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Ubisoft Blames Piracy for Non-Release of PC Game

Ubisoft is known for laying the blame for many problems on the unauthorized downloading of its games. Stanislas Mettra, creative director of the upcoming game ‘I Am Alive,’ confirms this once again by saying that the decision not to release a PC version is a direct result of widespread game piracy. However, those who look beyond the propaganda will see that there appears to be more to the story than that.

iamaliveUbisoft’s highly anticipated adventure game ‘I Am Alive‘ is expected to be released on the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace this winter.

The first demos of the game were well received by the gaming community and as a result many PC gamers asked Ubisoft to release a PC version as well. This is not going to happen anytime soon though.

PC gamers shouldn’t “bitch” about it, ‘I Am Alive’ creative director Stanislas Mettra said in a recent interview. In his commentary Mettra insinuates that many of the people who are asking for a PC release are in fact going to end up pirating the game.

“We’ve heard loud and clear that PC gamers are bitching about there being no version for them,” Mettra told incgamers.

“But are these people just making noise just because there’s no version or because it’s a game they actually want to play? Would they buy it if we made it?”

The creative director argues that it might not be worth the effort porting the game to PC because of widespread piracy.

“It’s hard because there’s so much piracy and so few people are paying for PC games that we have to precisely weigh it up against the cost of making it. Perhaps it will only take 12 guys three months to port the game to PC, it’s not a massive cost but it’s still a cost. If only 50,000 people buy the game then it’s not worth it,” he said.

Indeed, it’s undeniable that game piracy is an issue for developers, but the question has to be asked to what extent piracy has been a factor in the non-release of a PC version.

Talking to Digital Spy Mettra reveals that not all the blame can be put on pirates.

“This is basically the second version, especially designed for XBLA and PSN in mind, knowing that we had to design something really unique, really different type of game experience, but we knew we had to push some levels that aren’t compatible with mass market gaming experiences,” Mettra said.

In other words, for this version a PC port wasn’t ever the plan, and it’s doubtful that pirates are solely to blame for that. It is of course good to use as an excuse, especially for a game that was originally announced in 2006, has suffered several setbacks since (including development by two different studios) and one that underwent a “total re-engineering” only last year.

The piracy blame-game is an interesting choice too, particularly coming from Ubisoft. The company was previously exposed using pirated music and cracks to support their games.

Luckily, not all people in the gaming industry blame piracy for all their troubles and misfortunes. Valve co-founder and managing director Gabe Newell, whose Portal 2 sold more copies on PC than on any other format, has a refreshing take on how to approach the issue of piracy. According to him, game publishers should compete with it.

“One thing that we have learned is that piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue,” he said recently. “The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.”

For now, however, Ubisoft is taking the “no service” approach to ‘I Am Alive’ and actually killing PC piracy dead in its tracks, but sadly in the most cynical way possible.

Instant update: There goes Ghost Recon: Future Soldier too

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  • kimusabi

    Sometimes I am ashamed Ubisoft is a Canadian company.

    • pubiclice

      Only sometimes?

      • Guest

        And say to Ubisoft, MAFIAA and co: stop entertaining people and human species will evolve.

    • Innominese

      Ubisoft is not a Canadian company. It’s a French company with studios in Canada.

      I also love the constant denial that piracy is a problem. Devs warn that if piracy continues, they’ll stop making games for platforms, ppl call BS. Devs stop making games for PC citing piracy, ppl claim piracy not the reason. No matter what, piracy never to blame…

      Rationalize much?

      • Momo

        Piracy isn’t the problem, your inability and unwillingness to adapt to it is.

        Case in point: you choose to run away to DRM-laden consoles, so you can keep selling *copies of files* at $60 a pop. But piracy hasn’t gone away, has it? You’re just pretending it’s not there for a few more years. Then what?

        • Lulz

          Who said I wasn’t downloading copies of console discs? (Or bypassing the whole idea of using a disc at all!)

        • Momo

          @Lulz

          The guy bitching in the article said so…

        • Jim Kress

          “Piracy isn’t the problem, your inability and unwillingness to adapt to it is. ”

          Using your “logic” we should also believe:

          Murder isn’t the problem, your inability and unwillingness to adapt to it is.

          Burglary isn’t the problem, your inability and unwillingness to adapt to it is.

          Rape isn’t the problem, your inability and unwillingness to adapt to it is.

          Carjacking isn’t the problem, your inability and unwillingness to adapt to it is.

          etc.

          Rationalization of ANY criminal act just leads to rationalization of ALL criminal acts.

        • Alpha

          @Jim Kress

          That is so many levels of stupid, I can’t even begin to explain it.

          Murder kills people. You never see them again.

          Burglary takes things away from people. You never see them again.

          Carjacking takes cars from people. You never see them again.

          Piracy copies files from one person to another. There’s nothing lost. You can claim “Oh well lost sales and blah blah blah” but “lost sales” isn’t actually a thing. There is no way to determine whether someone would have ever bought the game or not. Look at how indie devs have dealt with piracy. They release their games for a good price and treat piracy as free publicity. And guess what. It fucking works.

          As for why I didn’t mention rape, that’s an entirely different ballpark from every other crime you listed.

      • http://otester.myopenid.com/ PiRat

        I stopped buying Ubisoft games after they introduced DRM.

        • Xult

          Ditto.

      • http://michal.gancarski.com Micha? Gancarski

        Publishers always “bitch” about people not giving them enough money. On PC they say it is piracy. On consoles they warn that they need to curb the used games market. And they openly state the latter is an even more damaging practice for their sales.

        They are always able to find a way to explain their failures.

      • Scary Devil Monastery

        And Valve are making a humongous killing in the market catering exclusively to PC. You know, the funny thing here is that developers who actually try to compete with piracy by taking another approach end up very wealthy and with a massively supporting fan base eager and willing to purchase their product and aren’t shy about saying so. While factless ignoramuses (and yes, that would be you) keep ignoring reality and coming up with old long-disproven clichés as to what “piracy” actually means in a marketplace. Even indie game bundles with “pay-what-you-want” plans have come up with millions in net profit.

        If some devs won’t make games for the PC, others will. That’s their choice and their choice also to pass a big market over. Your argument makes as much sense as that of a wife-beater trying to push the blame for the assault over to a third party’s provocations.

        Here’s a hint for future reference – steam accounts are about ten times more popular with “pirates” than with other people. Care to guess why?

        • Anonymous

          I’m a pirate, and I probably have spend 100+ euros on Steam…

        • djnforce9

          Very well said Scary Devil Monastery. I can also totally relate to what you said about Steam because I was one of the people that flocked to it and prefer it over piracy. You get the whole convenience of downloading the game right to your PC but it gets better in that:
          - You obviously get MUCH MUCH faster download speeds most of the time.
          - You can re-download as many times as needed whereas once you lose your pirated copy, then you have to hope someone is still hosting it somewhere
          - You don’t even have to “install” the game. Once it’s downloaded, it’s ready to run (outside of maybe running the DirectX, Visual C++, etc installers which are needed to play the game). This essentially makes every single game portable in a sense because you can back the game data up directly.

          The only drawback is that most games require you to have Steam running but it’s not a resource hog or anything. Seems even EA has now jumped on this model with their Origin software (only it’s not nearly as good but I say give it time). The one leg up Origin has is that most of their games don’t even need Origin running to actually work (other than maybe Battlefield 3).

        • Herp

          i also used to pirate but then found my self using valve more and i’ve probably spent well over 500$ at least on valve games >.>

        • Glib

          Steam used to be a sack of garbage for a LONG time; the client sucked, speeds were horrendous, re-downloading to “fix” was common, as was it just sticking for HOURS.

          Now, however, the client works well, uses meager resources, and the download speeds are insane (I downloaded Modern Warfare 3 at 5.9MB/s, capped out my connection, and that was during first launch so I expected slowness). Took me less time to download then it would have to get off my duff, drive to get it, come home and install it.

    • Ubisoftftl

      second that.. except in my case, “always”. The company that has essentially completely abandoned its PC customers is bitching about piracy. hilarious. keep popping out your garbage for consoles guys. you’re slowly but certainly going to be put out of business.

      • Ven

        Right, because nobody buys consoles or games for them. Why don’t we look at weekly sales figures for a top selling game – MW3:

        X360 6,677,257
        PS3 4,700,174
        PC 369,155

        Activision is certainly cleaning up and keeping profits rolling by catering to that overwhelmingly-populated PC market. Lets try again – Skyrim:

        X360 1,997,215
        PS3 969,454
        PC 555,554

        Brutal. A whopping 15.8% of sales are to PC customers, which is actually one of the highest ratios for top-selling titles available on all 3 consoles.

