No PC Ghost Recon: Future Soldier [Nov 24, 2011, 2:09 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
Though plans for a PC edition of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier was previously confirmed by Ubisoft, PC Gamer has word that the next installment in the Ghost Recon series is for consoles only, and that PC gamers will get Ghost Recon Online instead, which is apparently Ubisoft's new approach to PC piracy following their almost universally despised always-on DRM. Here's word from Ghost Recon Online producer Sébastien Arnoult:
We are giving away most of the content for free because there’s no barrier to entry. To the users that are traditionally playing the game by getting it through Pirate Bay, we said, ‘Okay, go ahead guys. This is what you’re asking for. We’ve listened to you – we’re giving you this experience. It’s easy to download, there’s no DRM that will pollute your experience.’
We’re adapting the offer to the PC market. I don’t like to compare PC and Xbox boxed products because they have a model on that platform that is clearly meant to be €60’s worth of super-Hollywood content. On PC, we’re adapting our model to the demand.
“When we started Ghost Recon Online we were thinking about Ghost Recon: Future Solider; having something ported in the classical way without any deep development, because we know that 95% of our consumers will pirate the game. So we said okay, we have to change our mind.
We have to adapt, we have to embrace this instead of pushing it away. That’s the main reflection behind Ghost Recon Online and the choice we’ve made to go in this direction.
CJ_Parker wrote on Nov 24, 2011, 16:37:
Just because Skyrim is selling well doesn't mean it isn't equally getting pirated billion-fold. And I'm sure that Beth isn't exactly happy about that development, in spite of the success of the franchise.
That's not the point--all media is eventually bootlegged to some degree, somewhere on earth. All of it. The difference is that when developers put out a good game that satisfies a pent-up demand people will literally stand in line to buy it. That's not just true of Skyrim, but it is true of quite a few PC games released this year, actually. Then you have your successful PC online games that people like so well they pay something every month just to keep playing. But that's just another side of the coin...
What developers and game publishers are happy with are PC games that in a short time cover all of their development costs plus return a very handsome profit. Those people are living the developer's dream because they know what their audience craves and they give it to them. Those developers who make excuses and denounce platforms like the PC simply don't do as well because they don't put as much into identifying and satisfying their PC customers as the companies who ship massively successful PC titles do. It's pretty darn cool when a company can report $450M back on its ~$40M investment in a matter of days! All of them won't be PC sales, but a large percentage of them will be. Look at Microsoft--the company is awash in money and yet its products likely consist of *the* most pirated software in the world. That fact is, if you know your stuff as a developer you need not *ever* fear that piracy will prevent you from making a ton of money.
Secondly, and this is a big bugaboo here, console piracy is actually rampant. Just Google or Bing "xBox360 piracy," for starters. Contrary to popular uninformed opinion, piracy is not just restricted to PCs.
I think when you hear a lot of nonsense from companies like UbiSoft, what they are really saying is "We have no intention of investing the time or money it would take to create top-notch PC fare. No, we like the average to below average expectations we have to deal with in the console markets just fine." That's really the problem--it's a sour grapes problem--they see how their competitors are doing *great* in the PC market, and this causes them to defensively make statements "explaining" why they cannot do as well and have no intention even of really trying.
I've owned a computer for ~26 years, and have never bought a console and likely never will. But when a developer creates a game of sufficient quality, both me and my dollars are right there. I hate to *think* of all the money I've spent buying computer games...;) (Not really, since I've gotten a lot of enjoyment from the medium.)
It is well known that I cannot err--and so, if you should happen across an error in anything I have written you can be absolutely sure that *I* did not write it!...;)
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