When it rains, it pours at StarForce
Several websites are reporting that Ubisoft employees have confirmed StarForce DRM will not show up in upcoming Ubisoft titles. Galaad from CelestialHeavens.com (a Heroes of Might and Magic Fansite) claims Ubisoft and Nival are dropping StarForce DRM completely.
The original forum thread (English) contains a Ubisoft employee claiming "We have decided that the anti-copy protection used on the future Ubisoft games won't be the StarForce software" (translated French to English). There was no mention of what DRM would replace StarForce, though comments from other employees among the Ubi forums indicate that no future Ubisoft titles will be DRM-free.
StarForce, the DRM software for several high profile PC games, has been in the news a few times over the last several months. Three months ago, the company drew some attention for a bet made with its users. Comments made by some of the StarForce employees later helped skyrocket the sales of a competing product, and then to round things off angry customers sued Ubisoft over StarForce a few weeks ago anyway.
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Ubisoft officially dumps Starforce
Citing "complaints," the publisher ends its relationship with the copyright-protection provider.
Following several days of rumors, Ubisoft has officially confirmed that it will no longer use the controversial digital-rights software from Starforce. "Ubisoft has decided to use an alternative copy protection system to Starforce for upcoming releases," said a rep for the company. The announcement means that Starforce software will not be included in Heroes of Might and Magic V, the publisher's much-anticipated forthcoming PC role-playing game.
Ubisoft's decision caps weeks of controversy surrounding Starforce. In Mid-march, an employee of the Russian-German-Chinese-Cypriot company was accused of posting a link to a site where users could illegally download Stardock's space-sim Galactic Civilizations II: Dread Lords. Shortly, thereafter, Aspyr Media decided to sever its relationship with Starforce and remove its software from its forthcoming game, Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars.
Ubisoft's motivation for ending its agreement with Starforce was more personal. At the end of March, the company was slapped with a $5 million lawsuit by gamers who claimed that Starforce's DRM system compromised the security of their PCs. "We are currently investigating complaints about alleged problems with Starforce’s software," said the Ubisoft rep.
By Tor Thorsen -- GameSpot
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6147655.html
