Ubisoft: DRM is Ineffective Against Piracy

[Dr_Fred]

Aaaaand, the omni-punchline from 4 years ago [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comicsandcosplay/comics/stolen-pixels/7265-Stolen-Pixels-175-Ubisoft] is still accurate.

"Hey, we just realized that we're not stopping pirates from playing, merely impairing our customers ! So instead, we're going to only put DRM on PARTS of the game which will be rebranded as 'additional services' and hope the crackers out there never figure it out !"

Xvmprtzkf. This is beyond-vowels-cringe-inducing. How come they still don't understand basic stuff ?

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

I don't trust this. Ubisoft are up to something, I can feel it.

 

[Steven Bogos]

Early stated that while Bethesda's recently released Wolfenstein: The New Order was reportedly pirated over 100,000 times, it was a mistake on Bethesda's part to say that these were all lost sales, because some number of people were always going to steal the game.

Some people download a pirated game because they are not sure if they will like it,and want to protect themselves from a bad investment.Not all of those who download pirate copies fully play the game they download,so not all pirate downloads are lost sales.
Thing is the market had its own ways of satisfying that consumer need,the "try before you buy".
There where sharewhere versions of games,and there were demos too.
Today people who want to try before they buy,download the whole games because there aren't short demo versions to try out.

You see,each problem has its solution,and when a problem appears one has to look for what are the factors that led to the problem instead of thinking it suddenly happened out of nowhere for no reason.
Of course there are many cheap people who won't put their hands on their wallets 'cause they are stingy. But I don't think all of those who actually download games this way are like that.
It would be interesting even for an academic research type of reason to make an experiment and see the percentage of illegally downloaded copies of a game in comparison to its sales,if it has a demo,to see if game had demos the number of illegal downloads would minimize.

Can't source you on this, but I remember reading research a while ago that showed having a Demo for your game actually DECREASED overall sales, due to people trying the game, disliking it, and not buying it.

 

[Scorpid]

LOL the cynicism of this thread is sad but understandable. People are just so use to being burnt by publishers that they feel no emotional connection to them except disappointment. I mean for a brief second in 2007-2008 EA was publishing some really strong titles but they've since spent the last 6 years turning their fans against them in an almost purposefully devised way. Spunkgurgleweewee games are losing their luster by obsessive iteration, people are coming to expect broken games at launch, servers being flooded and DLC for stuff that use to be simple console command such as big head mode but that's now 2.99.

So two of the worst offenders come out and say flat out they were completely wrong and intend to find another way to run their a very divisive aspect of their business and it's not met with any sort of excitement but instead everyone pisses all over the speaker. I'm just saying that an executive of a company coming out saying something that runs counter to their established safety blanket isn't nothing, their words have consequences for their company and they know it. When they take to the internet or any media saying something like that people are listening and they're not just customers but investors. Companies can't afford to shoot off the cuff with their views, I mean look at Nintendo. They accidentally say homosexuality is unnatural through very stupid phrasing (they absolutely don't care one way or another which is progressive for Japan) and suddenly every news outlit is demanding to know what is Nintendos position on something as politically charged as gay marriage.

Thinking on it, cynacism almost makes it easier for companies to do the shit that turned people cynical because its a form of begrudging acceptance. I mean if Ubisoft tomorrow does absolutely nothing to stop their DRM practices than no one will care because its what was expected. But if people get excited and then feel lied too they shall take to forums with a righteous fury loud enough for Ubisoft to answer absolutely to what they mean and stand for. So be a little optimistic I guess and short of that be furious next time they do this shit.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Thank Christ! It only took them 4 years and a horrible service to learn that.

Now, can you guys please just switch to Steam already?

Also, how many times do I have to say this, pirated copy=/=stolen copy. Piracy is not that simple of a crime.

 

[Zeema]

if they got rid of uplay i would be happy

 

[Carnagath]

What features? Meaningless crap like community chests and that terrible Facebook style minigame in AC4? If you can't think of any online features that can seriously enhance the single player experience, stop pushing shit down people's throats. Also, not going anywhere near any Ubisoft games on PC as long as Uplay is required, because it fails to synchronize my save files and I have to restart the process 5 times every time I exit a game. It also shits itself whenever a highly anticipated game comes out. Words mean nothing, only actions do.

 

[hazabaza1]

Fucking excuse me? This, coming from Ubisoft?
So, do they understand what the word hypocrisy means? 'Cos, y'know, not like they have this whole service that actively punishes your buyers for getting games on it. [sub]OH WAIT[/sub]

 

[Darth Sea Bass]

Yeah the day i can click play on an ubisoft game in Steam without it actually meaning launch Uplay is the day i start believing them.

 

[Vrach]

No shit Sherlock. It's what your entire fanbase (and indeed, pretty much anyone not working for you) has been telling your company since you've started this DRM crap while you were sitting with your hands covering your ears, shouting "LALALALA IT TOTALLY WORKS LALALA" repeatedly.

