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[Dr. Zoidberg]

Takes 15 minutes to re-install Windows

Maybe, but how much longer to install all the other shit you need. Browsers, Plugins, Flash, Office, MSE, a shit-ton of patches, etc. It's a far bigger pain in the ass than you make it seem. And then there's the issue of activation limits for Windows/Office which you could run into. I only reinstall as a last resort. I certainly don't think this issue is worthy of that response.

The problem isn't even a rootkit, since if it was, you wouldn't be able to see it normally even if you were looking. With true rootkits you usually have to boot off of some other media and then scan the hard drive to be sure.

JUST FUCKING USE STEAM!!!
God damn it what is so hard about this publishers?

They probably don't want to be stuck selling every game they make with a cut going to Valve for eternity. They want to avoid the situation that exists on consoles where they have to pay up to MS or Sony every time they publish a game. Hence their futile efforts to establish their own stores and services. I suppose they could just use Steamworks and NOT be sold through the Steam store, but who does that now?

My decision not to buy ANYTHING with a ubisoft tag attached to it is now vindicated.

I respect this opinion, but are people trying to send a message to UBI or simply avoid the DRM? If it's the former, then I hope they are not going to buy UBI games on consoles either as a workaround because that won't do anything to send a message. If I buy AC3 or Rayman on console, and not on PC, I'm only sending the message that UBI should forego the PC versions of these games in the future, not end their DRM practices.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

JUST FUCKING USE STEAM!!!

God damn it what is so hard about this publishers?

Dude, are you stupid? Why should they use a free and proven DRM solution instead of their internally engineered turd?

 

[RoboPlato]

Watch_Dogs based off of Ubi's own buisness practices?

 

[old manatee]

I don't have any of those games because I don't buy Ubisoft's trashy den-ridden nonsense.

 

[Valnen]

JUST FUCKING USE STEAM!!!

God damn it what is so hard about this publishers?

Stubborn executives rarely think with their common sense, I guess.

 

[iNvid02]

i was skeptical at first but then i clicked this link

up pops up uplay and calculator!

http://pastehtml.com/view/c6gxl1a79.html

also, its not a fucking rootkit

 

[Eusis]

i was skeptical at first but then i clicked this link

up pops up uplay and calculator!

http://pastehtml.com/view/c6gxl1a79.html

also, its not a fucking rootkit

Also proves that just disabling the plugin's enough. Probably.

 

[Bitmap Frogs]

I respect this opinion, but are people trying to send a message to UBI or simply avoid the DRM? If it's the former, then I hope they are not going to buy UBI games on consoles either as a workaround because that won't do anything to send a message. If I buy AC3 or Rayman on console, and not on PC, I'm only sending the message that UBI should forego the PC versions of these games in the future, not end their DRM practices.

PC only for a year now =)

 

[Derrick01]

Alright I found out how to disable it (thanks Chrome for removing the plugins option in one of your stealth updates!). Shit pisses me off though and I'm almost ready to just ban Ubi games on PC. This is worse than Origin.

 

[iNvid02]

chrome - aboutlugins and disable uplayPC

firefox: tools, addons, plugins and dsable uplay/uplay hub

 

[Joni]

JUST FUCKING USE STEAM!!!

God damn it what is so hard about this publishers?

Steam isn't a completely open PC platform. Steam isn't that different from PSN or Xbox Live: games need to be approved and companies need to pay Valve. Making your own platform ignores that. If you just mean Steamworks: UPlay is cross-platform, Steamworks isn't. You can unlock stuff on all three platforms for UPlay.

 

[Exuro]

They probably don't want to be stuck selling every game they make with a cut going to Valve for eternity. They want to avoid the situation that exists on consoles where they have to pay up to MS or Sony every time they publish a game. Hence their futile efforts to establish their own stores and services. I suppose they could just use Steamworks and NOT be sold through the Steam store, but who does that now?

What difference does it make really? They sell through Steam right now as it is, I don't see how making it Steamworks and continuing selling it on Steam would be a detriment let alone make them stuck giving valve a cut.

