Ubisoft piqued the curiosity of quite a few gaming sites when it announced that Splinter Cell Conviction would be arriving on PC April 27, two full weeks after the game’s Xbox 360 launch.  The gaming community was quick to assume that the delay could only be related to Ubisoft’s now-legendarily terrible DRM system, which requires players to maintain a constant internet connection in order to access the games they buy, however the company is trying to squash these rumors and explains the delay was caused by the game needing extra “polish.”

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Yesterday we got the news that Ubisoft’s total DRM failure was caused by an apparent “attack” on the servers, and now it would appear that those responsible are back in action.  The servers were brought down again today, completely blocking many players from accessing their games.

Ubi’s Twitter:

“Our servers are under attack again. Some gamers are experiencing trouble signing in. We’re working on it and will keep you posted”

While I can’t possibly condone screwing over innocent people to make a point, I do have to admit that whoever is doing so is making an exceptionally salient one: DRM only hurts real customers.  Ubisoft, it’s time to go back to the lab on this one.

This just keeps getting better.  Yesterday Ubisoft had a bit of an issue with its DRM system – mainly that it was preventing people from playing the games that they paid for.  Basically, if you wanted to play Assassin’s Creed 2 on your PC, you had to win a game of server roulette first.  An Ubi rep was quick to jump into the fray and let everyone know they were experiencing issues due to “exceptional demand,” but whoever that was must have forgotten to tell Ubisoft’s Twitter:

“Apologies to anyone who couldn’t play ACII or SH5 yesterday. Servers were attacked which limited service from 2:30pm to 9pm Paris time”

Rumor has it a bunch of unhappy gamers decided to denial-of-service the servers, causing massive outages and the general shitstorm we’ve been watching over the last 24 hours or so.  One has to wonder if this is enough evidence (finally) for Ubisoft to scrap the whole terrible idea and save face, but my guess is you shouldn’t hold your breath.

Hey, remember that time that Ubisoft decided to make the PC version of Assassin’s Creed 2 completely unplayable if you weren’t constantly connected to the internet and everyone said it was a stupid thing to do? Turns out, it was.

According to incensed posts over at Ubisoft’s official Assassin’s Creed 2 forum, the game’s authentication servers have crashed and are now either subjecting players to ridiculously long login screens or completely blocking their access to the game. Here’s what a Community Manager for Ubui had to say:

“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. 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.”

You know what would be “ideal?” Blocking piracy in a way that doesn’t make your game unplayable to everyone but the people who pirated it.