Ubisoft vs. Ubisoft's Customers
Ubisoft's DRM only works against an outdated mode of piracy.
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Ubisoft's DRM only works against an outdated mode of piracy.
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Ubisoft vs. Ubisoft's Customers
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
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If someone like me who has far more money than time (so is not averse to spending $50-60 for a good new game occasionally) considers pirating your game to be the superior customer experience, your model is completely broken.
Also yes, WTF, a week for server switchover? How incompetent are you? I'm guessing they don't have any backup servers either then.
Also yes, WTF, a week for server switchover? How incompetent are you? I'm guessing they don't have any backup servers either then.
You would think by now that even the executives and investors at Ubisoft who never play games would have caught wind of the bad PR they're getting.
Is there any way to, like, send them an email or something explaining the situation? If we can present the case to them that their DRM doesn't stop piracy, wastes their money, generates bad PR, and lately has been causing people to actively avoid games with the Ubisoft brand on them, doesn't good business sense dictate that they stop fucking doing that shit?
Shamus, have you tried explaining this stuff to them?
Is there any way to, like, send them an email or something explaining the situation? If we can present the case to them that their DRM doesn't stop piracy, wastes their money, generates bad PR, and lately has been causing people to actively avoid games with the Ubisoft brand on them, doesn't good business sense dictate that they stop fucking doing that shit?
Shamus, have you tried explaining this stuff to them?
*sigh* Ubithoff... [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/7265-Stolen-Pixels-175-Ubisoft]
You know, sometimes when I'm feeling a little tinfoil-hatty, I can't help but think that this DRM isn't about piracy, or used sales, or anything like that. It's about control. Controlling the customer. Or if not that, than their products. To what end? I don't know. But considering how many companies seem to LOVE forcing in DRM programs to monitor your computer to make sure you're not doing something they don't like, it doesn't sound too far fetched.
Or, perhaps they're just incompetent.
Neither option is particularly appealing...
You know, sometimes when I'm feeling a little tinfoil-hatty, I can't help but think that this DRM isn't about piracy, or used sales, or anything like that. It's about control. Controlling the customer. Or if not that, than their products. To what end? I don't know. But considering how many companies seem to LOVE forcing in DRM programs to monitor your computer to make sure you're not doing something they don't like, it doesn't sound too far fetched.
Or, perhaps they're just incompetent.
Neither option is particularly appealing...
Time to start funding a coup in Ubisoft too then?
Seriously current Ubisoft leadership has all the hallmarks of EA leadership 10 years ago, but with the added kneejerk reaction to the P word. And now faced with the current evolving market thats even making Nintendo change how it does things, Ubisoft has somehow gone backwards, not forwards.
Seriously current Ubisoft leadership has all the hallmarks of EA leadership 10 years ago, but with the added kneejerk reaction to the P word. And now faced with the current evolving market thats even making Nintendo change how it does things, Ubisoft has somehow gone backwards, not forwards.
Some months ago, I put a bet that Ubisoft would collapse within the year. Nothing I've heard since has made me change this position.
Let's face it, if they can put Enzio up on their windows with Post-It Notes, and that's the best news that has come out of the studio for a year, then we know
a) There's some smart people there,
b) They're not being allowed to be smart,
c) Something has to break soon.
It sounds like a bad case of the accountants. A drive for "solid blue sky thinking out of the box" and not "Let's give the customer a good game".
Because they will pay for good games: Just ask Tim Schafer.
Let's face it, if they can put Enzio up on their windows with Post-It Notes, and that's the best news that has come out of the studio for a year, then we know
a) There's some smart people there,
b) They're not being allowed to be smart,
c) Something has to break soon.
It sounds like a bad case of the accountants. A drive for "solid blue sky thinking out of the box" and not "Let's give the customer a good game".
Because they will pay for good games: Just ask Tim Schafer.
Tying the DRM to the CPU itself is more reasonable than the GPU. People swap GPUs a lot more often than they do CPUs. CPUs also have serial numbers, so yeah...
Then again Ubisoft's a bunch of idiots who hate their customers, so of course they're not going to consider what's right for the customer.
Then again Ubisoft's a bunch of idiots who hate their customers, so of course they're not going to consider what's right for the customer.
I assume it won't be too long before we hear news that several Ubisoft Execs have been tarred and feathered a large mob of angry gamers.gigastar said:
I think having a drm policy that actively punishes existing customers, scares off future potential customers all the while failing to prevent the problems the DRM was introduced in the first place is completely lacking to common sense or any business acumen.
I'm getting pretty tired of Ubisoft at this point, at this point it will take years for Ubisoft to recover it's reputation in my eyes.
It seems that they never really tested their DRM in real world situations and just put it in without thought. This form of incompetence seems to seep into things like their server change and customer service. Sad to see this as they have great games that are ruined by their terrible handling of anti-piracy measures.
