Ubisoft has completely canned its always-on DRM in a favour of a single-activation system, after which games may be played offline.

There would be no limit on the number of activations or PCs a game was activated on, the company confirmed.

“Whenever you want to reach any online service, multiplayer, you will have to be connected, and obviously for online games you will also need to be online to play,” said Ubisoft’s worldwide director for online games Stephanie Perotti.

“But if you want to enjoy Assassin’s Creed III single player, you will be able to do that without being connected. And you will be able to activate the game on as many machines as you want.”

The move marked a huge reversal for the company, but nonetheless one many gamers feel was long overdue.

It is widely believed that always-on DRM only penalises those who legitimately purchase a game, while doing nothing to prevent piracy.

Ubisoft has claimed in the past that confidential data it gathered showed that always-on DRM was a success.

“I’m not going to comment on data,” said Perotti.

The company would not call its always-on system a success now, but even when pressed, wouldn’t call it a failure either.

“We’ve heard you. We’ve heard customers. We want to find a balanced way to protect our IPs and our games, and at the same time trade off frustrations or issues for PC gamers, and improve the policies of our games and services.”