I Am Alive Producer Dismisses "Bitching" PC Gamers

[JediMB]

I've been interested in this game since it was first announced, but without a PC version the chances that I'll actually get it drop significantly, since I'm primarily a PC gamer.

Well, I guess I really have no business buying Ubisoft games anyway, so I it's just for the best.

 

[vrbtny]

So Ubisoft are being douches to PC gamers?

New Gif I made. Had to use it.

 

[Therumancer]

Well, that's the problem with the gaming industry right there, it's not about making a profit, it's wanting to make monster profits. A "mere" $700k isn't worth their time and that's why people like me are up in their face. I understand te logic but it's what's destroying gaming, especially seeing as it's just about ports of games, but even whether games are made. A few million dollars in profits is something that the industry is increasingly willing to turn it's nose up at because they realize they can make more money by churning out games for the casual crowd as opposed to ones for serious gamers or that advance the medium.

$700k might seem like a lot, but it all depends on how much the game cost to produce. If said game cost $25M and took two years then it's not really worth it the risk in making it when they could make more than that just by owning a bond or two and doing nothing.

But that's not what we're talking about, we're talking about their own figures for taking a dozen people over 3 months to do a port. They are saying that if they sold 50,000 copies it wouldn't be enough for them, and Rock, Paper, Shotgun did some computing on what that would generally come out to. So basically $700k isn't enough to justify a couple months work for a dozen of their guys. That's pretty ridiculous which is the point.

Their logic is probably more akin to them being able to have a dozen guys crank out some DLC or a piece of shovelware in the same time period and make more money, making a profit isn't enough, doing the best thing for gaming isn't enough, it's all about squeezing every penny they can.

 

[Mr. Omega]

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?

This was actually a somewhat good point. Shame he had to bury it with the tired old "Oh, and piracy. Also piracy." argument. I do think that PC Gamers tend to whine and ***** a lot, but Ubisoft's fucked up treatment of PC Gamers is one of the handful of points I think they have the right idea. Ubisoft deserves all the ire they get. Still, as the article stated, considering Ubisoft's bad record with PC ports, maybe it's for the best...

 

[Ickorus]

Never heard of the game, not interested in it, but this guy is still a huge wanker; it wouldn't surprise me if he's just convinced people who would have bought the game for console if there was no PC release to simply not bother.

If the callous and idiotic things this guy said has any effect on overall sales he's an even bigger prick, we all know the big publishers drop developers who's game doesn't perform ridiculously well and im sure there are plenty of decent people working under this tosser.

 

[Tay051173096]

And yet some how Steam still works for Pc gamers...

Sell it on steam
Sell it on steam
Sell it on steam

No? Oh well...

 

[Keava]

To be perfectly honest? I don't care, just please Ubisoft, sell Blue Byte and Black Hole to some other publisher if You don't want to deal with PC gamers any more, okay? Then we can all be happy and You can get Your games pirated 2 weeks before release on Your beloved consoles... because that's the reality.

 

[Korbo]

I would have bought this for 360, and hell, if it was good, I might of bought it again on PC just for any mods that could be lying around for it. But now, I just feel like not buying anything form Ubisoft. And yes, I do want to slap them on the wrist and have them say "Sowwy" in a small-child-did-something-wrong manner.

 

[XT inc]

You catch more flies with honey and all that.

The game will get pirated, get over it. Release a drm free version priced at a point where bucks iz knocked off for it have no resale value, as you can't trade or sell digital games. People will buy it in spades.

I am still kicking myself for getting AC brotherhood, on pc with it's wonky ass too close camera for pc controls and generally, fuck me if this is its native design platform, feel too it.

Let alone all the hurdles to get into a game, I want to hit Launch, load recent not

sign into your account, bleh bleh bleh.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

You know, this game looked like it would an overhyped piece of crap from the get go. Thanks for not letting me be fooled Ubisoft! Now start moaning about how the mean old pirates kicked over your sandcastle some more.

 

[kickyourass]

Huh, you know I was almost ready to back this guy since I to have a sneaking suspicion that a good number of the people 'bitching' are only doing it because there's no PC version instead of genuinely wanting to play game. But good lord this guy's a jerk ass screw you buddy.

