I Am Alive director explains controversial PC piracy comments
A subject it is "not my part to talk about".
Stanislas Mettra, the I Am Alive creative director who made controversial remarks about PC gaming this week, has attempted to retract/explain/downplay his outburst.
What Stanislas Mettra originally said: PC gamers were "bitching" about I Am Alive not being on PC. He then questioned whether PC gamers really wanted I Am Alive on PC, or were just "making noise" because they felt hard done by. Mettra went on to say a PC port, which may take a team of 12 people three months to make, was "not worth it" if only 50,000 people bought it.
In a subsequent email to IncGamers, Mettra wrote how he would "really love" to see I Am Alive on PC, and that his comment 'the game won't happen on PC' was "probably and English language miscommunication" (English isn't his native tongue).
"What I meant," Mettra explained, "is that the PC version did not happen yet. But we are still working to see the feasibility of it, which is not necessarily simple. I gave some examples to illustrate the problematic [sic], but obviously it is not in my hands and not my part to talk about this.
"Honestly, which game maker would not love his game to be playable on as many platforms and by as many people as possible?"
Stanislas Mettra, creative director, I Am Alive
"Honestly, which game maker would not love his game to be playable on as many platforms and by as many people as possible?"
Mettra ended his email with a word about "the pleasure" of the game mattering more than the platforms it was on.
Mettra's original comments were unlikely to have gone down well with I Am Alive publisher Ubisoft, for which PC gaming has become a sensitive subject. Late PC conversions of multi-platform games and intrusive DRM have dogged the publisher's desktop reputation. And yesterday we discovered that Ghost Recon: Future Soldier won't be released on PC - free-to-play adaptation Ghost Recon Online will be the equivalent offering.
The unwritten supposition of Mettra's comments and the Ghost Recon Online news is that Ubisoft no longer wants to develop multiplatform games for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.
I Am Alive.
About Robert Purchese
Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.
Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.
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Comments (85) Latest comment 6 months ago
Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
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Then don't...
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On the other hand, that kind of emotive response tends to come from somewhere. If their experience shows much higher piracy rates on PC (and we can all agree piracy rates are much higher on PC, right?) then I can understand a sense of animosity could build toward that situation.
Its easy for us to get all reactive to what he said, but I think we should understand where it is coming from. He and his team work hard on something, and then lots of people play it without paying for it. If that isn't an understandable reason to get a little bit "well balls to it then, letsstick to console and be done with the issue" I'm not sure what is.
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please visit GOG.com. You're smart, so you'll get the idea.
Cheers,
A potential client
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There was this invention called 'laptop', ever heard of? Some people take this portable pc (yes, really weird concept I know!) on e.g. holidays and enjoy games where there might not be a stable internet connection. Or where you're charged a fortune per day for a stable internet connection (a hotel in virginia beach wanted to charge me 35$ a night for internet - lol).
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All I will say is that basing your decisions on the activity of pirates is dumb. Base it on the activity of your customers instead. Only someone like Ubisoft could call their DRM a success when it does nothing (or worse than nothing) to increase sales of their product.
Just make the game or don't make it. Whether it's 10 people or 10 million people pirating your game, you're still not getting a penny from any of them either way, so stop making them your first priority when making business decisions.
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'I think we should understand where it is coming from.'
Yes - He is a businessman, attempting to make a living.
He originally stated that he wasn't going to develop the PC version because he couldn't make a profit - A stink was made, articles were written showing that indie PC games can & do make a healthy profit (like 'Cthulu Saves The World sells 100k on Steam')
He got the game some publicity; then backed down.
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I'm not condeming here, i also know a lot of peeps with modded consoles, but the pc crowd definitely win out in the dodgy software stakes.
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Or the game is dogshit, they know its dogshit and they're trying to find excuses to explain why they won't be spending any time porting an even bigger dogshit version of it?
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You're a developer who has poured their heart, soul and time into a producing a game. You've sacrificed time with your family, time you could be pursuing your hobby (gaming!) and time that cost you a bit of your health. And then you release your completed game, lovingly crafted, boldly out there held together with blood, sweat and tears... only for hundreds of thousands of people to show their appreciation of your effort by infringing your copyright, leaving you with no tangible means represent your effort.
