I feel like game developers never took basic business. Pretty sure we learned this in highschool:

-As price goes up, sales go down.

-As price goes down, sales go up.

-Find happy medium

-Profit!

Maybe they should stop charging $60 for every. single. 8 hour. campaign. WTF. A game like Skyrim of course is 100% worth the price of admission. But Portal 2? Good game, yes, but not work $50 (on PC). I waited for a sale then bought it for what I felt was reasonable, and I did not pirate.

Some games like BF3 and MW3 are only going to be worth full price if you spend hours upon hours online. Then you're paying for long term service.

Irridium:
Also, didn't you say in the past that your DRM was a success?

Oh it was a massive success allright. Sometimes you couldn't even play the game you bought and paid 40 english pounds for....

Nurb:
"Our Prince of Persia sequel didn't sell as well as we think it should... PIRACY!"
"Don't like our always-online DRM? Well fuck off if you don't like it!... Oh why is no one buying our games on PC? Must be PIRACY!"
"Customers take it personally when we call most of them thieves... typical PIRATES."

Their cuntiness alone has ensured more people will pirate their games out of spite now, and I hope they go bankrupt.

We're supposed to have sympathy for them too, even though by their own arguments they deserve to die off. Piracy is killing the PC market, but the response to any legitimate complaint is to stop buying PC games if we don't like it. If we act rationally and refuse to throw the baby out with the bathwater and download a game, we're killing them. What would they rather have us do? "Talk with our wallets" and not play the games at all, and certainly don't buy them. Which would also kill the industry, but that's somehow the more moral solution. Either way the industry is basically daring us to kill it.

Most people are talking with their wallets, which is why the market is shrinking. And what message does the industry take from that? That they should do something different? Nope. The message is that they should simply move to consoles due to a shrinking market they surely can't be responsible for. So even when we do follow the "moral" way, nothing changes. So the decision, from our view, is between "No Games, Dead Industry" and "Pirate Games, Dead Industry".

In other words, if the industry isn't going to get the message no matter what we do and is going to die either way. Should I feel sorry for Ken Levine not getting paid for a good game? Nope. The industry doesn't care about screwing us over in the name of unproven piracy damages, so I don't see why we should care if a few decent developers get crushed in the name of taking down an industry that could not possibly care less about doing proper business with us.

Also, this. This so hard. Nurb, if I could, I would kiss you.

Jim over at destructoid makes a good point... either the drm is working and piracy isn't an issue or all the drm is a complete waste of time and 95% of their gamers are pirating them? Which is it?

and let me just say.... mmmmmm gog <3

Not like I care, since Rainbox Six and Ghost Recon haven't been good since... well, a long time at least, and the "piracy lolol" excuse is bad.

More like "We stopped making good PC ports besides AC games and nobody is buying them, WHYYY oh right, let's blame the pirates".

I'm just going to go ahead and theorize that this has more to do with PC gamers resisting Ubisoft games thanks to poorly designed DRM.

Jeez, would you lot get over yourselves - no company owes you anything. If ubisoft think they can make a better return from console dev then that's their choice, not yours - and if you think their games suck, really why do you care? Honestly I'll never understand why private companies like this, EA, activision etc, are hated so much, why we get all this reactionary complaining, which is frankly, a little embarrassing to read (are you all 12 or something?).

What it comes down to is this: If you don't like their products, then don't buy them. If you think you can do better, then go ahead and do better.

Wow, that is a bit of a dick move by Ubisoft. The PC does have far more widespread piracy than consoles, but it can't be anything like the 95% figure they're suggesting.

Oh well, I'm a console gamer anyway so this isn't a big deal for me. The only Ubisoft games I play are Splinter Cell and Far Cry. Its a pity that PC users will miss out on this, but its hardly the end of the world. There are still plenty of better games out there for you guys to enjoy.

-|-:
Jeez, would you lot get over yourselves - no company owes you anything. If ubisoft think they can make a better return from console dev then that's their choice, not yours - and if you think their games suck, really why do you care? Honestly I'll never understand why private companies like this, EA, activision etc, are hated so much, why we get all this reactionary complaining, which is frankly, a little embarrassing to read (are you all 12 or something?).