I'm with this guy. My level of frustration is...frustratingly high. Not because I'm missing games I'd like to play...but because it simply shouldnt be possible to be this stupid, this long. They are not new to the business...how the hell can they be so extremely ignorant of it? How is this stuff possible?McMullen said:
I find it extremely frustrating that this just goes on. How can anyone, even a big, recordbreakingly slow organization such as UBI, not learn anything in all this time? WHY?!?!?! HOW!?!??!? ._.
off topic: Yay for Tim Schafer. See Ubi? Thats something called good will. You should look it up sometime.
Your missing something.Shamus Young said:
This IS how piracy works before the game is released, sharing discs. What's more embarrassing? Having your creation stolen by the masses a week after it was released, cracked by... Err, a "Certain group", or a week before it was released when Carl's sister's buddy uploaded it for said group?
Still though, I agree... Ubisoft is a little more than draconian.
"It's a bit like the kid's game Guess Who."
... kid's game?
OT: I think its pure, paranoid defiance. Its kind of like this: if everyone in the world but you was blind, and the weather outside was absolutely perfect, would you go out naked? No one can see you and there's no chance of getting cold (and let's say no chance of sunburn, cuts on your feet, etc etc), but would you really be comfortable go out naked?
And that's what they view not having DRM as; going outside naked, even though it doesn't make the blindest bit of difference. They still feel "safer" putting it on their games, and they're hung up on the idea that they need it.
A similar issue is with the price point of games (in particular, when it comes to digital distribution). Valve said recently that whenever they put something on sale, the increase in copies sold compensates for the reduced price-point; they've got data that proves it.
But will publishers pay the slightest bit of notice to that? No, that's why (in part, at least) we have digital copies that cost the same as retail copies on which they've also had to cut in the various people shipping the game, and those creating the discs, manuals and boxes.
... kid's game?
OT: I think its pure, paranoid defiance. Its kind of like this: if everyone in the world but you was blind, and the weather outside was absolutely perfect, would you go out naked? No one can see you and there's no chance of getting cold (and let's say no chance of sunburn, cuts on your feet, etc etc), but would you really be comfortable go out naked?
And that's what they view not having DRM as; going outside naked, even though it doesn't make the blindest bit of difference. They still feel "safer" putting it on their games, and they're hung up on the idea that they need it.
A similar issue is with the price point of games (in particular, when it comes to digital distribution). Valve said recently that whenever they put something on sale, the increase in copies sold compensates for the reduced price-point; they've got data that proves it.
But will publishers pay the slightest bit of notice to that? No, that's why (in part, at least) we have digital copies that cost the same as retail copies on which they've also had to cut in the various people shipping the game, and those creating the discs, manuals and boxes.
Wierd how anti-piracy techniques, make me want to pirtae any ubisoft game that comes out.
Hmmmmmmm......im going to think about the irony with that
Hmmmmmmm......im going to think about the irony with that
Good old Ubishit. Well put, Shamus. Incompetence is what they constantly demonstrate. They just need to get out of PC gaming, as I have said in the past. Then they can stop worrying about all of us PC gamers who are all pirates and never buy a game (despite my steam library having 261 games(last game purchases was Darkness2)). I now the arguments, they have some good PC only exclusives, but the only way to get a good copy of those games is to pirate it. Or, you can do the old standby of buying the game and then pirating a good working copy. But, they only encourage piracy with their terrible services.
In philosophy circles, this paradox is known as the Ship of Theseus [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus].Shamus Young said:
It's almost hilarious, as if a modern day movie company started complaining about VHS recorders.
I still can't fathom what they think their DRM is actually doing for their games. I ask myself that every day. If I look up torrents, I could probably find all of their current PC games free for downloading. I then think about the people currently playing legit copies of the game, what exactly is the DRM preventing once the game has been cracked? What is it stopping the legit customers from doing? Disc sharing? Is that still a thing worth spending millions to combat while throwing your legitimate customers under a bus?
I wanted to buy Anno 2070, but once I heard about the 3 install limit.. no way in hell. How can any knowing customer submit to that? Would Ubisoft employees themselves even subject themselves to it? How many times do they need to destroy their own PC market until they understand?
I still can't fathom what they think their DRM is actually doing for their games. I ask myself that every day. If I look up torrents, I could probably find all of their current PC games free for downloading. I then think about the people currently playing legit copies of the game, what exactly is the DRM preventing once the game has been cracked? What is it stopping the legit customers from doing? Disc sharing? Is that still a thing worth spending millions to combat while throwing your legitimate customers under a bus?
I wanted to buy Anno 2070, but once I heard about the 3 install limit.. no way in hell. How can any knowing customer submit to that? Would Ubisoft employees themselves even subject themselves to it? How many times do they need to destroy their own PC market until they understand?
