Ubisoft to ditch StarForce DRM for new application

Ubisoft has announced it's replacing its StarForce digital rights management application for a newer method.

Now, customers who purchase PC titles from the company will connect to a Ubi.com account to authenticate games online each time a title is played, which means in order to play - you will always have to be connected to the internet.

Players won't need the the game disc in the drive for authentication, it allows unlimited installations, and all customer save data will be stored remotely on Ubisoft servers - which means no offline play support should your internet go down.

"If you own a hundred PCs, you can install your games on a hundred PCs," Brent Wilkinson, director of production planning at Ubisoft, told GamsSpy "We think most people are going to be fine with it. Most people are always connected to an Internet connection."

The new DRM is expected to debut during the closed Beta for The Settlers 7 and is slated to become standard with all Ubisoft PC releases.

This includes the PC release of Assassin's Creed 2, which hits the UK March 5 and North America March 16.

There's a FAQ for the new SecuROM system through here.

Thanks, Edge.