News Ubisoft: 'PC DRM is a success'

I'm pretty sure there has just been a reduction in people playing Ubisoft titles, pirated and legit. Because their games suck, and their DRM makes them less accessible. Has there actually been a clear reduction in pirated/bought copies ratio?

I got Farcry 2 bundled with my last graphics card, but couldn't use it because of Securom (constantly telling me to enter the disc, though it was already entered). Solution? Torrent the game and put in my legit key, enabling people who didn't have a legit key to download it as well in the process.

 

Greetings!

Let me take a wild guess here, the reports say that someone interested in videogames is more probable to pirate or buy a game than someone who is not interested in games?

 

How can they say its a success when I've avoided Settlers 7 a series at one stage I loved, I've avoided Assassins Creed and I'll now avoid Driver which I remember fondly from PS1 days. FU Ubisoft you have no idea what the PC customer wants!

 

I find the statement very interesting - lets quote it again here - "[There's been] a clear reduction in piracy of our titles which required a persistent online connection, and from that point of view the requirement is a success."

So, it has been a success from the perspective of reducing piracy; I have no way to prove or disprove that statement, we will have to take their word for it.

The fact that they say "from that point of view the requirement is a success", leads me to think that from another point of view the requirement has NOT been a success - has there also been a reduction in actual sales as people boycott them for their onerous DRM? A decrease in customer satisfaction, or damage to their reputation? An increase in operational costs for running the servers to support the always-on DRM? An increase in support costs for all the people that contact them with problems caused by the DRM?

I'm certainly one of those who boycotted them - I *was* going to buy The Settlers 7, especially since it can be bought for less than £10 online now, but I will not buy any game with always-on DRM.

I'm also surprised to hear it has actually reduced piracy of the titles - there are cracks available for them in just the same way as their other games using less restrictive DRM, so I can't see how it would make a difference.

 

Why do that? I just crack my originals that have that level of DRM. Nothing wrong with that, and the games actaully run better

 

Give me the sale figures from before and after, then come back...

 

I always buy my games... But I really give u credit, it's what I would do...

 

Ubisoft have invested so much into this system publicity-wise that they have to call it a success no matter what. Of course, they could eliminate piracy completely by just exiting the software market, which would probably do most gamers a favour.

+1 to those who've boycotted Ubisoft since - me too (aside from a couple of DRM-free releases on GOG).

 

Most of the studies focus on music and films rather than videogames, but they universally show that being a pirate correlates with higher spending on media.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...tes-are-best-customers-this-time-hadopi.shtml
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...ate-site-probably-helped-movie-industry.shtml

 

It's funny when this topic pops up every other person feels like they have to let us know that they don't pirate.

Yet everyone I know who pirates does it to save money and not out of principles, which I imagine most people do. As much as people love to see these articles which are almost always researched and written by pro piracy groups/people, they need to accept that Piracy is bad.

People should just accept it. But it doesn't help matters that almost all movie/music companies seem to be stuck in the mid 90's and ignore this new invention called the internet.

 

I'll second that! What a HUGH disappointment! I’ve been a Driver fan from the get go (remember the freight train mode!). Way to screw up another series UbiSoft!

 

I have to admit I have pirated games, music and films. However, I have also purchased a high proportion of the pirated material shortly after.

With regards to games though I cant help but feel that in some way the demise of the good old demo as compounded the situation. Whilst some may say that if you can download a demo you could just as easily download a pirated version.

I would sooner play a time limited demo make my mind up and still have only scratched the surface of a game then go buy the official product than going straight for a pirated copy.

Perhaps a simple view of things but that's my opinion.

 

Greetings!

It shows that someone interested on something will get it any way possible.
From the graphic you linked to, the more they spend, the more they pirate.

 

Maybe their piracy rate dropped because they're not releasing anything interesting anymore. What do they have, besides AC, that anyone cares about? The Tom Clancy games have been done to death and AC is slowly getting there. Heroes 6? lol.

 

haha nail on head

 

lol

In my experience the DRM has caused problems and kept me away from buying many of their games.

That sounds like a "success" to me ..... [/sarcasm]

 

you'll = you will (future tense)
you're = you are (present tense)

The article is correct, you are messing up your tenses

 

I'd say it's because of games that have a wider appeal, it might not stop games being pirated completely but it prevents zero day pirating which is a good thing imo so maybe a few months or even 6 months or when crackers have cracked the game so it's fully playable they should disable the DRM for the game.

That type of DRM is a drastic solution but if that's what it takes for them to continue releasing PC games then I see no problem (personally I haven't had a single problem with it as my internet has been ok) but at the same time people with no or insufficient connections are automatically cut off from wanting to buy it so it's a pickle of a situation, so honestly the best thing to do is when their games get properly cracked then they should disable the DRM for the particular game else it just takes the p out of those who bought them.

 

My biggest bugbear with all this is that they never tell you the level of online f***wittage required for the given game in advance. The number of times I've bought a game on Steam only to discover when I try to play it that it requires fifteen new online accounts and an 'always on' rectal endoscopy for marketing purposes.

It you want to bundle this s**t with your game it's your choice -- but ffs be honest enough to tell us before you take our money.

 

There has been a marked drop in the amount of piracy of our PC titles....( and a marked reduction of PC titles sold...)