Ubisoft Suffers Server 'Attack' Affecting DRM And 'Assassin's Creed 2'

Ubisoft servers used to authenticate "Assassin's Creed 2" and "Silent Hunter 5" players went offline for a time on Sunday, and the outage reignited controversy surrounding the company's new DRM protection. Their response primarily downplayed the number of users affected by the crippled service and clearly identified the incident as an 'attack,' but it also apologized for the interruption.

"Servers were attacked and while the servers did not go down, service was limited from 2.30pm to 9pm Paris time [1.30pm - 8pm GMT]," Ubisoft told Eurogamer in an official statement. "95 per cent of players were not affected, but a small group of players attempting to open a game session did receive denial of service errors."

Since Ubisoft now requires games to check in periodically with its servers to continue functioning, the six-hour incident resulted in new players being unable to log on and play. Initializing new game sessions became a non-option, though the statement denied that players who were already logged on got booted.

"All players with an open session during the attack were not affected," Ubisoft said. "We also confirm that, at this time, no valid cracked version of either 'Silent Hunter 5' or 'Assassin’s Creed 2' are available."

PC gamers are a resourceful bunch, and their reaction to this new DRM isn't unlike the backlash "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" saw when it moved away from dedicated servers. They also know how to get the attention of publishers and fellow players alike with moves like this -- whether or not they change policies in the end.

Were you affected by the server outage on Sunday? Do you think Ubisoft should rethink their DRM system? Sound off in the comment section below.

Tags assassin's creed 2, silent hunter 5, ubisoft