"lets be fair to the people..." ???

i dont care about this poor statement. for me, go ahead and try your luck with console kids!!! then finally there will be smaller studios, who serve the market with pc-games. maybe this would be the better way, instead of big firms, who try to serve all niches and release a lot of half backed **** for pc.

very good statement, dcb.
I doubt the figures of 90% pirated games. better said, if the publishers had such a close insight of the pirate's market, why hadn't they done nothing against?

This dev should think about:

1) printing good and thick manuals like those we were used to
2) use an online activation like the one used by Battlefront
3) forgetting to cash in that wishful 90%. Wake up :nope:

"That means that for every 100k copies sold, there are another 900k copies being played by people that are getting what they want by stealing it."

***
Sounds like simplified model... i am sure that 70-80% out of these 900k just take it as it costs nothing, as you would try beer in a pub for 2$...
They would try it 2-3 days and forget it...

It is possible that some 20-30% out of 900k would buy original anyway.

This is not Call of Duty... and Ubi will lose more by DRM application... than they could gain "forced players".
***
DRM could be tried in a 3-4 years, when online service becomes standard "like TV remote control" and certainly on some "more commercial" titles...

With DEMO included!

You said it....:|\\





P.S. to dcb +1

Here's a radical idea to curb the spread of software piracy -

Dont charge people one of their kidneys for one of your fricken games.

I'm with Hitman and Urfish on this so far.

It is well known that piracy figures are over-estimated in order to usher in more draconian DRM measures, much akin to the way Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction were....cough...over-estimated in order to usher in a little war.....sorry I mean a long drawn out badly planned and organised war. But I digress...

That said, I understand the need to combat software piracy....but at heart I know that game publishers are only interested in profit and are consequenytly killing the PC games market, as noticed by the shelf space in shops like Game. The book publishing industry has been heading down the same road for some time....so many great books go un-noticed cos they don't contain boys on broomsticks or whatever.

Fortunately, modern tech has led to the micro-publisher, with the internet providing delivery logistics. This micro-industry is on the verge of a huge boom.

In conclusion then, games publishers desire for ever increasing income (largely to pay for the chaff within - I doubt actual profit margins are any greater than 30 years ago) will see them migrate to the consoles, to be replaced by dedicated micro PC game developers and publishers. Heralding a new age in quality PC game development.

HURRAH FOR UBI!

He is right about the 'dude' thing.
As for the rest...well...

even if the figures are 100,000 pirated copies against 100,000 sold thats a huge difference, let alone 900,000 copies.

If you want the DRM to be removed then your only hope is that someone cracks that game. So the pirated players wont have to connect internet and legimate players do.

Then UBI will realize how pointless the DRM is.

That sounds like a very poor way of doing business.

Nevermind that the 90% figure is doubtful, just think about this:

-You have 100.000k established customers.
-You have 900.000k non-customers, people who might not ever buy you anything but still a potential market.

option 1: piss on the back of your established customers in the hope that they will keep buying anyway AND that it will appeal to non-customers.

option 2: refine your product, add tangible bonuses, basically cuddle your existing customers to keep them AND appeal to non-customers.

I've worked in some shops, and shoplifting is pretty much accepted as a fact of life. Some light measures are taken, but shoplifting remains and will remain.
Even if the amount of money lost is sometimes staggering, and the difference with pirated digital content is that those losses are real for the shop.
We did take some actions to try to limit it, like the magnetic thingys and mirrors, but I have never seen a shop manager in his right mind adopt some anti-shoplifting measures that would have been detrimental to legit customers.

Now of course, the day people accept to be treated like potential thieves instead of potential buyers things might change.

Well its obvious from the last line

That he feels with such a high % NOT buying then thats the end of the SH series - although I doubt they finish one then move straight on to the next anyway so they must do something inbetween - well you would hope so anyway

IF such a high figure has the devs worried then Ubi should be worried too
Rightly so
Tis only Ubis PC releases this year getting this OSP not console releases and I would guess they are a far bigger market than a PC sim
So why the PC games ?
Console games get cracked too and have been since day one

I think its far to say ALL of us can live with a one time net activation at install but not continual connection

Its a shame the dev feels that way and we have to feel the way we do about OSP but as Boris said the game will be cracked within days and us poor schmuks who buy the game will be the losers

I guess with only a month to go they will have to decide one way or other real soon

Personally I wouldnt mind waiting if release was delayed to remove the OSP
As most who have voted in the polls on here will be waiting till OSP removed anyway before they buy and that coulld be some time unless ubi gets its head out of the sand
And by that time the game will be in the bargain bin for a lot less than at release

Hear, hear!

Hmmm, just think about what it would mean if that dev was actually right. If there were 9 illegal copies for every legal one and each of those 9 copies were replaced by a legal one and if this was du to the amazing AWESOME-DRM they are currently putting into place and that makes everybody happy and want more, more, MORE of this stuff they should make TONS of money. In fact, as they calculate current games in a way that they are profitable with the "90% loss to piracy" this would surely mean that I can then buy SH5 for 5 bucks at release. Oh what a wonderful world! :smug:

#1. Is an outstanding post. Will comment on the thread later today :salute:

problem is, piracy is making pc games unviable. even though i voted against drm in the petition thread if the numbers are a quarter of what the dev is talking about you can't blame them from trying to make a profit from their games. ultimately if they can't find a way of pushing the number of sold units up then developers will start pulling out of pc games completely and then we won't have any sub games other than indie ones. i've already seen at my local 'game' store that the pc section is getting smaller and smaller each year - now i have trouble finding the pc games in there. so sadly i'd rather have drm than no pc games at all or a very limited selection. its bloody sad really.

Although anyone who is against online DRM is seen as being a luddite trying to hold back inevitable digital evolution, the reality is that for me anyway, this is a case of being treated fairly.

With both Silent hunter III and Silent HunterIV, I entered into a basic contract with Ubisoft. I paid them $49, and they gave me a game that I could load on my computer and play at my leisure.

With Silent hunter V, they have changed the terms of that contract. Now, I give them my $49, and they will give me a game that I cannot play at my leisure on my computer; I can only play it if I am connected to the internet and if the Ubi servers are up.

The terms of this contract are unacceptable to me so I choose not to purchase the game. If the future is playing games while being connected to the Publisher's servers, so be it. The Publisher should then put the entire game on their servers and not charge me $49 to buy it, but instead charge me either a 'pay as you use' fee each time I log onto the server, or a small monthly fee for unlimited access.

That way, I don't have a redundant drink coaster in a box filled with useless junk. :)

Oh and, the veiled threat of large publishers leaving the PC market is bull****.

-as long as there's a decent profit to be made, they'll stay, even if piracy is 99%.
-if they leave anyway, small publishers will blossom again (imagine if Enigma: Rising Tide had been released in a world with no SH3 or SH4).
-if small publishers make a decent profit, large publishers will come back to the PC market to get the money.
-rinse and repeat.

Mate, please tell me you didnt receive this via PM. If so, dont you think you should have kept it to yourself?
IMO Posting PMs on the forum is pretty disrespectful, that message was intended for you - not for everyone.
Its called a 'private message' for a reason.

Yup, Ju88 is right.
This whole thing does not reflect well on Subsim.