Ubisoft Director: Piracy is Killing PC Gaming

10:50 - Thursday 9 October 2008 by Kevin Parrish
Source: Tom's Hardware – Keywords: Pc, Games, piracy, ubisoft, endwar Category : Software

Gamers will never hear the end of developers and publishers crying that pirates are killing PC gaming sales.

It’s true : the subject has been beaten down to the point where it probably does turn away avid gamers from PC versions simply by the thought of it. With the endless war between creator, publisher and stealer ensuing in earnest, honest consumers either are left to deal with the side effects of anti-piracy embedding itself on their PCs, or suffer from a market that seems to get more scarce at the turn of each month.

Recently Ubisoft Shanghai creative director Michael de Plater fired off his mouth to VG247, all hot under the collar and pointing the death of PC gaming towards the pirates who leech from the industry. He said that the PC version of Tom Clancy’s EndWar would have shipped with the console versions had pirating not been an issue.

“To be honest, if PC wasn’t pirated to hell and back, there’d probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two,” he told the website. “But at the moment, if you release the PC version, essentially what you’re doing is letting people have a free version that they rip off instead of a purchased version. Piracy’s basically killing PC.”

Although the PC version will likely ship later on, he seemed rather reluctant to mention that a release date even existed. But his words ring true, echoing the overall attitude towards PC gaming by developers and publishers alike.

In a recent interview with Tom Ohle of CD Projekt (formerly with BioWare before taking on The Witcher), he stressed that perhaps developers and publishers should focus on making great games that people will actually buy rather than worry about pirates. "Everything gets pirated, so it’s not limited to PC gaming," he told Tom’s Games earlier this year. "But really, you just want to put out a game that’s solid for your platform. If you’re making a PC game, make a great PC game and people will buy it. I don’t know of any pirates that buy games. They all seem to be pirates for life, y’know ? So why fight it ? Just make a good game that people want to pay for."

The problem now is that PC games are becoming the minority of the industry. Recently Wal-Mart scaled back its PC software stock altogether, and retail outlets such as GameStop and EB Games have limited the offerings to just a few racks. Already it seems like the PC market is steadily going down hill, and with anti-piracy software sneaking its way on consumers’ PCs as seen with the recently released Spore, gamers who once delighted in picking up a PC game might look towards the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 consoles instead

Yes, it’s the same old speech : tired, worn out and ready to be put out to pasture. It will continue to be in the forefront of PC gaming until the issue is resolved, whether publishers give up on the genre altogether or something is devised that will make everyone happy. Until then, PC gamers will have to dig in and wait out the storm.


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Talkback
Flakes 09/10/2008 01:51
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Flakes

its a tug of war...

the puddle in the middle is the average buyer, and the 2 teams pulling the rope consist of the developers and pirates.

hhmagicman 09/10/2008 02:27
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hhmagicman

Why not make games essentially a "super demo" most of the code on the disc but most of the level content is downloaded, and tied to a serial number. Other publishers have proven that making downloadable content available to properly registered gamers is a workable method of keeping piracy rates down

Anonymous 09/10/2008 04:21
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Of course only PC gamers are pirates and console games are never pirated.

Aye.... Righto :D

waxdart 09/10/2008 05:22
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waxdart

I would by more PC games, but you've made them all crap for consoles.
I would buy more console games, but I know they would be better if I could play them on the PC.

Anonymous 09/10/2008 05:33
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Well, I always thougt that piracy was the only real reason for many gamers to buy a PC. And that without "free games", there just wouldnt be such a big market nowadays.

waxdart 09/10/2008 05:35
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waxdart

Looking at the Ubisoft Windows line up I dont think I would buy or copy 90% of them. And if they DRM Far Cry 2 that that will be a loss also.


