Ubisoft fights piracy with vuvuzelas

In its war against rampant piracy, Ubisoft has chosen an unusual weapon. The French game publisher has installed the sound of ear-splitting vuvuzela horns, which was popularized at the World Cup 2010 in South Africa, to annoy away the video game pirates.

Any attempt to illegally download the Nintendo DS version of the new game Michael Jackson: The Experience will lead to the replacement of the game's soundtracks by a series of vuvuzela blasts.

Ubisoft has been working for some time to render pirated copies of various games completely unplayable.

Earlier this year, the group introduced digital rights management technology in its PC games which required players to have uninterrupted and 'always on' internet connection much to the annoyance of legitimate gamers.

The development team worked this feature in as a creative way to discourage any tampering with the retail version of the game, a representative of Ubisoft told Wired.com in an e-mail.

Off late, the company has been facing serious consequences due to piracy, mainly because of the ease with which copied games can be played on the Nintendo DS console. However, this was rendered illegal by the UK High Court earlier this year.