What it comes down to is this: If you don't like their products, then don't buy them. If you think you can do better, then go ahead and do better.

What, being insulted and being called a load of thieves because they make shit? They make shit and call us thieves because they don't sell? We aren't entitled to be a bit angry that they are spouting wank to cover their arse? I'm not angry about their shitty games, i don't care. What gets me is people like you who bend over for corportions to defend their stupid practices and insulting prospective buyers (Who also own fucking consoles, they people they claim is the real market) who won't buy their console tripe either. Christ some of you people must think with your arseholes. Lets insult these PC gamers and sell to console gamers! ...what do you mean PC gamers also own consoles? UNPOSSIBLE! THEY ARE ALL THIEVES! Hey Ubisoft, you won't be aquainted with my PS3 or my money any time soon.

Rant over, lulzing at silly people.

Im not down with all this fanboy, whiney kid BS.

GR: FS on 360 will be the shit.
GR: O on PC will be the shit.

Want future soldier get a console. Want a F2P GR online shooter. Get a PC.

As long as both are quality products i could care less who they hate or spite.

OutrageousEmu:
This is the industry that charged $60 for a 30 second Atari game. How in the hell do you say a game with 70,000 times the playing length and several trillion times the content should be worth less than that?

They did find a happy medium - $60. The price should be around $110. And for games like Skyrim, $230.

Or, you know, the Atari game should have cost $5.

PS: I'm fairly sure you're being sarcastic, but I felt I needed to reply in case you're actually that stupid. Hard to tell sometimes.

Wolfram01:

OutrageousEmu:
This is the industry that charged $60 for a 30 second Atari game. How in the hell do you say a game with 70,000 times the playing length and several trillion times the content should be worth less than that?

They did find a happy medium - $60. The price should be around $110. And for games like Skyrim, $230.

Or, you know, the Atari game should have cost $5.

PS: I'm fairly sure you're being sarcastic, but I felt I needed to reply in case you're actually that stupid. Hard to tell sometimes.

But OutrageousEmu is right - £50 is a happy medium.

A large pizza costs about £12 and lasts maybe an hour. A decent meal can cost £40/£50 and lasts a couple of hours. Even a short game like Portal 2 provides dozens of hours of entertainment for £50 - the same as four pizzas. Something like CoD or Skyrim can provide hundreds of hours of entertainment. Thats pretty good value to me.

OutrageousEmu:

TitanAtlas:

mParadox:
The first sentence pretty much sums up how Ubisoft is acting with the PC crowd. I r sad. 3:

What other significant game series does Ubisoft have I wonder...

Splinter Cell, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Rainbow Six, Driver, Heroes of Might and Magic, Prince of Persia and Brothers in Arms comes to mind... Other than that i can't remember any game that's worth to be mentioned...

Rayman and Beyond Good and Evil?

Didn't even reminded that those were from Ubisoft!!! xD

But yeah... i would trash every other title just for those 2 games...

The Woolly One:

Wolfram01:

OutrageousEmu:
This is the industry that charged $60 for a 30 second Atari game. How in the hell do you say a game with 70,000 times the playing length and several trillion times the content should be worth less than that?

They did find a happy medium - $60. The price should be around $110. And for games like Skyrim, $230.

Or, you know, the Atari game should have cost $5.

PS: I'm fairly sure you're being sarcastic, but I felt I needed to reply in case you're actually that stupid. Hard to tell sometimes.

But OutrageousEmu is right - £50 is a happy medium.

A large pizza costs about £12 and lasts maybe an hour. A decent meal can cost £40/£50 and lasts a couple of hours. Even a game like Portal 2 provides dozens of hours of entertainment for £50 - the same as four pizzas. Something like CoD or Skyrim can provide hundreds of hours of entertainment. Thats pretty good value to me.

Because clearly pizza is charged to us based on how long it takes us to eat, not on how much ingredients and labour and overhead cost to make it...