        So quick, write Bethesda a letter and let them know how you got Oblivion for $10 on a Steam special sale, and that somehow your $10 has profited them more than the $55 that millions of console gamers paid for it.

        I wouldn’t even beat around the bush and call the problem piracy as a developer – there no longer exists a solid market for big-budget PC games. Sure the strongest companies can cling to the market using large infrastructure (like Blizzard producing online-only games) to combat piracy, but even then we only really see that happen with existing game franchises that will sell well based solely on the franchise reputation.

        • Sekhat

          The thing is, Sales figures for PC are usually only retail figures. What about digital sales?

        • Anons

          as another poster said, physical copies only, steam never release their sales to the public, one of the best estimates is 50% xbox 25% ps3 and 25% PC including digital copies.

        • Numbers

          Oh noes! Skyrim only made $33 million on physical pc game sales.

        • Ven

          @Sekhat and Anons

          But the reality of business in a tough economy is not investing in a market you can’t get research done in. NPD and EEDAR have increasingly tried to track digital sales, but with giant roadblocks like Steam that can’t happen.

          Do you really think you could walk into a room full of top-tier business analysts and convince them that PC sales are “probably” about 25% of the total market, but only show about 1/4 that because digital can’t be tracked?

          You would be shown the door for recommending a market that was not trackable.

        • Glib

          As many have said, those are physical copies; I know 0 people that didn’t use Steam to get their copy. There are a lot of cost savings with digital only copies off steam as well, namely not being able to re-sell your game.

      • Xult

        I would NEVER allow shit like steam anywhere near a pc that I had anything to do with.
        NEVER EVER!!
        DRM loaded shit!

        • mlander

          Retail games that have DRM also have that DRM on Steam… It’s the same game. Is that what you were implying?

        • Scary Devil Monastery

          @mlander

          I think he’s referring to the permanent “umbilical” the steam software uses to call home with s soon as you start your PC.

        • Clutzy

          Steam is indeed shit, which is why i’m not a PC gamer, PC games are too focused around Steam and needing to install Steam.

    • Christophe Thomas

      don’t be …

    • Aigrefin

      Well, dont’t, it’s French.

    • Lobotmyser

      LOL I reserve all my Canadian Shame for that moron Stephen Harper…

  • Bonkers

    Though I’m no fan of the steam, there’s always _steam_ – imo also a nice way to cut the crop from the crap…

    And about the Portal stuff is so true – why do you actually end up buying the game, because you want the service/updates you don’t get _so easily_ from pirated copies…

    And also “Ubisoft”-who? Apart from AC there hasn’t been anything decent in their releases… Move along folks – nothing to see here…

    • Me, Myself and I

      Modern Warfare 3 has sold 6 million copies on the day of release (this includes all platforms I believe) and has 60k people playing on Steam at the moment of this post.
      Skyrim has 165k people playing.

      Multiply these numbers by $60 and see how much money they made. PC Piracy is killing games, really?

      Then again, I should not be surprised by any of this. I have started boycotting Ubisoft a few years ago already so none of the crazy stuff they say and do should be a shock to me.
      And I do not pirate games, my boycott is clean and true.

      • Scary Devil Monastery

        Adding, of course, to the fact that for some games, even if you buy the game legally the version you choose to install will be the cracked version from a torrent.

        I have little or no sympathy for a developer which bemoans “piracy” when in truth they decided to shift their entire production exclusively to console because it’s far harder to make a PC game bug-free and running on every hardware configuration and windows OS than it is for a static console.

        • Anonymous

          I usually use a mini-image on my legitimately bought games because 1) my dvd drive makes a lot of noise on protected discs, 2) because i’m afraid of scratching 3) my dvd drive gets hot, 4) i’m on a laptop usually.

      • Anon

        Wow..gamers and business, Good God.. They dont make 60$ they might make 5$ per sale.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FCNK7C55CBUYFVSC5LNWKB322E Buglord

    #1 not releasing a game to pc means it should either be gameplay essential to have a controller, in other words the two sticks (or just one) have to be used to make gameplay work, or the game is not good enough to get sales on a pc. (sadly I’ve tried a game on pc that should require a joystick, horrible to play without)

    #2 what did you use to make the game? I’d say probably not an xbox, you used a pc, you probably had to test it on a pc most of the time, so essentially you have a poor pc port already done before the game is made to xbox, you have the settings needed to configure the game internal I suppose and shouldn’t be hard to make a simple options menu for it, user set controlls is pc standard, you don’t really have to do much for that. only thing you have to work on is hardware configuration, hell, that can’t be THAT much work, if you have an engine it’s probably already made simple solotions to it, a few people could do it in a day… at least that’s what I think about it so far, not gotten far into making games.

    #3 there is a lot of cracked console games too, even hand-held devices such as gameboy, psp,etc have cracked copies, (can be played on pc yoo). but yes, it’s not as widespread, because anyone downloading games with a pc would probably want the pc version.

    #4, personally, I feel too many games made for controllers are not fit to be played with a controller, aiming with movement indication is just horrible compared to aiming with actual movement.

    • Trolololo

      #1 there are controlers of equal performance on pc and console

      otherwise, agreed.

      Actually #4 I think you meant games made for mouse+keyboard aren’t meant for playing with controllers (which I wholesomely agree, sucks hard to aim with a knob >_>;; ).

    • djnforce9

      #1: Agreed. There are some games that actually do have PC releases but the keyboard/mouse controls are essentially crippled. Dead Space and Devil May Cry 4 are too good examples of this. The former due to poor optimization and the latter I would say is related to the nature of the game itself.

      #2: For sure! SOME game engines actually let you compile for different platforms. I believe the Unreal engine is one of them. Final Fantasy XIII was even MADE using PC-based development tools yet somehow only consoles got it in the end. However, we can’t assume ALL game engines are like this though.

      #3: The problem with console piracy is that it’s not easy for “just anyone” to perform because it tends to involve modifying the console in some way (although the PS3 simplified that to the point of plugging in a USB stick). Not only that, but you forfeit your ability to play online with even LEGITIMATELY bought games because your console will most likely be banned quickly. Handheld piracy on the other hand seems to be more rampant between the DS and its flashkits and the PSP and its custom firmware. Nintendo seemed to have done a better job protecting the 3DS with incredibly strong encryption on the game data and I’m sure Sony will do the same for the Vita once it’s released. I still don’t know why Nintendo continues to bother blocking flashkits though when the DS is now a “last generation” system.

      #4: No harm in plugging a controller into your PC. You even get the luxury of using the exact same one that consoles have and in the case of Xbox 360 controllers, most modern games are programmed to fully accommodate and set things up for you (as opposed to guessing what button 1, 2, 3,etc is). Personally, I find a mouse/keyboard works best in games that require you to aim at something and controllers can be used for everything else.

    • mrGameDev

      Although I agree with the spirit of your post, #2 is quite factually incorrect. Yes, developers program their games on a PC, but they will absolutely NOT test them on a PC.

      They will compile them onto their test platform (e.g. XBox, Android, PS3 etc) and run it from there.

      Secondly, hardware configuration is the number one most difficult issue with porting a game from one platform to another. It’s not just the components themselves and different API calls, it’s optimizing your engine to run under different constraints.

      For example, PCs suffer from relatively slow hard drive access speeds (worst case scenario – someone’s running an ancient HDD with terrible read/right time), so for a PC your engine needs to preload as much content as possible into memory. On a console, you have less memory (no virtual memory) but much faster media access speed. The PS3 on the other hand isn’t just different hardware, but radically different architecture altogether – it favours a more data driven / multi-threaded approach to software development where you’re continuously utilizing each cell processor in the machine.

      Finally, on the topic of options / user interface – console developers often make design decisions for their UIs that reflect the typically crap input methods consoles offer. E.g. atrocious weapon select ‘wheels’ that pause the game to allow you to choose an item. Porting these over to a PC is time consuming, and may not necessarily make sense or work well with a keyboard – mouse configuration, necessitating at least a partial redesign of their UI. Or, in most cases, developers utterly ignore the existence of the mouse and setup terrible keyboard shortcuts.

      • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FCNK7C55CBUYFVSC5LNWKB322E Buglord

        best thing about the internet is you can post thoughts and get knowledge back. thanks.

    • Ven

      I think another large reason why piracy is less rampant on console games is simply because the owners are in the demographic that is willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a game console. Most already own computers, so by and large this entertainment budget is sizable to begin with.

      • Scary Devil Monastery

        Probably a very fair summary.

      • Scary Devil Monastery

        Probably a very fair summary.

  • c0rr0sive

    That is ok, people will play hacked up copies on hacked consoles, piracy still wins.

