Ubisoft Bemoans 95% Piracy Rate

[BloatedGuppy]

I don't know, I guess I'm just getting tired of going onto the Escapist and seeing about how much (Activision/Ubisoft/EA/Zynga) sucks so much. Personal taste probably, I'd much rather talk about something else than how every single person in the industry sucks. Really this community seems to thrive off of it.

1. I'm probably one of the more pro-developer people on this website. Or at least one of the least rabidly anti-developer. I even put up a pro-EA thread once. True story.

2. It would really help the developers cause if they'd stop saying and doing stupid things. =\

 

[Erttheking]

I don't know, I guess I'm just getting tired of going onto the Escapist and seeing about how much (Activision/Ubisoft/EA/Zynga) sucks so much. Personal taste probably, I'd much rather talk about something else than how every single person in the industry sucks. Really this community seems to thrive off of it.

1. I'm probably one of the more pro-developer people on this website. Or at least one of the least rabidly anti-developer. I even put up a pro-EA thread once. True story.

2. It would really help the developers cause if they'd stop saying and doing stupid things. =\

Yeah well, let's face it, they're Human, they're going to do stupid shit, we all are. I'm just saying that this is sort of similar to what the modern media is doing, shoving every last death, robbery and rape into my face. Eventually I just get to the point where I say "...why should I care?"

 

[MisterShine]

I saw this on dtoid and I have to ask here as well, is 95 percent rate really that unbelievable? 2dBoy reported similar numbers a few years ago, and they're an Indie company. You'd think their rates would be smaller.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Yeah well, let's face it, they're Human, they're going to do stupid shit, we all are. I'm just saying that this is sort of similar to what the modern media is doing, shoving every last death, robbery and rape into my face. Eventually I just get to the point where I say "...why should I care?"

Generally speaking I don't concatenate deaths and rapes with Ubisoft acting like a bunch of prats again, which might be why I find this funny and not depressing.

 

[Erttheking]

Yeah well, let's face it, they're Human, they're going to do stupid shit, we all are. I'm just saying that this is sort of similar to what the modern media is doing, shoving every last death, robbery and rape into my face. Eventually I just get to the point where I say "...why should I care?"

Generally speaking I don't concatenate deaths and rapes with Ubisoft acting like a bunch of prats again, which might be why I find this funny and not depressing.

You're missing the point I was trying to make. It's the whole, this is this stuff getting shoved down my throat every time I go onto this website therefore I am desensitized to it and stop caring a long time ago.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

You're missing the point I was trying to make. It's the whole, this is this stuff getting shoved down my throat every time I go onto this website therefore I am desensitized to it and stop caring a long time ago.

I don't think you're meant to care really. Well, maybe RPS wants you to care. I find it funny. I don't get desensitized to funny things. Each new outrage is a fresh opportunity to laugh. They are clowns, errtheking. Look at their funny shoes. Look at their silly noses. Are you not entertained?

 

[Tohuvabohu]

...am I the only one getting tired of constantly shitting on developers? Really it seems like the only time that there's a thread about them it's because they fucked up or did something stupid.

It feels like he just dragged his sweaty nutsack over every single game I purchased for PC. Not that I'm surprised, I'm used to this sort of treatment by Ubisoft.

I already said earlier I'm pretty speechless about this. It's more amusing how far up his own ass the CEO is than upsetting. It's not worth putting any more critical thinking into this beyond that though.

fyi, i'm tired of bashing devs too. But sometimes. Sometimes. You just gotta step back and take a moment to marvel at what you are witnessing before moving on.

 

[Erttheking]

You're missing the point I was trying to make. It's the whole, this is this stuff getting shoved down my throat every time I go onto this website therefore I am desensitized to it and stop caring a long time ago.

I don't think you're meant to care really. Well, maybe RPS wants you to care. I find it funny. I don't get desensitized to funny things. Each new outrage is a fresh opportunity to laugh. They are clowns, errtheking. Look at their funny shoes. Look at their silly noses. Are you not entertained?

...Can't say that I am. Just a little depressed. I've been a little unhappy personally for the past couple of days but then again I've never found pointing out someone else's idoicy to be funny. I don't know, maybe it's because I actually like Assassin's Creed (I wonder how many people on this website now think I'm an idiot for admitting that?) and I really don't care what a company does so long as their games still have a quality that I can enjoy at a reasonable price but...I dunno, I really just don't know. I guess I just don't get as fired up as other people do about these things...heh, guess that makes me a dirty casual.