2008Far Cry 2 (PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
Harvest Moon Online (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
Prince of Persia (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
Tom Clancy's EndWar (PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
Shaun White Snowboarding (Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
Caesar Milan's The Dog Whisperer (Nintendo DS, Microsoft Windows)
CSI: NY (Microsoft Windows)

2009
Avatar (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
I Am Alive (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows)
Anno 1404 (Microsoft Windows)

waxdart 09/10/2008 06:17
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waxdart

gunter44 - People have been known to run a business with a PC. Also you can use a PC to get at all the pOrn. Some people dont even play games at all.

tcn31 09/10/2008 06:53
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tcn31

Good games will sell, take counter strike source for example. I bet that game made gabe newell a multi millionaire np at all. Ubisoft need to realise that only light protection is really necessary just to stop people copying the original cd/dvd. All platforms suffer from piracy apart from the ps3. I would only buy a console if the games were freely available. If i couldn`t copy a game i wouldn`t even buy it anyway unless it was really good like half life 2 / counter strike source which i own the original of. So yes good games will sell just not half the crap ubisoft puts out. Get with the program ;)

darzil 09/10/2008 06:54
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darzil

Piracy the only reason for gamers to buy a PC? I think a few people out there seem to play MMOs, pretty much exclusively available on PCs. Of course, they rely on your being online and connecting to a particular set of servers, so don't really struggle with piracy.

Anonymous 10/10/2008 10:55
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Release pc games on blu ray disc, not only are the blank discs to expensive so pirates won't bother but it will also accelerate high definition adoption and increase hardware sales!
A win for all involved, Price shouldn't be any more expensive for the games and blu ray drives are cheap. If gamers can spend hundreds and hundreds just on a graphics card then they can spend a third of that on a blu ray drive!

Flakes 10/10/2008 01:00
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Flakes

i dont know of any pirates that use disks... they all just swap HDD with Image files and run Deamon.

david__t 10/10/2008 01:46
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david__t

I wish I had a pound for every time that PC gaming had been declared dead! I have just about accepted Steam and online activation - but stealthy DRM that cannot be removed without formatting your hard drive - that is enough to put me off buying a game no matter how good it is.

LePhuronn 10/10/2008 05:17
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LePhuronn

Simple formula: good game + realistic, sensible pricing = more sales

Stop comparing graphic engine cock sizes and produce some decent GAMES not tech demos (I'm looking at you Crytek and id, and you're getting as bad Valve)

rrael 18/10/2008 04:36
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rrael

Of course no one even for a moment considers that some of those pirating might also buy the games. Maybe i'm the only one, but i'll admit to pirating, I do it because I like to try a game before I buy it. You just can't trust reviewers these days, cause everybody has their own opinion, and I only trust my own. I wouldn't call it "pirating" if the person in question goes out and buys the game the next day. Honestly have any of the AAA PC titles to come out in recent memory failed to sell well? Can you really be sure how many actual sales have been lost when you have no way of knowing what the real figures are? I recently dled Spore, Mass Effect, The Witcher, and C&C3. I also went out and bought them within days afterwards. So thats at least one person you can't count as a statistic.

Instead of complaining that pirating is ruining PC gaming (when I truely believe it is not), how about they come up with new ways of combating the problem. How about "trial" versions of the game, that allow you to dl the entire game from an online service like Direct2Drive, and freely play around for lets say a set amount of time, 2-4 hours before it locks and you have to buy a actual copy to continue. This way people can try a game at their own convenience, without having to restart from the beginning again as in normal demos. They also don't have to worry about uninstalling/installing again.

The point is try something new, innovative, don't run away from PC gaming because you THINK it is dying. If you do that you're just hurting the millions of gamers that still rock the PC first and foremost.

Antoniu 21/10/2008 10:07
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Antoniu

look, i am one of those many, many, many, many, MANY east-europeans that are locked on computer gaming 24/7. ... I AM POOR!!! i came to uk for a better life, and i find myself looking at the shelves in GAME, or whatever computer games seller, 35 pounds for a new entry on the market?!? are you fcuking with me?!?!?!? 35 pounds for a pc game that might be worse than free indie?? what about the system specs? i'm making 265 british pounds a week, my rig it's not state of the art, but i'm happy with the way it can take every new game.... yes i buy games, yes i download, what about making the games less expensive mister millionaire? that the only way to make piracy a thing of the past.... GOOD GAMES + CHEAP = PROFIT!!!!! it's an equation for you all in the industry.....greedy pigs

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