I haven't messed with any of Ubisoft's DRM for PC, but this can't be good and I would be livid:



Ubisoft DRM Authentication Servers Go Down

I believe that this unfortunately is one of the reasons non MMO PC games are on the decline..

I had a friend get hit by this, they're trying to sell it as a feature by having all your saved game info uploaded, pointless as its obviously just for DRM, but I can understand why they would go that route due to all the piracy.
Although I question why a game in a retail store for the PC costs as much as a console game that has subsidised hardware, unrealistic prices in my opinion.

Still, the problem was apparently due to an attack, I wonder who was responsible?

I can't figure out what is going on with PC's and the PC gaming industry, there were consoles around for years when I started with my first Dragon 32 that my father managed to buy the family a few months before they went bankrupt, later I moved onto a Spectrum 128k+3 (awesomely useful 3" disc drive, double sided discs will and always shall be a thing of the future :D).

Then later onto a Amiga 500, Amiga 1200 and finally a Amiga 4000. All the while there was a viable console around, finally I sucumbed to a PC and have been using one ever since.

The bit I just don't get it there have been great consoles around all that time, a personal/home computer existed alongside them all that time and yet now it feels like computer literacy is waning. PC gaming feels mostly stagnant, some good titles come out, but the bulk are a lot of rehashing old/console games, same for newer MMO's. It feels like the innovative and sometimes wacky games companies have died out and been replaced by formuliac money machines, maybe the core problem is that too many companies now have commities designing games based on surveys and market leaders games, rather then enthusiasts/groups of enthusiasts designing something they think is cool?

That still doesn't to me explain the falling computer literacy/computer usage, I know things are more complicated to start in now, maybe it was just that consoles hit a golden period, and combined with the end of home computers resulted in a newer generation of people not getting involved in computing?

While PC gaming is still big out there (if a PC was a console it would be the biggest market share still), I do see a real problem with some people not understanding the basics of how their computer works, and therefore unable to get the best out of games. The big companies here are pretty useless in giving this information, either they sell pish that struggles to draw a colour spreadsheet, or they call it a "gaming PC", slap it in a colourful plastic case, and charge 2x the price.

As for the future, MMO's look ok although I think we'll see WoW die off in the next few years (it failed to grow its subscriber base last year for the first time), the sooner its on the decline the better I think for the rest of the gaming industry as it will tell games companies that people want something different.

Anyway, turned into a bit of a rant :) But its something I've been puzzling over for a while now.