Repeat that scenario many times over, over many years, and you can slowly start to see why many old-school publishers and developer are starting talk and feel this way about PC Gamers. It feels like someone is 'stealing' a part of your creation (I know Piracy is not stealing, I'm an advocate for ensuring that this is not confused).
tl;dr: look at the human and emotional side of piracy, and how protective developers can be of their creations and understand why people can become emotionally biased when they talk about PC Gaming and piracy.
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That point of view from an individual I can understand. But Ubisoft are a multi-million dollar publisher, I find it hard to believe they are making decisions based on heated emotions. Any business doing that is doing it wrong, plain and simple.
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Ubisoft needs to forget about its consumers and concentrate on its customers.
I know what it's like to see a product I've worked on be pirated. It's a part of the industry, as much as crunch times, DLC and buggy releases. Do we like it, no but you know what? It didn't stop half the people I work with/for pirating other peoples work. This industry is a hypocritical, self-entitled, whining mess.
I still love it though
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Devs repeatedly state piracy is rampant and it drives them to experiment with unpopular DRM, the crowd points to the popularity of a myriad of games that although sell few physical copies on PC apparently sell trillions of copies via download services that conveniently never release their sales stats.
Neg away.
edit: I shouldn't have said zealout, edited to be less offensive.
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Right people lets do the math
12 people and 3 months only 50,000 sales
It will probably be about Ł10-Ł15 on steam... lets assume that after Steams cut they make Ł7 per sale (70% cut on a Ł10 game)
to 7 x 50,000 (sales)That's Ł350,000
That's split between 12 people,
So Ł350,000/12 = Ł29,166 ill round down, can't be dealing with all the sixes
Ok then so thats Ł29,000 per person over 3 months right so thats Ł29,000/3 which is
Ahh i see that's interesting
You truely are awesome Ubisoft, it appears that you would be paying those developers Ł9666 per month.
So what your saying is a "PORT" taking 3 months by 12 people, meaning their yearly wage is Ł116,000? (9666*12)
FUCK OF UBISOFT
You can make a profit on 50,000 sales easy, i know for a fact you wont be paying 10k a month to 12 people to take 3 months to port it, piss off and die
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Showing our age peeps and what a wonderful age it is!
But it's a fact, there is no getting away from it, the most pirated platform is the pc, pc gamers are the worst nazi, criminal, mass murdering, homophobic, rightwing, sub-intelligent, X-factor watching, dubstep listening, animal torturing, wife beating, drunken pill crazed heroin addicted thieves on Earth!
And the sooner we eradicate this, more money than sense, holier than thou, pig headed, bigoted bunch of zealots the safer we will all be in our beds at night!
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Devs say piracy drives down sales, the zealot reels off some indie title that sold thousands on PC for the paltry sum of a few quid.
I kinda like reading most of your posts but this doesn't make sense.
How do devs know that piracy drives down sales? I mean, specifically how much a release has been affected? If piracy circumvents DRM, thus there's no registration/online check, then how many installs are chalked up to piracy? How can that figure/percentage even be calculated?
See, this is what galls me about this entire PC piracy argument. It's all because consoles are believed (by ignorant publishers and devs) to be piracy-proof but they're not. Every big console release is up on torrents weeks before retail.
The days of schoolground piracy are long, long behind us and anyone who thinks it continues to be that easy to pirate PC games needs a wake up call.
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Nope, sorry, but thanks for asking.
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As opposed to Xbox zealots or PS3 zealots, who are much more balanced.
conveniently never release their sales stats
So you doubt Steam sells games by the bucketload? Just because they don't release their figures. Really? Really really??
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@coolbrittannia Yeah cause console fanboys are so much better. Crying that their version looks better then the ps3/360's version while no one can see any difference at all unless playing frame by frame with a magnifying glass. Yeah there is no reasoning with pissed of pc gamers who always get blamed for piracy and when they point out other games do sell well.
