Ubisoft gives PC gamers another slap

Auvers · 29-03-2011 3:33pm #1

Ubisoft tries to stop mod team working on updating a 8 year old game the classic Rainbow 6, which is something similar to the complete mods for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series

Mod in question

Ubisoft sent them an official cease & desist letter

"Ladies (if there are any) and Gentlemen,

It's my deepest fathom of regret to inform you that we were issued an official cease & desist
order this afternoon; i quote 'to the effect of removing any distributive material of the software
and to attempt publication of any further materials' and as such we are unable to maintain a
continued effort in RavenShield 2.0; i will continue to work on this project privately but due to
the aforementioned result i am unable to publish this for enjoyable gameplay in online rooms.

Now, with that being said i will continue to work, and research these aspects but from all of
my legal ramifications of this mod, ie KetsuCorp and the threat of Copyright Infringements a
new scope is set upon the project. My apologies for anyone who spent time upon this game
and the 2.0 Project, our time *was* wasted and sadly we're subject to someone else's say.
For anyone who enjoyed the mod, and those who did not, you've been stripped of the liberty
to play such things, due to corporate and self sustained greed, fear and loathing of creativity.

I can't say it is not our faults, because we chose to create such software, knowing the very
real consequences, BUT i can say that the freedoms of tomorrows mods are threatened by
a variety of reasons, likely to do with money but we've no actual clear statement towards it.

To the RvSGaming community, i will intend to follow instruction and removing the software
in question, anyone who wishes to build from the software can ask me, and it will be solely
my decision on whether or not i allow that individual to create mods from the remaining data.
To those who felt that the mod was great, i appreciate your welcome gratitude, as it is also
our intentions to make more smiles, that being said i merely request you play this privately
and ensure it is not found in online servers. To those who felt it was not upto their very own
expectations; our apologies go to you but naturally this mod was aimed at the hardcore of
MilSim, regardless of how difficult it made gameplay for them. Perhaps HUDs better suit a
regular gamer, or MilSim team, but in our world we find immersion to be our main objective.

So with that being said, we intend to remove the data but leave screenshots as a tribute to
a community project, set ablaze by the desire of users and dowsed by the winds of greed.
Yeah, so i can only appreciate your respects toward my request to abide by these terms.

Goodbye RvSGaming.com!"

but thankfully the mod team has found a workaround and will be releasing the mod without changing and default files

personally I am disgusted by this and it begs the question is it game companies or pirates that are destroying the industry

AlmightyCushion · 29-03-2011 3:41pm

This is just daft. What does stopping the mod team accomplish? I can understand the thinking behind implementing ridiculous DRM. I don't agree with it but I can understand why the do it but why do this. Any thing that gives the people who bought your game more enjoyment from those games should be actively encouraged. Ubisoft are muppets.

PogMoThoin · 29-03-2011 3:41pm

Rainbow six 3: Raven Shield was amazing, we in the tactical shooter forum played it last year for a few weeks, I have it installed. I was looking forward to this mod, deadly to see they found a workaround

Greed is destroying the gaming industry, Ubisoft have just stooped to a new low

Kiith · 29-03-2011 3:54pm

The game is 8 years old. Ubisoft would probably make more money by encouraging this kind of mod, as people might actually go and buy the game to play the mod. There's no other reason to buy it, so why go to the time and effort of ordering a cease and desist?

Auvers · 29-03-2011 3:59pm

Kiith wrote: »

so why go to the time and effort of ordering a cease and desist?

I presume they want to reboot the series themselves and make a balls of it in the process

jimi_t2 · 29-03-2011 4:00pm

Kiith wrote: »

There's no other reason to buy it, so why go to the time and effort of ordering a cease and desist?