 

[dani_dc]

And I was just considering installing and starting ACII which I got during the sales.

They probably don't want to be stuck selling every game they make with a cut going to Valve for eternity. They want to avoid the situation that exists on consoles where they have to pay up to MS or Sony every time they publish a game. Hence their futile efforts to establish their own stores and services.

Steamworks is free and Valve doesn't get a cut of sales made outside of Steam for Steamworks titles. Buying Skyrim on Amazon would give no profit to Valve even though the game is Steamworks, so that's a non-issue.

They did release Rayman without additional DRM in retails but added DRM to all non-steam DD versions (for whatever reason). Wonder how that experience worked for them.

 

[Lime]

Despite me having Uplay on my computer, I don't have any plugins of it in my Firefox or Chrome. I guess I never allowed the plugin to be installed when I had Uplay, I could imagine.

I don't know why anyone would want to install an arbitrary browser plugin that isn't needed for a game?

 

[Prezhulio]

They probably don't want to be stuck selling every game they make with a cut going to Valve for eternity. They want to avoid the situation that exists on consoles where they have to pay up to MS or Sony every time they publish a game. Hence their futile efforts to establish their own stores and services. I suppose they could just use Steamworks and NOT be sold through the Steam store, but who does that now?

pretty sure you can sell steam keys on your own site and valve doesn't take a cut. or am i wrong about that? i mean if the game is already for sale on steam, it really makes a whole lot of sense to use steamworks (aside from the company wanting to "integrate" all their games with shitty services like uplay)

 

[bigace33]

lol Sony did something similar to this back in the day with CDs.They survived, Ubi will too. It stinks but these companies are desperate to protect their properties from being stolen. True or not, they feel like every instance of piracy is a sale lost.

 

[Derrick01]

Steam isn't a completely open PC platform. Steam isn't that different from PSN or Xbox Live: games need to be approved and companies need to pay Valve. Making your own platform ignores that. If you just mean Steamworks: UPlay is cross-platform, Steamworks isn't. You can unlock stuff on all three platforms for UPlay.

Who cares about unlocking minor crap they locked away just for their DRM? I want them to use the safe and preferred DRM. It's free for them to use it and they have to pay Valve anyway because the majority of their sales are still coming from Steam buyers, who then have rootkits flung on to them when they try to play their Ubisoft games. So stop using that service that no one wants or cares about and use Steam.

 

[Xanonano]

Despite me having Uplay on my computer, I don't have any plugins of it in my Firefox or Chrome. I guess I never allowed the plugin to be installed when I had Uplay, I could imagine.

I don't know why anyone would want to install an arbitrary browser plugin that isn't needed for a game?

If you don't have it, it's probably because you haven't used it since the update came out a few weeks ago. You aren't given a choice whether to install it.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

I don't have any plugin in Chrome for Uplay. Although I have some of these games on Steam, there's any way to check it better?

Edit:

If you don't have it, it's probably because you haven't used it since the update came out a few weeks ago. You aren't given a choice whether to install it.

That may explain it.

 

[28 Posts Later]

Despite me having Uplay on my computer, I don't have any plugins of it in my Firefox or Chrome. I guess I never allowed the plugin to be installed when I had Uplay, I could imagine.

I'm assuming this must have been installed amongst a recent update, I too can't find a Uplay plugin despite having Uplay games installed.

 

[derExperte]

No plugin in IE9 here despite having played Broterhood after the update. Opera seems safe too.

 

[iNvid02]

lol Sony did something similar to this back in the day with CDs.They survived, Ubi will too. It stinks but these companies are desperate to protect their properties from being stolen. True or not, they feel like every instance of piracy is a sale lost.

this comes from pachter so get your salt out, but apaprently ubi stated that early on:

AC on PC sold 1 million at least, but AC2 only got around 100k - despite interest being at similar levels for both games

they think piracy affects their franchises a lot, and they're right, it affects all games.
but trying to tackle it with stupid ass always on DRM like they did with AC2 wont work

 

[bigace33]

I don't have any of those games because I don't buy Ubisoft's trashy den-ridden nonsense.