Its just who you believe, Ubisoft claims 95% of their games get pirated and that the pc market is going down hill. Steam how ever claims each year again that they sold more games then the year before *shrug* who to believe, a game publisher that seen its sales collaps after they inserted the unpopulair DRM that makes it imposible for legal buyers to play the games, or a pc sales platform. ALso please get your facts right, its because of the DRM that allot of people don't buy (not saying they pirate it) ubisoft games anymore cause it happens 9 out of the 10 times that you can't play online or if the DRM server is down again you can't play your legal game for days. Or that the DRM claims you don't have the legal version while you did but another DRM bug register it incorrectly and then when taking contact with Ubisoft they don't respond at all or leave you in the dark for days.
And maybe you know this little game called the Witcher 2...maybe heard of it in indie scenes. It has no anti piracy protection at all and it still solds millions of copies..o wait it was no indy..omg so pc gamers actually buy well made pc games? Don't condemn all pc gamers just because a group within the community pirates. You aren't saying that all foreign people should leave your country either cause some of them end up to become criminals. And to make one thing clear, there is allot of pirating on the consoles as well but console fanboys and publishers love to close their eyes to that problem. Although the publishers have bigger worries on the consoles with people who sell their game to the second hand market and buy second hand games then pirates. In fact the second hand market of console games is hurting the game industry more then the pirates many publishers claim. So before you fire down the pc gamer again who is in his right to complain that a game does not come to their machine you might want to make sure your own community is clean as well....which they aren't.
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But its just great to blame the pc for all the pirating right? They forget that the xbox is close to the amount of pc games that get pirated. This was researched by a Belgium game magazine.
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If the devs think they're losing sales, give us the projected sales minus the piracy figures, show your working out. Steam, release your sales figures, let's all have a debate based on facts.
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But steam as company is forced to show their sales figures to the stockholders or the tax thingy so if steam says they sell more and more every year you can believe they are telling the truth cause they have to show it even if its not to us.
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But at the very least, their 'facts' about PC piracy cannot be validated, therefore any 'stats' thrown at us have no foundation.
It's useless, pointless data.
The onus is on them to backup what they're saying and PC gamers are quite rightly justified in their outrage at the public bashing of their platform by a company that really should know better.
Edit: And you can be certain that this kind of thing would never happen if the platform in question was a console. Its because PC gaming doesn't have that 'backer' that they can get away with it. Can you imagine Ubi being as vocal about the 360? Microsoft would shut them out in a heartbeat.
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That would be nice. A few journalists have tried to draw together info and make conclusions, and a few indie devs have offered some numbers, but we need the publishers to be honest about the figures they have and the research they've done if the debate is going to go anywhere.
I would love to know how Ubisoft's DRM is working out for them. They said they considered it a great success, but have offered nothing over and above that. They have added and removed it from a number of different games, including games in the same series, so surely they must have been able to make some conclusions? Why not share them so the debate can advance?
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And the fact that many devs and publishers openly say that DRM isn't working and is only making it harder for legal buyers does say enough about it being a succes or not. Im not saying this because im a pc gamer. This is just 1 + 1 = 2 when reading facts (not player opinions) about DRM.
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Point being if he says it is not profitable i don't think you can argue that by turning around and dividing a plucked out of the air profit by 12
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It may impact sales, but the figures are essentially meaningless. You wold have to ask each pirate whether they would have put down money for the game or simply not played it.
PC gamers I know who pirate will buy games they are passionate about. They might download the Sims 3 to see what the fuss is about (then make a facebook post about how shit the game is) and then go and buy Skyrim off of Steam.
It's a 'my mate' claim, but it's about as insightful as the pirate figures and the claims publishers make.
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all sort of a moot point anyway. the fact is games don't sell as well on PC, and the reasons don't really matter. if there was money to be made you can be sure that ubisoft would be all over it.
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It will also ruin your day when you install a pirated PC game, with a day0 virus your apps don't detect. It's all a risk.
Generalization alert. 'Some' games don't sell as well, you mean? WoW sells pretty well (and continues to generate profit), as do RTS and strategy games.
You say that if there was money to be made they'd be all over it but do you realise how much extra development is needed for PC gaming? All the component testing? Driver testing? It would not surprise me one bit that this is their way of gently easing themselves out of the expense, so as to not ruffle the feathers of the various investors and shareholders.