    Make games worth the money and people would buy them, I don’t see a reason for paying $60 for a game, at all, especially when the company makes all the money back on launch day for there games now in days.

  • theyve lost me as a customer

    i am ashamed of ubisoft, because of this i am never buying one of their games again, i am not willing to buy a console just to play it, screw that, ubisoft is burying themselves slowly

  • Anonymous

    I don’t even understand this argument. If anything having a locked down system like Xbox or PlayStation increases piracy. All someone has to do is figure out how to crack one game and every other game can be done in the same way. Pirate copies for PC are released weeks after console counterparts because it takes a lot of time for cracking groups to break individual antipiracy mechanisms on each game.

    • Scary Devil Monastery

      Too true. Hacking a console game is usually done by using the same key you came up with years ago when the console itself was hacked.

      Whereas for PC it’s a new project every time.

    • Anonymous

      Not always true, especially when publishers have the tendancy of using the same DRM system across several games. Crack the DRM system – like the latest version of Securom – on one title and you can basically copy-paste the same hacking method onto other titles.

      • Anonymous

        But this is far more common on console games. Anyone can rip a console game because there are tons of tools available for it. It takes someone with a lot of skill to crack a game. Even if it uses the same scheme as some previous game only the person who has the code of the original crack will be easily able to adapt it to another game. This all depends on how the scheme works of course but console crackers are generally able to stick a disk in the drive, hit a button and have an image on the internet in a few hours. It can take weeks for a PC cracker to reverse engineer DRM code and release a patch and then this has to be redone every time the game updates.

        Also, sorry for replying.

        • Anonymous

          I agree with your post, well until this.

          ‘It can take weeks for a PC cracker to reverse engineer DRM code and release a patch and then this has to be redone every time the game updates.’

          Weeks no; Skyrim as a recent example which uses Steamworks DRM was cracked in barely an hour after release and the patch was also shortly afterwards.

          FYI: I have no association with the scene/crackers etc. Merely a keen eyed observer who doesn’t like Steam for lack of re-saleability of titles after my use of them keen to play Skyrim =)

          There have also been cases where games have been cracked and released before their official street dates also (I can’t think of any examples right now though but will hunt for some if you really need me to).

          In short; only a few games take a few weeks to crack with the rest out just as quickly as (or even quicker than) retail copies.

          ‘Also, sorry for replying. ‘

          Don’t be, it was a name DISQUS gave me because I used donotreply@ when I first used their commenting system on TF, the name kind of stuck with me since then =)

        • Anonymous

          Ignore the /bogus thing at the end of my last post (and this one as well if it does appear), I have no idea how it got there and can’t remove it.

  • The Paladinof Truth

    Hahaha, that crazy Ubisof! ;) Sadly, yet another game has been denied to the PC as a result of the rampant illegal sharing of PC games. Unlike consoles, PC suffers from widespread unauthorized sharing, and unlike consoles, the PC gaming market is going ever-so-quickly down. This is a sad piece of new for indeed everybody, but particularly to those real fans, who pay and support the game developers by properly purchasing the titles they play.

    • Guest

      Lol, PC games going down – Skyrim and Battlefield have pushed sales of new PCs through the roof while Minecraft is setting new ground.

      Consoles are decade old tech.

      Fuck off back to your hole, distribution shill

      • Me, Myself and I

        Consoles are increasingly looking like computers. The next generation of console will be a hardware upgrade. It will be the same thing as now, but with more processing power and memory. That’s the only improvement they can make, if they add new features then consoles become PCs.

        Consoles were pretty cool when they were simple. Plug the cartridge and play. Today you have to install your games, bother with Internet updates, discs can be scratched and rendered useless, etc. I might as well get a computer, at least I have more freedom with my PC.

        Future generations are growing up with computers. Consoles still sell because some people are afraid of computers, but when the kids who are 5 today become teenagers who buy video games, they’ll buy PCs because they will all know how to use them.
        Companies like Ubisoft who have deserted the PC market will lose their edge, and indie companies like Mojang (Minecraft), Bohemia (ArmA 2), and others will have taken over.

        Indie companies are also working well on the PC because for the first time, they provide gamers with what they really want. ArmA 2 is so much more than Call of Duty will ever be. It’s much more complex and developed. Minecraft is an awesome sandbox where you can destroy and rebuild the environment any way you want.
        On top of that, the PC allows players to mod their games.
        Most AA companies make casual games, they don’t make those ‘specialized’ games that give us all the content and mechanics we dream of. Also, few AA companies provide us with modding tools (Bethesda is one of the few AA who does).

        Ubisoft, EA Games and the other big names in the industry are losing this battle because they refuse to adapt. They are afraid to risk money by trying new things. Unfortunately, this will kill them: the market for “old stuff we have tried many times and which never fails” is becoming smaller every day.
        They think in the short run, and this is actually normal of big companies: the shareholders want their money now, they don’t care for long-term investments. It’s not a bad thing, that’s how companies are born, grow and then die.

        • Scary Devil Monastery

          …and while it can be said with good accuracy that Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim all have taken top ten spots among the “most pirated games of the year” it is also true that all of these games are record sellers. And still sell.

          Because Bethesda caters to it’s customer’s with a usual minimum of fuss. They don’t seem to care that much if only one in ten pays as long as a hundred times as many people use their product.

          The way they release modding tools was also sheer genius. The mods generated by pirates and normal buyers alike benefit their paying customers as well which makes their games all that much more attractive – and gives games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 a lifespan many times that of what a static game would possess.

          It’s almost as if Bethesda have successfully outsourced the bug fixing and generation of premium content to the community without having to pay a nickle.

        • Anonymous

          Unfortunately, nearly all of my classmates game on the consoles… (I would buy Modern Warfare 498389498394932 if it allows crossplatform multiplayer, just to easily pwn them)

        • The Paladinof Truth

          Hello, Me, Myself and I! While your optimism is certainly invigorating, I’m afraid it is sadly misplaced. The biggest (or, if you pardon the pun, the lion’s share ;) ) segment of consoles are people in the 13-17 years bracket range. That mean most of console users have already grown up with great familiarity with PC. Indeed, they are often called the e-kids, and for a reason! ;) But I, with the personal (and might I add, vast ;) ) expertise in the computer industry, can safely say that the mainstream, casual consumer simply does not want to be bothered with the customization PC offers (and for that matter requires!). They simply want to play and have fun, immediately and as straight-forward as possible. In other words, it is not a matter of not knowing, or being scared by PC; nay, it is simply of being bored by it!

      • The Paladinof Truth

        Hello, Guest! While it is true that the games you have mentioned have been doing well, it is not true that PC is the leading platform. I happen to know for a fact (and through very reputable sources! ;) ) that Skyrim on the PC has sold less copies than on the consoles. And so has literally every single game that was released on all three platforms!

        • Guest

          No shill, you said PC was dead because of piracy.

          I pointed out it wasn’t.

          Fuck off back to your hole and take your inconsistent bullshit with you.

    • ShillsAreMorons

      You know how I know you’re an idiot? Because you said “PC gaming market is going ever-so-quickly down”. Much like the idiot/fake JackMurdock below. You both don’t know what you’re talking about.

      Ubisoft sales if anything are going down because of their horrible DRM. That and that alone is Ubisoft’s problem.

      You want to know how I know the pc game market isn’t on the decline and why pirates aren’t a problem for it? Steam. Steam is a huge success and has absolutely no DRM (beyond requiring Steam itself). They literally make money hand over fist, have entered markets where they were told no one could survive due to the “rampant piracy” (and then gone on to prove otherwise), etc.

      So yeah, the pc game industry isn’t doing bad at all. You know what Steam’s secret is? Giving the customers what they want. Great products at reasonable prices and as hassle and DRM free as possible. Know what the gamers do at that point? Flock in droves to Steam. Then get others to do the same. Why? Because Steam/Valve have done what no one else seems to be able to. Listen to the customers and provide them with a great product and a great service.

      But keep shilling. You’re doing a great disservice to the real The Paladin of Truth. You know what’s sad? I’m pretty sure you’re also the fake JackMurdock. I’d say you were Anon, but he’s only slightly less of a moron than you yourself are.

      Also, your grammar really sucks. Learn how to speak/type, please. That and get a clue.

      Sincerely,

      Someone who hopes shills like you get the hint and f*ck off already

      • Me, Myself and I

        To be fair a few games on Steam have DRM, but this is the Publisher’s choice, not Steam’s. Also, these games are very rare. Most Publishers remove DRM for the Steam version. And Steam has a big orange warning for games with DRM.
        I agree with you entirely, and overall I would say Steam has no DRM.
        I’m only pointing this out before somebody says you’re lying about Steam having no DRM and uses these very few games with DRM as evidence against you.

