It was bound to happen sooner or later – we just didn't expect it quite so soon. Ubisoft's new and controversial always-online DRM authentication servers crashed over the weekend, preventing customers from playing legally purchased copies of games such as Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5.
The service has apparently been restored by now, but of course furious players had already flooded official forums complaining that they were unable to access games or save any progress, while those using illegally downloaded versions remained unaffected. A Community Manager for Ubisoft agreed that the error was 'unacceptable,' and later gave a statement saying their servers were having difficulty coping with the "exceptional demand."
While it's concerning that they didn't anticipate this exceptional demand for two rather anticipated titles over their launch weeks, or prepared adequately for the first real test of its always-online DRM authentication system, Ubisoft has now changed its tune and is saying the downtime was caused by an attack to its servers.