Ubisoft Blames Piracy for Non-Release of PC Game


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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.

Ubisoft?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.


Source: TorrentFreak

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?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.?

That's why I love Valve, Ubisoft games on the PC are atrocious and unplayable, there's nothing worse than buying a game only to have to pirate it just to play it, **** Ubisoft.

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That's why I love Valve, Ubisoft games on the PC are atrocious and unplayable, there's nothing worse than buying a game only to have to pirate it just to play it, **** Ubisoft.

Yes because Steam was such a wonderful product when Half Life 2 for example came out.. oh wait.

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I have no problem with Ubisoft sticking in as much drm as they want as long as I can still play the game. I've never had a problem with their DRM in the past. I would gladly take DRM over no PC release. In this case, this game doesn't really interest me, so I wouldn't have bought it anyway, but I don't like the direction this is headed. It could mean good games in the future, like the Assassin Creed series, are no longer released on PC.

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I was just reading this article on Kotaku and thought of what Ubiosoft said about the PC verson of I Am Alive. Piracy is inevitable and DRM isn't the answer. All it does is inconvenience paying customers which in turn makes piracy more enticing. CD Projekt RED has shown that it's possible to release a PC game and sell a lot of copies without DRM. That's right, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings has no DRM. They sold almost 1 million copies in under 2 months which is amazing for a SP-only game that lacks DRM.

Anyway, read the article linked above. It's much better than the usual piracy arguments made by some developers.

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If a company doesn't expect to make a profit on a version of something for x platform then it's their choice to not make it for that platform. If they feel the PC versions costs won't be made back then why bother? People who are PC only or console only need to give it a rest, I own and play on both and don't miss out in the end.

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Even if there is piracy, you'd still make more money releasing it than not.

I'd rather Ubisoft not release their DRM crap anyways. Minecraft doesnt have much DRm if any at all and it sells like crazy.

Developers don't work for free. It costs money to convert a game to run on another platform. If you're not going to recoup the costs you will not be making more money compared to not releasing it.

If a company doesn't expect to make a profit on a version of something for x platform then it's their choice to not make it for that platform. If they feel the PC versions costs won't be made back then why bother? People who are PC only or console only need to give it a rest, I own and play on both and don't miss out in the end.

You miss out on better graphics, more control options, for console-only games. Not to mention unbeatable Steam prices on the PC. So you are technically missing out in the end if you don't have the choice of buying for the platform you want :p

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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.

Let's say for example's sake that the game sells for $30 a pop, that's $1.5 million for three months work if 50k buy it. Are you seriously telling me that's not a good return? Wow!

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I understand Ubi softs point when you know the game is crap and you know as usual console gamers will fork out 60 bucks for a game on the other hand pc gamer will pirate it (very small number) play maybe an hour or so and DELETE. PC gaming has become a demo machine of some sort, as a developer your game will be scrutinize on every level and in the end some people might pirate it just because developers wants those extra security fetures so the game doesn't get pirated. Here?s my 2 cents just release the game on a freaking disk without any security (has be a good game) and see how many you sell.

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Let's say for example's sake that the game sells for $30 a pop, that's $1.5 million for three months work if 50k buy it. Are you seriously telling me that's not a good return? Wow!

That's not full on profit though, you then have the whole physical production cost and getting it out to the stores/suppliers. They must know their figures though, I doubt a company would just not put it on PC out of spite if they honestly thought that there was profit there to be made.

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So lets look at this, 3 months to port the game to PC

He quotes 50,000 in sales

Average PC game price, ?40?

They would make a cool ?2 million for 3 months work if they only sold the 50,000 he quotes. Obviously the take home for them is less as retailers take their cut, production, etc but what are the chances they will sell a lot more than 50,000 ?? pretty high I expect.

Oki Ubi put your money where your mouth is! Take pre-orders for the PC game and when you get more than 50,000 pre-orders start working on a PC version then you already have the money in the bank and you are not going to loose out (unless your game is ****, which it probably will be if you are converting it) Then where is the risk?

Piracy, pffftt stick it up your arse

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You miss out on better graphics, more control options, for console-only games. Not to mention unbeatable Steam prices on the PC. So you are technically missing out in the end if you don't have the choice of buying for the platform you want :p

That depends on the game, and the games I play on the console don't lose out on "control options" and I don't care about steam and don't use it either. Fact is, if a good looks good to me and I wanna play it then I'll preorder it and pay a higher price as well. If it doesn't then I'm also fine with waiting for the price to drop outside of whatever steam does.

As for graphics, sure the PC has better ones, but gameplay and story are more important in my book than overall graphics, I can live with 360 level graphics if the other two keys are spot on.

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Reason for UBISOFT to not release the game on pc, it already looks like a crappy game from 2007. And it will make it look like it's made in 2004 if the ever port it to pc. Don?t worry Ubi I?m supporting pc games even though I don?t play as much game on pc as before, I?m not playing or buying this game EVER.

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And we all know PC gamers to be the biggest whiners, so there is really no need to accommodate them (us), Ubisoft. Do what you think is best for your business, leave whiners with double standards aside.

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I think some of you are overestimating sales figures. This is not a AAA game. It's going to be a smaller XBLA-type title with no physical copies. Something like Sonic Generations. So far Sonic Generations has sold 150000 copies on XBLA, and Sonic is a pretty well known franchise. Typically PC sales are a much smaller portion compared to console sales. I Am Alive is a new property which will no doubt be less successful. The pricing will probably be $20-$30 considering it's a smaller download-only title. Factor in the retailer taking in a huge chunk of the profit, as well as the additional development cost, it's not unreasonable that it won't turn a profit on PC.

The poor profits are not necessarily due to piracy, but I wouldn't want to release a game on a platform where 50% of legitimate purchases account for a few thousand in profit, while thousands of other users get to play the game for free.

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...and piracy isnt rampant on consoles too? O......K......

correct me if I am wrong but since this game is a XBLA/PSN release that would mean users would have to have a legit console to login the online service and download it. But, I do not know anything about how to pirate console things so...I'm just talking haha

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They are trolls, all there is to it.

It is easy to name games reeking major profits on PC - Skyrim and Minecraft for example.

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a classic ubisoft move. Blame piracy. Why they dont tell to the ppl how they bother to legit buyers of their stupid games with that ****ing drm thing?. They should start selling phones instead, yea, maybe that would be right, so, the ppl will burn to the ground that company because of their inefficient and oppressing politics

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I don't understand the problem here. Ubisoft is notorious for releasing extremely poor ports. We don't get the choice of getting a good port, so why is it being presented as an option? We either get a crappy port that will be pirated to kingdom come, or we get a PC exclusive F2P game.

It certainly sucks that Ubisoft won't make a proper PC version in development concurrently as the console versions, but we don't get to make that call. I'd rather have this than the crap they try to sell me.

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