More trouble for Ubisoft's DRM system

Users of Ubisoft's PC games Assassin's Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 have been unable to play over the weekend as the servers for its digital rights management system have been inaccessible.

The company's DRM came under fire from the moment it was announced, as it requires that users connect to the internet while playing the games – even the single-player elements.

"Due to exceptional demand, we are currently experiencing difficulties with the Online Service Platform. This does not affect customers who are currently playing, but customers attempting to start a game may experience difficulty in accessing our servers," said the company yesterday. "We are currently working to resolve this issue and apologise for any inconvenience."

A representative for the company said yesterday that the issues was "unacceptable", but critics are openly mocking the company on the internet via forums and other social networks. Both games have only recently been released, and are using the DRM system that Ubisoft had hoped will help put an end to piracy of its games.

Currently legitimate players of its PC games are unable to access the games they have bought, while hacked versions of the games are running and available to download on multiple torrent sites.

"I don’t have any clear information on what the issue is since I’m not in the office, but clearly the extended downtime and lengthy login issues are unacceptable, particularly as I’ve been told these servers are constantly monitored," said the rep on the official forums yesterday.

"I’ll do what I can to get more information on what the issue is here first thing tomorrow and push for a resolution and assurance this won’t happen in the future. I realise that’s not ideal but there’s only so much I can do on a weekend as I’m not directly involved with the server side of this system."