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.
shponglefan wrote on Nov 25, 2011, 08:22:
If their games sucked so bad, people wouldn't pirate them either. They just wouldn't play them at all. The "games suck" = "poor sales/high piracy" meme has to die. Their games, on average, are decent; on par with most other companies' offerings.
This is incorrect, downloads are not necessarily people, in fact much of the piracy scene is automated these days. The actual end "user" downloads are likely dwarfed by the couriering that goes on. It's also impossible to gauge intent from a download statistic. That's not to say there isn't a shitload of piracy going on but that happens to all platforms, Microsoft bans half a million users each year alone and those are just the ones who got caught. The difference is mainly that consoles have a lot more consumers and those consumers have lower buying standards than most PC consumers.
Ubisoft makes slightly above average titles with the odd high quality release but unlike other publishers they have not figured out the PC platform. It's not an emotional problem, it's just a business one and Ubisoft doesn't seem genuinely interested in solving it. I'd like to see some of their games on their PC but let's be honest, the market for things like Just Dance and even Assassin's Creed is going to be way more limited on the PC. I have no problem with them being selective about which titles to port, that just makes sense.
Continually saying that the PC isn't a viable platform just because you kept trying progressively worse DRM and made your customers out to be criminals isn't a productive way to do business though. It's also simply not the truth, the PC is a very viable and profitable platform to do business on.
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