        The PC market is on a temporary decline right now. To repeat briefly what I said in a post above:
        - AA companies like Ubisoft are moving to consoles. However, indie developers are taking their place on the PC market (see Minecraft, Terraria, ArmA series, etc. for examples).
        - Consoles today are PCs with less freedom for the owner/user. They still sell because many gamers who are 16+ today are afraid of computers (they think computers are much more harder to use than they are). But in 10 years, the 16 year old gamers will be kids who have grown up with computers and they won’t be afraid. They will all have a PC and they will hate consoles. The console market will die and companies who abandoned it will regret their choice.

        • Anonymous

          No orange warning, actually. It’s under system requirements; under a section called 3rd Party DRM systems…

        • lform

          PC owners resent consoles more and more by the day because consoles’ outdated hardware is holding back the entire gaming industry and PC gamers get fobbed off with crappy ports with very few concessions to the platform eg lack of proper video settings, poor quality textures, controls that are in no way suited for mouse and keyboard, or games that are locked to 30fps(LA Noire- I’m looking at you). They also get lumbered with shitty DRM that causes more problems to the customer than it does to pirates. Sadly, a lot of console gamers are quite content with their substandard systems. I wouldn’t mind so much if the typical console lifetime was 5 years but it’s at least twice that, so most games hardly push PC gamers uber graphics cards that they’ve paid mucho $$$ for.

      • The Paladinof Truth

        Hello, ShillsAreMorons! I am saddened by the fact that I must inform you, that you are, in fact, incorrect! A simple side-by-side comparison of the sales of games that were released on all three platforms will speak worlds of difference between the sales of consoles and PC. Most of all, despite the number of PC game players being significantly higher (a casual estimate places them at as much as two times the number of console users!), PC is still the second-to-mind, so to speak ;), when it comes to developers priorities. At this point you are undoubtedly yearning for hard-fact examples, are you not? ;) Fortunately, I have already prepared one, which does no even require research! You will be providing the evidence yourself.

        Before proceeding, allow me to ask you to place on your mind a recent, cross-platform released video game. Now I as you to (if not possibly physically, then mentally as well!) to compare the performance, graphics, and how full, so to speak, the screen was in terms of non-player characters, doodads, and so forth, of consoles and PC versions. The (perhaps not-so much shocking ;) ) conclusion is that there are no differences! The PC and console versions have essentially as much advantages and drawbacks as the consoles. And yet, the ordinary PC is far more capable than consoles. The only explanation for this, phenomenon, so to speak ;), is that console video game players are being catered to foremost than PC video game players. And yet, PC players are more numerous! Now it is time, as I predicted, that you will agree with me and acquiesce on you previous (and quite misled, if I might add ;) ) opinion. For the only conclusion is that the PC video game market is less profitable, per capita, than the console market. The incontestable proof, which you just helped me show (and for that, I salute you! ;) ) is that the unbearable illegal sharing rates of the PC has driven its profitability to such a low point that the smaller console market has become more profitable.

        Indeed my friends, this is a sad fact for all of us. But luckily, with some new-found allies here, we might, just might, revert the tide and finally control the illegal filesharing on the PC market, so that it may once again shine!

        • FinalApokylypse

          “compare the performance, graphics, and how full, so to speak, the screen was in terms of non-player characters, doodads, and so forth, of consoles and PC versions. The (perhaps not-so much shocking ;) ) conclusion is that there are no differences! The PC and console versions have essentially as much advantages and drawbacks as the consoles. And yet, the ordinary PC is far more capable than consoles. The only explanation for this, phenomenon, so to speak ;), is that console video game players are being catered to foremost than PC video game players.”

          Battlefield 3 goes against this.. It is MUCH better looking than its console counterparts.. Also the engine they use was primarily designed FOR PC’s which is why it has groundbreakingly low specs for the graphics it produces. Go watch GT trailers BF3-PC review if you don’t believe me. What about all the PC exclusive game titles? To say that PC is an afterthought is true to SOME developers, not all just as its true that consoles are an afterthought to SOME developers like Blizzard.

        • ShillsAreMorons

          So your “evidence” is actually nothing at all? Nice. In that case, I have no evidence Bigfoot exist, therefore he obviously does.

          Console game players might be getting catered to, but if you look at recent ports, the PC experience tends to be superior. Just look at what FinalApoklypse said, he even gave an example (unlike yourself).

          Also, how do you know PC gamers are more numerous? I could easily say console gamers are more numerous and more outspoken? No, I’m not going to present figures or facts to support my position, why should I? You don’t.

          Jesus christ but you’re full of yourself. I don’t support your position, I’ve presented nothing to that effect, I’m not changing my stance, and if anything evidence (from Valve/Steam) which is readily available goes to show contrary what you think/feel. PC game sales are not being hurt at all by piracy, if anything they’re being hurt by bad games (bugs at launch date are unacceptable, horrible update cycles, etc), terrible DRM (always on internet connections required aren’t good when your internet goes out, SecureROM fiasco many years back, etc.), and bad service (which Steam excels at, providing excellent service).

          You’re wrong, you can’t even show proof to back you up, etc. Just admit it, you are a shill/troll. Who obviously knows nothing about actual PC gaming. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go download and play a game on Steam. A company who knows how to treat and listen to it’s customers, thus is largely unaffected by piracy. Unlike Ubisoft, who knows nothing about it’s customers, and whose DRM (which does nothing to stop piracy) only hurts paying customers, thus making paying customers choose not to even bother with Ubisoft games. So in effect, what is hurting Ubisoft isn’t pirates, it’s Ubisoft themselves. They’re their own worst enemy, lack of sales can be directly attributed to horrible DRM on their part.

          But keep thinking you’re right when you are so obviously not. That’s very troll-like behavior.

  • Mesh

    Ubisoft are lacking sales because their games aren’t worth their shitty draconian DRM.

  • Abunchofgibberish

    If Ubisoft mattered, I’d care more.

  • http://twitter.com/Mathew30 Mathew Lisett

    any company that consistanlt blames piracy ie their consumers for their own failures and to also speak crap about the people that buy their products, do they really expect their future to change for the better for such a crap attitude.

  • http://twitter.com/SmoothMarx SmoothMarx

    Who cares? All my pirated games are on my pirated Xbox anyway.
    Piracy is everywhere. You can either choose to collide with it or work with it. As we can conclude from this article, colliding with piracy will do nothing for your company.

  • Ubishit

    Ubishit

  • http://twitter.com/ScytheNoire ScytheNoire

    Doesn’t matter, Ubisoft makes crap ports. Consoles are just as pirated as PC games and PC has no second hand sales yet consoles have a huge second hand market. So basically, they lie. They just aren’t talented enough to develop for the PC. It’s too hard for them to make top end games for the top end platform.

  • chrissip

    Yeah, umh. I don’t own a PS3/XBox360, because there’s never been a game I’m interested in (Big-N fanboy here). But of course, I own (several) PCs already.

    So, in order to test/play this game, I’d need to spend ~250+ bucks for a single game, in case I hate it, I can never get the money back by reselling.

    On the PC, yes, I would have “pirated” it, but if I’d like it, I’d buy it, as I’ve done hundreds of times before.

    So, with this decision, you’ve now got 0% chance of getting to my wallet, but maybe I still play it on a friend’s box.

    Really clever biz-plan…

  • David

    Well played,,, They finally make game that look promising and then they decide to not release it on pc.
    Making shitty products and blaming piracy for their loss works always.

    • http://profiles.google.com/zerianis10 Christopher Kidwell

      Only in an insane person’s mind…. personally, I think that this will come back to haunt them as those games are ‘pirated’ off Windows Live Marketplace as an “F-you!” by PC gamers who just happen to have consoles as well.

  • David

    Well played,,, They finally make game that look promising and then they decide to not release it on pc.
    Making shitty products and blaming piracy for their loss works always.

  • Pingback: Ubisoft Blames Piracy for Non-Release of PC Game | TorrentForce Blog

  • Fuck you Ubisoft!

    They’re just pissed that the uber intelligent pirates got around their shitty “always online” DRM. I didn’t buy Assassin’s Creed because of it, and Ubisoft’s attitude has turned me off buying any of their games. I’ll still play pirated copies though. :-p

  • Anom

    i have ps3 but only reason i buyed it was gran turismo V that is only game i play it with. For other games i use pc. I dont like ps3 controlled or any console controller (in games you usually just press so much on those buttons, like AARG BRAKE BRAKE… then slam on nearest wall if you continue doing playing / racing for hours you finger will start hurt, there is no suck problem in pc games)

    • Anom

      Ouh and i mighty buy pc version of that game if it will come out(well i wait 1year then get it cheap from some place)… homever i will not buy console version not paying 60€ for game that is just going be one night fun. Games should be fun for months like skyrim is.

