A declining market share in comparison to consoles, sure I can see that easily but I find the information stating declining total sales because as the article posted above says, the PC is becoming ironically what it was before - a niche platform.

theory qestion if someone did not have the internet how will one register sh4 online?

perhaps have a ubi soft registy hotline like with microsoft??

Piracy :arrgh!:

Nowadays , its something you cannot avoid it too happen,
in the early days it was not as worse as today, but why?
there are several reasons.

1: The games nowadays have a lot in promise
2: The amount of pirate sites that can easily be found
3: the age of the person who dowloads it, you cannot think a 14 yr old gains enough pocket money for all the games he has on his computer :yep:
4: The speed of the internet nowadays, the minimal that people have is 1 Mbit. go figure.
5: The games nowadays is poor quality/ or are in e Pre-ready state-(so the buyers have to test it), I bought BF2 , and NEVER going to buy any of the titles again. it has been an complete dissapoinment with the amount of Exploits , Glitches, bugs and errors, and FALSE promised patches that had to fix the amount of problems the game came with. 50€ down the toillet
6: *see 5* People are wondering or are afraid of the same dissapointment, is the game worth my 50€?, try & Buy thingy mention before by other posters.


thought the MP function in some cases are well defended, like CD key requirement
some games need an unique cd key in order to play online if its used before or its in the blacklist because it duplicated, or its a fake one.
the best defence of a MP feature is a .exe check.
if it sees that the .exe have been modified by a fix that it will block ur attempt of joining an online game.


things that could reduce the amount of piracy is:

*bring out a DEMO for the people to try (to see if they like it and how it runs on the system)
*Bring out the product as the final game and not something that is filled with bugs and has been poorly tested.
*make the Multiplayer feature extra attractive and hard to fool with pirate versions (like mentioned above , unique CD key and a .exe checker)

hearing me say this all, well I have red a lot about the piracy stuff, it really is interesting how they manage to beat the publisher too it. its also a big shame that it is, but hell.
the games are a big target and the movies and music as well. its a simple fact that is on the dark side of the internet. Just ignore the fact that someone has it and be proud that you support the publisher when you get the Game in the Box you paid for

but sometimes a publisher cannot exeed the budget they get for the game, its poor.
hopefully SHIV will turn out well, thought I,m not going to buy it as I have no interest in the pacific at all

(hopefully what I have said above isnt breaking the TOS of Subsim)

Want to get your 50 euros back? www.realitymod.com

________
Vapormatic

Stole this from Wikipedia:

US PC Game Software Sales [2] [3][4]

• 1998 - $1.7 billion
• 1999 - $1.9 billion
• 2000 - $1.78 billion (84.9 million units)
• 2001 - $1.75 billion (83.6 million units)
• 2002 - $1.4 billion (61.5 million units)
• 2003 - $1.2 billion (52.8 million units)
• 2004 - $1.1 billion (45 million units)
• 2005 - $953 million (38 million) [5] + $344 million digital sales [6]
• 2006 - $970 million [7]

I'd say that's a decline, but not in a bad way. Like someone else said, I think PCs will fill that niche for people who want games that are deeper than "if it moves, shoot it." I hate consoles because I feel the games on them are dumbed down for the masses, and that's why I stick with PC strategy and sim games.

As for the people who think that a CD key check will stop piracy cold, look at what happened when Valve used Steam for Half Life 2. It was cracked shortly after release. Granted, it made it harder for the pirates but they did find ways around it. I don't think there's one be all, end all answer to piracy. It's a constant cat and mouse game.

But for SubSims the USA is not the main market, not even for a Sim featurinmg US submarines.

On the last one did they forget to add digital sales?

I guess digital sales numbers weren't available for 2006. I work in the securities industry so I may have access to a market research report with these figures. I'll go see what I can dig up.

Well I look at it as obvious that PC sales have declined - pirates or not

For most ppl I know the console is king
All the type of games my girls used to play on PC are now on console so they dont touch the PC for gaming anymore - suits me as I dont have to share time lol

We might see a boost in PC sales in the near future now that Microsoft is opening up a PC/XBOX 360 gaming lobby.

It would be ideal if we PC'ers could take on the consoles.:arrgh!:

Well heck I was INVITED by Ubisoft to be one of the first to pre-order the Delux collectots Edition.....Have the e-mail still on my comp....Be one of the very first to pre-order one of only 3000 units worldwide to be made, the delux Edition containing..Blah , blah..you get the picture.....Put my money right up front, paid by credit card...I now have an invoice and Confirmation Inc order number...I whacked out £49.99...That's a few quid.....I EXPECT my game to arrive VERY SOON....Yeah I'll hold my breath..Not for long though...Really how can some countries get it in shops or by pre order and others ARE still waiting...


Deep six.....Out

I bought 2 SH-3 and a friend bought his and all 3 have the same key
code.I can post my key code and will bet most have the same. We
can have a pole on this.

Remember SH2? There was a NINE MONTH delay in shipping in australia...

And they wondered why the whole 29th flotille had pirate copies?