Opinions of game quality will always be divided. Some gamers enjoyed No Mans Sky despite the sea of negative press against it, but there are some interesting takeaways for why so many fans are so displeased with the new South Park: The Fractured But Whole game. This is especially true considering the overwhelmingly positive reviews were for the first game and the very positive reviews from critics towards the current iteration. However, the complaints leveled against the title do seem to hold water.

The fan outrage is due in large part to the stuffing of DRM and Uplay onto the PC version. With DRM being pushed ever more aggressively by some companies, even as some studies show pirating is largely a non-issue, this issue seems to only be growing as factor in the appeal and purchasing of games. Back when pirating was at an all-time high, many gamers felt sympathetic towards the plight, but as DRMs have become increasingly intrusive and burdensome, the community has slowly turned against them.

The inclusion of Uplay is another factor that often feels like an invasion. For the PC, most gamers turn to Steam, a platform they enjoy or at the very least tolerate, but Steam comes with numerous advantages for all its ubiquity. Uplay has never shared that level of success or acceptance, largely because it denies users things like offline play and feels shoehorned into the product.

That isn’t to say that there aren’t complaints about other factors – many have cited the first game as the benchmark that The Fracture But Whole simply doesn’t measure to. Some users have complained about glitching and errors in the PC version as well as many have cited this title to be less funny than the first title.  Either way, what is becoming clear is that gamers disdain for intrusive software is starting to affect purchasing.

If Ubisoft hopes to have higher success in the future, it is likely they will have to do it by changing many of their more cumbersome procedures like how haphazardly they have thrown around DRMs. However, if Ubisoft doubles down and continues with their current path forward, it will either spell disaster for the company, or set a precedent for just how much a publisher can stuff into a game before it becomes a deal breaker.