I Am Alive Producer Dismisses "Bitching" PC Gamers
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Just because one game, series, or company can invest the time and energy to make a PC release successful despite its challenges doesn't mean ALL companies desire to.Acrisius said:
Fact is, the money argument isn't a matter of 'Look, it can make this amount of sales!' Because that's not actually a good enough reason.
Let's say it the return on the investment of man-hours is guaranteed double. For every 5 dollars of costs you put in, you profit 10 in return. That sounds like a great deal!
Now let's say you've got $350K of labor to use on a project; at first glance the one that gets you $700k in sales is a no-brainer! However... you've also got another project that promises $1050k in sales for that same labor. If you don't assign that $350K to the $1050K project... you're actually losing $350K. It's no different if you simply burned $350K after working on the $1M project.
Now what if you don't only have one project like that... but you have three. Or four. That $700k project will never come to fruition, because it's not worth doing.
It's similiar to your carry limit in Skyrim--it doesn't matter what the cost of the item... you're always better off carrying 10 shoes worth 10 gold each that weigh 1 unit, than carrying a single piece of armor that gets you 100 gold, but weighs 40 units.
Y'know what? Fine. I'm a PC gamer, and this announcement is fine by me. At least those bastards finally admit it. They're far more worried that any PC gamer might play a game of theirs without paying than they are of being liked, or making money. Let me try the math here. 12 programmers, 3 months. I don't know the salary of a programmer, but shall we say they cost Ubisoft $5000 a month? Times 3 times 12, that's $180000. Since I doubt the devs and publisher makes less than 4 dollars on each game sale, there'd still be a profit in it for them. And given the current US job market, even if those 12 programmers could be working on a console game somewhere, they can just hire a few extra. But they don't care. They can't stomach the idea that they could be making even more money some other way.
And Ubisoft is right, I wouldn't buy this game. No PC gamer would, because Ubisoft hasn't sold PC gamers anything for the last few years. They only rented us the right to use some games whenever they and their Orwellian DRM felt like it. But they still want full price for their rental contract. And I'm not paying that.
I do hope that now that Ubisoft has stopped pretending, all their PC studios are cut loose or jump ship. I'd have bought Anno 2070 if it didn't come with a 3-activations limit even if I buy it on steam, but now I'm waiting to see if it'll go for 10, maaaaybe 20 euros during the steam christmass sale, since that's a more reasonable price for what they offer. Just go all the way Ubisoft. You've clearly stated now you don't give a damn about us, you don't care about insulting us, you don't even care about our money anymore. Now stop polluting our PC games with your crap, and let Stardock or Valve have the studios and IP for your PC games from now, and you can go and milk the console players in peace.
One more point though, didn't Ubisoft repeatedly state that their DRM was working out great and didn't hurt sales at all? Yeah, guess they didn't really think so huh? Like I said, you've come out of the console-closet Ubisoft, now be that honest in all aspects from now on.
And Ubisoft is right, I wouldn't buy this game. No PC gamer would, because Ubisoft hasn't sold PC gamers anything for the last few years. They only rented us the right to use some games whenever they and their Orwellian DRM felt like it. But they still want full price for their rental contract. And I'm not paying that.
I do hope that now that Ubisoft has stopped pretending, all their PC studios are cut loose or jump ship. I'd have bought Anno 2070 if it didn't come with a 3-activations limit even if I buy it on steam, but now I'm waiting to see if it'll go for 10, maaaaybe 20 euros during the steam christmass sale, since that's a more reasonable price for what they offer. Just go all the way Ubisoft. You've clearly stated now you don't give a damn about us, you don't care about insulting us, you don't even care about our money anymore. Now stop polluting our PC games with your crap, and let Stardock or Valve have the studios and IP for your PC games from now, and you can go and milk the console players in peace.
One more point though, didn't Ubisoft repeatedly state that their DRM was working out great and didn't hurt sales at all? Yeah, guess they didn't really think so huh? Like I said, you've come out of the console-closet Ubisoft, now be that honest in all aspects from now on.
I knew there was a reason I stopped buying Ubisoft games, other than them mostly being boring and having more garbage and security to install than all the games on my shelf put together. Their large disregard for anything to do with consumers, they were the first ones to shove as much DRM as possible in games and hop on not including a paper manual with their games. I'm surprised they include a disc and not just spit in a paper CD sleeve.
Don't think he's being much of a "dick", he's just being blunt. You don't get a lot of that in public relations, but if it upsets you so much you won't buy a game on the principle of "he wasn't very nice about it", you're a bit petty.
I mean, even if they can make the money back, maybe the resources would be better spent elsewhere, and they don't want to dedicate them to the port. Nah, it sounds blunt, a little short, but not dickish. He's certainly not saying they won't develop for PC at all any more.
I mean, even if they can make the money back, maybe the resources would be better spent elsewhere, and they don't want to dedicate them to the port. Nah, it sounds blunt, a little short, but not dickish. He's certainly not saying they won't develop for PC at all any more.
Frankly, I wish he would. His attitude of "PC gamers are just whiny pirates" is a logical extention of their treatment of the PC market lately. However, they still keep hording the copyrights and developers of popular PC titles like the Might & Magic, Anno or Silent Hunter series. Time and time again Ubisoft told PC gamers that the hideous DRM they included in these fan-favourites were just there to keep the PC gaming market happy so we should all shut up and take it. And whenever asked they say it's totally working and not losing them sales so of course they're going to keep doing it. Now we learn that no, it isn't working for them at all, they can't make a good profit doing so, and they don't particularly care and any PC gamers that do care are just whiners that will steal their game anyway. It's a free country and he can have that attitude, but then Ubisoft should just give up on the PC market all together, and let those studios make their PC-only games for different publishers. Don't keep a stranglehold on PC gamers nostalgia and tell us we're lucky to have Ubisoft publish any new games in those series, because the DRM makes it totally worth it again.NezumiiroKitsune said:
Laxman9292 said:
Actually, it's not so obvious. Piracy has been around as long as PC games have been, and the market and profits have continued to expand despite it's eternal prescene, with the industry having grown into an affair worth billions of dollars.