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Making a game is expensive but they still make millions of dollars/euro's profit. It all depends on what minimum a company wants to have to say it was a successful profit. And profits are only the money left after all expenses (so the tax, employee costs, etc). So it all depends on how much profit is agreeable for a company. We can't do the math our self's and say that its a good profit or a bad one cause it all depends on how much they wish to earn with it.
But you are right that next to these 12 people there are more expenses that need to be covered. But then again the port does take 3 months and from the profit of the console version they would still have profit but its just how much they want for profit.
And something else not about profits or to you mrStones. This game is a survival game. What if it ends up to be not a good game. Are they gonna complain then again that it didn't sell well cause of pirates? Do devs/publisher forget that sometimes a certain genre isn't as populair as others or that their simply just isn't that great (we have to wait for reviews to see what the press thinks of it and then what people who played it think of it). But stop automaticly point the blaming fingers to pirates if the sales aren't that high. We are in a economic crisis so people have less to spend (im only naming things that have influence on sales not meant as a excuse to use why people can pirate), there are way to many big titles being released atm and the upcomming months that games as Iam Alive might find themselfs being left behind cause people spend money on a batman, skyrim, BF3, CoD?
There can be many reasons why a game doesn't sell that well yet when it sales less on the PC they shout its cause of piracy but if it doesn't sell well on the xbox you don't hear them (and the xbox is a pirate heaven as well seeing you have the blackmarketplace there so you can play pirated games online even while pc pirated games can't most of the time).
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"I know Piracy is not stealing"
It is stealing, but its not theft. Theft is more specific and requires a physical object to be taken away, stealing does not.
The product in this case is the "right to use", not the physical media. It isn't the "making a copy" part that is or isn't stealing (which always seems to be the thing people cling to when claiming that piracy isn't stealing), it is USING that copy. The USE is what is being sold, and if you exercise that use without paying for it, you have stolen it.
Just like an idea can be stolen, or a secret can be stolen, so can digital access. Getting hung up on the lack of a physical object is pointless (and also, based on the actual meaning of the word "stealing", is incorrect).
Its not relevant to the discussion, but if you are going to bring it in as a matter of pedantry, I feel driven to do the same
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/sigh
All those numbers you wrote are absolute and total nonsense. Summary - wages are not the only cost involved in making video games (they aren't even the largest cost).
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"The onus is on them to backup what they're saying"
Is it? I'm not sure they have to back up anything do they?
They do their own research, form their conclusions, and conduct buisness as they see fit. They don't have to convince us they are right, they simply make and sell the products they want to make and sell. And we in turn buy the products we want to buy.
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Yes, it is. Do you think they should have such an open, public platform without any control or decorum? Are they free to state whatever they feel like, as 'fact' without any responsibility?
Like I said earlier, do you think they'd have the guts to make unfounded statements like this, if the platform was console? Would Microsoft or Sony just roll over and 'accept' what they're saying?
No, they wouldn't and neither should PC gamers.
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once you have a banned console, you can't connect to live *at all*, and there is *no way* of playing online through any other service. you are mistaken.
all of this is somewhat more of a minefield than PC piracy, which requires an internet connection and (optionally) a virus checker.
again, it's all a moot point - games typically don't sell as well on PCs, for whatever reason. @George-Roper - sure, WoW sells a load, and so do strategy games, but these are typically PC-centric genres. everything else typically sells better on consoles, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation.
EDIT - i'd also say that the extra testing budget needed for PC development wouldn't come close to the extra money you'd save by not needing to pay a cut to Sony/MS/Nintendo. it's surely the revenue rather than the profit that is lacking.
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"Do you think they should have such an open, public platform without any control or decorum?"
Umm, yes. Same right that we all have. We can absolutely say what we want, and absolutely be wrong sometimes.
All this talk of "back up" and "have the guts" and whether company X or Y would "accept" what they say. What does any of that mean? They are private company. If they want to do business in a certain way, and state why they are doing so, they can. And if they are wrong, so what?
All of this just seems to boil down to some PC gamers feeling insulted by what was said. I think a large cup of get-over-it, with a side order of it-doesn't-really-matter is perhaps in order.
