Update
After several months, it looks like Ubisoft has brought the game back online. Players can enjoy the game once again and purchase it for the first time if they missed out. While DRM made the game unplayable, the outcry from players left the studio fixing the game to allow them access once again.
Original Story…
Gaming has its own set of safety measures to ensure that those who are trying to play a game are doing so legally. Known as DRM, these measures are made to stop those from pirating the game or obtaining an illegal copy to enjoy on their own. However, it’s been a tough topic for plenty of players as there have been issues that popped up with DRM. Now it looks like DRM is what’s causing Might & Magic 10 Legacy to get killed off completely.
There’s a variety of different DRMs out there. Companies place DRM on their video game projects to sway off pirates as mentioned above. However, there are plenty of gamers out there that find DRM to be problematic for a variety of reasons. You’ll find that two big issues typically come up when you’ll find a thread online about going against DRM. For one, there’s the situation where sometimes DRM can bog down the video game performance. This might not be a huge drop in performance, but those that want the absolute best experience possible may find that adding DRM could take away from that goal.
Another reason that fans have been against DRM is the fact that there are some DRMs out there that will require online connectivity to authenticate the game. This may cause some games to always be connected online or for an initial boost for the title. That’s the reason we’re seeing Might & Magic 10 Legacy get dropped from digital storefronts. It looks like Ubisoft has implemented a DRM to this game in 2014 that required players to always connect online.
With that said, the servers were recently dropped and this made it impossible to now play the game. Fans were quick to complain over the loss of a game that they paid money for. But so far we saw Ubisoft request the game to be removed from digital storefronts to prevent other players from picking up a copy. That might keep newcomers from paying for a game that they can’t start up. It’s left quite a disappointment over fans who want to continue playing the title today. We’re uncertain if Ubisoft will have a fix, but this is likely going to be quite the prime example of why DRM such as online connectivity to play games is a bad idea.
Source: Eurogamer