The issue is that the game industry looks down from it's huge pile of money at the estimated number of pirate copies and then wants to think that if it wasn't for piracy they would have sold that many copies and be on top of an even more massive pile of money. The assumption that the pirates would have paid for the game to begin with is also false since there is no guaranteeing anyone doing that could have afforded it or would have been interested if it wasn't "free". They tend to compute the piracy as a loss and get POed in a massive fit of greed-rage without bothering to consider what they actually made.
It's very similar with consoles and used games, with something like Modern Warfare or Madden they are routinely breaking sales records but want to find ways to ensure that all those people buying used copies pay them, because somehow they still aren't making enough money off of them.
Don't get me wrong, piracy *IS* wrong, but it's not the kind of issue that should be even considered when looking at the bottom line... which is "did we get more money back than what we spent?" not "how much more money could we have made?".
As someone pointed out, by these numbers the $700k mentioned doesn't consider the costs of hiring a dozen people for a few months to do the port, in all likelyhood they would merely only make a couple hundred grand (OMG, how horrible). The actual issue is that they will look at the pirate copies and go "OMG, we could have made twice as much" and forget about what they made by assuming all those pirated copies were lost sales (which is inaccurate). Likewise they doubtlessly figure that for the same amount of investment they could poop out something like another tie-in facebook game and make a couple million off casuals, kids with daddy's credit card, and and morons who mis-click on menus designed for it... or if not that something at a similar level... like you know a DLC map for Assasin's Creed or whatever.
What might be an optimum money making strategy is not nessicarly the best thing for either gamers or the industry. In the end it comes down to guys like Bobby Kotick, or more accuratly his Ubisoft equivilent, wanting their private jets, and being able to have sex scandals with personal stewardesses and buy their way out of trouble (ie able to do whatever they want due to deep pockets).
The odd thing is that I think gaming has the potential to be as big as Hollywood and Pro Sports wrapped into one if it was developed properly and gradually uplifted it's own market, turning those casuals into more advanced gamers by causing them to strive to play as opposed to dipping the games into an intellectual morass. It's a complicated process, but it is possible. The thing is that the game industry and the people in it don't care about the long term potential, they want to rape the industry for their big bucks right now. Done correctly a few decades down the road we could have great games availible for everyone, and the guys at the top could pretty much bathe in hot and cold running hookers if they wanted to, but short sighted greed and "I want my fortune nownownownownownownow" is really ruining it for everyone.
Here is a novel fucking idea,make a good game,and people will buy it.Make a crappy,regurgitated game with drm up the bum,and it will be pirated.
Look at games like the Total war series,they're good,always mix things up enough to keep people interested AND THEY SELL.They are only of PC,yet always get strong numbers.
Hell,even MMOs sell and make money,so cut the crap with the piracy.Bad decisions and no respect for the community is why games on PC don't sell as much.I'd much rather give my money to someone else than give it to these guys,if they're going to sell me a port so bad I still see prompts to press xbox controller buttons,with always on,three activation limit drm.
Also,the day they start using drm on consoles,and one day they'll find a way to explain why they need to do it,console piracy will rocket sky high.
Look at games like the Total war series,they're good,always mix things up enough to keep people interested AND THEY SELL.They are only of PC,yet always get strong numbers.
Hell,even MMOs sell and make money,so cut the crap with the piracy.Bad decisions and no respect for the community is why games on PC don't sell as much.I'd much rather give my money to someone else than give it to these guys,if they're going to sell me a port so bad I still see prompts to press xbox controller buttons,with always on,three activation limit drm.
Also,the day they start using drm on consoles,and one day they'll find a way to explain why they need to do it,console piracy will rocket sky high.
They won't release it for PC until they perfect DRM that can chop a user to death with a hatchet for losing connection to the internet for more than 300 milliseconds.
"Ubisoft game on PC", by now everyone knows that means some craven idiot screaming "SCREW YOU I HATE YOU SCREW YOUR MONEY GO AWAY I'M BETTER THAN YOU" and then "bitching" about low sales, thinking the reason the screaming, proudly hostile lunatic can't make a sale is because of piracy.
Hopefully some day they choose to abstain from the console market too, and have to get jobs in a less forgiving market sector where their diseased minds can receive the abject failure they have worked so hard to deserve.
... or they'd just go work for Adobe and get a raise
"Ubisoft game on PC", by now everyone knows that means some craven idiot screaming "SCREW YOU I HATE YOU SCREW YOUR MONEY GO AWAY I'M BETTER THAN YOU" and then "bitching" about low sales, thinking the reason the screaming, proudly hostile lunatic can't make a sale is because of piracy.
Hopefully some day they choose to abstain from the console market too, and have to get jobs in a less forgiving market sector where their diseased minds can receive the abject failure they have worked so hard to deserve.
... or they'd just go work for Adobe and get a raise
Well, I won't be buying any more Ubisoft products in the future. One multi-platform gamer permanently lost.
because, like, Mirror's edge didnt sell well? you must be joking? not every game has to be the new call of duty you know?
oh pelase dont cry piracy again. if you count online sales PC is still the biggest market for gaming.
well sure, if you PORT a game NOONE will want to play it. how about you MAKE a game that WORKS on pc and is not UNPLAYABLE PORT, then we can talk about me paying money to you.