You may remember that the development team behind the upcoming SimCity game held a Reddit AMA, and that the community there gave them a hard time for making the game use a DRM scheme that required players to be always connected to the Internet even when they are playing the single-player portion of the game.

The developers at EA Maxis decided on Friday that it would be a good idea to participate in an AMA ("ask me anything") discussion thread on Reddit. The discussion quickly turned from a discussion about the gameplay in the next SimCity game to questions about the company's planned DRM scheme. The next SimCity game will require users to be "always connected" when playing multiplayer or single-player and will also save game progress online.

No matter what you think of Uplay (PC gamers know it as a future digital distribution platform and as facilitator of horrible always-on DRM masquerading as something else - particularly for PC gamers), what Ubisoft is trying to do with it on Wii U is interesting because it adds a number of features to its games on the platform.

In Episode 31 of the Super Podcast Action Committee hosts Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight discuss if the gender and race of a main character matters, the Humble THQ Bundle, the importance of play-testing, more Uplay woes, DRM, and other forms of tomfoolery. Download it now: SuperPAC Episode 31 (1 hour, 14 minutes) 68 MB.

Ubisoft is apologizing to Far Cry 3 players for issues with the company's Uplay online gaming service. Some players have reported that they were unable to play the game because of Uplay server issues. Apparently setting the Uplay client to offline mode allows players to play part of the game, according to Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Popular indie game making tool, Game Maker, has a bit of a DRM problem. Over the weekend, some users noticed that the tool was permanently vandalizing their sprites with images of a skull.

A recent update to Game Maker Studio has left many developers confused and frustrated after an anti-piracy system went haywire.

 

No doubt you have already heard that Valve co-founder and top executive Gabe Newell and Mojang co-founder Markus Persson think that Windows 8 is horrible for PC gamers and game developers because it uses a closed app store approach to presenting software to customers. Now Croteam's chief technical offer Alen Ladavac has added his two cents to the discussion. The CTO for the company behind the Serious Sam series said in a recent Steam Community forum post that Gabe Newell was right.

If you thought you could play an Electronic Arts game on Nintendo's upcoming Wii U console without having an account on its Origin network then you are so very sadly mistaken. A change in EA's privacy policy reveals that Wii U users who want to play Wii U games online will need to have an Origin account and a "Nintendo Network ID." Of course, this also means that - by signing up for an Origin account - you give EA permission to collect your email address, Mii information, friend list, country, language, and date of birth.

The popular DRM-free digital distribution platform Good Old Games, finally supports the Mac OS operating system - though not every game in its catalog is available at this time. GOG is currently offering 50 games on OS X including Syndicate and Wing Commander 1 & 2. More Mac-compatible titles will be released in the future on an on-going basis.

Nine of the developers who have games in Humble Indie Bundle 6 have gotten together to answer questions via an "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) thread on Reddit.

Earlier in the month Ubisoft announced that it would turn its Uplay game community hub into a digital distribution platform, and with last week's news that it had toned down its DRM scheme for PC releases, today's news is really a no brainer. The company said today that - at some point - it would like to bring third-party titles to the platform.

Rights groups are turning up the rhetoric on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), claiming that the new treaty being negotiated by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and other countries in the Pacific Rim will bring back controversial copyright enforcement provisions pushed by some US policymakers in recent bills and treaties such as ACTA, SOPA and PIPA.

E. Zachary Knight makes a triumphant return in Episode 19 of the Super Podcast Action Committee. After a near-death experience (we might be slightly exaggerating) last week, he rejoins host Andrew Eisen to discuss getting older (be sure to wish him a happy birthday today!) Steam Greenlight's early hurdles, the latest GamePolitics poll, and Ubisoft's new DRM policy. Download it here: SuperPAC Episode 19 (57 Minutes).

An interview with Chris Early, vice president of digital publishing at Ubisoft, and another interview with Ubisoft's Stephanie Perotti reveals that the company is finally starting to turn the corner on its "always-on" DRM schemes for PC games.

We forgot to mention this yesterday: The latest Humble Bundle - Humble Bundle for Android 3 - has added four new games into the mix: Anomaly: Warzone Earth, EDGE, Osmos, and World of Goo. All four of these games were in the very first Humble Android Bundle so if you didn't get in on the ground floor of that one, consider this an official do-over. As always games in the bundle are DRM-free and you can pay what you want for them. The bonus games require a bit more of a commitment.

In Episode 16 of the Super Podcast Action Committee, Andrew Eisen and James Fudge (filling in for E. Zachary Knight, who had to take a well-deserved time-out to fawn over a new addition to his family this week) talk about Mugen Souls, Resident Evil 5, the chaos of OnLive, the irony of Ubisoft turning Uplay into a digital distribution platform, and the controversy over "girlfriends" and Borderlands 2. Download Episode 16 here: SuperPAC Episode 16 (1 Hour, 12 Minutes).

