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"On PC it's only around 5-7% of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it's only about 5-7% who pay anyway, the rest is pirated."
This is possibly my favourite quote of 2012
This is possibly my favourite quote of 2012
F2P isn't some magic bullet that stops a publisher losing money. Fucking hell Ubisoft can be so stupid.
I wouldn't say it's such a ridiculous figure, 2dBoy gave a similar number a few years ago.
Though, they also gave how they came to that number a well.
Though, they also gave how they came to that number a well.
What a fucking asshole.
This kind of shit is especially insulting to those of us who have huge catalogs of games we have purchased. I want to write the names of all the games in my Steam account on a bat and beat him with it. Except there's no way I could write that tiny.
This kind of shit is especially insulting to those of us who have huge catalogs of games we have purchased. I want to write the names of all the games in my Steam account on a bat and beat him with it. Except there's no way I could write that tiny.
I have to call shenanigans on this. 95% piracy rate? I don't doubt that there is a high rate of piracy, but it can't be as high as 95%. If it was, then they wouldn't even bother to make PC versions of games and would have stopped long before now, as it would be costing them money rather than making them money.
It still astounds me that they insist on piling on more DRM with their PC games too. They can claim that it's uncrackable, but clearly it isn't helping their sales.
It still astounds me that they insist on piling on more DRM with their PC games too. They can claim that it's uncrackable, but clearly it isn't helping their sales.
In the first part of the quote it sounds almost like a self-deprecating joke...but then he literally says they have a 95% piracy rate
christ
christ
Jinx 01, why would you write it onto a bat? Turn it into a tome and it will be just as effective as a bat.
Can you add some filter to the site? To get it rid of ubisoft for people like me? Their stupid press relases make me so angry... the stupidity! or the lies! I.. I... I have to go and cry :(
Guillemot makes this claim despise Ubisoft famously using gross DRM which it claims has never been cracked. So, either he's lying about the piracy, or the company's been lying about the effectiveness of its DRM. Of course, it's more than likely both claims are total bullshit, because Ubisoft has never been able to get its story straight on this stuff.
This is probably one of the best things I've read in a while.
This is probably one of the best things I've read in a while.
I try not to think hard about Ubisoft's PC dealings anymore. They're just instant memes for me to make fun of, at this point, because I've long since tuned out Guillemot's vocal feces.
For 95%, I'm betting they count people who download crack to play their legitimately purchased UbiSoft games because the DRM is dicking with them.
The DRM they have gets under my skin a bit, but I hate the delayed PC release idea. I'm not buying AC3 because of it (maybe in a year during a Steam sale or something). Now they can chalk me up as one of the people that has never pirated anything in his life and bought tons of Ubi games, that no longer does.
So using his maths, BF3 which sold 5 million copies on PC should have sold 50 million copies, Starcraft 2 (4.5 million sold) should have sold 45 million copies, Crysis and Warhead (7 million combined) should have sold 70 million copies, Skyrim (estimated 2 to 3 million sold) should have sold 20 to 30 million copies, etc.
These guys seriously need to lay off the crack and head back to school, because its hard to believe that any of them possess a tertiary grounding in maths with those sorts of bullshit figures being flippantly tossed around.
These guys seriously need to lay off the crack and head back to school, because its hard to believe that any of them possess a tertiary grounding in maths with those sorts of bullshit figures being flippantly tossed around.
95% piracy rate? So this is kind of like the time CDPR said the Witcher 2 was pirated 4.5 million times, right?
How full of shit can these companies be?
How full of shit can these companies be?
And the bad news?
The social gaming bubble is already losing steam, again evidenced by the popcap layoffs this week. FTP can't be too far behind given the herd that's moving in that direction that will saturate and destroy that market too. Good luck with that, Ubisoft.
The social gaming bubble is already losing steam, again evidenced by the popcap layoffs this week. FTP can't be too far behind given the herd that's moving in that direction that will saturate and destroy that market too. Good luck with that, Ubisoft.
They should do what serious sam did and put a giant invincible bear (instead of a scorpion) in Far Cry 3 that constantly chases and kills you if you pirated it.
Leave the rest of us the fuck alone Ubi. Such a same, they make stellar games. Probably my favorite action adventure company period.