Ubi is putting out some of the best games on the market right now.

 

[Derrick01]

So can I also get rid of this by just uninstalling uplay altogether? Or will it stay behind like some kind of virtual STD?

Ubi is putting out some of the best games on the market right now.

Extremely debatable. They have 1 good looking game coming out for the rest of this year and nothing else for this year.

edit: Ok 2, I forgot Far Cry 3 is still coming despite the delay.

 

[sangreal]

I read the OP and the 'article' and I do not see how this is rootkit... Just poorly designed and easily exploited software

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

pretty sure you can sell steam keys on your own site and valve doesn't take a cut. or am i wrong about that? i mean if the game is already for sale on steam, it really makes a whole lot of sense to use steamworks (aside from the company wanting to "integrate" all their games with shitty services like uplay)

Yes, you can use Steamworks and it is free. However, it DOES require that the user install and get used to using Steam, which seems like a Roach Motel for a lot of gamers. They come in and they don't come out. So it's not really "free" as you are basically making the purchaser of your game get involved in the Steam ecosystem which potentially means you make less $ per copy sold in the future.

These publishers don't realize that they are already screwed. Basically, Steam has become so dominant that they feel like they HAVE to be in there, but internally (especially the corporate bigwigs), they don't WANT to have to be in there. They have these grand dreams about selling direct through the Internet and keeping that percentage they had to pay to Valve for themselves. So you get these strange decisions about alternate DRM and Steam as a result.

WE realize the battle is already over and Steam is the de facto "platform" for PC gaming. Some of these publishers refuse to accept that and stuff like this is the result.

 

[Duxxy3]

The PC division of ubisoft needs to be fired out of a cannon, asap.

 

[Stitch]

Oh my god, they can launch my windows calculator. Quick GAF what should I do? Should I put my Hard Disk in a frying pan to get rid of the DRM?

smh..

 

[picklecannon]

Was this recently added to uplay? I've played HoMM VI when it came out and it used uplay and I don't have the plugins.

 

[dramatis]

In Firefox Add-ons, if there is no Uplay plugin displaying, click "Check for plugin updates" (or something like that). The Uplay plugin shows up there even if it doesn't show up in the plugin list in the browser.

You might have to restart Firefox to get it to show up on the plugin list.

 

[MJLord]

Yes, you can use Steamworks and it is free. However, it DOES require that the user install and get used to using Steam, which seems like a Roach Motel for a lot of gamers. They come in and they don't come out. So it's not really "free" as you are basically making the purchaser of your game get involved in the Steam ecosystem which potentially means you make less $ per copy sold in the future.

These publishers don't realize that they are already screwed. Basically, Steam has become so dominant that they feel like they HAVE to be in there, but internally (especially the corporate bigwigs), they don't WANT to have to be in there. They have these grand dreams about selling direct through the Internet and keeping that percentage they had to pay to Valve for themselves. So you get these strange decisions about alternate DRM and Steam as a result.

WE realize the battle is already over and Steam is the de facto "platform" for PC gaming. Some of these publishers refuse to accept that and stuff like this is the result.

I agree with this, until someone can come up with a more appealing alternative DRM to steam, steam is here to stay

 

[DimmuBurgerKing]

Despite me having Uplay on my computer, I don't have any plugins of it in my Firefox or Chrome. I guess I never allowed the plugin to be installed when I had Uplay, I could imagine.

I don't know why anyone would want to install an arbitrary browser plugin that isn't needed for a game?

Same. I have a few games that have uPlay, but no plugin on any of my web browsers.

 

[CecilRousso]

Ubi is putting out some of the best games on the market right now.

I haven´t had any problems avoiding Ubi titles since they started with this kind of DRM. If that is because I actually don´t find them that interesting to begin with, or that the DRM makes them much less interesting, that I´m not completely unsure of.

What I do know is that I have more titles than I can play already, so I don´t feel like I have to beg them lot me play their titles, as they seem to want me to do.