To protect their intellectual property if they intend using the engine, the brand, any of the graphics or sounds or IP therein again. Otherwise they'd be looking at a some serious court cases down the line. It's a pity, but its the way the law is set up - similar to why Squaresoft and the likes shut down that ChronoTrigger sequel that some modders were making. And THAT was for a SNES :rolleyes:

Fanny Cradock · 29-03-2011 4:31pm

They are protecting their intellectual property. While it sucks for the people who put all the work into the mod, it seems like Ubisoft are entirely within their legal rights to do this. While it is disappointing for the individuals involved, I don't see the problem.

gizmo · 29-03-2011 4:35pm

jimi_t2 wrote: »

To protect their intellectual property if they intend using the engine, the brand, any of the graphics or sounds or IP therein again. Otherwise they'd be looking at a some serious court cases down the line. It's a pity, but its the way the law is set up - similar to why Squaresoft and the likes shut down that ChronoTrigger sequel that some modders were making. And THAT was for a SNES :rolleyes:

This.

Plus said IP cost them over $100m when they bought the rights to the Tom Clancy series this time three years ago. On top of which, given Future Solider is due out in the next year, I wouldn't be surprised if Rainbow Six was next in line for another instalment.

EDIT: The logo they used probably also didn't help their case, "Raven Shield 2.0" would be bound to piss off any IP lawyer.

Auvers · 29-03-2011 4:54pm

Fanny Cradock wrote: »

I don't see the problem.

just good old common decency and knowing that a only few hundred people are going to play this mod as they own the original

its a free mod so nobody is making anything from this, so why pull the intellectual property bullsh1t?

humanji · 29-03-2011 5:15pm

Auvers wrote: »

just good old common decency and knowing that a only few hundred people are going to play this mod as they own the original

its a free mod so nobody is making anything from this, so why pull the intellectual property bullsh1t?

It's a blanket rule. It saves them having to differentiate between someone who's simply making a mod and someone who's planning on using their assets for profit. It's be a waste of time to have to go on a case by case basis and they're not losing out with the blanket ban.

Hercule · 29-03-2011 5:16pm

This stunted some other MOD i was following that heavily edited Chrono Trigger into a new game with several hours of storyline - Rather then pull this IP crap Ubisoft should claim ownership of their code - if Ravenshield 2.0 (unlikely) and money was to be made from it they could easily claim ownership of it.

I mean if valve/blizzard/activision did this kind of **** back in the late 90s there would be no mods and without mods they wouldnt have the lucrative cash-cows that are/were would we have had TF2/Dota 2 and perhaps ET:QW

Oafley Jones · 29-03-2011 5:40pm

Auvers wrote: »

just good old common decency and knowing that a only few hundred people are going to play this mod as they own the original

its a free mod so nobody is making anything from this, so why pull the intellectual property bullsh1t?

Companies have to aggressively protect their IP, as failure to do so could count against them if there was any challenge down the line by another company as regards rights. Same reason the like of Apple etc are so heavy handed when anything remotely comes into the sphere of their products names etc. It's silly I agree, but that's the nature of IP law.

Kiith · 29-03-2011 6:43pm

Stop using logic and let me be pissed off dammit :pac:

Overheal · 29-03-2011 9:50pm

Among other things, this is why I dropped out of Games Development.

Dyr · 29-03-2011 9:56pm

ubisoft have also managed to force the makers of il2: cliffs of dover to slap an epilepsy filter on to the graphics engine just prior to launch which is rumored to have knocked its FPS rate back into the stone age. How can these morons be still in business?

Fnz · 29-03-2011 10:28pm

Bambi wrote: »

ubisoft have also managed to force the makers of il2: cliffs of dover to slap an epilepsy filter on to the graphics engine just prior to launch which is rumored to have knocked its FPS rate back into the stone age. How can these morons be still in business?

You're implying the publisher was wrong to to that? I'm not sure that I agree, though it does suck that it has effected performance.

gizmo · 29-03-2011 10:45pm

Bambi wrote: »

ubisoft have also managed to force the makers of il2: cliffs of dover to slap an epilepsy filter on to the graphics engine just prior to launch which is rumored to have knocked its FPS rate back into the stone age. How can these morons be still in business?

*sigh*

And why do you think they forced 1C to implement the filter? For ****s and giggles? Highly doubtful, it was more than likely due to some form of regulation which Ubisoft were abiding by, probably along the same lines as the volume filter on European mobile audio products. Here's an excerpt from a post by a 1C dev:

We CANNOT make these optional. That will allow an opportunistic or an unfortunate person suffering from epilepsy to sue Ubisoft for damages and literally close down the studio for good.

