Hey Ubi, consider this...

[wetwarev7]

Originally Posted by kylania

If every game came with a nice solid quality and accurate manual instead of a slip of paper telling us to read the childishly horrific PDF, real cloth maps instead of tatters of string loosely glued together, laminated keymaps instead of tissue paper sheets and Quality Tested software instead of crunched out bug fests I bet it would do more for fighting piracy than OSP ever could hope to.

I think this is a really good point. One of the reasons I buy games a the store instead of online is to get a paper manual. Or at least it used to be. I can't remember the last time I got an actual paper manual that discussed the game.

Anyways, without little items like a real map or paper manual, there is less incentive to buy a legit copy at a store. The reason I think this is important is that buying and downloading a game online is really only a click away from just downloading the game (without the buying).

If I were a software company, I'd stick with store sales only and include things like paper manuals, maps and pewter figurines that can't be easily transmitted over the internet.

Heck, remember when you used to have to pull up a certain page from the manual and type in word three, from paragraph four? Why not include a better version of that that can't be scanned, like a decoder ring or something?

Or heck, why not a freakin USB hardware key?

<Sigh>

[jason210]

Originally Posted by wetwarev7

I think this is a really good point. One of the reasons I buy games a the store instead of online is to get a paper manual. Or at least it used to be. I can't remember the last time I got an actual paper manual that discussed the game.

Those days are long gone! You only need to walk into GAME - you'll find just two stacks of shelves with PC games - and half of that is for World of Warcraft stuff. The rest of the place is full of Wii ****.

The game on CD DVD is a thing of the past - it's all DLC and the big corporations are just waiting for the Internet badnwidth to catch up so they can centralise it more - rather like digital TV companies do.

[kylania]

Originally Posted by wetwarev7

I think this is a really good point. One of the reasons I buy games a the store instead of online is to get a paper manual. Or at least it used to be. I can't remember the last time I got an actual paper manual that discussed the game.

It's like Ubisoft is reading our minds and totally ignoring what we want...

Ubisoft Doing Away with Printed Manuals

Ubisoft's digital game manuals will provide multiple benefits for the player and the environment. Including the game manual directly in the game will offer the player easier and more intuitive access to game information, as well as allow Ubisoft to provide gamers with a more robust manual.

(emphasis added)

[janh]

Originally Posted by kylania

It's like Ubisoft is reading our minds and totally ignoring what we want...

Ubisoft Doing Away with Printed Manuals

(emphasis added)

Good find! If they cut the price of their games by 50% in return then it would be fine, but for >=40$ is still have to think back to my old Aces of the Pacific, Aces of the Deep or Jane's Longbow printed manuals with 100s of informative and educative pages...

I think they are presently pressing forward quite fast to get to a pay-as-play games basis with monthly user fee per title or so. Then you'd already have conditioned your customers to purely digital manuals. I'd be really surprised if my notion is wrong here and it is just to save cost, or even if it were really the s*t they keep telling people... robust... LOL

[Phantom Mark]

Originally Posted by jason210

Those days are long gone! You only need to walk into GAME - you'll find just two stacks of shelves with PC games - and half of that is for World of Warcraft stuff. The rest of the place is full of Wii ****.

The game on CD DVD is a thing of the past - it's all DLC and the big corporations are just waiting for the Internet badnwidth to catch up so they can centralise it more - rather like digital TV companies do.

As I am sure you know this is nothing new, PC titles have been thin on the ground for the past 3 years in all the major UK outlets, in fact I would suggest the past 5 years has shown a very significant downturn in on the shelf titles, PC world is pretty much the largest stockists of FSX addons now

[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?

[kylania]

Originally Posted by daft

Was the game leaked and cracked before the retail date?

Yup, a few days before. It was just the game though, not the campaign missions. It only took a few weeks before they had a fully playable campaign as well.

[Fincuan]

Originally Posted by daft

Was the game leaked and cracked before the retail date?

