I have been eagerly awaiting the release of EA's Maxis recent new
addition to their franchise, SimCity. But not the way you might
expect. I'm not sitting here, rubbing my hands together with glee,
desperate to play a new game. No. You see, I knew ahead of time that
SimCity would have Always On DRM, even for singleplayer...
 |
| Oh, this is gonna be goooooood... |
...and what do you know, EA done fucked up.
They done fucked up big. Day one comes, hell, the first week rolls along, and no one can access the game they played for. Because - who'd of guessed it - the servers went down due to overload. Even though people were playing alone, no one else, which is, what to you know... the whole point about SimCity.
I mean, come on. You knew what you were getting into. Always On DRM?
EA? You lot have no excuse. What do you expect, that you pay your
money and you get a working game?
 |
| Ha! You so stupid! |
Of course, in between the bouts of laughter, I thought to myself, ya
know, not everyone is to blame. Okay, us gamers are a tech savvy
bunch usually, but I thought avoiding EA like a dose of gonorrhoea
was common knowledge by this point and clearly it isn't. So, I
thought I'd do you a solid. Below is a list of some big video game
publisher/developers (which owned/partnered/know associated
developers in brackets) with a quick break down of some key concepts:
Popular franchises, whether they use Always On DRM, and whether they
use Online multiplayer passes. If I see them use passes or Always On
DRM once I'll tar them all equally, but I'll try to give further
detail. I'll give a little background of their business practices,
and if I recommend you can safely pre-order, buy new, and if you
should, what system to buy it on: console or PC. I'll be ignoring
mobile games currently due to lack of experience in that market.
So read on, and be educated!
Because I do that now.
(Incidentally while I may refer to events in a factual manner, all
that I say below is MY OPINION, and if I recommend that you avoid a
company for dickish behaviour... try not being dicks in future,
because there's no money here worth suing out of me.)
Ubisoft
Main franchises: Assassin's Creed,
Rayman, Prince of Persia, Just Dance, Farcry, Tom Clancy, Driver,
(upcoming) Watch Dogs
Always On DRM: Yes (Explained
below)
Online multiplayer pass: Yes
Ubisoft
has an official policy that Always on DRM is a thing of the past,
that it was cast out to make way for new, better, more friendly
thing, like Uplay. Which basically operates as Always on DRM. Look,
if it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, don't get pissy when it
gets up crispy fired on my plate. I would recommend ideally only
getting Ubisoft titles on the console and dodging the Always on DRM
however... Ubisoft does some great things graphically with their PC
ports of their games. Judge for yourself; graphical superiority
versus the inability to access your game... because. When it comes to
buying new or pre-ordering, for the console: sure. Be aware
that Assassin's Creed comes out yearly and will drop price
quickly when the next game starts being pushed. Buying new /
pre-ordering on the PC? Ah. Hmm. I can't recommend, until you get a
gauge on how well Uplay is handling things.
Nintendo
Main franchises: Your childhood
happiness. Mario, Kirby, Metriod, Smash Brothers, Zelda, Pokemon,
so many more
Always on DRM: No
Online multiplayer pass: No
Funny
story; if you get EA's Mass
Effect 3 for the Wii
U, there's no online
pass... which is prevalent everywhere else. That's how much Nintendo
doesn't like/get online passes. Nintendo barely does DLC at this
point, and seems to be stuck in the 1980s, believing that you should
just put your game in and be able to play right away and this
is glorious. Ninetendo
seems to be simply too childish to get some of the more aggressive
anti-consumer policies (beyond exploiting your childhood
nostalgia mercilessly) and thank god for that. Go ahead, buy new,
pre-order, for now this company's still being awesome... if a bit
routine, but that's game criticism, not company policy criticism.
Capcom
Main franchises: Devil May Cry,
Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Marvel vs. Capcom, Dead Rising
Always on DRM: Yes
Online multiplayer pass: No
Oh, Capcom.