Edit: and can we all just once and for all accept that piracy is a problem on the PC platform. Every single large publisher on the planet thinks so, and there are plenty of numbers to show that downloading is prevelant (the only fuzzy area is whether those downloads are lost sales - that the downloads are taking place is factual and not in dispute). And frankly, whether console piracy is or isn't as easy as PC piracy is also mostly irrelevant - more PC piracy actually takes place and that is what matters.
Now we can all agree that the way that some publishers deal with piracy is perhaps mis-judged, and we can also suggest that publishers that do pull out of PC gaming are shooting themselves in the foot, but lets not let any of that fool us into thinking that this whole PC game piracy thing is a massive myth. Of course it isn't.
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Like in so many cases, like in 90% of all arguments on the internet, it's not just what he said, it's how he said it. Something some people will never learn (or use deliberately to stir up shit).
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One of my least favourite sentences in the world. You can always find offense if you look hard enough for it.
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The title of this thread is 'I Am Alive director explains controversial PC piracy comments'.
The point is, Ubisoft should not have a free pass to make scathing and unfounded statements about how PC piracy is affecting their sales, as they have zero facts to work with to present that information. All they can ever know is that PC sales aren't better than console. That's it.
Nobody is debating whether or not piracy is a problem across various platforms. We all know piracy happens. What's interesting about this is that console piracy isn't discussed at all. Why is that?
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No, they choose to steal the whole thing outright purely because they want to. If you want to play a game, just as if you want to own any product, you have to pay for it, even in a small way like renting.
Pirates don't feel this simple truth applies to them and will concoct numerous excuses as to why - "DRM, DLC, costs too much WAH WAH WAH!!" - but it all boils down to they want something for nothing.
I love the whole "costs too much" excuse when you see a game like Deus Ex now being sold for Ł9.95 brand new less than four months after release.
Pirates need to stop making excuses and just admit what they are...theives.
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Do they really have zero facts? Like I said, the speculation is about how many downloads genuinely account for lost sales. The number of downloads is easy to track. And we can safely assume that SOME downloads are lost sales. Ubi also have clear sales figures from every previous title developed on each platform.
So there are plenty of facts strewn about the place, with some uncertainty mixed in. Pretty much like every area of business then.
And as for whether any company can make scathing comments about piracy, I am of the mind that they absolutely can. What is the issue here, that they offend pirates? That they offend piracy itself? You say Ubi should not have a free pass, but the bit I am trying to get to is WHY you say that? Why can't they say piracy is affecting their sales? It probably is to some degree - piracy certainly isn't helping their sales is it. The only "why" that I can really see here is that some people get upset (and I'm not even sure why that is - be upset with pirates if you want to be upset with someone).
Are we really going to start drawing the lines over what people can say based on a minority getting upset? In any other thread you would condemn any censorship of games by people taking offense too easily, and yet that is exactly what you are advocating here. I am confused.
"What's interesting about this is that console piracy isn't discussed at all. Why is that?"
Because it isn't as big a problem. It just isn't. You won't find a publisher on the planet that views console piracy as a big problem, because its not.
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I also suspect that they don't release any sales numbers to the public because they most likely sell them to analysts and the marketing/risk assessment departments of major developers.
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I understand that, but the game would be a port, the code between a Xbox and PC are similar, it wouldn't need much changing, the sound files would be the same, the textures would need to be a little higher, but it wouldn't surprise me if they have higher resolution textures already.
Your making a song and shout about it as though they need to bust there balls over it, most of it would be copy and paste with a few adjustments.
They already have the software/engines they don't need to buy anything else, its a port, its not built ground up ffs.
The staff if the only thing they really need to PORT it, UI will be the same, controls are simple key bindings, will probably have controller support anyway, most PC games do these days.
Regardless UBIs excuses are poor they don't have a "real" solid excuse for not bring it out on PC.
I would happily buy it looks like a good game, if not ill just get it on Xbox when it goes on a sale at some point.
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Why? I'm not their customer and I can't do anything about them as a customer.
Customers matter more than pirates. Ubi has it the other way around and their sales figures show that to the point now it's no longer viable for them to do PC versions as no one is buying from them depsite many of us telling them for years we want to buy their products but won't due to business practices of treating customers like criminals.
