Assassin's Creed 2 and SH5 owners get free UBI game (merged)

[Commie]

Originally Posted by gimpy117

...it shows they care.

It shows they are desperate more like. For a company that has just created such a DRM in order to stop even one copy being pirated, to then give away it's products shows that they really are in the ****. They don't give a rats about SH5 customers, they just want to sweeten the image of their company as they know that Splinter Cell Conviction and Settlers 7 are coming out next with the same DRM crap and they want to encourage as many as they can to give their fun DRM a go and buy their games with the psychology of 'well if it doesn't work that well, I'll get a free game anyway' instilled in the potential customer.

UBI know that give something for free, even a turd, it will generate an irrational sense of goodwill in many.

[gimpy117]

Originally Posted by Commie

It shows they are desperate more like. For a company that has just created such a DRM in order to stop even one copy being pirated, to then give away it's products shows that they really are in the ****. They don't give a rats about SH5 customers, they just want to sweeten the image of their company as they know that Splinter Cell Conviction and Settlers 7 are coming out next with the same DRM crap and they want to encourage as many as they can to give their fun DRM a go and buy their games with the psychology of 'well if it doesn't work that well, I'll get a free game anyway' instilled in the potential customer.

UBI know that give something for free, even a turd, it will generate an irrational sense of goodwill in many.

The Thing is piracy is a big problem today, more so then when SH3 came out and possibly even more than when SH4 was released . Furthermore the only reason those servers went down was because of a malicious attack on them by hackers. This was by no means UBI's fault so for them to apologize for one and a half days of having my game out by giving me 30 bucks worth of free stuff...id say that's a good deal to me.

but by all means man continue to make lemons out of lemonade...I'll take your code and get both games if you wanna give it to me

[walsh2509]

Of course they need to fix the game with more patches , but as others have said some companies would have either ignored the problem or sent an email saying sorry.

A free game , ok not a great choice , but its better than a poke in the eye with a jaggy stick.

[janh]

Originally Posted by gimpy117

The Thing is piracy is a big problem today, more so then when SH3 came out and possibly even more than when SH4 was released . Furthermore the only reason those servers went down was because of a malicious attack on them by hackers. This was by no means UBI's fault so for them to apologize for one and a half days of having my game out by giving me 30 bucks worth of free stuff...id say that's a good deal to me.

I once was of your opinion, but I have had quite a time looking at this from different perspectives by now. Pirating does damage, and costs sales. As does shoplifting. But the recent decade is just too full of example of small start-up studios and developers that land a "first-try superhit". Why? Because they deliver a highly valuable, product, and one that customers want (satisfies their wishes, ideas etc, and is novel, not just copy of an old game idea/concept with new eye-candy), instead of delivering something "that a company wants to sell" and is developed orthogonally to market/customer interests. And they didn't die of piracy, but actually customers voluntarily buy their products, and pay the money. Sales are high, that is why it is a superhit. Let me elaborate further.

And to do so, I will pull up the counter example of companies like Microprose that went away long before piracy and downloads were developed (to this extend, or at all). Hence, you cannot claim piracy as primary cause for their end. But what you will find if you think about their fate, is for one that their casual products did not succeed in the broad market (for many reasons), and their specialized nice-products (like a sub simulator) didn't generate enough revenue. That is what it is, and if you get into the business of developing a niche-product, you can't expect to be a millionaire in no time, if at all.
Now, there is also a second class of examples, and that is companies that just warmed up game ideas time after time, and didn't spice the product up enough. To make it enticing. Say "Sid Meiers Gettysburg" was a successful game, but the sequel "Antietam" ended the series -- why? I guess it was but a new map, and everything else was just the same. And there is many examples of that class, maybe even the two points I mentioned above are just two symptoms of exactly this issue here.

And that was even before the times of harsh DRM or OSP-DRM, which now add a very bitter taste to everything particularly for legal owners, and induce them to see minor flaws of a product in a darker light then without. (EDIT: ) Moreover, the entertainment business has been expanding at a much faster rate than population growth or wealth ("money") increase. Each entertainment sector, movies, games, music, books, and real-life from sports to paintball, has grown strongly over the last 10-20 years. But since the consumer are limited (in number, their free time and money), every company and product will naturally get a smaller piece of cake every year and will have to present much better than average "products" to expand.

So I begin to think, and I bet with the SHV disaster it could have proven clearly this time if the pirates had for once stayed out of this, that it is the companies failing to bind customers by delivering "novel" games, added-value products (a thick printed manual, and other thing that you can't download on a site) and better service!

I think SHV would be a premier example of a product developed tangentially to what the community had hoped for (see Neals review), and that is why there is so much outcry and disappointment. And this may turn into lack of commercial success, and the consequences. I think Ubisoft may have done more harm with a repeated buggy release and the OSP-DRM to its own sales than the pirates could have.

Unfortunately I have as little credible and unambiguous evidence for my hyothesis as you do have for yours, so it's not worth arguing about anything that we can't change either opinions on. But I want to put it out there as a possibility that may be worth thinking critically about, and not focus on one possibility and ignore all the others (thats why the world is round...).
The future will likely teach how bad piracy really is, or whether companies are actually harming themselves more by not treating the customers as kings.