    • Racing fan

      Why not get a steering wheel and pedals instead of using a controller? Or just not bother with Gran Turismo and play one of the far superior racing games that are available on the PC?

      • Anonymous

        Like Trackmania Nations Forever. Ok, it’s kinda old now, but still awesome :)

        EDIT: almost forgot; free.

  • http://pip25.livejournal.com/ pip25

    This fits right into the theme with Ubisoft’s recent DRM practices. Hopefully their customers will show them that this attitude will not be tolerated… oh, wait, did they just succeed in keeping a lot of people from buying their stuff in the first place? How convenient.

  • Jimbo

    usual thing. any way to put the blame on piracy will do. trouble is, when there is indisputable proof that piracy isn’t at fault for something failing, it’s ignored. when there is the biggest lie being told that it is the reason something failed, it’s believed. just what the governments want. another excuse to try to up censorship and web site blocking. waiting to see the backlash from the entertainment industries over the recent EUCJ ruling on the subject. gonna be interesting!

    • Jooooor

      I would not worry about the government, They are just wimps and should it come to that, they are no match for a halberd. The governments of the world better do what the people want.

    • Jooooor

      I would not worry about the government, They are just wimps and should it come to that, they are no match for a halberd. The governments of the world better do what the people want.

  • Anonymous

    I am quite aware that the big problem for game studios is not actually piracy but one of second hand games. If people walk into a computer game store and see the game they desire at some high price but a second hand copy $15 less then they are often tempted by the lower price seeing that most stores guarantee that their second hand games will work fine or their money back.

    That is their current nightmare including always available second hand sales on eBay and Amazon when this market causes them huge losses. Not one they can do much about either when second hand sales is a fully lawful market.

    Piracy is a much smaller annoyance and if their claim that game piracy has increased 20% in the last 5 years is true then they can be thankful it only increased by that much.

    • lform

      It doesn’t cause them losses because the original owner bought the game in the first place, and the games companies attitude towards 2nd hand sales is a complete insult towards property rights. If the games companies set up their own secondhand games shops then they would get a cut of the profits for the 2nd hand sale as well as the original sale. Instead, companies like Game and Gamestation make the money instead. If I bought a book, the publishers wouldn’t kick up a fuss if I sold it when I was done with it, or a toaster, DVD, CD, sofa etc etc.

  • Henrik Eriksson

    I must say that the primary reason I wouldn’t buy that game on PC is because its ported TO pc, which in my mind means the game will stink no matter what. If you build a game on age old technology the game will not reach up to the standards that they can do, and wouldn’t be worth buying in the first place.
    Build the game for PC, and port it down to the old technologies instead, and you might have an acceptable standard for the PC game in the first place.

  • Pissed

    wow after reading that as a computer player who also owns both xbox and ps3 I’m pissed I have allot of games and none other then demos downloaded and they who built their company on the backs of pc owners have abandon us and then call us thieves .. who do they think they are I for one who will never buy any of their product,again… wow maybe all of those who play their products will enjoy it but I for one will not be wasting my hdd space on their crap….boycott this company till they issue a humble apology.

  • http://otester.myopenid.com/ PiRat

    “it’s undeniable that game piracy is an issue for developers”

    Thought you’re meant to be unbiased torrent freak?

    It’s file-sharing, not piracy, that is the label given to us by the MAFIAA and file-sharing is the free distribution model and Gabe is right, a paid model should compete, not bend the rules of the free market to gain an upper hand.

  • http://otester.myopenid.com/ PiRat

    “it’s undeniable that game piracy is an issue for developers”

    Thought you’re meant to be unbiased torrent freak?

    It’s file-sharing, not piracy, that is the label given to us by the MAFIAA and file-sharing is the free distribution model and Gabe is right, a paid model should compete, not bend the rules of the free market to gain an upper hand.

    • ATypicalPerson

      TorrentFreak is extremely biased towards pirates if you haven’t noticed. Do not come here for unbiased news.

  • Myself

    fuckwits idiot! what a lame excuse – make a GOOD game and people WILL buy it! best example SKYRIM. sure it got pirated as hell, but people actually bought it like hot-cakes!

    • Anonymous

      Yes after playing Oblivion since 2006 then Skyrim is the the game you have to die for and go to Heaven to get. It will sure to be the best and most talked about game for years to come.

      One game that is well worth the purchase price when claims otherwise would be confirmed proof of insanity.

      • FinalApokylypse

        I was one who pirated the game. But the only reason is that I don’t have the money for it atm and there’s no way in hell I could have waited to buy it because it was too tempting.. They will see my money soon enough though :D

      • Scary Devil Monastery

        I bought Fallout 3 and Oblivion…but I’m none too sure about Skyrim – after testing it on my PC i found the controls all being wired for – wait for it – a controller. The interface is horrible, counterintuitive, and it manages this despite every option being dubmed down to chimpanzee level.

        I may or may not buy the game but if I do it will be because there’s a patch breaking the interface down to the old fallout 3 standard.

        This is actually a pain to play, all eye candy and storyline to the contrary.

  • Myself

    fuckwits idiot! what a lame excuse – make a GOOD game and people WILL buy it! best example SKYRIM. sure it got pirated as hell, but people actually bought it like hot-cakes!

  • Neotoasty

    Eh, fuck you Ubisoft. You barely make any good games anyways.

  • Truther

    Gamers blame Ubisoft for publishing bad games.

  • No

    If you make a good game piracy won’t matter.

    Sadly, Ubisoft has chosen to break almost every single game they’ve released in the last few years in order to “combat” piracy.

  • D4v3

    “The easiest way to stop piracy is not by putting antipiracy technology to work. It’s by giving those people a service that’s better than what they’re receiving from the pirates.”

    This guy said damn everything. Hands down.

  • Oomg

    he his basically saying we do not care if people wants to play our game or not we only care about making big money on it so releasing it on pc is not worth it for the little people even if it cost us almost nothing …. wow …. seriously…. ? i don’t think ill buy Ubisoft product again…

  • JackMurdock

    The level of ignorance here is really staggering. I wasn’t surprised to see a bunch of people calling ubisoft names, but I expected better from you tf. It’s not propaganda, it’s called reality. You don’t need a degree in forensics to know how ridiculously of control piracy is on the PC. If you look at your own articles, torrentfreak, you will see that there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of copies of illegitimate copies in use. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that for the most popular PC games, people who chose to show their appreciation and pay the developer are in the minority.

    Did you really expect them to happily keep on giving you free games? I guess people here don’t know anything about the industry so let me spell it out for you. Development funds don’t grow on trees. Ubisoft doesn’t owe you anything. You guys aren’t entitled to their work. Not to mention you spoiled brats are ruining things for the rest of us loyal fans.

    All you people are saying it’s because the games are bad, let me refer you to another one one of torrentfreak’s recent articles
    http://torrentfreak.com/call-of-duty-black-ops-most-pirated-game-of-2010-101228/

    Black ops sold 5 million copies, but it got downloaded almost as many times. Now, in what way does that indicate the more people buying a game means less people pirating it? Activision earned only have as much from black ops as they should have.

    The biggest blockbuster games always get pirated the most because they are the games people want to play.

    “Piracy isn’t the problem, your inability and unwillingness to adapt to it is. ”
    They have adapted to it. They’ve simply recognized that that a lot of people who play on the PC are simply too selfish to pay for things so it’s not worth their trouble.

    • FinalApokylypse

      “Did you really expect them to happily keep on giving you free games? I guess people here don’t know anything about the industry so let me spell it out for you. Development funds don’t grow on trees. Ubisoft doesn’t owe you anything. You guys aren’t entitled to their work. Not to mention you spoiled brats are ruining things for the rest of us loyal fans.”

      Your a loyal fan? In some ways I actually agree with you though, although not completely. These are businesses with shareholders and as such they are obligated to make as much money as possible. That goes for any publisher of games, movies, music etc.. That is their primary function, not whether they provide good games or services. It is this fact which is responsible for many of the problems in todays societies imho, but that’s another discussion altogether.

      “Black ops sold 5 million copies, but it got downloaded almost as many times. Now, in what way does that indicate the more people buying a game means less people pirating it? Activision earned only have as much from black ops as they should have.”

      Black ops had a very short campaign and most pirated copies would have only accommodated the single player aspects of the game. This has been a fact throughout the COD franchise with the latest being even shorter still. Multiplayer is why the game has high sales as that is its core component. I would argue that a lot of piraters of this game were mainly choosing to do so to avoid paying the full price for a product they would only half use (Only playing Single player). Perhaps I am wrong, its hard to really judge this without a survey/study on individual COD titles. Also I don’t remember reading anyone saying that more people buying a game means less people pirate it.. if anything I’ve heard people say the opposite on this site. Where did you get that idea? The more popular a movie is the more people pirate it but at the same time more people pay to watch it. More will pirate and pay for it too. It’s simple statistics and the end result is, the more popular it is the more money it will typically make. This means, better content will make more money than crappy content which is good for the consumer.

