Ubisoft: Caught pirating its own soundtrack.

[General Zod]

I hope you didn't buy the collector's edition of AC: Brotherhood on the PC.

Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood is finally coming to the PC later this month, after hitting consoles last November. To make amends, the publisher is releasing a digital deluxe version of the game, complete with a wide range of extras, including a copy of the game's soundtrack. The problem? It looks like that soundtrack may actually be a torrented version.

As one Reddit user discovered after preordering the game, all but one of the soundtrack's 23 songs lists the phrase "encoded by Arsa13" in its ID3 tag. A quick search reveals several uploaded versions of the AC:B soundtrack that came packed with the collector's edition of the game on various torrents, attributed to one Arsa13.

So did Ubisoft actually take a pirated version of its own soundtrack to include as a bonus? It certainly looks that way, though the company doesn't seem to have much to say about it, telling Eurogamer simply that the situation is under investigation.

But this wouldn't be the first time that something like this happened. Back in 2008, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 users who had digital versions of the game were having issues, as the game required a disc to be playable. Ubisoft updated the game with a patch that allowed the game to be played without a disc. Problem was, that patch was actually created by pirate group Reloaded and used without attribution.

Ars has contacted Ubisoft for comment but has yet to hear back.

This is kind of hilarious because it smacks of being lazy and unprofessional. I mean if I get a collector's edition I expect the soundtrack to be encoded from the source audio, not some half-assed FLAC transcode that might have all kinds of errors in it.

[Molyneux]

I haven't bought any Assassin's Creed game since the first; I'm boycotting Ubisoft until they stop using that stupid-as-fuck DRM scheme that kicks you out of the game if your Internet connection goes down.

I'm honestly not too surprised at this. Corporate stupidity is an infectious bug.

[DaveJB]

According to PC Gamer, Brotherhood has a much less restrictive version of the DRM scheme and only requires you to connect to the internet and activate it after the initial installation. After that, you can play it offline wherever and whenever you like; you only need to go online if you want to use the multiplayer mode.

[weemadando]

In a moment of hilarious coincidence, on Friday Ubisoft's AU webstore melted down and priced the majority of it's products down to a special promo price of $0.00. This was followed by their servers melting down as they were HAMMERED by thousands of people going on shopping sprees.

[Zixinus]

In a moment of hilarious coincidence, on Friday Ubisoft's AU webstore melted down and priced the majority of it's products down to a special promo price of $0.00. This was followed by their servers melting down as they were HAMMERED by thousands of people going on shopping sprees.

Hacker attack or sheer incompetence on their part?

[General Zod]

In a moment of hilarious coincidence, on Friday Ubisoft's AU webstore melted down and priced the majority of it's products down to a special promo price of $0.00. This was followed by their servers melting down as they were HAMMERED by thousands of people going on shopping sprees.

Hacker attack or sheer incompetence on their part?

I'm betting on incompetence. It's not the first time it's happened.

[Zixinus]

It's not the first time that have managed to actually brake their own system to the point that it's giving out free stuff for people?

...

WHAT THE HELL IS THE GUY IN CHARGE SMOKING?

[weemadando]

Probably the same thing that leads to them repeatedly selling pirated content?

[General Zod]

It's not the first time that have managed to actually brake their own system to the point that it's giving out free stuff for people?

I was able to snag the Assassin's Creed bundle and Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands for a buck each a few months ago, so . . .

[Molyneux]

According to PC Gamer, Brotherhood has a much less restrictive version of the DRM scheme and only requires you to connect to the internet and activate it after the initial installation. After that, you can play it offline wherever and whenever you like; you only need to go online if you want to use the multiplayer mode.

Damn, that's good news. AssCreeBro is back on my "to-buy, eventually" list for that.
Wish they'd make it retroactive to Assassin's Creed 2 as well.

[weemadando]

Awww. How cute. It's a guilt trip e-mail.

TO OUR UBISHOP CUSTOMERS


Last week, the Australian Ubishop site was showing that nearly all of its games were available for a 100% discount. This was obviously a systems error that has now been fixed.

As you were quick enough to act on this error, we would like to advise that Ubisoft will honour this sale at the full discount. We hope that you enjoy the games, and invite you to visit our website again to view our upcoming PC lineup, and our regular promotions. Admittedly, they probably won’t be quite as generous as the one you have just taken advantage of...




Best regards,
The Ubishop team