Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood drops always-online DRM

Assassins Creed Brotherhood

Ubisoft have dropped their controversial DRM system for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. The old system required players to be permanently connected to the internet, even when playing in single player. A dropped connection would pause the game, and could even cause gamers to lose progress.

Ubisoft have confirmed that Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood will require an initial verification log-in, but after that the game will be playable without an internet connection.

It was noticed last week that the Steam page for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood didn't list a constant internet connection as a requirement for the game. VG247 have since spoken to a Ubisoft representative who confirmed that the DRM system that plagued Assassin's Creed 2 will not be applied to the sequel.

“The PC version of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood, after an initial login, will be playable offline in single player mode. Of course, to play the multiplayer portions, one will have to be online obviously, but at least the single-player portion will be playable offline."

The game's due out on March 17 in America, and March 18 in Europe. Check out our Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood preview for an idea of how the sequel is stepping up its game for a PC release.

Tom Senior

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.