 

[yuval152]

I'm sure that 90% of the people that are pirating ubisoft's games are doing it to spit them in the face for how they treat their customers.(exaturation indeed)

 

[TrevHead]

october 2011

However, Ubisoft provides a test-case. We are almost two years into its aggressive attack on PC piracy. Recently, Ubisoft called its ?always-on? DRM a success, claiming ?a clear reduction in piracy.?

In terms of actual sales, however, the results seem decidedly mixed. Michael Pachter told Eurogamer that Ubisoft?s ?PC game sales are down 90% without a corresponding lift in console sales.?

so they are assuming the 90% loss in sales is due to piracy which they defeated in octber last year haha

While most sane ppl see it as ppl just not buying their games due to DRM and instead buying alternatives on steam.

I'm sure UBi HQ know this but would rather forsake a large chunk of their existing PC gamers for a potentially more lucretive f2p market.

Anyone with half an eye on the gaming industry can see that the core gamer market is in a period of contraction. Companies like EA and Ubi are looking for a way to survive. And with Onlive closing down and Popcap laying ppl off they are quickly running out of viable solutions

 

[crazyrabbits]

This is the company that, in the past, has botched its PC releases so badly that, in at least one case (Rainbow Six Vegas 2), they had to crib a No-CD patch from a piracy group to fix the problems with the DRM they put on the product. The same company that called their DRM a "success" less than a year ago. Have they finally released that most of their PC players have abandoned them?

Are they seriously implying that, if their piracy rate is 95%, they would have sold 20 times more copies if everyone bought it legally? That is so patently absurd I'm shocked that Guillemot hasn't been fired already. A lost sale does not equal a pirated copy. It's the same as the RIAA claiming that they lost $72 trillion (which is larger than America's national debt at one time) to piracy.

 

[Nietz]

This is a damn disgrace. I'm quite a fan of a couple of games under the Ubisoft label. I even have two copies of Anno 2070(picked up the retail version and got the collectors ed. as a gift), I even have a collectors ed of Heroes VI. While their DRM is pretty ugly, it's not a deal-breaker for me personally. The games I enjoy from them are good enough for me to jump through some hoops, and my internet connection is stable.

But this, this is disgraceful. How would their PC dept. even operate with 95% of their product being pirated? Seriously?

 

[Wayneguard]

Because I'm primarily a console gamer, I'm kind of unfamiliar with this DRM/anti-piracy controversy. However, the economics of this situation really interest me. The author of the RPS article makes some claims about evidence showing that piracy rarely leads to lost sales and that there is anecdotal evidence that it even encourages them. Could somebody just give me a quick rundown on the accepted theory as to why that is? To me, that seems counterintuitive; I would expect piracy to severely hurt sales. What's the deal?

 

[FoolKiller]

I would love to see how many legit copies they have of any game sold? Then multiply that number by twenty and wonder how they think that without piracy that this many people would have bought the game legitimately.

 

[FitScotGaymer]

I don't know, I guess I'm just getting tired of going onto the Escapist and seeing about how much (Activision/Ubisoft/EA/Zynga) sucks so much. Personal taste probably, I'd much rather talk about something else than how every single person in the industry sucks. Really this community seems to thrive off of it.

1. I'm probably one of the more pro-developer people on this website. Or at least one of the least rabidly anti-developer. I even put up a pro-EA thread once. True story.

2. It would really help the developers cause if they'd stop saying and doing stupid things. =\

It would also help if you (and others like you) learned the difference between a Game Developer and a Game Publisher...

lol.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

It would also help if you (and others like you) learned the difference between a Game Developer and a Game Publisher...

lol.

Oh shut up. I DO know the difference. I'm just lazy and dumb.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Because I'm primarily a console gamer, I'm kind of unfamiliar with this DRM/anti-piracy controversy. However, the economics of this situation really interest me. The author of the RPS article makes some claims about evidence showing that piracy rarely leads to lost sales and that there is anecdotal evidence that it even encourages them. Could somebody just give me a quick rundown on the accepted theory as to why that is? To me, that seems counterintuitive; I would expect piracy to severely hurt sales. What's the deal?

Not familiar with the evidence that it doesn't hurt (as far as I'm aware, there's just no hard evidence that it does hurt sales) but the anecdotal evidence comes from several people claiming to have "tried games out" by pirating them, liking them, then buying them.

Piracy rates of Ubisoft games are almost definitely inflated by the number of people who will have downloaded cracked copies to ensure they can always play the game. Their DRM has been known to render their games completely unplayable. I stand by my opinion that most pirates just don't like paying for stuff, though. It doesn't matter how hard you make piracy, these people WILL get it for free or just not have it.