Hey Ubi, consider this...

[wetwarev7]

Originally Posted by Sonarman

I dont know how true the figures are but in this month's PC Format magazine (UK) they quoted the ELSPA figures rellating to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and they looked pretty bleak for the PC Platform...

PC Sales: 300,000
PC pirated downloads: 4,100,000
Console sales: 6,000,000
Console pirated downloads: 970,000

I really, really doubt those figures are accurate. According to those numbers, that would mean 93.2% of all PC copies are pirated. That just doesn't sound very plausible.

I've said it in other threads, I'd have more sympathy for the game companies if I thought their 'figures' were accurate, or even just unbiased. I buy my games, every one of them, and I really don't think I'm in the minority.

[kylania]

Originally Posted by wetwarev7

I really, really doubt those figures are accurate. According to those numbers, that would mean 93.2% of all PC copies are pirated. That just doesn't sound very plausible.

Plausible or not, it's what they'd like you to believe.

[janh]

Originally Posted by kylania

Plausible or not, it's what they'd like you to believe.

Nice summary of the GAO article. Hopefully time for alledgements is passing an industries start to take a closer look at what they are doing. For most of them sales have dramatically increased in the last 5 years (with exception of the economic downturn year 2009), also Ubisofts. Technically they don't have anything to complain, except if they'd want to rip of customer even worse than now.

I agree that if they want(ed) to fare better (and see piracy decrease), then they should start delivering valuable products again. No "beta releases" with serious patching already expected in the first month, add manuals that are interesting, informative and even educative again, and add some nice gimmicks like a good KM-Map. Add new features to your software, instead of just polishing the graphics and thereby remove older features that people are used to from predecessors (such as other sub types, 43-45, etc). Advancement means to deliver more, not less! Or why could you expect anyone to buy a new edition of a book that lost half the original chapters???

I think software industry is whining on a very high (success) level, and it is doing so because in the past decade it hasn't be questioned, criticized or "shaken up". They have experiments with a lot of "nasty" things on customers, and they have gotten through with it. So, they learned that they can go even further...

PS. What really annoys me is actually not that they keep delivering "sub par" quality software for a quality software price. That's their problem, and they can do so as long as they can find someone to buy it. I won't, but enough people will fall for it. But if their sales suffer from that, then they ought to attribute it to the right reason (themselves), and not just point fingers at some easily attackable entity ("pirates", "used sellers",...). And then even have the loyal customers suffer this nonsense.

And I really hope we'll soon see a "2nd SHV release date" -- the no-DRM release...

[rocker_lx]

I don't like the new online DRM, but I wish they hadn't cracked it (even partially).

So you could clearly see on the sales figures if they go up or not, of course you would need to compare during several game releases. Piracy ratio between a "call of duty" and a "silent hunter" game a probably quite different. Of course you can not compare with sales of older titles, as current economic situation also influences sales.

[Phantom Mark]

The crazy thing is that I bet at least 10-20% of the pirated downloads of SH5 are actually for people who have bought and paid for the game.........someone like myself who is considering it who has no internet connection during the working week because I work away from home.....thats when things start to get crazy.

[mikeydredd]

Entirely agree with the overall tone of the last posts.

It surely is self-evident to any business that you provide your customers with a service/product that

A: is what they want, and

B: is good value for money.

Can we just remind ourselves that this game, including the first patch, was cracked on DAY ONE.

This version of DRM is responsible for a lot of things but it stopped the "pirates" for NOT ONE MINUTE.

Are UbiSoft really that stupid?

Draw your own conclusions. . .

Dredd

[daft]

Originally Posted by mikeydredd

Entirely agree with the overall tone of the last posts.

It surely is self-evident to any business that you provide your customers with a service/product that

A: is what they want, and

B: is good value for money.

Can we just remind ourselves that this game, including the first patch, was cracked on DAY ONE.

This version of DRM is responsible for a lot of things but it stopped the "pirates" for NOT ONE MINUTE.

Are UbiSoft really that stupid?

Draw your own conclusions. . .

Dredd

Was the game leaked and cracked before the retail date?

[Faamecanic]

Originally Posted by Phantom Mark

The crazy thing is that I bet at least 10-20% of the pirated downloads of SH5 are actually for people who have bought and paid for the game.........someone like myself who is considering it who has no internet connection during the working week because I work away from home.....thats when things start to get crazy.

Or from people getting tired of getting screwed by the game companies releasing crap products riddled with bugs.

I have ALWAYS been against Piracy, and ALWAYS pay for my games....

But I did download a....umm...Trial copy of a rather famous football coach game to see if it was as screwed up as the forum posters were saying before plunking down $50 on it. And it was.... (example: for no reason at all the QB would turn around and throw the football the wrong way) so I didnt buy it.

I have ALWAYS bought SH series (even after getting burned with SH3).... then burned with SH4...you think I would have learned. But I bought SH5 to support the franchise... Im regretting that now.

My copy of SH5 is legit, but due to DRM dropout issues (and I have cable for crying out loud) my game is DRM free. Only happened at peak hours, but annoying as hell when ya get a friggin notice every 5min and the game freezes up.

DRM has got to be killing sales for UBI.