 

[The Orange]

Oh my god, they can launch my windows calculator. Quick GAF what should I do? Should I put my Hard Disk in a frying pan to get rid of the DRM?

smh..

Posts like these are just as stupid as the extremes on the other side. An easy example: script runs the command line, opens a FTP connection to download a virus/whatever exploit software, and executes that.

 

[Rebel Leader]

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4311264

The important bit of that post:



The original post for the hack:

http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2012/Jul/375


Fixes before people start going crazy:

 

[Delusibeta]

Oh my god, they can launch my windows calculator. Quick GAF what should I do? Should I put my Hard Disk in a frying pan to get rid of the DRM?

smh..

Instead of "run calc.exe", the script could, for sake of example "delete USER folder".

smeg.

 

[old manatee]

Ubi is putting out some of the best games on the market right now.

List of affected games, with metacritic scores:

Assassin’s Creed II -86
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood -88
Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy -facebook game, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's probably not very good.
Assassin’s Creed Revelations -80
Assassin’s Creed III -unreleased
Beowulf: The Game -44
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 -unreleased, the preview video I watched made it look breathtakingly bad.
Call of Juarez: The Cartel -47
Driver: San Francisco -80
Heroes of Might and Magic VI -77
Just Dance 3 -70
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands -75
Pure Football -38
R.U.S.E. -76
Shaun White Skateboarding -61
Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic -62
The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom -79
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. 2 -66
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier -75
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction -83
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved -73

 

[PaulLFC]

Oh my god, they can launch my windows calculator. Quick GAF what should I do? Should I put my Hard Disk in a frying pan to get rid of the DRM?

smh..

Yes, how silly! Nobody will ever think to adapt this to run a more dangerous program!

...

smh...

 

[yogloo]

uhhh. I have the plugin in chrome. Disabled it. How do we check on IE?

 

[TheSeks]

uhhh. I have the plugin in chrome. Disabled it. How do we check on IE?

You mean ActiveX? You need to go into IE's options to disable it, IIRC. Because it's on by default due to MS using it for their service updates unless that's changed over the past five years.

 

[yogloo]

I have no idea. Everyone mentioned about how to disable them in chrome and firefox, but noone said how to do it in IE. Is IE not affected?

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

uhhh. I have the plugin in chrome. Disabled it. How do we check on IE?

IE9: Click the little gear icon -> Internet Options -> "Programs" Tab -> Manage add-ons

IE8: Click "Tools" -> Internet Options -> "Programs" Tab -> Manage add-ons

IE7: You need to upgrade, even if you aren't using IE.

There's probably a lot of stuff in there you can disable.

 

[Cipherr]

Oh my god, they can launch my windows calculator. Quick GAF what should I do? Should I put my Hard Disk in a frying pan to get rid of the DRM?

smh..

Are you serious? Theres a fucking rootkit here and you are trying to bomb on people for being upset about it?

This shit has got to stop. Whether it be intentional or not, something like this is worthy of the bellyaching it gets.

 

[Herb]

Would be nice for an official statement from Ubisoft. Or, next time we see Yves, we can spit on him.

 

[yogloo]

Found it. It is weird how it was not there awhile ago, but suddenly it appears. I guess it is because I never use IE. Once I opened it to check, it installed itself.

 

[Dog Problems]

At least Rayman Origins isn't effected by this.

 

[Bollocks]

lol rootkit, so many experts ._.

 

[Drillow]

Are Opera users affected too?

 

[I H8 Memes]

"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?”

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

this comes from pachter so get your salt out, but apaprently ubi stated that early on:

AC on PC sold 1 million at least, but AC2 only got around 100k - despite interest being at similar levels for both games

they think piracy affects their franchises a lot, and they're right, it affects all games.
but trying to tackle it with stupid ass always on DRM like they did with AC2 wont work

Those numbers can't possibly be right, because AC1 was one of the most pirated titles around.

The fact it was available on torrents literally months before their marketing plan allowed for it to be sold at retail was a major factor to that, but still.