 

[redisforever]

Release it on Steam, with no retarded extra DRM, and that's it. Charge $20, maybe $30, for being so late, and...well...PROFIT!

 

[Broken Blade]

Man, even as a console game who only owns a handful of PC games, this was a dick move on the guy's part. There are MUCH better ways to phrase a statement like that that not only don't anger a core demographic of the gaming market in general, but also don't piss off other gamers like me.

Then again, PC gamers, if this guy is gonna be this dickish about it, maybe you don't want this game anyway.

 

[lazarus1209]

Believe it or not $700,000 in terms of profit for a game isn't as great as it sounds. In the example he said that he said that "Even if it only took a team of 12 guys three months..." Let's do some math...

Programmers salary for that type of programming get salary ranging from $60K - $100K a year. Let's split the difference and say that each programmer is making $80K. A fourth of that would be $20K per employee. Multiply that by twelve and you have a grand total of $240K in salary alone. But wait! That doesn't include benefits such as 401K, insurance and vacation. So let's throw another $12K (though the number is likely much higher than that).

So far we're at $252K in cost. Now we have to figure in overhead expense. Three months of rent/electric/internet for these guys to do their job in addition to any equipment of licenses they would need. This would likely be in the $40-$50K range for the three month span (though again, likely higher).

So now we're at $302K. Now there is marketing and distribution costs to take into consideration which could very easily cost anywhere between $100K - $500K. In a best case scenario Ubisoft makes a little profit - about $300K though it is more likely that they'll lose money.

And the numbers I used are based of my software company's average costs, which are likely much lower than Ubisoft's costs of production - particularly in the salary department. The move doesn't make financial sense and that's easy to see.

 

[The Madman]

Witcher 2 has sold around a million copies in retail and over 250,000 copies digitally, all PC exclusive.

Sounds to me like this developer just has no faith in his product if he thinks it'll only sell around fifty thousand.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

TBH I can actually see where producer is coming from. Anyone remember the Humble Indie bundle game pack of Trine, shadow grounds, and couple other well regarded games going for "however much" you want to pay for like anything above $4 for charity towards the earthquake victims in Japan early in the year. $4 you can have 4-5 very good fun games and help out a charity, but within 1 day all those games were leaked onto torrent sites and downloaded by thousands of cheapskates who wouldn't even spend $4 of DRM-free games.

Another game series I love, the witcher, which is also DRM-free and comes with support and free DLC is currently getting pirated to hell. I am primarily a PC gamer and I'm sick and tired of my favourite game developers getting screwed over by piracy.

So I totally understand why a company that does't want to lose money over developing for a platform due to piracy.

Well, CD Projekt RED knew their game was going to be pirated anyways, so they had a one day activation key at launch, which was then removed in the next patch. This ensured that the first wave of the release was almost entirely bought. After that they removed the DRM so it wouldn't affect users. Piracy will happen, no reason to punish those who legally bought the game.

 

[Ensiferum]

I've never even heard of this game until now so from my standpoint they didn't mark the game well enough for me to care about it anyways.

Besides, I have Skyrim.

 

[GiantRedButton]

TBH I can actually see where producer is coming from. Anyone remember the Humble Indie bundle game pack of Trine, shadow grounds, and couple other well regarded games going for "however much" you want to pay for like anything above $4 for charity towards the earthquake victims in Japan early in the year. $4 you can have 4-5 very good fun games and help out a charity, but within 1 day all those games were leaked onto torrent sites and downloaded by thousands of cheapskates who wouldn't even spend $4 of DRM-free games.

Another game series I love, the witcher, which is also DRM-free and comes with support and free DLC is currently getting pirated to hell. I am primarily a PC gamer and I'm sick and tired of my favourite game developers getting screwed over by piracy.

So I totally understand why a company that does't want to lose money over developing for a platform due to piracy.

huh? it was pay whatever you want and the games where on torrent sites 3 years BEFORE the bundle. also the charities where the electronic foundier foundation and childsplay.
And they only had online payment only so buying was not an option to the younger crowd( otherwise they would have just given a cent)
Also thy didn't get "srewed over", they made a ton of money, big difference.