvo’s statement isn’t true. There are hundreds of games with Denuvo that have improved performance after being cracked, compared to the legitimately owned version. This conversation pops up all the time. It’s quite funny when pirated games have a better experience. At least until Denuvo is removed to cut cost (it’s a subscription).
The sad part is that tomorrow they could release “Assasins Creed: Reflection”. And people would make the exact same mistake all over.
You know Ubisoft has a shit reputation. You know Bethesda is famous for broken, buggy, glitchy games. You know Blizzard Activision isn’t the same as old Blizzard. Don’t you guys have phones?
I didn’t buy this game. I didn’t buy Starfield, and I didn’t buy Diablo IV.
Anyone not blinded by hype could see this coming to all those games from a paid pre-alpha deluxe collectors gold season battle pass track booster mile away.
they are going to run out of words in the dictionary to name these fucking games, they will start using words in a different language for the codenames.
Origins was first AC game I played. 3 months after completing origins, which had bored me to death, I tried my hand at Odessey. The gameplay was exactly same. It felt like I was playing the same game again. Exact same mechanics and combat style. Uninstalled within half an hour.
Then I tried Unity and Syndicate, because people praise them so much. And I realised that Ubisoft has been remaking the same game over and over for more than a decade now. They just change the setting and rehash everything. The animations in Unity look exactly same as Odessey.
I had the same fear when I picked up Miles Morales, that it would feel the same as previous Spidey game. But they quickly introduced a few new mechanics which made the game feel ever so slightly different.
It was OK when the games were a bit smaller (and also makes more sense when played in the right order).
Going from 1 to 2 was a huge improvement, as 1 felt more like a tech demo. Then they added two more 2’s, and frankly they were the exact same.
3 was a bit shit, and lost the city charm. It doesn’t really work in the countryside.
Black Flag was massively popular at the time, because the pirate ship stuff was cool, and it also featured the least amount of Assassin’s Creed gameplay. I think the more recent games still haven’t matched that feel with any of the ship gameplay.
Unity shoehorned in multiplayer, and managed to annoy both single player fans (who don’t want multiplayer) and multiplayer fans (because there’s like 4 missions you can do in co-op).
I didn’t play Syndicate because I was bored to fucking death of AC by this point.
Origins tried turning it into a massive RPG, with levels and choices that don’t really do anything, and stopped assassinations from actually being a guaranteed kill if your stats weren’t high enough.
Odyssey did more of the same, added the boat back in, and made the whole game ridiculously big. Like, there’s good stuff in there (the Minotaur tourist trap is a favourite, along with some of the fantasy elements), but you’ve genuinely seen most of the gameplay the game has to offer before you’ve even got off Tutorial Island. It doesn’t even really get harder. There’s just more of it. It was in serious need of an editor to bring it down to about a third of the size.
I’m still so burnt out on finishing that like 3 years ago, that I’ve not played Valhalla either.
3 was great in the forest and old timely cities/towns
It also had better ship combat than 4
But like you said; it shouldn’t have been in the IP
I think Odyssey has comparable ship combat to 4
I tried Valhalla (on console so I pirated it) but I have no idea how long the game is. At the start of the game you’re told to wait “there” so I left the console on for an hour and it was still just waiting. Haven’t touched it since
I’m kind of the opposite side of the spectrum for at least some parts. If anything, I’ve been wishing the games would go back to the old formula. I felt like as the games progressed, they added just enough to keep me interested, and I liked the story. Black Flag was really great, despite the fact that it had less traditional AC game play in it. But I did like it when it was there, and the ship stuff was cool.
Then came Oddysee, which, I liked, but kind of wish it had more AC stuff. Played a decent bit of Odysee, but didn’t ever get around to finishing it.
When they said they were going back to their roots, I thought that sounded awesome, but for obvious reasons was a bit hesitant to get excited.
That’s funny because I hated everything they changed. If I’m playing a Spider-Man game why would I want to have a super punch (and metre to fill it)? And they showed that in the teaser for the next game so I feel they didn’t learn any lessons about spider man being spider man
Before and on release date, most sales are to a minority of highly engaged gamers that then create reviews and hype. Ubisoft needs that hype as they know the majority of the profit they will make is from sales after the release when the general public reads those reviews and then decide to spend their dollar on the game because the reviews were good. Also the majority of the general public won’t pirate anyway…
But once it’s out it’s out. I at least understand the logic of DRM from launch because it delays cracks, but once you’ve released without DRM it’s out there lol.
I don’t know how the launch went but these days the release version of games is usually a buggy mess with half the content stripped out of it so they can sell it later as DLC or a season pass
If you’re the only reviewer that doesn’t get one then you won’t have a review up for when people read them most, right on release day. So game companies can threaten to exclude you if you write something they don’t like.
Imo they should be an everyone or no one deal, probably even by law.
True, but will also prevent you from getting any other updates or bug fixes. This is such a scummy action for Ubi to do, I wouldn't it put it past em to pair this with some sort of game bricking.... "glitch" that needs a patch.
On another note this will make for an easy comparison of Denuvo ridden game vs Denuvo removed. The Day 1 Patch bringing some Fixes and Performance gains would muddy the results a bit but I think it’s still a good idea to have a test like that. If the rumors/speculation about Denuvos performance impact are true I doubt even a Day 1 Patch would manage to balance out the performance difference.
Lesson is to make steps being even more patient and play backlogs and opt for older titles that are cheaper. Doesn’t even have to be super old. Could be just within a year. Very few games these days that are an absolute much play the moment it drops. Haven’t actually come across any of that caliber past decade, but maybe I’m too patient.
Baldur’s Gate 3 also was in Early Access for a few years so people had plenty of independent experiences to base their opinion on. The release content was more, true, but there were a lot of known factors.
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