      “Piracy isn’t the problem, your inability and unwillingness to adapt to it is. ”
      “They have adapted to it. They’ve simply recognized that that a lot of people who play on the PC are simply too selfish to pay for things so it’s not worth their trouble. ”

      They’ve TRIED to adapt to it. They made games which were undeniably LESS attractive than the inevitable pirated version of it. Now they show unwillingness to try adapt further to it by deciding to not bother with it. Simple really..

      So in summary. It’s their choice what they do with their games, it’s unfortunate that they choose to do this for many people who may have enjoyed the game on PC but it’s not the end of the world. Valve has adapted better which is why it has many more loyal PC fans than Ubisoft does. They also (I think) have the better understanding of how to make profit from customers and that is to provide BETTER services to consumers than pirated content is likely to provide.

    • Scary Devil Monastery

      1) Ubisoft not selling games for PC is a no-brainer. After the Assassin’s Creed debacle (you recall, the one where pirates were the ONLY ones who could play the game while legitimate customers couldn’t start it?) No sensible games – pirate or otherwise – would buy another one of their products.

      2) Steam makes money like there was no tomorrow buy catering to the very pirates you decry. And steam accounts are many times more prevalent among pirates than they are among “regular” people. On the PC market. Despite the fact that steams codes have been cracked more times than you can shake a stick at.

      3) If you get to the point where ten times as many people play your game but only twice as many pay for it as they would have without the game being available on torrent then you have in essence doubled your profits with no corresponding overhead. That is not a loss, but a win. Especially if the alternative is to not have the option of cashing in on those 100% extra customers.

      So as usual what is staggering around here is your own uninformed comment, backed by “facts” you seem to have conjured out of a hat.

      Even your referenced article says the opposite of what you want to indicate. Without those “5 million downloads” the game would have sold far worse. You would have to be a very stupid executive if you chose the model of “non-pirated game” with significantly lower sales.

      • Jack Murdock

        1) Making one mistake doesn’t mean it’s over. Assassin’s Creed was released in 2007 and they have gone on to release many great games since then. And yes, people have continued to pirate their best titles. Far cry 2 was one of the most downloaded games in 2008. Surprise! it was released in the same year. It’s in torrentfreaks very own article. “Buuut I dont like Far Cry 2″ Yeah, tell that to 585,000 people who coudn’t wait to get their hands on free copy. The #1 most pirated game is also an ubisoft game and it weighs in at almost 2 million downloads. Pirates should just come out admit that they like to pirate good things just as us legit customer like to put our money where good things are, but instead they insist on perpetuating this silly myth of them doing it to spite developers for bad games. I cant find too many people on the pirate bay enthusiastically proclaiming that if the torrent is good, they’ll run off to the store to purchase a legit copy. You would think that if people really did believe in rewarding quality that strongly than this would be everywhere,

        2) You can never cater to pirates. Pirates are only looking for one thing.. and that’s free things. Steam was released in 2003 and since then, game piracy has probably continued to expand thanks to a certain megalithic torrent site that also opened it’s doors in 2003. Currently bittorrent has 100 million users, which is far more than steam. Most of the users of linux are probably in a setting where torrents are allowed anyhow. If you you factor in the estimated 29 million users of linux, that is still almost double the users of steam. Heck, if you combine the seeders and the leechers on the pirate bay, you have 32 million, almost the number of steam users.

        3) You assume that people only purchase because of people who pirate. It’s not like people live under a rock. Games get a ton of publicity in the months leading up to release. People purchase games because they want to show their appreciation and support the developer. Simply put, that is what a loyal fan is. Anyhow, this is all academic. If your development costs aren’t even recouped, it’s a loss. And this doesn’t even count “extra” money that goes towards future games.

        “Even your referenced article says the opposite of what you want to indicate. Without those “5 million downloads” the game would have sold far worse. You would have to be a very stupid executive if you chose the model of “non-pirated game” with significantly lower sale”
        Im trying to look for logic here but I can’t find any. If downloading the game wasn’t an option, people who have no way to get the game without out shelling out for a legit copy. If people didn’t know what black ops was, they probably aren’t into games much to begin with. Do you think that those 5 million people just stumbled upon the game by chance and decided to download it because they were bored? I guess it’s pure coincidence that 5 million people downloaded the same thing.

        Im guessing they had heard of the game prior to it’s release. Im pretty sure they had seen the commercials and read the articles. The only difference between pirates and real customers is that customers are grateful for what they are being given where as pirates believe that they are entitled to free games As soon as developers hint that they care about their own interests, pirates hate the developer.

        • FinalApokylypse

          2) You can never cater to pirates. Pirates are only looking for one thing.. and that’s free things. Steam was released in 2003 and since then, game piracy has probably continued to expand thanks to a certain megalithic torrent site that also opened it’s doors in 2003. Currently bittorrent has 100 million users, which is far more than steam. Most of the users of linux are probably in a setting where torrents are allowed anyhow. If you you factor in the estimated 29 million users of linux, that is still almost double the users of steam. Heck, if you combine the seeders and the leechers on the pirate bay, you have 32 million, almost the number of steam users.

          First of all why mention linux..? Its just a different OS to Windows or Mac OS’s.. it makes no sense to include it in here as far as I can see as most of the users of Windows and Mac’s have access to torrents as well.. Steam does cater for pirates I’m afraid Jack. Their (often) low prices for legit content often takes precedent over pirated content for people because it’s easily accessible, legit and many have friends within Steam. Of course bittorrent has more users than Steam. Steam is a game platform, it deals only in games and even then not ALL games. Bittorrent caters for videos, music and games on a variety on non-PC platforms too. It would be amazing if Steam had half the users of bittorrent when its focus is much more specific.

          “People purchase games because they want to show their appreciation and support the developer. Simply put, that is what a loyal fan is. Anyhow, this is all academic. If your development costs aren’t even recouped, it’s a loss. And this doesn’t even count “extra” money that goes towards future games.”

          People purchase games because they want what is on offer. I haven’t bought it yet (because of funds) but I am going to buy MW3 and Skyrim when I can. In MW3′s case its because of the online content being great value for money and fun (huge replayability). In skyrims case, I am a huge fan of the series and do want to show my appreciation. I also want the physical aspects of the purchase, steam achievements etc. In the case of the latter I have pirated skyrim because I did not want to wait for the couple of months to have access to it. The reason I say this is because I want to point out there are a multitude of reasons to pirate (or not pirate) things. Yes, you could argue against what I have done, for example how do I know that I won’t buy something else when I have the money due to another game being available. Well I know that I will. Bethesda will see my money for their epic game.

        • ATypicalPerson

          Thank god someone else is seeing sense here. I cannot stand pirates who get on a moral high horse and proclaim they are doing it for something other than to get a product for free.
          ‘The game sucks’ – Then why are you willing to pirate it? Surely a bad game isn’t worth your time.
          ‘DRM is XYZ’ – Complete crap. Seriously, I’ve bought and played Assassins Creed 2, a game that supposedly had the worst DRM imaginable. It played fine, no problems and had I not heard about the DRM, I wouldn’t know it was there.
          ‘It isn’t worth $X’ – Well, if you aren’t willing to pay the price, don’t play. I don’t feel entitled to things if I don’t feel they aren’t a reasonable price, they decide, I decide if I want it.
          etc, etc. *prepares to get flamed to hell*

        • Scary Devil Monastery

          That’s a lot of assumed numbers you just pulled out of your ass, Jack.

          Fact of the matter is Ubisoft has a horrible reputation and it’s a given that no sensible person would voluntarily install a game from them on a PC without letting a hacker having had a bash at the game first to clean out the most obnoxious DRM.
          Intrusive DRM is and remains the number 1 deal breaker for any savvy game consumer. Ubisoft did not abandon it’s DRM models with Assassins Creed. And therefore anyone who wants a Ubisoft game will grab the pirated version first and foremost. It’s that simple.

          “You can never cater to pirates. Pirates are only looking for one thing.. and that’s free things.”

          Your personal opinion – which has been disproven roughly half a dozen times by serious empirical studies. Pirates spend a lot more money on games and media than most other people do. In all forms of media it’s been shown that a good game will sell well – even when the business model is a “pay-what-you-want” option.

          And of course it’s a given that the “freeloaders” who are bringing home the fact that “free to play” MMORPGS today are doubling the amount of income they are geting from this “freetard” crowd of yours.

