A lot of people were annoyed when publisher Ubisoft announced that it planned to introduce a new anti-piracy scheme based around an online authentication every time the game is fired up and also on players being connected to the Internet and to the official servers for every second of every minute of playtime.

The scheme is now tested in the Settlers VII beta and has not been confirmed as being implemented in the new Splinter Cell title, which was previously thought to contain simple disk checks.

Talking to PC Gamer, a representative from Ubisoft confirmed that Splinter Cell: Conviction, Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic, Assassin's Creed 2 for the PC, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and the all new Ghost Recon title would have the same Internet always on-based Digital Rights Management scheme. He stated that "It's hard for us to say, yes, from now until the day that we all die all of our games are going to include this but most will.”