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On paper, the decision to force PC games to maintain a persistent Internet connection as part of their DRM protection measures is a terrible one - yet this week it's been revealed that Electronic Arts plans to follow in Ubisoft's footsteps by forcing Command & Conquer 4 players to remain connected to EA's servers while playing. Any interruption in the connection will result in the game being suspended - even in single-player mode.
EA obviously sees some merit to this system which the rest of the world has missed. To describe Ubisoft's similar protection methods for Assassin's Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 as "much-maligned" would be understating the case quite dramatically.
Hammered before launch by critics for being yet another example of DRM which cripples the products purchased by legitimate consumers but does little to hamper those who planned to pirate the game in the first place, the system proceeded to score PR own-goals by being cracked within hours (in the case of Silent Hunter 5 - a crack for Assassin's Creed II followed shortly afterwards) and then by dramatically failing on the first weekend, when Ubisoft's servers went down and prevented customers (but not pirates) from playing the games.
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Today's feature
Connection Failure
EA is copying Ubisoft's persistent connection DRM - a desperate measure for a market in its twilight years
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