          “Most of the users of linux are probably in a setting where torrents are allowed anyhow. If you you factor in the estimated 29 million users of linux, that is still almost double the users of steam. Heck, if you combine the seeders and the leechers on the pirate bay, you have 32 million, almost the number of steam users.”

          In what fevered mind did those leaps of logic develop? Linux is used worldwide and quite legitimately so, it has zip and nada to do with piracy, copyright infringement or, for that matter, steam.

          You know, Jack…stop posting when you are drunk out of your skull – you make no sense whatsoever.

          As for you not knowing how a market works and then trying to put that into a “logical” perspective…that works better if you use empirical data rather than the “facts” you came up with after exclusively asking your own opinion about the matter.

          No, that market doesn’t work perfectly. It works well enough. The alternative you usually propose doesn’t work at all in human society. So. Pretty please, with sugar on top – stop co-opting the tired lines of old worn-out commissars as to why information control is a necessity.

  • trustnoone

    Whoa, you might as well just come out an say it Ubisoft. You don’t give a sh!t about games, all you care about is money. Which can be seen from exactly what you are saying there.
    At least valve has the right idea, shame on you ubisoft!! Most of your games arn’t that great anyway

    • Jack Murdock

      Thank you for proving my point. As soon as ubisoft stops giving you games so you can snatch them up for free, you get mad at them. You don’t have the slightest bit of gratitude for all the time and money that went into the games you enjoy. All you care about is that they keep on giving you more. Ubisoft is one of the biggest developers out there. They employ over 6,000 people. I dont think they would do this if they didn’t care about games. I guarantee you that if you spent millions of dollars creating something you’d care about making the money too. Textbook game pirate.

      • FinalApokylypse

        It’s called human response to the artificial environment that is capitilism. Most of your comments here show statistical figures and the like that indicate you are more business centred as opposed to the majority of people on these forums and elsewhere. I try to see both sides of the story myself but admittedly I am less knowledgeable about the business side than the other. Personally I think Ubisoft has a right to do whatever it wants with its products but I also think they’ve played their cards terribly. What most people don’t understand though is that businesses are there to make as much money as possible. That’s why I don’t like corporations because their nature is to make as much proft as possible despite the repercussions.

      • Xult

        You are not Jack Murdock so fuck off!
        Our favourite Troll is either sucking his moms penis
        or on holiday!

  • Got2loos3togain

    So release pc,xbox360,ps3 versions.

  • Kim Hå

    A few years back I pirated games because I couldn’t afford them; they can’t count that as a sale lost to piracy. Today I pirate games before buying them just to make sure the game is good, similar to how I’d try a car before buying it.

    There’s no such thing as a sale lost to piracy in my case, and I think Ubisoft should stop bitching about it.

    • Cabbage

      Same story w/ me, yet I (today) cannot buy legal music as they don’t make it easy to purchase – I like Technical Death Metal which means the bands are never on iTunes and other legal stores :’(

      Lucky for me the bands that I like all think piracy is awsome. ;)

  • PC Gamer

    It is retarded that they dont give a crap about their consumer market of the PC gamers which is a bigger market than the crappy console systems.

    Last system I bought was a nintendo 64 and since then i have only played games on the PC. I hate console systems as i like to use the keyboard and mouse. Control pad is useless to me for many types of games and the worst to play on console are FPS games.

  • Ubisoftblows

    It is just as easy to pirate console games.

  • http://twitter.com/AlyssaBlindy Alyssa Blindy

    I blame piracy for the fact that I got tired after eating my Thanksgiving meal. :-P

    • Scary Devil Monastery

      I blame piracy for the fact I’m not being paid a dollar for every time anyone reads a word I write. :-P

  • UniversalSoldier

    With games like Modern Warfare 3 and Arkham City already out on the PC, who the hell cares about Ubisoft’s shitty games..

  • Esn

    The genre of this game is action, not adventure. Adventure = games like “Monkey Island” and “Machinarium”, which are about nonviolent and mostly non-time-sensitive puzzle solving.

    • Christophe Thomas

      yess :)

  • foff

    How does a decade old xbox graphic compare with with dual top of the line graphic cards in a PC? it is harder to optimize a game for advanced graphics and control so Ubi soft takes the easy road and blames piracy. With their logic why is adobe still in business or why does Microsoft still sell office. Both of those softwares are widely pirated.

  • Crs2029

    no games no piracy :)

  • Pelouze

    I can’t blame them. If you can’t cover your costs, whats the point.

    • ThumbsUpThumbsDown

      Eventually changed copyright laws will force these companies to actually compete for a living. If you think meeting costs and pleasing customers is tough
      under the current 100 year copyright gravy train, you’ll be shocked at what a
      a cold water bath in a truly competetive “free market” feels like. Nobody would be blaming Ubisoft then. Their competitors would hold a thirty second wake.

      Only you and Jack Murdock would be left mourning the loss.

    • Anonymous

      The point is that UBISoft may have valid economic reasons to not port this game to PC but they are then bullshitting everyone by blaming this on piracy. This is a common act with UBISoft who like to be outspoken against piracy even if their claims are quite doubtful.

      The real truth here seems to be that this has been a problem game for them and they simply want to get it out the door and gone and done with. Their 12 people over 3 months is also 12 people and 3 months that they can work on another and better game.

      I said above that the major problem for game companies these days is not piracy but second hand games. Piracy is only potential customers and free advertising while second hand game buyers are confirmed people who want to buy the game but instead of buying new copies to increase the total volume sold they are selling copies between each other causing game companies lost sales.

      That is sure as hell true stated in the best market report experts can come up with and which costs many thousands of $$$ just to read. It also makes very clear that piracy is a much smaller annoyance for them.

      So UBISoft bitch about piracy when they can’t do anything about fully lawful second hand game sales and prefer rid of this game away.

    • Scary Devil Monastery

      And the reason they can’t cover their costs is because Ubisoft has a very crappy reputation.

      Bethesda has a good reputation, certainly doesn’t spend less on game development, and make a killing in the PC market.

      I see two alternatives here. Either Bethesda has managed to make people stop pirating their games…or for some reason enough people actually do pay for a Bethesda game to make it very profitable indeed.

  • Christophe Thomas

    I don’t buy those games anymore since I discovered the humble bundle independent game packages. Good value, outstanding service, nice intelligent and innovative games. Ubisoft is a dinosaur in the world of gaming – their hour of glory is long gone. Now for them it is all about squeezing the lemon.

  • http://twitter.com/ClySuva ClySuva

    Ability to pirate games on PC is probably one of the reasons why consoles are mostly piracy free.

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  • Jonathan C.

    I find this as a hilarious way to handle a piracy problem, if its that big of a deal just discover the new age of game cracking protection! The xbox and ps3 have both been cracked and people can pirate the game for both of those consoles too, so in my opinion they need to suck it up and let it flow and stop bitching about how their not making money on one platform, i mean really, is it THAT big of a loss if 50,000 people buy the pc version, 1 million people buy xbox version and 4 million buy PlayStation version, i mean seriously thats $303,000,000 is it really that big of a loss ?

    Hate to be ”that on guy” but with the pc gaming world climbing their making a mistake by not releasing it.

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  • Pentrio

    It’s easier to get pirated games on consoles…. Anyway I own an xbox and a PC and I can tell you for sure that I’m not going to buy any Ubi games anymore. And I’ve got over 70 games in steam which I’ve paid for.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Zack-Nelson/1287355169 Zack Nelson

    I think Ubisoft is the guilty party in why a game wouldn’t be released, allegedly due to piracy.

    A lot of their games as of late has been loaded with some rather hefty DRMs, requiring you to be connected to the internet at all times, and if you lose your connection then you lose your ability to play the game you bought. This can turn off customers and have them resort to piracy, as the pirated versions of their games are more liberating than legal copies.

    You have to ask yourself: If you wanted a PC game from this company, would you pay for a product that will be locked down and your ability to use it hindered, or would you rather pirate the game which wouldn’t cost you anything and your able to use it whenever and however you want?

  • Anonymous

    phlpn.es/829r8s

    • Captain Buzzoverinthehead DFC

      Spam from user Loser (via phlpn.es) flagged.

      • Guest

        The fucker is using websites that don’t provide any kind of contact. He’s not a spambot as we thought. It’s really a person spamming. What a loser!

  • Sdinfoserv

    What a pile of BS!! 12 guys working for 3 months (each making $75K per year) = $360,000 w/ bennies in the US or $225,000 if off shored. 50,000 copies at $50 is $2,500,000… or 7X your cost.. Since all the markeing is already spent on consoles, that’s $2MILLION this butt head has walked away from… What a liar.