IIRC it took about 48 hours before the cracked version appeared, which is pretty well by today's standards(normally the cracked versions are out before the game itself), but not quite enough to warrant calling the protection system succesful.

[IanC]

Originally Posted by Fincuan

but not quite enough to warrant calling the protection system succesful.

[wetwarev7]

Originally Posted by jason210

Those days are long gone! You only need to walk into GAME - you'll find just two stacks of shelves with PC games - and half of that is for World of Warcraft stuff. The rest of the place is full of Wii ****.

You need to stop going there for PC games. Try Bestbuy. It's still only 2 shelves, but the shelves are bigger....


Seriously though, which way will the trend end up when all is said and done? On the one hand, you've got corporate suits that think using the internet for everything is the 'wave of the future' and therefore MUST be the answer, and on the other you've got reality with hardware keys and stuff the customer wants to pay for. Hopefully the current trend will reverse itself sooner rather than later, as most trends tend to do.

If I may misquote a wise old sage with a bald head and yellow skin:
Ah, the Internet. The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems...

[ERPP8]

Originally Posted by wetwarev7

(I know, this isn't Ubisofts website, but they have very good ears here)
You know, when stores lose lots of money due to shoplifting, they usually bump the prices up on everything else a bit so the paying customers make up the difference. Not so great for the customer, but it is an established and accepted practice.

Considering that I've always thought any of the Silent Hunter games were worth more than I paid for them (once they were patched that is), why not have a less intrusive protection validation system and just charge a bit more based on how much you guesstimate your loss to be?

Let's do some math. I don't know the actual figures, so lets get a nice range. Lets start by saying the game cost $40. You sell 10,000 copies. That's $400,000. Let's say 1% get stolen, which would be 100 copies or $4000.

1% of 10,000 = 100 copies (at $40) = $4000 loss
10,000 - 100 = 9900 copies = $396,000 sales

Ok? I didn't misplace a decimal or anything did I? Good. Let's spread that $4000 loss over the other 9900 copies that got paid for.

$4000 / 9900 = $2.475

So what if the thefts were higher, such as 10%?
10% of 10,000 = 1000 copies (at $40) = $40,000 loss
10,000 - 1000 = 9000 copies (at $40) = $360,000 sales
$40,000 / 9000 copies = $4.44

What about 1,000,000 copies and 20% theft rate?
20% of 1,000,000 = 200,000 copies (at $40) = $8,000,000 loss
1,000,000 - 200,000 = 800,000 copies (at $40) = $32,000,000 sales
$8,000,000 / 800,000 copies = $10

So, you could have charged from $2.47 to $10 extra instead of having an always online requirement.

I would have paid more for SH5 than you currently charged to avoid the always online requirement. I'd have grumbled a bit, and maybe been a bit more vocal about the bugs, but I'd have paid it and would still be willing to buy your next product. And it just seems to make more sense to charge a bit more than to commit to the financial liability of running servers 24/7.



EULA: MyIdea is trademarked by me. If you use MyIdea, any products sold using MyIdea becomes my intellectual property rights and all profits must be handed over to me. Too late, you've already read MyIdea, you can't return it, you have to agree to this now or uninstall MyIdea from your brain. You may purchase the uninstaller program for MyIdea for $100, and yes, it does look quite similar to a hammer....

Nerd




Just kidding

[Adriatico]

After AC2... the Settlers are also "DRM liberated" these days...
maybe it's time for Ubi to stop this mockery and apologize to it's real clients base... while black market is having fun and enjoying AC2 and Settlers.

[Lord Justice]

Originally Posted by ERPP8

Nerd




Just kidding

As you very justly thought!!

[Fire_Spy]

Sooo Ubisoft is doing away with manuals to provide us with more robust manuals??

I miss the days of buying a game and getting a Manual to rival the size of "The lord of the Rings" novels. I still have old manuals that I like to read just for the extra content they have in them..