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[Red Fortress]

Ubisoft, piracy, and the death of reason

Just read this article on PC Gamer, not I don't know where to laugh or rage...

Some Quotes:

Recently, Ubisoft called its “always-on” DRM a success, claiming “a clear reduction in piracy.”

In terms of actual sales, however, the results seem decidedly mixed. Michael Pachter told Eurogamer that Ubisoft’s “PC game sales are down 90% without a corresponding lift in console sales.

Pachter framed the problem in terms of piracy, as I’m sure Ubisoft frames the problem, but a 90% decline in PC sales is a catastrophic number. If piracy were the problem, then their “successful” DRM policy should have prevented such a free-fall.”

A bit later on...

Ubisoft is committed to blaming piracy. It’s become an emotional issue. Here’s what the developer of Ubisoft’s Driver: San Francisco said before the game came out: “It’s difficult to get away from the fact that as a developer, as somebody who puts their blood, sweat and tears into this thing… And from the publisher’s point of view, which invests tens and tens and tens of millions into a product – by the time you’ve got marketing, a hundred million – that piracy on the PC is utterly unbelievable.”

[TotalAnarchy]

Posting just to point out Michael Pachter is not an Ubisoft official.

[Lulu_Jane]

I was actually saying yesterday to someone that I would never buy Ubisoft PC releases specifically because of their insane DRM, so yeah I guess they were successful in completely turning me off them. Good work Ubisoft!

To be clear, I threw lots of disposable income towards them via PS3 releases, but now I no longer own a console I've no desire to bother with them.

[TotalAnarchy]

Originally Posted by Lulu_Jane

I was actually saying yesterday to someone that I would never buy Ubisoft PC releases specifically because of their insane DRM, so yeah I guess they were successful in completely turning me off them. Good work Ubisoft!

To be clear, I threw lots of disposable income towards them via PS3 releases, but now I no longer own a console I've no desire to bother with them.

Typical, since you're also against playing browser games.

[Eagle of Fire]

Wow. It really shows the sad state of modern gaming if PC Gamer, which I consider (de?)evolved in the last few years as an incredible fort holder of "we do good reviews of games who pay us to do it", actually publish such articles.

Or maybe they simply don't like Ubisoft and they decided to bash them. That would be more likely actually.

[Lulu_Jane]

TA, I'm not against browser games, you weirdo. People can play games by jamming sticks into their eardrums if they like. If they enjoy it, good on them

[Smiling Spectre]

Funny. Steam is trived with new games coming out, three per week, indy games are blooming, sharewares are coming out one-two per day for every gaming portal, every major publisher struggles to have it's own distribution service, and at the same time Ubisoft have 90% decline. Good work, Ubisoft!

[Lulu_Jane]

That's a pretty damning and good point right there.

I wonder if they're making up the shortfall with console sales, because otherwise it's just crazy.

[DarthHelmet86]

It would seem that Ubisoft have missed the point and just aren't listening to the gamers. As per the norm at the moment blaming piracy seems to be the easy thing to do rather then looking at your own actions and seeing the flaws in them.

High DRM leads to people not buying the game, they don't like being suspected of being a pirate after paying for the game. However they still want to play the game and will find it cracked and the DRM removed not long after the game is out. Want to lower piracy treat gamers like valued customers and they will buy your game. They might pirate it too but there are always going to be pirates no matter what you do.

Pratcher is pointing out the flaw in their logic, not agreeing with them. He is saying that if they are blaming it on piracy then their so called successful DRM would have stopped the piracy. So either it isn't pirates or their DRM is not successful. The developer is pulling the we spent our blood and money making this game for them then they pirate it guilt trip tactic. And it fails due to the reason why people pirate the game not being cause they don't want to pay for it but rather that they feel the company has no respect or trust in them.

[The Fifth Horseman]

How many of the people who pirated those games would have bought them in the first place? I'm betting just as few as would have bought them after pirating.