I reached out to Ubisoft and was told that an internet connection is required to install the game no matter which version you are playing. However, Ubisoft did confirm that you’ll be able to play Outlaws offline once you’ve installed it.
Am I missing something here. How big is the game because online install has been a thing some 2008 because games are larger than DVD and Blu-ray disk’s.
A Blu-ray can hold up to 128GB. Most games aren’t bigger than that, though some are. And including multiple discs to fit the entire game used to be standard practice, and could still easily be done.
This is for DRM, online install for a physical game has always been solely for DRM.
You’re new to Ubisoft, right? Ubisoft needs online on installation cm because their shit is so buggy that not even the installer could make it all the way without a crash if not for day 1 patches. No need for DRM if the game doesn’t work!
I wouldn’t say I’m new to Ubisoft, more that they haven’t released a game I’ve been interested in playing since Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.
As for day one patches being a necessity for games, I would argue that if a game has major game breaking bugs on final release (AKA launch day) then the game isn’t worth playing, much less spending money on.
If a game can’t even install on a system that meets its minimum requirements without needing a patch, then I’d say that’s a feature not a bug. Since it tells me that I should strongly reconsider purchasing anything from that publisher in the future.
I truly don’t know because I’m not the demographic, but do most people have a Blu-ray drive in their PC? I got one years ago but haven’t put a disc drive in a build since.
Edit: me forgetting about consoles. I’ve been all digital on all platforms for too long. Also, has anyone printed on discs that large?
Bit late to respond, but as someone else pointed out, physical PC games are virtually nonexistent. Even the collector’s edition of Baldur’s Gate 3 I recently bought came as a steam key and a disk with the steam client installer and a few files for the game to make Steam think the game is installed and force an update. I was pretty disappointed by that.
And no, most people don’t have a blu-ray drive or any kind of optical media reader in their PCs these days.
As for whether or not disks that large are printed on by publishers, most physical PS5 games are printed in disks of that capacity as are 4K blu-ray releases of movies.
Thank you for the response! I found this:
The PlayStation 5 does not support CDs and will not play 3D Blu-ray content. The choice of Ultra-HD Blu-ray as the disc medium means PlayStation 5 game discs can hold up to 100 GB of data, in contrast to PlayStation 4 games which usually came on dual-layer standard Blu-ray discs capable of holding up to 50 GB.
It’s DRM to authenticate your install. Also not a new thing, but still not great.
It’s definitely not going to stop someone from getting around that and pirating it.
Ummm, so do most other games???
It’s only required for installation, can play offline. I know it’s not great for long term preservation, but tbh this isn’t the worst drm I’ve seen.
I got shafted moving house and playing Hitman, my progress saved but I without a connection my scores didnt save. So I got to level 2 but I got no credit for level 1.
Absolutely screw all kinds of drm, I will pirste Squares 007 game if they put thebalways online shit in it.
The whole Internet?
Who cares? As long as you’re able to play offline I don’t see why this matters at all. Out of all the shitty DRM’s these days this seems like it’s at least mildly effective without being too much of a hassle or a violation of privacy and security. Kotaku just whines about anything.
Wait how would i download and install the game otherwise?
Without internet.
Even on consoles is this even news anymore? It may not be every game that requires it but there’s no way this is now so unusual as to be worth pointing out in an article of it’s own. The time to get pissy about that was, what, 10 years ago?