Leave the rest of us the fuck alone Ubi. Such a same, they make stellar games. Probably my favorite action adventure company period.
This just makes me sick. As a PC gamer of about 20 years, I'm quickly losing interest in the industry. I'm sick and tired of DRM that means I may or may not be able to play the games I've bought in 10 years, depending on whether or not the server is still up or the publisher is even around. (I'm sick and tired of a bunch of other stuff too, but that's the relevant bit).
Ubisoft used to be excellent - BG&E, Silent Hunter III, IL2 Sturmovik, PoP trilogy - they were fantastic games, and some of my all-time favourites. Now I don't want to touch their stuff with a barge pole.
I long for the days when you bought a game and you just did what you wanted with it. (I realise you've always only ever had a licence, but in practice it was yours to own). If you wanted extra stuff, you just bought an expansion pack or waited for a patch that brought out a bunch of extra free content. None of this nickel and dime DLC crap, no server authentication, nothing.
I'm pretty sure I'm basically done with buying any new games. I've got a huge backlog that will probably keep me going for many, many years, particularly with my limited available time these days. I might pick up the odd game from developers who treat their customers with respect (I'm looking at you, CD Projekt) but I'm not buying any games that don't give me a guarantee that I can continue to play them indefinitely.
Ubisoft used to be excellent - BG&E, Silent Hunter III, IL2 Sturmovik, PoP trilogy - they were fantastic games, and some of my all-time favourites. Now I don't want to touch their stuff with a barge pole.
I long for the days when you bought a game and you just did what you wanted with it. (I realise you've always only ever had a licence, but in practice it was yours to own). If you wanted extra stuff, you just bought an expansion pack or waited for a patch that brought out a bunch of extra free content. None of this nickel and dime DLC crap, no server authentication, nothing.
I'm pretty sure I'm basically done with buying any new games. I've got a huge backlog that will probably keep me going for many, many years, particularly with my limited available time these days. I might pick up the odd game from developers who treat their customers with respect (I'm looking at you, CD Projekt) but I'm not buying any games that don't give me a guarantee that I can continue to play them indefinitely.
I love when publishers make up bullshit piracy numbers. Also, he still loses the big point in all of this...THEY WERE NEVER GOING TO PAY ANYWAY. Counting pirated items as lost sales is fucking retarded. They'll just ignore your shit if they can't pirate it.
Inb4 I'm accused of being a pirate instead of just using common sense.
Inb4 I'm accused of being a pirate instead of just using common sense.
i know their figures are bullshit, but at the same time i wish they were accurate.
@ Yves Guillemot
nobody gave a shit when you said you were leaving last time, nobody gave a shit when you came back, and nobody will give a shit when you go F2P. just fuck off already.
@ Yves Guillemot
nobody gave a shit when you said you were leaving last time, nobody gave a shit when you came back, and nobody will give a shit when you go F2P. just fuck off already.
Maybe but that doesn't mean their profit would be 20 times more if there was no piracy. Many people just wouldn't play if they couldn't pirate the games. I realize many people are used to downloading every new game off torrents and they play them for no longer than a few minutes.
They sould give up fighting or even considering pirace or thay will lose market share, Like Sony did this generation.
They sould give up fighting or even considering pirace or thay will lose market share, Like Sony did this generation.
Further to my comment above, the sad thing is that I actually wouldn't mind playing some of Ubisoft's newer games (e.g. AC), but the DRM is a deal-breaker for me. I don't have a 360 or PS3, so that means I'm just going without.
Free to play* is the way of the future. I've been saying for the longest time that the PC-exclusive Ghost Recon Online is way better than it's $60 console-scum alternative. Don't believe me? (Why not, asshole?) Well, you can see for yourself, the game is now out of beta free to play.
* with microtransactions
* with microtransactions
And what happened to their unnecessary draconian DRM being a huge success in stopping piracy!!??
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/28/ubisoft-our-drm-is-a-success/
http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/07/28/ubisoft-our-drm-is-a-success/
i think that anyone who thought that Ubisoft wouldn't go completely F2P after watching their Gamescom presentation, is an idiot. they showed like 10+ new titles and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM WAS F2P TITLE. i mean they're announced like 4 Might & Magic games that turned out to be f2p games.
and it's not about the piracy - it's because producing those games is fast and cheap and they have longterm revenue stream from selling items.
thank god for companies like CD Projekt, Nintendo, Atlus, Kalypso and Paradox.
and it's not about the piracy - it's because producing those games is fast and cheap and they have longterm revenue stream from selling items.
thank god for companies like CD Projekt, Nintendo, Atlus, Kalypso and Paradox.