Just about to give you a nice 'No,' for Always on DRM, and
then you start rolling it out on the PlayStation
Network. Naughty. And that 'No' for Online passes? Capcom were
rumoured to be implementing it for Resident Evil 6, so they're
open to the concept at least. Now Capcom's about to be beaten with
the naughty stick for a different reason: DLC practices. Capcom,
well... they like On Disk DLC. Which is stupid, as DLC stands for
DownLoadable Content, and if it's on the disk, that's not exactly
downloading... so it's locked content behind a pay wall. Let me say
this nice and clear: NO. BAD CAPCOM. Capcom's DLC attitudes are
atrocious. Because of this, I don't want to recommend them at all. If
you must, research your game. Depending on the system it's on may
effect what you get on the disk, what is locked and what is
available. And quite frankly, if you do end up buying Capcom, do
yourself a favour and don't buy any DLC until they get the point that
locked content isn't acceptable.
Activision (Blizzard)
Main franchises: Call of Duty,
Diablo, Starcraft, Tony Hawk, various film licenses, Dangerous Hunts,
Quake, World of Warcraft
Always on DRM: Yes
Online mulitplayer pass: Yes
I'll admit I'm lucky that there's few
titles from Activision that interest me as this company definitely
has some... issues. We all remember the Diablo 3 mess
where the servers died an awful death on launch. I have a bigger
problem with their constant churning out of games with little change
year on year and then dropping support for older games – oh hai
Call of Duty, I don't see you
come in. Whilst liking Call of Duty, I rarely feel I
can get my money's worth. It often sells above average new release
price – because they can – comes with a shite load of DLC, and in
a year or so will be replaced and the multiplayer game gradually
becomes overridden by cheating assholes as Activision stops caring
about legacy support. I have Starcraft 2, and the Always on
DRM (Battlenet) for my single player experience and stripped LAN
support will mean I don't pick up the sequels. Activision is a
company you buy from at your own risk, knowing that the initial
launch period will likely have issues. Putting off buying new for a
week or two may help you sidestep early problems, or at least give
you heads up to any deal breaking issues.
Valve
Main franchises: Half Life, Team
Fortress, Counter Strike, Portal, Left for Dead
Always on DRM: Sorta. Not
really. I'll explain.
Online multiplayer passes: No
Heya Valve! You are the gamer's
darling, aren't you! Yes you are! To explain the Always on DRM
conundrum, several of Valve's titles are online multiplayer games, so
calling it Always on DRM is unfair because, without internet, you
weren't playing anyway, and there's limited single player options
with a game designed outright as an online multiplayer. There's also
Steam. Steam is DRM, but made as convenient as possible, and
it's hard to begrudge something that can be accessed offline (mostly)
and gives you sweeping sales. My girlfriend however would have it be
known it's not perfect: I logged onto Steam on her computer before
moving, and whilst waiting for the internet to arrive, she was unable
to access any of her games because offline mode wouldn't allow her to
switch from the last accessed account. (I'm sorry, by the way. Did I
mention that? I'm sorry. Again.) Whilst I would like there to be more
competition to Steam (I like Steam and all and have a degree of trust
in the owners, but good competition secures honesty) this is a
company I approve of. I heartily recommend getting any of their
titles for the PC over consoles as the support is better (Team
Fortress 2 is a shallow wreck of itself on the Xbox due to update
policies) and access to modding communities. Hell, I'd even recommend
you allow yourself to pre-order titles, as they often do cross-game
promotions, but... they do sales. You might want to wait a bit,
you'll get it cheaper.