[Catfish]

Hello,

re Gimpy117:

well the word "pirate" is certainly a bit hard, certainly wanted and intended to sound that way (t'was Microsoft b.t.w. who invented this word - and i still wonder whether so much people would have XP and 7 on their PCs, had they not tried out pirated versions of Windows 3.11 earlier in thei life). But then isn't the impossibility of using the paid-for product with its promised properties at all, also a criminal offense, or even theft, if we are being consequent for both sides ?
Seems there are also pirates in the companies, don't you think so ?
As well in this brave new world doublespeak there are the consumers (read parasites, not creating anything but just consuming) and the noble producers (positively occupied, creating something, god-like).

As i read elsewhere:

The statement "This product is not eligible for refunds" in UBI's adverts or terms of sale for this particular product, is in fact a breach of UK and Germany's consumer rights and laws.

It is also in breach of The Sales of Goods Act 1979 where it is an implied term of warranty that a product must be of satisfactory quality, therefore allowing the consumer a period of satisfactory enjoyment of a product. A product is not of satisfactory quality, when the consumer is not able to to enjoy the product or is not satisfied with the quality of the product - in this case ingame quality and functionality, and externally the broken-down servers so not being able to use this software.

It slso seems that the UBIsoft server downtime, or better system overload was indeed UBI's responsability, and no DDOS attack, at least as it is published in Tom's Hardware guide article on that matter.
I already suspected UBI's servers that are causing the issue; UBI said it itself before changing their mind some days later, boy this was so obvious what was going on.

This alone, without all other bugs and being inferior to earlier versions of the product, means the product is not of satisfactory quality. Under warranty laws the seller must refund the consumer the full value of the product.

From the UBI forum:
" ... So i suggest to UBI to remove the statement that states the product is not eligible for refund forthwith and that you start refunding people in full too. Otherwise, consumers will and do have the right to make claims against you, in the UK's small claims courts, for breach of warranty, breach of the sales of goods act as well as breach of the consumer protection unfair trading regulations act 2008, for imposing a term of sale that is in breach of consumers satutory rights.
[...]
Restrictive statements such as 'This Product is not eligible for Refunds' or for example 'Sold as seen', are classed as a criminal offence, so UBI may face criminal prosecution aswell as civil court claims.

Where the product is not of satisfactory quality, the seller has no choice but to refund the buyer, regardless of weather its DVD, CD's Underwear, software or 'engraved' jewellery. "

Returning the product and getting the money back holds no perils at all.

And again, the simple "every downloaded pirated game is a lost customer" does not wash. But we had this ad nauseum, therefore even i am getting tired by posting the same again and again

Greetings,
Catfish

[janh]

Originally Posted by Catfish

It is also in breach of The Sales of Goods Act 1979 where it is an implied term of warranty that a product must be of satisfactory quality, therefore allowing the consumer a period of satisfactory enjoyment of a product. A product is not of satisfactory quality, when the consumer is not able to to enjoy the product or is not satisfied with the quality of the product - in this case ingame quality and functionality, and externally the broken-down servers so not being able to use this software.

Good to know, excellent info Catfish! I have always been unsure what I can return here in the US in the past couple of years, but I'll follow that lead a bit and figure out what customer rights here are.

[Commie]

Originally Posted by gimpy117

The Thing is piracy is a big problem today, more so then when SH3 came out and possibly even more than when SH4 was released . Furthermore the only reason those servers went down was because of a malicious attack on them by hackers. This was by no means UBI's fault so for them to apologize for one and a half days of having my game out by giving me 30 bucks worth of free stuff...id say that's a good deal to me.

but by all means man continue to make lemons out of lemonade...I'll take your code and get both games if you wanna give it to me

Yeah...piracy is so big that almost all the top selling games have been 'pirated' supposedly, while the uncrackable Assassins Creed 2 languishes far behind. The Anti Pirate Brigades and publishers have stated often that piracy=lost sales, so with Assassins Creed 2 we can finally put that to the test. Since the first AC was pirated a million times, then shouldn't ASSCreed2 have sold at least as many by now, since the pirates would have bought it?

[janh]

Originally Posted by Commie

Yeah...piracy is so big that almost all the top selling games have been 'pirated' supposedly, while the uncrackable Assassins Creed 2 languishes far behind. The Anti Pirate Brigades and publishers have stated often that piracy=lost sales, so with Assassins Creed 2 we can finally put that to the test. Since the first AC was pirated a million times, then shouldn't ASSCreed2 have sold at least as many by now, since the pirates would have bought it?

Maybe a bit simplified picture, but as first approximation that would be close. Keep in mind that Ubisoft will probably now claim that the DDOS attacks that they "detected" are similar acts of piracy that lead to bad publicity and lower sales. Means "piracy' beneficials" may not be playing it, but customer stay away.

[Hartmann]

Can be used the Snow board in the sea with high waves ??