Kay. Ubisoft is full of shit like usual. PC games sell and they sell well. Steam alone provides publishers (also Ubisoft) with a lot of revenue for their work. They really should get their head out of their asses. 95% Piracy rate? In what Universe?
I am going to be devil's advocate here (someone has to), but I can tell there are countries where the piracy rate IS 95% (or more). You may not like it, you may not believe it, but its fairly true.
"It's around a 93-95% piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content."
So they changed the business model for what exactly?
So they changed the business model for what exactly?
Oops, ghost post.
This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. EA is probably working overtime to come up with a way to fuck up even worse.
This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. EA is probably working overtime to come up with a way to fuck up even worse.
@Mrpragmatic
Actually, I think you screwed up your maths as well! If 5 million is only 5% of the total games, then that means the 100% is TWENTY times! Meaning, 100 million! To put this in perspective, estimates for the amount of internet users (note: most probably don't even own the computer, and out of the ones that do own them, most of them probably aren't capable of playing BF3) go to about two thousand million (2 billion American), but there's probably only about 500 million DESKTOPS in the world! And this is counting all the desktops in offices and internet cafes and ones not capable of playing modern games!
This is just stupid, Ubisoft.
Actually, I think you screwed up your maths as well! If 5 million is only 5% of the total games, then that means the 100% is TWENTY times! Meaning, 100 million! To put this in perspective, estimates for the amount of internet users (note: most probably don't even own the computer, and out of the ones that do own them, most of them probably aren't capable of playing BF3) go to about two thousand million (2 billion American), but there's probably only about 500 million DESKTOPS in the world! And this is counting all the desktops in offices and internet cafes and ones not capable of playing modern games!
This is just stupid, Ubisoft.
Stop making shitty ports that force people to download malware and MAYBE people will start paying money for your PC games, Ubisoft.
Well I used to pirate games but ever since I got a Steam account I have such a huge backlog of games that I wouldn't even have the time to play games I torrent. So I don't.
Anyway. 95% is ridiculous. Everybody knows it. That would mean for every copy sold 19 people downloaded it. Yeah sure. If that were the case Nvidia and AMD would be the richest companies in the world. They would have to sell more graphics cards than Apple does Iphones to even make that possible.
Anyway. 95% is ridiculous. Everybody knows it. That would mean for every copy sold 19 people downloaded it. Yeah sure. If that were the case Nvidia and AMD would be the richest companies in the world. They would have to sell more graphics cards than Apple does Iphones to even make that possible.
"The social gaming bubble is already losing steam, again evidenced by the popcap layoffs this week. FTP can't be too far behind given the herd that's moving in that direction that will saturate and destroy that market too. Good luck with that, Ubisoft."
If you read the story, Popcap actually says that F2P is growing, and part of this is to restructure to better focus on F2P. However, Zynga's troubles seem to indicate that there are some issues with both F2P and social gaming (technically different, although they often go together).
In any case, I won't be playing any of these abortions.
I also don't buy Ubi's games, what with their draconian DRM, so I guess there's no big difference here. The sad thing is, there are a few Ubi games I'm interested in. Hell, recently, I caught myself not even installing a Ubi game I bought. I wasn't sure if it had Ubi's worst DRM, so I just didn't chance it.
Keep in mind, I have Origin, I freely purchase through Steam, and I probably have a few Securom/Starforce/etc. games either installed now or installed in the past year. I'm not a radical when it comes to DRM. Ubi is just off its rocker.
As for the piracy claims... LOL. I love the points made above, where if these outlandish claims are to be taken seriously, games should be constantly selling 20-30 million units on PC. The truth is that piracy rates have no clear correlation with lost sales. In any case, plenty of PC developers do just fine without draconian DRM or F2P.... Weird. Maybe they have magic powers?
If you read the story, Popcap actually says that F2P is growing, and part of this is to restructure to better focus on F2P. However, Zynga's troubles seem to indicate that there are some issues with both F2P and social gaming (technically different, although they often go together).