The last time we reported on Ubisoft's Uplay, the company was denying that its program installed a rootkit on consumers' computers. From that media buzz, the company thought it would be a great time to announce that it is rolling out Uplay as a full-fledged digital distribution platform not unlike Steam or Origin.

Organizers of the Humble Bundle have launched a brand new bundle today - Humble Bundle for Android #3. While it might be specifically named for Android-based devices, organizers emphasize that all of the five games in the bundle are also playable on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

As always, those who want to buy this bundle pay what they want for it, giving their cash to the developers or one of two charities: the Electronic Frontier Foundation or Child's Play.

CD Projekt RED's DRM-free role-playing game The Witcher 2 has swept the European Games Awards. The game won awards for Best European Art Direction, Best European Character Design, Best European Gameworld, Best European Game Design, Best European Game, and Best European Special Edition.

Battlefield 3 did pretty well too, scoring awards for Best European Action Game, Best European Multiplayer Game, Best European Console Game, and Best European Sound.

Peter Moore announced at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany today that the company will be bringing its digital distribution service Origin to the Mac and several other platforms. Moore also claimed that over 21 million people were now using EA's service. Of course, if you play an EA game it is mandatory that you use Origin, which certainly drives up user numbers.

Over the weekend fans were delighted to learn that they could pick up the PC version of Square Enix's popular RPG, Final Fantasy VII for $12.70 on www.finalfantasyviipc.com, but then started having problems with the DRM system it uses, SecuROM. When players tried to start the game, the SecuROM DRM failed to authenticate their purchase. Naturally those who bought the game were quite irate.

In episode 14 of the Super Podcast Action Committee, Andrew Eisen and E. Zachary Knight talk about the UK researcher who thinks parents should be arrested for buying their children age inappropriate games, Ubisoft's rootkit controversy, the results from last week's poll at GamePolitics about Humble Bundles, EA's lawsuit against Zynga, the death of the Cybersecurity Act in the Senate, and a whole lot more.

Ubisoft calls yesterday's story about a rootkit being found in Uplay false and blames "a coding error" for the security hole. Ubisoft denied the whole "rootkit" angle altogether. After quickly patching the Uplay software yesterday, the company issued a statement saying that a coding error was the cause of the software being able to launch any executable on a remote computer - a fact hackers demonstrated as a proof of concept this week.

While some in the Linux community have lauded the idea of Steam coming to the popular open-source operating system, some like Richard Stallman think it is not a good idea. Richard Stallman is better known as the founder of the Free Software Foundation and the GNU operating system. He has said publicly that charging users for DRM-protected games on an open-source platform is "unethical".

Update: The BBC is reporting that Ubisoft has rushed to patch the exploit unearthed by a Google engineer in its Uplay DRM. The company also issued instructions for Uplay users:

"We recommend that all Uplay users update their Uplay PC application without a Web browser open," Ubisoft said. "This will allow the plug-in to update correctly. An updated version of the Uplay PC installer with the patch also is available from Uplay.com."

Taking a break from offering DRM-free pay-what-you-want indie games, the folks behind the Humble Indie Bundle are trying out a new medium - music. Today they announced the Humble Music Bundle, offering six digital albums from the likes of Cristopher Tin, They Might Be Giants, Jonathan Coulton, MC Frontalot, and Hitoshi Sakimoto (who created the music for Valkyria Chronicles).

Gaming Blend is reporting that the German consumer advocacy group the Federation of Consumer Organizations is giving Blizzard until July 27 to fix problems with its "always on" DRM system for Diablo III or it will seek a remedy in court. The group warned Blizzard in June that it wanted the company to change its retail packaging to reflect that the game required an Internet connection to play and that the connection must be persistent.

Blizzard President Mike Morhaime posted a rather lengthy open letter on Battle.net to talk about the launch of Diablo III, the problems associated with that launch, the need for the "always-on" requirement, and what the company has planned for the game in the future.

Morhaime starts by talking about how the launch was a smashing success, but noted that it is hard to predict how the number of players they would have to deal with at launch in advance.

Epic Games producer Tanya Jessen has said that the company has not ruled out the possibility of requiring that users always be connected to a server in order to play its upcoming zombie survival game Fortnite. While digital rights management is a factor, Jessen says that what the company does will be more dependent on gameplay and platform.

If you bought an Ubisoft game available as part of Steam's massive Summer Sale, you may experience what users are feeling right about now: angst and rage. Apparently some players who bought Ubisoft games have found that they cannot play them because of uPlay, the online service in charge of validating DRM in many of Ubisoft's titles.