The gawd-almighty merged DRM in Silent Hunter V thread

[Bilge_Rat]

Originally Posted by razark

Right. But I pay for it, I should get to use it how, when, and where I want. And for as long as I want. Without outside controls.

How many people would be unhappy if SH3 was only playable for two years?

I still play SH1.

On that we are in total agreement. I am buying SH5 in the expectation that I will be able to play it for a long time and if Ubi screws us all and shuts down the servers in 2012, I will be as royally pissed off as the rest of you and will never buy another game from UBI again.

However and again I am still coming back to my cost argument, even if in a worst case scenario, I can only play SH5 for a maximum of 2 years, I still consider it a worthwhile purchase, given its low cost of $ 49.99.

[Task Force]

Hmmm... not bad for a thread that has only been around for about 6 or 7 hours...8 pages

[guynoir]

Ubisoft doesn't exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to maintaining games, their DRM schemes, and customers' abilities to play those games, either...

[razark]

Originally Posted by Bilge_Rat

On that we are in total agreement. I am buying SH5 in the expectation that I will be able to play it for a long time and if Ubi screws us all and shuts down the servers in 2012, I will be as royally pissed off as the rest of you and will never buy another game from UBI again.

However and again I am still coming back to my cost argument, even if in a worst case scenario, I can only play SH5 for a maximum of 2 years, I still consider it a worthwhile purchase, given its low cost of $ 49.99.

And my point is that we shouldn't even give them the chance to do it. If they get away with this, and it gets cracked (I have no doubts it will be), what's their next step going to be?

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by razark

And my point is that we shouldn't even give them the chance to do it. If they get away with this, and it gets cracked (I have no doubts it will be), what's their next step going to be?

I can tell you exactly what the next step will be: stop making games for the PC. They can sell more on consoles anyway. If they cannot make money developing PC games, they will stop.

[guynoir]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

I can tell you exactly what the next step will be: stop making games for the PC. They can sell more on consoles anyway. If they cannot make money developing PC games, they will stop.

Well, then... talk about a rock and a hard place!

With this new online-only DRM, they anger their fans and literally exclude a portion of their potential customers from even playing the game... Meanwhile, pirates will still probably crack the game and download it anyway, so the DRM only succeeds in angering buying customers, and many pirates wouldn't have bought it in the first place.

I do know that one of those two groups of people want to buy and play Silent Hunter V, and it doesn't seem like Ubisoft should be so adversarial against them...

[Letum]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

I can tell you exactly what the next step will be:

With respect Neal, you can't; no one can, but as consumers we all play a
small part in carving our own future.

In the end, there is always someone who will make money by giving
paying customers what they want, however much piracy or games
people refuse to buy, a paying customer's wallet is still worth chasing.

[Méo]

Originally Posted by Letum

With respect Neal, you can't; no one can

If he cannot speculate on this, why can you speculate on SH5 with DRM..

[Letum]

Originally Posted by Méo

If he cannot speculate on this, why can you speculate on SH5 with DRM..

He wasn't speculating, he was 'telling us exactly'.

Besides, online DRM isn't speculation, it's been confirmed long ago.

[Méo]

Originally Posted by Letum

online DRM isn't speculation, it's been confirmed long ago.

I meant speculate about Ubi servers going down, Ubi will steal private data, speculate that it will be cracked anyway, etc.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Letum

In the end, there is always someone who will make money by giving
paying customers what they want, however much piracy or games
people refuse to buy, a paying customer's wallet is still worth chasing.

Sure, invest $1,500,000 in a game and give paying cutomers what they want, and paying customer's wallets totals, oh, let's say $50,000. Yeah, that's a great business model.

If there are not enough paying customers, it won't get made. No matter how much paying customers want it.

[Letum]

It'll get made to what ever extent it will be paid for.
One customer paying one pound gets you £1 worth of game.

[razark]

Originally Posted by Letum

It'll get made to what ever extent it will be paid for.
One customer paying one pound gets you £1 worth of game.

I rolled a 4. Does that mean my torpedo hits the tanker or not?

I really hope subsims as a genre are not reduced to this. I'd hate to see them go to the console. I just don't think they'd survive in that format, at least not in any form I'd like to play.

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by Letum

It'll get made to what ever extent it will be paid for.
One customer paying one pound gets you £1 worth of game.

What? Again, what?

[Nordmann]

Originally Posted by Neal Stevens

I can tell you exactly what the next step will be: stop making games for the PC. They can sell more on consoles anyway. If they cannot make money developing PC games, they will stop.

That's funny, just last year, developers producing games for consoles were making a big, big loss. Insofar as sales are concerned, people simply cannot afford £44.99 for a single game, and yes, this is the average price of most console games.

If Ubi, or any other company stop making games for PC, then they may as well sell up and go into retirement, because without the PC market, they will not last long at all.

All I hear about is how awesome consoles are, how they beat PCs, yet I used to be a console gamer myself and I can tell you, they are no damned comparison to the power of the PC. Sim games are virtually non-existent, and the few that have tried, do not work well.