In any case, I won't be playing any of these abortions.
I also don't buy Ubi's games, what with their draconian DRM, so I guess there's no big difference here. The sad thing is, there are a few Ubi games I'm interested in. Hell, recently, I caught myself not even installing a Ubi game I bought. I wasn't sure if it had Ubi's worst DRM, so I just didn't chance it.
Keep in mind, I have Origin, I freely purchase through Steam, and I probably have a few Securom/Starforce/etc. games either installed now or installed in the past year. I'm not a radical when it comes to DRM. Ubi is just off its rocker.
As for the piracy claims... LOL. I love the points made above, where if these outlandish claims are to be taken seriously, games should be constantly selling 20-30 million units on PC. The truth is that piracy rates have no clear correlation with lost sales. In any case, plenty of PC developers do just fine without draconian DRM or F2P.... Weird. Maybe they have magic powers?
Does this genius have anything to back up his claim? I would really love to see some actual figures from some actual data. Piracy is shit but so is Ubisoft's even shitter DRM. If I bought Ubisoft games on PC I would probably pirate a copy (in addition to the purchase) just so I could play the damn thing without being tied to their way of making me play my game.
95% piracy, eh? So Ubisoft is saying their sales would multiply by a factor of twenty if there were no piracy?
Lets do math!
vgchartz says Assassin's Creed for the 360 sold 5.1mil and for the PC it sold 0.7mil. If Ubi's claim holds up, Assassin's Creed should have sold 14mil on the PC were there no piracy. That's almost triple the 360 total (assuming no 360 piracy, wink wink). It's also more than Halo 3, GTA4, GoW2, Skyrim, and a whole bunch more games. And that's JUST for the PC version of Assassin's Creed.
Oh, and it would also make Assassin's Creed the highest-selling PC game ever.
Of course, if you apply the same math to other games, The Sims would have sold 220mil copies. Let THAT sink in for a minute!
It sounds to me that Ubi is trying to convince itself (or its shareholders) that they would be a viable company, were it not for this piracy thing. Piracy that clearly only affects them.
Lets do math!
vgchartz says Assassin's Creed for the 360 sold 5.1mil and for the PC it sold 0.7mil. If Ubi's claim holds up, Assassin's Creed should have sold 14mil on the PC were there no piracy. That's almost triple the 360 total (assuming no 360 piracy, wink wink). It's also more than Halo 3, GTA4, GoW2, Skyrim, and a whole bunch more games. And that's JUST for the PC version of Assassin's Creed.
Oh, and it would also make Assassin's Creed the highest-selling PC game ever.
Of course, if you apply the same math to other games, The Sims would have sold 220mil copies. Let THAT sink in for a minute!
It sounds to me that Ubi is trying to convince itself (or its shareholders) that they would be a viable company, were it not for this piracy thing. Piracy that clearly only affects them.
Ahh Ubiclown and their magic numbers and clownesque CEO... This is just their excuse to jump in the F2P DRM like EA did and save face for their failure with DRM who pushed away more customers. Fucking Guillemot, this guy is unbelievable.
@ killias2 "Popcap actually says that F2P is growing"
yeah, that's what bubbles do... until they burst.
yeah, that's what bubbles do... until they burst.
.... Oh Ubisoft just when I thought you couldn't sink any lower in my eyes, you manage to prove me wrong....
Long rant aside... just get the hell out of the PC market for the most part your games are shit ports and your DRM is terrible and anti consumer. Maybe I dunno, that might be your problem.
Nope you take the stance that your shit doesn't stink and that its everyone else who is at the root of your woes.
Seriously how is DRM even still a thing? Corporate ass hats loading their games down with it and at the first sign that they might fail to reach sales projections.... they play the Piracy card.
@Jinx 01
Laser etch that bat yo!
Long rant aside... just get the hell out of the PC market for the most part your games are shit ports and your DRM is terrible and anti consumer. Maybe I dunno, that might be your problem.
Nope you take the stance that your shit doesn't stink and that its everyone else who is at the root of your woes.
Seriously how is DRM even still a thing? Corporate ass hats loading their games down with it and at the first sign that they might fail to reach sales projections.... they play the Piracy card.
@Jinx 01
Laser etch that bat yo!
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