You could probably build a very simplistic Flash game that has infinite length (random generating dungeons for example) in a matter of days... doesn't mean it should be worth more than five cents.

Do you think CoD MW3 took anywhere near as long or as much money to make as Battlefield 3 or Skyrim? No fucking way. Plus it sells a shit ton more overall, which means they should actually charge a hell of a lot less! Instead they jack their profit margin through the roof. Good for business? Yep! Good for consumers? No!

EDIT: Also $60 isn't a happy medium, it's just the most they can possibly charge without everyone instantly throwing a shit fit. There are savy consumers out there, however, who do not bother to pay that full price for a short or mediocre game, and then devs like this go and try to blame an entire consumer market for poor sales and, on top of blame, call the entire market a bunch of thieves. Like, what, nobody's ever bought a knock off at Walmart to save a buck?

lmao, "95% of them [pc gamers] will just pirate it anyway", says Ubisoft, the same day I was playing pirated Assassin's Creed games on my cousin's unlocked PS3.

Oh yeah, and did you know guys, 95% of statistics are made up on the spot, and about 94.9% of people will believe them even more if they contain decimals.

Flac00:
To be honest guys, its not like this hasn't come out of nowhere. Almost every game is pirated constantly. Hell, with some older games, the only people who actually now get it is by pirating it. This isn't Ubisoft being just dicks. I mean sure, they overreacted, but they do have a legitamate reason. Take this as a lesson. PC people (and I am included in this), BUY GAMES, DONT PIRATE. You are ruining the market more than Call of Duty or Madden ever will.

I would love for us to be able to allow developers (perfectly within our control) to see our purchases or Steam or Amazon. I perfectly do buy video games. I pirated nothing. Since a good deal of you use steam also, I'm guessing the same applies for you.

You know what this is? It's sadly the Media Spin we got in the late 90's early 2000's. With Political bodies and parents up in arms, they blamed all the trouble and grades and crashing morality on the games and music making us depraved. We backed out games and our developers saying "for every one Columbine, you have literally Billions of people not shooting up a school after playing Doom". We stood as one. We stood victorious again and again.

Now that pirating and DRM have become the hot topic today, along with the idea that not many people buying as many games for entertainment any more (I would like to say a few things about that 'Double Dip Recession' 'Not even able to find basic retail jobs any more' 'for some reason, the cost of living has gone up everywhere'), the Developers are now switching camps and blaming gamers again for all their woes.

You know, if you want me to take up another hobby you're going the right way, developers. This didn't work in Elementary School. When the teacher punished the class, oh sure, we were a little ticked at Ricky because he made us miss Recess. But who were we more upset with? The teacher who decided to punish us to prove a lesson. I don't know about you guys, but the lesson I learned at those times is stand with those equal to you against those who think they have authority.

Because news flash game developers, Artists, and even politicians... you're only in business as long as we as a section of the demographic likes you.

As part of this so called 5% allow me to say: Screw you UBI.

Huh. It is official. I'm never buying an Ubisoft game again on any platform.

Call me again when Ubisoft actually puts some effort into their games.

yeah and when the sales of revelations on PC are gonna suck they will blame pirates, not themselves because they antagonized PC gamers in the weeks leading up to it.

well, if ubisoft treats me like a pirate i will treat them like cheap fucks and will borrow the games from a friend (who bought them used) for my ps3.

ElPatron:

Flac00:
BUY GAMES, DONT PIRATE. You are ruining the market more than Call of Duty or Madden ever will.

Since the piracy affects mostly those titles, by your logic piracy is actually helping gaming because it is attacking the "annual release" strategy.

Flac00:
To be honest guys, its not like this hasn't come out of nowhere. Almost every game is pirated constantly. Hell, with some older games, the only people who actually now get it is by pirating it. This isn't Ubisoft being just dicks. I mean sure, they overreacted, but they do have a legitamate reason. Take this as a lesson.

Yes it did come out of nowhere. He has no justification to back those statements up. And neither do you, how is it a legitimate reason when people still buy physical games or from services such as Steam? Gaming is still making money.

