Ubisoft Claims PC Piracy Rate of 93-95% 464
silentbrad sends this quote from GamesIndustry:
"Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has told GamesIndustry International that the percentage of paying players is the same for free to play as it is for PC boxed product: around five to seven per cent. ... 'On PC it's only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it's only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It's around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content.' ... 'We must be careful because the consoles are coming. People are saying that the traditional market is declining and that F2P is everything — I'm not saying that. We're waiting for the new consoles — I think that the new consoles will give a huge boost to the industry, just like they do every time that they come. This time, they took too long so the market is waiting.'"
Riiiight (Score:5, Interesting)
The catch is they were measuring the number of people who pirate Ubisoft games to get away from their shitty DRM. Somehow, I feel over 90% of people willing to do that is accurate.
Another reason to avoid non-free software (Score:0, Interesting)
Even if they had the perfect digital restrictions management that prevented all piracy the publishers of non-free software will continue to claim piracy will continue to hurt them. It is high time to ditch M$ and all of their cronies and embrace free software, games included.
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Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Friends do assist M$ addicted friends in committing suicide.
Re:DRM worked out then.. (Score:5, Interesting)
uh... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Ubisoft_games I could go thru this list and pick probably 20 worth playing.
However the original comment I would say stands. So you end up with 90% piracy rate and piss off those who REALLY do pay for it. How exactly was that DRM boondoggle good again?
I personally have deliberately skipped a few games lately if they have ubisoft on them even if they have the steam DRM in them. I have 0 problem paying for my games. I have a big problem with games that eventually expire, flake out because of DRM, or require a DVD to be in the drive all the time. I am not going to give my money to a company that up front wants to treat me like I want to steal from them. I do not even pirate their games. I have too many to play that work just fine with no DRM in them at all.
In spite of the DRM I still buy my games. Then crack them. I do not want a CD running all the time. Most are game CDs are poorly made and make most drives vibrate which is annoying on a laptop... Surprisingly most DVDs are better made and vibrate very little.
I just will not be buying ubisoft games until they cut the crap of treating me like a thief. It only makes me say 'skip' every time no matter how good their games are.
Re:Not nearly as impressive (Score:4, Interesting)
Added to that is the fact that free to play is generally cheaper to produce and distribute, able to cannibalise existing assets and avoid the costs of getting boxes on shelves. Whilst this does make the creation of new games easier, Guillemot was keen to point out that it's not a magic recipe - games must still be tailored to fit the audience's needs.
"We also take content which we've developed in the past, graphics etc, and we can make cheaper games and improve them over time. What's very important is that we change the content and make it a better fit to the customer as time goes on."
Does this sound to anyone else, like he's advocating cookie cutter games that are bulked up with updates after their release?
Sounds to me like they're aiming for a shit game rate of 105%
Re:Mark my words: Diablo 3 will be the paradigm (Score:4, Interesting)
That's OK. We have three decades of gaming to choose from. If they stop making games today, I'll have plenty of games to play for the rest of my life.
The only loser in the deal is the gaming industry. If they want my money, they have to make games on acceptable terms. Otherwise I don't need them at all.
Contrast to Valve (Score:5, Interesting)
Valve has indicated, in their public statements on the issue, that piracy has has a negligible impact on their bottom line in any market they make their product available in. Notably, they indicated that when they made their products available on day 1 in the Russian market, Russian piracy dried up.
Any bets on whether Ubisoft checks the IPs and ignores 'piracy' in areas they are not making the game available in? No takers? Didn't think so.
Re:DRM worked out then.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Some of my friends have those games, and they are not worth playing even without drm, even for free.
You would have to pay me, and better than minimum wage, for me to waste my time on those games.