Early says that key to stopping piracy is to offer online services (such as multiplayer) that are simply unavailable for pirates to access. "I think it's much more important for us to focus on making a great game and delivering good services. The reality is, the more service there is in a game, pirates don't get that," Early said. "So when it's a good game and there's good services around it, you're incentivized to not pirate the game to get the full experience."

While true to a point, pirates can play the multiplayer aspect of the game as well. It's just a bit more of a hassle setting up servers and the like and they can't play with players who've legitimately purchased the game, but only with each other. So don't count on a minor and tacked on multiplayer aspect of a game to get you a "get out of piracy free" card, offering a better, focused singleplayer experience will usually do a lot more to get people to buy your game.

Now then, would you kindly take Uplay behind the nearest shed and take care of it? Or is this just a copy-paste of a speech nearly every other company has given by now?

 

[RealRT]

Oh, really? No shit, everybody knew that since the dawn of fucking time. Now get that Uplay shit out of my games.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Still not going to believe the lies Ubisoft, you burning bridges with Nintendo and lying about WD and recently the female player models for the next ass creed just aren't making you look amazing.

Also if people want rid of Uplay I want rid of Steam also, Origin too since I want all my games completely DRM free and at least the upcoming Galaxy is going to be completely optional.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Oh dear Ubisoft. "Gee, we're really taking a lot of flak lately over AC:Unity and Watch Dogs. I know, let's throw gamers a bone by saying something bleeding obvious they like but which we won't actually follow through with."

 

[Coreless]

I find it quite hilarious that people actually think Ubisoft is saying something good with their statement or saying they have "learned" something important. Seriously, you people need to work on your reading comprehension skills because there wasn't a single thing in that statement that was actually positive for customers. Its pretty much EA all over again, here are the key words people should really be looking at:

Early says that key to stopping piracy is to offer online services (such as multiplayer) that are simply unavailable for pirates to access. "I think it's much more important for us to focus on making a great game and delivering good services. The reality is, the more service there is in a game, pirates don't get that," Early said. "So when it's a good game and there's good services around it, you're incentivized to not pirate the game to get the full experience."

This is their version of EA's "Well we are such great guys who love our customers so much if it just wasn't for them terrible pirates forcing us to be like this...". Ubisoft is just playing the ol' spin doctor routine, its just another statement trying to walk themselves into the victim role of those mean, evil pirates to make them seem like they had no hand in what will only amount to being more online services that require a constant connection to play. Don't drink the Koolaid people, its nothing but simcit.. *cough cough* I mean spin city here.

 

[seditary]

I look forward to seeing how much worse they make their games to combat the spectre of piracy because Ubisoft is just full of stupid shit to get amused at.

And that doesn't cost me anything.

 

[Seydaman]

I'll be happy when you let me play all the Assassin's Creed games that are sitting in my Steam library, locked in unplayability because UPlay hates me

(AC:2, Brotherhood, Revelations, and 3)

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Still not going to believe the lies Ubisoft, you burning bridges with Nintendo and lying about WD and recently the female player models for the next ass creed just aren't making you look amazing.

Also if people want rid of Uplay I want rid of Steam also, Origin too since I want all my games completely DRM free and at least the upcoming Galaxy is going to be completely optional.

It does seem like Ubi can't catch a break lately, mostly due to their own failings. If that's not enough, apparently Quebec (where Ubisoft Montreal is located) is looking to repeal the tax exemptions game studios get. Of course if that happens Ubi will probably just try to clamp down harder...and it'll fail harder. The more I see them, the more I wonder how that company is worth over a billion dollars.

 

[gphjr14]

None too surprising if I'm not mistaken Watch Dogs was leaked like a week before it was released. I'm not gonna say why bother but they've gone to great lengths to penalize honest customers.

 

[Kotaro]

Hey, Ubisoft? I'll believe it when you drop Uplay, you bunch of dicks. Seriously, Uplay is the reason I don't buy Ubisoft games anymore.

 

[Furism]

Another thing is not to sell your games for $60. PC games used to be around $50 and consoles $60 because publishers have to pay royalties to the console manufacturers. Lately there's been a trend by publishers, and Ubisoft first among them, to release PC, digital only games for the same price as console or retail PC games. I find this really offensive.

I know they like better margins like any business but it's getting out of hand. If the extra $10 would give me a DLC or something that a retail box doesn't provide, I'd be happy to pay the fee. But I don't like feeling cheated and there's simply no reason for a digital version to be as expensive as a physical one - there's no shipping and handling or stolen trucks or warehouse fires. You upload the files once, then you only have to pay for storage and bandwidth - costs which are marginal and certainly don't come anywhere close to $10 per user.

So, yeah, DRM sucks, thanks for joining the consensus Ubisoft. But greed also sucks, try not to be too obvious.