Hell yeah, I took this as a lesson. I have a urge to pirate that game for my brother's 360. it's not like consoles can't have pirates or selling for the console crowd will grant you millions of sales.

I think that the only way to kill PC gaming with piracy is when you become able to pirate hardware.

Gaming may still be making money, but for those developers, the fact that people are stealing their stuff is what offends them. This kinda proves that they don't just do this for the money, the fact that they fight pirating is for principal, not for financial reasons. These guys are kinda like artists in their own way, very protecting and supportive of their own work, if people take it away without their acknowledgement, they get pissed.
Plus, of coarse he has ways of backing up those statements, as do I. People always pirate, and in pretty large amounts. The PC market is the focus of this pirating as it is both easier, and the community on the PC is usually technologically more literate. People rarely pirate on the consoles, and if they do, it is usually at the risk of screwing up their console. Most won't take that risk, and the others that would just don't know how.
Look, PC gaming will never die, thats a fact. But it isn't being helped by pirates.

PS: about it being helpful to the industry to pirate COD and Madden. Its not. 1: Pirating is wrong NO MATTER THE CIRCUMSTANCES, its stealing, stealing is wrong, ect. 2: If sales go down from COD and Madden a significant amount from pirating, their coarse of action will have nothing to do with annual releases and have everything to do with eliminating pirates. Pirates would then hurt the community even more because companies will have to take even more extreme action to combat pirating.

Soviet Heavy:
Call me again when Ubisoft actually puts some effort into their games.

Call me again when Ubisoft actually puts effort in it's bullshit excuses.

Oh, I guess that's why I dislike Ubisoft games. They're made by morons. Cool.

I enjoy that Ubisoft is overreacting to pirating so much. "People won't stop pirating games on PC so we will just stop making them games!" I can't wait for them to find out about used games sales.

Fuck you, Ubisoft. Your treating your customers like shit, and you can rot. It may be a while before I buy another Ubisoft product.

Let me just say that 95% of the time I can pull a random number out of my ass and call it a statistic and be correct 9 times out of 10 as well.

There has only been a couple IPs from Ubi that I really marginally cared for and if they want to run off in a hissy fit because they think the nasty pirates (AKA legit customers) are being mean to them, then so be it. Their actions in the past couple years have shown that they really don't care about PC anyways since it detracts from their shovelware production in the consoles.

Bye bye Ubi, look me up when you grow up

teebeeohh:
yeah and when the sales of revelations on PC are gonna suck they will blame pirates, not themselves because they antagonized PC gamers in the weeks leading up to it.

Not to mention that they seem to have deliberately staggered AC:R's PC release compared to the console version. Just over two weeks of difference according to wikipedia. Even if they sold well, the PC version is naturally going to have hindered sales simply because people who really want to get the game will buy it when it comes out earliest, which is on consoles.

TitanAtlas:
[quote="mParadox" post="7.326129.13322139"]Far Cry, Rainbow Six, Driver, Heroes of Might and Magic, Prince of Persia and Brothers in Arms comes to mind... Other than that i can't remember any game that's worth to be mentioned...

Games I've left quoted havn't been worth mentioning in the last 5 years.

may aswell mention titles from the 90s.

Man holy shit are these guys off their rockers or what! Fuck I don't play 99% of Ubisoft games because I'll be honest, I don't really consider them to be any good. My placement of them in the world of publishers is the same area as say a steaming pile of shit. At least EA has the ability to make semi half decent games before it fucks you over.

Well Ubisoft, I would offer you a shovel, but alas you seem content using your hands.

EDT: To add, the only reason pirating on PC is so rampant is because it is easy to do. If console systems had the same ease(say like Dreamcast) than pirating would be a problem on them too(just like Dreamcast).

So Ubisoft: If you don't want people to pirate your games, stop making shitty games, and stick to a DRM that people generally tolerate like Steamworks. Valve seems to do pretty well with their games, and so do must developers that use Steamworks DRM.

Man, it must be hard to be PC elitist when 3 games come out for it every year.