Bethesda (id Software, Obsidian
Entertainment, Arkane Studios)
Main franchises: Fallout, Elder
Scrolls, Dishonored, Rage, Doom
Always on DRM: No
Online multiplayer pass: No
One of the companies I still care
about, it should be noted that Bethesda don't really do multiplayer
stuff so that Online Pass check is a bit irrelevant here. Always take
note of the developer: Obsidion have a reputation for making sequels
with flaws, and id Software have a reputation for having early driver
issues with new games. Also worthy of note is that it was Bethesda
who started the joke 'horse armour DLC' nonsense, but they have (for
the moment) got some of their DLC silliness out of their system and
are more fair about DLC content nowadays, and more flexible with
their pricing. I would once again avoid buying for the console: yes
I've been saying it a lot, (PC gamer master race!) but here it's
paramount. Bethesda like their games big. So big, that things... can
get overlooked. Whilst I should be all 'Where's quality control? Who
tested this? Blah!' I find myself giving them a little slack with
titles that offer 100+ hours content. The standard response, 'We
can't test everything,' yeah... with so much content, that actually
flies for once. Besides, Bethesda have made great inroads encouraging
a healthy modding community, and you'll be missing out on a lot of
great stuff (and fixes) if you commit to a console copy. And I have a
copy of Fallout 3 on Xbox and PC. And I love both. I would
say that pre-ordering and buying new is fine with this company. (Edit: it's been bought to my attention that quite frankly, Bethesda PS3 support sucks. They had porting difficulties, and they just basically gave up. So again, PC gamer master race.)
EA (Viseral, Bioware, Maxis,
many partners.)
Main franchises: Oh god, so many.
Madden, Mass Effect, Tiger Woods, (multiple sport series
actually) Knights of the Old Republic, FIFA, Army of Two, Dead
Space, Battlefield, Command & Conquer, Crysis, Dragon Age, Medal
of Honor, Need for Speed, Rock Band, Sim series, uh, some of
those may have been killed already.
Always on DRM: Yes
Online multiplayer pass: Yes
Hoooooo. The big one. Well, this
article was inspired, as mentioned, due to the SimCity mess.
Man. There is... there is so many nuances that I have to go into.
Namely, EA will hunt down and kill what you love. My main beef (or is
that horse?) with EA reached it's tipping point from Mass Effect
3. Without going into overbearing detail (MASS EFFECT 3
BROKE MY HEART) one of the things I took from MA3 was that it
felt decidedly more rushed than it's predecessors. There was a
definite vibe of 'Meh, it's Mass Effect. Ship it, it'll sell,'
regardless of the quality of the game. And this is the sort of thing
you must be aware of with EA; if you are emotionally invested in a
series, do not expect for one second that EA will not take advantage
of that. They will, regardless of how damaging it is in the long
term. Not only that, but EA owning a studio or game series you like
nowadays seems to be a cause for fear. Hell, not even nowadays;
anyone remember Bullfrog? EA will gut studios and game series for not
meeting high expectations, and it is rumoured that the brilliant Dead
Space series will suffer this fate. All EA games must be expected
to come with a wide variety of DLC, of varying degrees of quality,
and Day One DLC is to be expected. And Day One DLC feels like a punch
in the balls. Oh. And Origin. All the problems with Steam in
the 1990s, in 2013. You know EA, one of the advantages of not being
first in the market is being able to have mistakes be made by other
people, not yourself... all over again. Origin has a vicious End User
Licence Agreement, and as linked to your forum account, if you get
banned, there's a good chance you'll be banned from your games as
well. This is something I hope the European Union takes a look at.
With their anti-consumer policies, I cannot in good conscious
recommend pre-order... actually, scratch that. I cannot in good
recommend in good conscious you buy anything from EA. I say that as a
once Mass Effect fan, a Dragon Age fan, a Sim
series fan, an Army of Two fan, a Dead Space fan... I
cannot justify to myself putting money into this company's pockets
any more. And new DLC came out for MA3, it looks amazing, I
want it so bad and I can't buy it. I can't do it. If you must,
avoid the PC. Unlike Activsion/Blizzard, who have extensive
experience with server management, I have little faith with EA's
ability to get things running smoothly. Hell, they've cut marketing for Simcity in an attempt to lower server demands.
EA has a tremendous catalogue of games, and it's a good chance you
want to play them. So if you must, must get them, do me one thing.
Please. If you must buy new... give it a week. Maybe two. You'll not
only have a better chance to play your game, but if many of you hold
out the first one or two weeks (where a majority of sales are made)
you'll scare the shit outta EA and just maybe might make them
re-think the direction they are heading.
So there you go. I have educated you. About
video games.
I am such a generous person.
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