Pirates didn't create the poor state Ubi are in now, sure it was piracy that put Ubi on this path to destruction but customers have been telling them for years now why they don't buy, kinda why when Ubi spouts the utter nonsense they have this week people react negatively to them.
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Do they really have zero facts?
Yes. With respect to how many of their PC games are illegally obtained, absolutely. Their DRM forces legit users to authenticate, pirated versions of the games do not and therefore Ubi have zero method of stating what the legal/illegal percentages are. For all they know, 20,000 people bought PC Ubigame X because only 20,000 knew about it, cared about it or didn't see the 3/10 reviews for it.
Its not about offending pirates, or those who illegally obtain games its about them propagating the myth that PC gaming isn't a platform worth getting into. Try telling that to Blizzard. Or Valve. Or any number of other big publishers and developers who enjoy massive success with PC releases but if even one publisher sees this Ubidrivel and decides to back out, that could be the start of an exodus. All because some backwards publisher spouts drivel that they themselves cannot factually backup.
And its important again to state that you wouldn't catch any of these big publishers talking such shit about console gaming. They'd be much too afraid to get thrown out by the big boys.
Finally, for the record console piracy is rife. Is it as rife as PC piracy, no, of course not. Number of PCs vs consoles worldwide makes it a no-brainer but therein lays the core of this. The numbers scale out because the PC user base is so much bigger. Does that make console piracy any less of a problem? Absolutely not. Just ask any publisher or dev if they'd be happy to lose even 5000 sales to console piracy and of course you'd hear no, so why is it never spoken about in public?
Ubisoft have an agenda, I'm certain. They can't say flat-out that they're moving out of PC gaming because they'd get ripped a new one. Better to find a reason, however unfounded and use that as a springboard. Cunts.
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"Their DRM forces legit users to authenticate, pirated versions of the games do not and therefore Ubi have zero method of stating what the legal/illegal percentages are"
Note true. Its not hard to track the number of pirated copies downloaded using bittorrent and so on. The peer-2-peer nature of systems like bittorrent and limewire et al mean that number tracking in an inherrent part of the tech.
As for console piracy not being less of a problem. Piracy is a problem of sales and revenue. If less sales and revenue are lost to console piracy, then it IS less of a problem. I don't know how else you would measure it to state that it is no less of an issue.
"Ubisoft have an agenda, I'm certain. They can't say flat-out that they're moving out of PC gaming because they'd get ripped a new one."
And this is where it goes all bonkers for me. What possible agenda could they have? The bottom line is, they absolutely could pull straight out of PC development if they wanted. I'm not sure what getting ripped a new one means, but I suspect it means nothing more than the vocal minority on the internet would be upset with them (as if they are ever not upset about something). You seem to be operating under the illusion that a huge coporation like Ubisoft would willingly lose money by driving their business in a less desireable direction, simply to avoid being "ripped a new one" by a few angry forumites. Seriously, that is utter nonsense. If Ubi as a whole are still currently in PC games, its because they want to be. And as soon as they don't, they won't. The idea that they need to check with us first and seek our approval is crazy. I mean we are talking about them seeking the approval of PC gamers, before they stop making PC games - that doesn't even make any sense. What would we do in protest - stop buying the games they aren't making any more?
You just seem angry with them, which is fair enough, but its leading you down all sorts of strange paths. Forums like this do no determine their business, revenue and sales do. Our vocal approval means nothing compared to the balance sheet.
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Note true. Its not hard to track the number of pirated copies downloaded using bittorrent and so on. The peer-2-peer nature of systems like bittorrent and limewire et al mean that number tracking in an inherrent part of the tech.
But that still doesn't tell you everything. Does it tell you that they installed the game? Played it? For how long? Does it tell you that they then went onto buy the game? Half the facts, a portion of the numbers, its all bullshit and doesn't reflect fact whatsoever.
As for console piracy not being less of a problem. Piracy is a problem of sales and revenue. If less sales and revenue are lost to console piracy, then it IS less of a problem. I don't know how else you would measure it to state that it is no less of an issue.
That makes zero sense. Even if more PC games are pirated than console games, they're not competing. They're on different platforms.
What possible agenda could they have? The bottom line is, they absolutely could pull straight out of PC development if they wanted.
