Ubisoft Challenges Gamers With DRM-Free Prince Of Persia

[zoozilla]

Wow, that's actually quite brave of Ubi to do something that is pretty drastic, given the state of DRM in PC games.

Kudos to them for at least trying to get to the heart of the whole DRM and piracy issue.

 

[Akihiko]

I don't think no DRM will remove the problem of pirating, however I don't think it will increase the amount of pirates. No matter what DRM or protection they put on a game, there will be people out there to hack it in some shape or form, if anything DRM is just a pain to us who actually buy the game. They should release demo's of games on the same day if not before the release of the full game to be honest, that way they can remove the excuse of downloading a game to "try it out". Hell I know often I don't want to buy a game without trying it first, considering the money problems that are going on over the world so i'd gladly accept more demo's.

Me? I already bought a copy of the 360 version of Prince of Persia. It's a really good game, the only disappointment being the difficulty level of it, however with consoles having online capabilities now theres easily ways of including an update containing a new difficulty level.

As for pc games, I don't really play them much, prefer console games, which can easily be seen with the ratio of console games to pc games(Which, is pretty much 40:1 i'd say, with no exaggeration) on my shelfs and in my wardrobe. Firstly because my pc isn't THAT good, and it can play alot of the latest games on High settings, but it won't be long before that changes, and I don't plan on upgrading it for a while. Secondly, I prefer using a controller. Fair play, yeah I can hook my 360 controller up to play pc games(which I do sometimes), however that can be tedious and so I may aswell just buy the PS2, Wii or 360 counterpart if possible.

 

[Alex_P]

Here's what this is: someone in Ubisoft realized DRM didn't make any difference and was still expensive as hell to incorporate into a game, so they cut it, then went to press and said "we want to see if you guys are good people".
Want my money? Fine. Your game cost you less to make. I want to pay less for it too. If you want loyalty, treat your clients well.

... What if they just put the money back into development?
... What if the money goes into offsetting the chilling effects of day-zero piracy or whatever?

Like I said, it's not like all $50 games cost the same to make, anyway.

-- Alex

 

[Shellsh0cker]

Didn't this get done by StarDock for ALL OF THEIR GAMES?

You shouldn't be advertising "DRM free on the PC!" as part of your campaign to attract sales. That should be something that's on the back of the box in that list of bullets no one ever reads that constantly overestimates a game's features. You bury stuff like that, you don't publicize it. When you go "We're gonna challenge you guys. Prove us wrong!" you set yourself up for defeat.

Imagine I walk into a large room full of people and place a tray of brownies down on the table with a change jar next to it. Then I go "It's a dollar a brownie! Don't steal any of the brownies! I'll be back in an hour." to the room at large. Then I leave. How many brownies do you think are gonna get paid for? I'll bet not as many as if I'd just walked in and set the tray down with the change jar marked "$1 per Brownie" and hadn't said a word.

Good point, and nice analogy. I like your idea of putting "DRM free" on the back of the box, as a selling point.

 

[Chaos Marine]

I'm gona be buying it on principal.

 

[Andy Chalk]

Want my money? Fine. Your game cost you less to make. I want to pay less for it too. If you want loyalty, treat your clients well.

And if they did that, you'd complain that Yves Guillemot didn't come over and personally install it on your PC. It's pretty clear at this point that you don't have a reason, you're just looking for an excuse.

 

[Andy Chalk]

For starters, it would be useful to know what metrics they're measuring success and failure by, and I would contend the level of copyright infringement is less useful than net sales. We're also looking at the initial title of a franchise relaunch, which offers no controls. More useful would have been a comparison between a DRM-laden second title of a franchise trilogy, versus a DRM-free third title of the same franchise trilogy. This would control for lack of interest and failure of execution. Also necessary of consideration is whether a title is a PC exclusive, or multiplatform.

You're putting way too much thought into it. I agree that you have some very valid points, and if this was an actual experiment intended to be held to a particular level of scrutiny, fine. But it's really not. It's just a DRM-free game and a community manager who thinks that most people who use "evil DRM" as justification for copying games are full of shit. The most you can hope for is to look back at this in a few months and say that the level of copying was more, less or pretty much the same. Expecting anything more than that is expecting way too much.

 

[Alex_P]

Here's what this is: someone in Ubisoft realized DRM didn't make any difference and was still expensive as hell to incorporate into a game, so they cut it, then went to press and said "we want to see if you guys are good people".
Want my money? Fine. Your game cost you less to make. I want to pay less for it too. If you want loyalty, treat your clients well.

... What if they just put the money back into development?
... What if the money goes into offsetting the chilling effects of day-zero piracy or whatever?

Like I said, it's not like all $50 games cost the same to make, anyway.

-- Alex

That's ridiculous. Do you buy candy for a hundred bucks because 99,90 of those dollars went back into candy development or to cover the company's debt?

No, I mean back into the development of that particular game.

How do you know your supposed "DRM cost" didn't turn into an extra level or a higher-budget voice actor or some fancy motion-capture animation rather than being pocketed as profit?