    • http://modmyi.com/forums/iphone-4-new-skins-themes-launches/740147-neurotech-hd.html#post5637502 Jay

      Haha, I know. This guy has no idea what the numbers are – he’s just blindly attacking piracy for spite.

  • lform

    No PC release = no piracy and no paying customers either. Ubisoft keep bitching about piracy- their customers keep bitching about harsh DRM that makes their game not work, so they go fuck you Ubisoft and download a pirate copy instead. No wonder Ubisoft’s PC sales are nosediving. They worry more about pirates than they do about giving customers a reason to buy their games. What a bunch of fuckwits.

  • http://modmyi.com/forums/iphone-4-new-skins-themes-launches/740147-neurotech-hd.html#post5637502 Jay

    Whatever. Ubisoft only makes crappy console ports now, anyway. It’s been what, 10 years since they made a proper PC game?

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  • http://rct.me.ht/ crashsuit

    “I was going to turn this cool idea into a PC game, but pirates would just ruin everything, so I’m going to shoot myself in the head to ensure it never gets made and pirated.”

    • Beyondnotion

      A Hero.

  • Pzf

    I’m a pirate and I feel guilty now. True story.

  • IDIOCRACY

    I never pirate games, don’t need to, have an old PC and the games that still run on the machine are less than 10 euro’s (or even dollars) now, so I buy the complete game incl latest updates and expansionpacks and mission packs. Furthermore, I would rather spend my time downloading and watching (try before you buy) good movies but sadly enough, no good stuff came from US lately, so…. I end up playing LEGO with my kids…. and trust me on that, that is much more fun… hehe

  • Anonymous

    linkhide.com.ar/47632

  • Anonymous

    linkhide.com.ar/47632

  • leetscooby

    I guess its time to Jtag the ol’ 360 :3 back at cha ubisoft ;D

  • Pll

    No PC version to pirate? Ok, time to pirate the xbox/ps version.

    DERRRRPPP UBISOFT

  • Nemo

    Piracy, eh? Ubisoft shouldn’t bitch about it.

  • Anonymous

    Wikipedia states:

    As of 2011, it is the third largest independent game publisher in Europe, and the third largest in the United States. Ubisoft’s revenue for 2002–2003 was €453 million; for fiscal year 2003–2004, this grew to €508 million. The company’s largest development studio is Ubisoft Montreal, which in 2004 employed approximately 1,600 people. Yves Guillemot, a founding brother, was the chairman and CEO. As for 2008–2009, Ubisoft’s revenue was €1.058 billion, reaching the 1 billion euro milestone for the first time in its history. Ubisoft has created its own film division called Ubisoft Motion Pictures which will create shows and films based on its games.

    I don’t knowm. Make your own mind up.

  • Dfgsdg

    here how i see it..
    a true pirate always play game via download from BT. therefore the no sale lose there.
    However, when ubisoft put that always connect DRM.. it would scare most ppl and try stay aways from their product. i mean.. why would i give a company 60$ when they try to give a big middle to me?? now.. thats 100% lose sale there.

    On top of that console port really really sux… last year xmas i buy 2 ubisoft game pack from steam.. 3.99 for Assassin’s Creed and like 13 buck for complete prince of persia. while AC well beyond what i expect (never try it.. but with 4 buck wth right?) PoP is completely unplayable due to f*ckup control. add on top of no support what so ever.

    No customer service.. poor console port and screw up DRM. why would any gamer buying their game?? yes i buy em.. but thats at xmas super deals from steam.. otherwise i stay away from it.

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  • Anonymous

    I would not buy one of Ubisoft titles.I will not support this Company.

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  • Anon

    More like killing their profits in its tracks!

    Its just an excuse to be lazy and not make a “real” game for the most powerful platform.

    Skyrim loads faster on my Macbook air than the xbox and its only a kilogram! (It lags a bit more, but the levels load faster.)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_UJ4XRIA3A3E6MYGK755EGWLN4Q Dani A

    I wonder if they ever noticed, that xbox and other console games are pirated just about as much :p

    • http://tinyurl.com/iphone-android-apps Faye Livingston

      I think they as a whole, but just focused on pc for this article.

  • RIAAtarded

    Sorry but this all sounds like BS to me. Those rare occasions when I did play PC games pirated versions didn’t work. Sure you could play single player but the online component if you were running a hacked game you either couldn’t connect at all to their servers or you got CD key in use errors. Plus they were fast at patching any exploits so you were constantly downloading updates which furthered hindered your game play. In the end if it was a game worth owning you bought it. It wasn’t without it’s issues though mostly hardware was a point you were upgrading every 6 months something to play the newest game so now you need to factor that into the game purchase and even then that was no guarantee. I remember one star trek game we played that randomly punted you off the server and rebooted the PC. Wasn’t just mine either it was everyones.I think the straw that killed PC gaming for me was DOOM 3, there was so much hype on graphic it was a must have. So I buy it, upgrade the hardware to play on max and boot the game. Great graphic? who could tell it was dark as shit but yeah it rendered really nice what you could see with your flashlight. Sure you can read the poster on the wall and the paper on buddies desk but in game play who the hell does that. If i stop to read some foolish thing in the environment i’m respawning because something ate me while I wasn’t paying attention. So yeah looks pretty but lets be honest the only time pretty is a factor is if you’re sleeping with it. So I switched to consoles.
    The really problem is the development has changed a lot. I remember having single player campaign, coop campaign, and online multiplayer both server and IP based connections plus several other modes ( death match, capture the flag etc both with and without AI involved). Now however what they release it is never what was advertised and a lot of the time if features are dropped you don’t find out until after the release of the game. This is a problem as I buy for a specific type of game play only to find out it was dropped at the last minutes. So now I got a game I can’t return and don’t want to play. Now can you imagine how POed I’d be if I had to upgrade to play it as well. So yeah I switched to consoles although I still love a keyboard and mouse but at least I can eliminate 1 known issue. As to piracy you’ll never stop it but options like steam are a step in the right direction. You just want alternatives that are more attractive if you want to boost sales. So put back in the coop campaign modes, if you’re using an existing engine can we get more game play with better story lines etc. Profits should be a consideration but a game is also an a artistic creation and that seems to be getting lost. Rather then making it more attractive to boost sale they do the bare minimum to sell it and target online pretty much exclusively so basically you get the same game just new map. With that mentality is there any wonder folks pirate it?

  • Anymouse

    LOL , UBISUCKS are a joke in the gaming world, they whine about piracy,when they actually tried to steal the work of RELOADED who released a No DVD patch for those who had downloaded the game from ubisoft’s servers and the main game exe file didn’t work or similar issues, reloaded engineerd a working solution ubisoft stole it yes they downloaded & copied it, and even released it as their creation, until reloaded found out, it was quickly withdrawn from ubi’s servers,
    Ubi are nothing but cheats and theives,they port games to pc and release them unfinished and their patches created further issues without fixing the already known issues, and then a short time after the release date abandon the game totally, i wish that they would cease trading , then there is their pathetic excuse for a server which is based in Montreal Canada, it frequently will stop/crash,disconnecting all those who are connected,without any notification, /warning ,then after some 15mins it’s back online,until the next brain fart,could be days hours or even less between them, this has been ongoing since Tom Clancy’s rainbow six Vegas was released,some 4-5 yrs ago, it’s even been down for several days without a peep from ubisoft, one used to be able to troubleshoot using imcp ping but since they got a DDOS attack their server no longer responds , one server for a game that they sell globally ? if that don’t tell you they suck nothing will

  • Trololo

    We, i blame the prices.

    • http://tinyurl.com/iphone-android-apps Faye Livingston

      Prices have a lot to do with it. But why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free.

  • Trololo

    Well*

  • http://tinyurl.com/iphone-android-apps Faye Livingston

    I think they should be asking how it got out from their company .

  • Robson

    Dear Ubisoft,

    it is your stupid DRM system that’s making people pirate your games.

    kthxbai

    P.S. if your game is good, people will actually buy it, believe it or not.

  • http://twitter.com/junkjet Dave

    Actually the bad quality of their ports is a large part of why I don’t buy their games for PC any more. After getting the Prince of Persia 4 port, where the control instructions only ever referenced an xbox pad even though I didn’t have *any* pad plugged in amongst other problems I’ve been reluctant to buy the pc versions for a while.

    That said, I would give them another shot (I do like the games they release), but then I hear news of their games being unplayable due to the DRM for a week after release and think “no, I’ll just give it a miss thanks”

    tl;dr: Ubisoft, stop blaming the bad sales on piracy when it’s the lousy job you do of porting and the DRM which cripples games for those who legally buy it that’s causing the problem

  • Timeisgold123456

    are they blind? a lot people also play pirated game on Xbox and PS3…

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