And you know that how? Do you know who the Ubi board report to? Do you know what kind of contracts are written up? What would you do, as a shareholder if a slice of the market you're invested in (Ubi PC gaming) was suddenly cut? You'd want to know why, right? You'd want to know how much of a revenue hit the company will take, correct? So Ubi need a reason, they need a scapegoat. PC piracy is too rampant. They have nothing to back it up with, of course but shareholders aren't going to be interested in the minute detail of the matter.
Do we really need to get into a copy/paste of the actual quotes in this context? The things they've said that they can't possibly know?
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It sounds like you are trying to validate piracy by saying "well, sometimes bad things happen when I break the law", like I'm supposed to feel all sorry for you?
The fact is, for every person on here who "claims" to buy the game after "demoing" the full game illegally, there are a hundred more that don't buy it. I know PC gamers that downloaded Skyrim the moment it hit torrents and haven't bought it since. DRM hacks are all just part of the game for them.
Steam has been a success, true, but how many sales are for games that are less than 10 or on sale? I would reckon if you saved money by not buying retail games you could probably afford that couldn't you?
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It sounds like you are trying to validate piracy by saying "well, sometimes bad things happen when I break the law", like I'm supposed to feel all sorry for you?
Where did I say that? I haven't ever tried to validate piracy, its theft as far as I'm concerned. I've spent thousands upon thousands on games in my lifetime, across pretty much every platform available. So to hear that hard work such as on Skyrim gets fucked over by illegal downloads really gets my back up but the point here is that its not only PC gaming that's afflicted with it. Consoles are too but you never hear about extra measures or percentages of sales lost on consoles, only on PC.
If you're going to damn the pirates, do it across the board. Don't choose a platform that doesn't have a backer like Microsoft of Sony, who'd slap you down so hard you'd never get an exclusive on their hardware again.
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A great deal are sold on sale on Steam, but selling cheap in high numbers is working out very well, Valve have already shown publishers evidence that sales can potentially bring in lots of money, sometimes more than at launch.
You not noticed the rise of regular Steam emulating sales across all DD sites over the last couple of years? Or publishers own sales promotions on the services? You not noticed this is something the console manufacturers are even starting to emulate?
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If xbox was a generic console without microsoft behind it then you'd find as many xbox users that shout as often as PC gamers
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What are you on about?
PC games don't need Sony or Microsoft behind them
You don't need to pay for anything, you just start programming, you can create your own engines if you wish to.
Xbox and PlayStation need to BUY software
PC is free, anyone can just jump on and start programming if they so wish.
As for support BOTH Nvidia and AMD offer free services in order to help get games to run efficiently, TWIMTBP is on most games and support is offered by AMD.
Microsoft also do a lot for FREE to PC gaming, Direct X etc.
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You misunderstand him. PC is an open platform which means there are no rules to obey like on consoles. Publishers, as Ubi has shown over the last few years, can do whatever the hell they like to PC consumers with no platform holder to stop them with guidelines and quality requirements.
There are no deals to secure games so many games we have to ask for. If a game is broken, or has some stupid DRM to hurt paying customers PC gamers have to try to communicate with publishers and developers themselves.
Some publishers and developers understand this and build a good relationship with the customers, others like Ubi don't.
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These simple facts.
1. Piracy happens on consoles
2. Piracy on consoles is not limited to a few.
3. Often console games are on torrents long before the PC version is, even when the release dates are the same.
4. Steam is not a cure but it helps.
5. Console versions of Skyrim /SR3/ CODMW3 all on torrents long before the PC version.
6. Seeders/leaches on torrents out weigh PC stats at least 10 - 1. Look your self
7. cracking a PC game is harder, once a console is moded there is no need to worry.
The bs about getting banned is rubbish unless you Play online with XBOX LIVE / PSN.
Which equates to the same for PC. Crack a PC game you lose the MP. Cracked PC games come with viruses, crashes, and no updates. Sometimes you need software, DVD EMULATORS all sorts.
8. Cracked hacked PC games, no updates as the cracks then fail and you have to hope the crackers, crack the patch. On console you get the update even when moded then you pull plug.