You don't. As a consumer, you have no way to get that level of financial detial.

-- Alex

 

[Anton P. Nym]

It's pretty clear at this point that you don't have a reason, you're just looking for an excuse.

Really? I think I spelled out my reason.

Yeah, and your reason sucks. $10/copy retail is more likely a $3/copy by Ubi and a bunch of markup for the distributers and retailers... you seem to be assuming that Ubisoft gets every penny of the retail cost, and ignoring the costs incurred the distribution chain.

That, and given what I've read of your earlier posts, leads me to believe you're just rationalising piracy by blaming whatever looks convenient at the time.

-- Steve

 

[Andy Chalk]

Really? I think I spelled out my reason. The game cost less to make, and if you want me to buy it, make it not cost the same as mass effect/assassin's creed/far cry2, where you did spend on DRM.

I was a little curious about this, so I did some digging. (Truthiness alert: "Did some digging" = quick Google.)

Hard numbers are pretty much impossible to come by because SecuROM licensing fees vary depending on all sorts of factors, but I did come across some promotional material from Sony DADC that provides an example of SecuROM implementation, including pricing on a hypothetical product. You know what the license cost for that DRM worked out to on a per-unit basis?

20 cents.

I'll just leave you with that.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Oh, I don't need to rationalize piracy. I download games for the same reason I take unattended fifty dollar bills on the street: I'm never getting caught and the company I "steal" from (note that actual theft takes something away from a person) has a net worth of ?150 million.

Quod erat demonstratum. You pirate because you want to pirate, for the same reason any 3-year-old will give... no amount of customer care by Ubi will prove enough, you'll always find a reason to rip 'em.

BTW, Blizzard does go after pirates, shutting down "private" WoW servers outside their network because they're breaches of the EULA. Oh yeah, and talk to the Glider guys about how warm and fuzzy Blizzard is about unauthorised use of their software. Valve has STEAM, definitely a reaction to piracy; it's killer DRM with good PR and a loyal fanbase, but it is killer DRM. Dunno about Bethesda, though I haven't followed them much until recently.

-- Steve

 

[Singing Gremlin]

Oh, I don't need to rationalize piracy. I download games for the same reason I take unattended fifty dollar bills on the street: I'm never getting caught and the company I "steal" from (note that actual theft takes something away from a person) has a net worth of ?150 million.
I do pay for games made by Blizzard/Valve/Bethesda because I feel they treat their costumers right - you don't see those companies bitching about piracy.

Ahhh, right. So you have the right to all their products for free because you don't like them. Well, I think you're an imbecile, so I'm sure you won't mind me stealing all your stuff.

And, I believe Malygris just turned your argument to jam.

 

[Anton P. Nym]

Escapists are slaves to the market.

Perhaps, but I value not pissing into my own well more than I do a sense of being a "rebel" against The Man.

And that's what game piracy is, really; if you're a gamer, you're interested in getting new games, right? Well, where do the games come from? And how much do they cost to make? And how likely do you think they'll keep on being made if developers see shrinking returns on those costs?

For all the bellyaching about PC games going to consoles being a mistake, developers (rightly or wrongly) see consoles as having much better DRM than PC games... and every PC title that shows 4/5 of the server population to be unregistered or have false registration pushes more and more developers to the perception of safety in the console market.

As pirates, you're fouling your own water and complaining to everyone else about the funny taste. It's another reason I view pirates as either idiots or children; adults are usually smarter than horses.

-- Steve

 

[Shellsh0cker]

Escapists are slaves to the market.

Perhaps, but I value not pissing into my own well more than I do a sense of being a "rebel" against The Man.

And that's what game piracy is, really; if you're a gamer, you're interested in getting new games, right? Well, where do the games come from? And how much do they cost to make? And how likely do you think they'll keep on being made if developers see shrinking returns on those costs?

For all the bellyaching about PC games going to consoles being a mistake, developers (rightly or wrongly) see consoles as having much better DRM than PC games... and every PC title that shows 4/5 of the server population to be unregistered or have false registration pushes more and more developers to the perception of safety in the console market.

As pirates, you're fouling your own water and complaining to everyone else about the funny taste. It's another reason I view pirates as either idiots or children; adults are usually smarter than horses.

-- Steve

Excellent post, my good man. I find your analogy both fitting and amusing.

Oh, I don't need to rationalize piracy. I download games for the same reason I take unattended fifty dollar bills on the street: I'm never getting caught and the company I "steal" from (note that actual theft takes something away from a person) has a net worth of ?150 million.
I do pay for games made by Blizzard/Valve/Bethesda because I feel they treat their costumers right - you don't see those companies bitching about piracy.

Ahhh, right. So you have the right to all their products for free because you don't like them. Well, I think you're an imbecile, so I'm sure you won't mind me stealing all your stuff.

And, I believe Malygris just turned your argument to jam.

See, the thing is, he doesn't care. Technically, he's correct; piracy and theft are different things. That, however, does not make them any less wrong. Unfortunately, as I've already said, he doesn't care, and the chances of you convincing him otherwise are approximately 3720 to 1.