This was a stop-gap measure to make sure the game gets released. As I explained in the clumsily-translated Russian article, everything in our game causes seizures - gunfire, explosions, fire, sun passing behind canopy framework, etc. Basically flight sims are an epileptic's nightmare.

Despite what was said above however, the filter is now being made optional as of the patch due in a couple of days.

Fanny Cradock · 29-03-2011 11:40pm

Auvers wrote: »

just good old common decency and knowing that a only few hundred people are going to play this mod as they own the original

its a free mod so nobody is making anything from this, so why pull the intellectual property bullsh1t?

But they aren't in the business of common decency. They exist to make cash, and loads of it. They probably felt that allowing mods of their titles might directly or indirectly endanger future profits.

dreamers75 · 29-03-2011 11:42pm

Was looking forward to RVS 2.0 we were gonna switch our server to it

Dyr · 29-03-2011 11:53pm

gizmo wrote: »

*sigh*

And why do you think they forced 1C to implement the filter? For ****s and giggles? Highly doubtful, it was more than likely due to some form of regulation which Ubisoft were abiding by, probably along the same lines as the volume filter on European mobile audio products. Here's an excerpt from a post by a 1C dev:

Despite what was said above however, the filter is now being made optional as of the patch due in a couple of days.

The info that is circulating is that this is a voluntary regulation that ubisoft signed up for, undoubtedly as PR, so be a good man and go and *sigh* at someone else.

Luthier from maddox has only clarified tonight that they are now going to make it possible to disable the feature, his initial comments were that there would be no option to disable a "feature" that was going crucify a game that has been in development for 8 years.

gizmo · 30-03-2011 12:08am

Bambi wrote: »

The info that is circulating is that this is a voluntary regulation that ubisoft signed up for, undoubtedly as PR, so be a good man and go and *sigh* at someone else.

Luthier from maddox has only clarified tonight that they are now going to make it possible to disable the feature, his initial comments were that there would be no option to disable a "feature" that was going crucify a game that has been in development for 8 years.

Well before referring to Ubisoft as "morons" do you not think it would be better to find out whether the regulations were voluntary or not?

And on that note, if the epilepsy triggers within the game were as severe as the developers alluded to, shouldn't they have included the optional filter during earlier stages of development rather than not planning one and then leaving Ubisoft open to lawsuits?

The *sigh* is simply to highlight the fact that there's far too much mindless bandwagon jumping on the Ubisoft hate train for this move. From the info available so far it looks like they did the right thing and it was 1C who should have planned for this in advance.

Turtwig · 30-03-2011 9:20pm

It is actually still not clear whether Ubi sent the C&D for RVS 2.0 or if it was fact an elaborate prank.

@Gizmo well before the mod was released the developers of mod had said that Ubi had no problem with the name Ravenshield 2.0. So if there was in fact a genuine C&D it wasn't because of the mod's name.

gizmo · 30-03-2011 9:57pm

Malty_T wrote: »

It is actually still not clear whether Ubi sent the C&D for RVS 2.0 or if it was fact an elaborate prank.

@Gizmo well before the mod was released the developers of mod had said that Ubi had no problem with the name Ravenshield 2.0. So if there was in fact a genuine C&D it wasn't because of the mod's name.

Fingers crossed it is a prank alright.

As for the name thing, well that was me just guessing. I'm quite surprised it wasn't brought up though as generally these mods tend to use an alternate name which is still synonymous with the series in order to avoid such trouble.

Turtwig · 24-05-2011 10:13pm

Bumping an age old thread here, but this is surely relevant.

As expected this was nothing but a trollish prank. Ubisoft did not issue a C&D and the mod is 100% for now. Assuming, of course the actual Ubisoft doesn't decide to issue a Cease and Desist. And for what it worth, I thought the mod itself was fairly poor lol.:D

Ubisoft gives PC gamers another slap

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