9. Many make a shit load of money selling pirated console games.
10. The PC is being targeted with the sole intent of pushing consoles.
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A) Their parent's shitty PC can't play games
B) They haven't a clue on how to build one
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in third world country like my country
PC piracy
- go to shopping mall, buy the pirated game
- back home, install, and confused how to use the crack
- after success, only SP working, MP not working
Xbox 360 Piracy
- Buy any xbox 360 in store (its already modded)
- buy the pirated game in shopping mall, game store, etc
- plug and play in home
PS3 Piracy
same with xbox 360
so what about original games?
Xbox 360 -> none selling
PS3 -> none in my city, need to delivery order from another city
PC -> need to import, or just buy the original CDKEY to be redeemed.
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Awesome, I love the dig at Ubi
"Those that place the blame on the consumer need to rethink the quality of their products and the frequency in which they shovel out derivative titles each year."
I do really like that everytime Ubi let their drones open their idiotic mouths to berate us pirating PC gamer scum devs come out to defend us, it's happening a lot now. Sure they probably are just jumping on an great opportunity to promte their work and entice us wth "Hey! We 'ain't like those tossers come spend with us we won't treat you like scum!" but you know what good luck to 'em I know who I prefer to spend with.
I was gonna pass but I think I will throw a few quid at that serious sam pack in the Steam sale now and have a look at this guys games, if I like 'em I might get 3.
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It's not just 'it costs too much'. Ubi are in the habit of making their PC games unplayable for some people with the use of their DRM.
I will not buy a Ubi product while they are continuing to use their DRM on any game. I simply will not.
If I now pirate a Ubi game, there is no lost sale. They are no more hurt from me pirating it than if I didn't. It is not their bandwidth I am using to download the game. It really isn't much different than if I borrowed it off of a mate. I will not be a theif as I have not taken anything away from them.
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Also Assassins Creed 2 wasn't playable the first few days after release cause the DRM server broke down...there for you couldn't play it cause you needed to connect to it. Now some people then downloaded the game they bought just so they could play that game they just paid 50 euro for. By your logics these numbers would as well be pirates who didn't pay.
Oh and i dare to bet that allot of console gamers download the crap out of pc games. But the thing with console gamers is they love to bash everything thats different then their own platform so they use everything to blame others. If the PS3 and XBOX 360 fans can't fight each other they fight the pc gamers.
Infact i dare to bet that 99% of the people here who shout really hard that pirating is bad been downloading more then one pc game from a pirate site. And that they also pirate music and movies but then its no problem in their eyes.
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piracy is not easier, or a bigger problem on consoles. the two sectors had parity in the PS1/PS2/DC days, but even then those systems were so successful in the retail market that it wasn't a massive problem.
the pc market has moved away from the retail model - shrinking shelf-space and fewer AAA titles are clear indications of this. it has moved to the download market, such as Steam, and subscription-based models. the PC isn't dying, but it is changing, and companies like ubisoft who operate firmly within the retail model are quick to point the finger at the piracy boogeyman.
if piracy disappeared over-night, would ubisoft suddenly become successful? probably not. take their comments with a pinch of salt, because they're going for a market that isn't really there any more.
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You have tired to consolise the PC audience and the rampant piracy is your reward.
Pirate = no DRM Legal =DRM that makes you jump through hoops just to play a game you PAYED FOR
Pirate = Buggy released port game ? Oh well attest i wasn't stupid enough to pay for it. Legal = FFS I JUST PAYED MONEY FOR THIS SHIT
Pirate - Cant get technical help.. oh well i didn't pay for it. Legal - FFS why wont this company reply to me, i just payed for their product yet it is full of bugs and virtually unplayable until devs patch it which 3 weeks into release there has still been no word on issues or ANY communication from this company at all!
Pirate = ooo DLC ill just dl that for free. Legal = You want me to buy DLC ?! wtf you have ignored this games community for the last month and now you have a cheek to ask for more money from us EVEN though your game is still bugged and still no word on fixes..
That is the comparison between pirates and legal purchasers. You can see why people pirate now days. Hence why i blame Devs and publishers. I wont be pre ordering anymore games as i am sick of the issues i have named above. From now on i shall await a game i want to come along in a sale.
Until the Devs and publishers start seeing us as valuable customers and not greasy teens with more money than sense. People will keep pirating.