The gawd-almighty merged DRM in Silent Hunter V thread

[Méo]

Originally Posted by Nordmann

That's funny, just last year, developers producing games for consoles were making a big, big loss.

...and what about developers producing games for PC?

you're gonna tell me they had an incredible success last year?

[Brag]

Ubi lost money last year. They still expect negative chash flow this year. It's going to be worse as SH5 fails like crazy due to DRM. Then this will cause a domino effect on othe Ubi games. DRM is a big self-impossed disaster for UBI.

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by Brag

Ubi lost money last year. They still expect negative chash flow this year. It's going to be worse as SH5 fails like crazy due to DRM. Then this will cause a domino effect on othe Ubi games. DRM is a big self-impossed disaster for UBI.

I am not so certain that Ubi expects SH5 to be a cash cow in the same vein as, say, Assasins Creed and Prince of Persia.

[MasterCaine]

Originally Posted by Brag

Ubi lost money last year. They still expect negative chash flow this year. It's going to be worse as SH5 fails like crazy due to DRM. Then this will cause a domino effect on othe Ubi games. DRM is a big self-impossed disaster for UBI.

Ubisoft's latest move to DRM (and possible pay-as-you-play) is just another sign of their financial desperation. Final death throes. Call it intuition, but I have feeling Ubisoft won't be around much longer.

[Nordmann]

Originally Posted by Méo

...and what about developers producing games for PC?

you're gonna tell me they had an incredible success last year?

Did I say that? No I didn't, please don't read between lines that do not exist. The games industry as a whole is suffering, we have seen quite a few developers go under, or bought out by larger companies. The fact is, unless you can provide a product people want to buy, and can afford to buy, you are not going to succeed in this line of business.

What I was referring to, if you re-read my post, is the statement that the console industry is in a better position than that of PCs, which clearly is not the case at all. Thus, abandoning the PC market in favour of the "play and throw away" market is a damned fool idea. There are no more opportunities to be had with consoles, as that of the PC, in fact for games such as this, there are even less. Coupled with the fact that the next generation of consoles are already in development, it will always be an area of limited lifespan, unlike PCs.

Ubi will not abandon PC games, simply because their sales of one game in particular happen to drop off. What they will do, or should do in any case, is go back to the board room and discuss the DRM issue at length. Obviously this has stuck a bad note with their customers, which is exactly what you want to avoid during this troubled economic period. Customers vote with their wallets, for wont of a better description, and that vote determines your company's success or failure.

[Heckler]

Grand Theft Auto IV is anther one... to play properly you must have a rockstar account & a MS games for windows account. To play the same game you started.. you must be logged into GRW at the very least.

You can play offline once activated... but it starts a 'new' game for you and won't let you continue the one you may have spent hours working your way through.

Another game where the DRM wasn't advertised and another game I got caught out by and felt cheated.

Needless to say it got put up on a shelf and hasn't been touched more than once or twice in the last 12 months.

Been caught out to many times in the past... so I now have a zero tolerance policy on games with restrictive DRM... If they want my money, let me play my property how I want to. Same goes for the music and film industries... Piracy is a problem they helped to create and their refusal to take sensible precautions that do not punish the legitimate consumers is only making it worse.