No PC Ghost Recon: Future Soldier [Nov 24, 2011, 1:09 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, 11:52:
For point #2, I can't entirely speak for games pricing. However, $60 for a game today is cheaper than games were 15-20 years ago on an inflation-adjusted basis. And in the past, you'd still get games that would last 8 hours, yet would cost more in today's dollars. I think gamers are a little spoiled in this regard.
A game is worth what your market is willing to pay for it, that's all. Now, I understand the concept of high production values, quality over quantity, etc. Portal 2 was a short experience but it was worth it IMO. Significant inflation may have occurred in the past 20 years, but middle class incomes have stagnated and the market has grown massively, which throws off a purely inflation-based adjustment of price. Piracy is also much easier now than it used to be, both console and PC, and you can't get rid of piracy in its current form without instituting a complete lockdown on the internet and, frankly, killing any spirit and sense of freedom it still contains.
Actually, on the pricing front there was a blog entry by the creators of Avernum, Geneforge, and Avadon, who for the longest time kept their 90's shareware prices and have only recently realized that the market has changed and you can't charge what you used to. Of course there's a big difference between the low budget indie marketplace and the marketplace of AAA games from major studios, but a lot of his points have similar or identical parallels in the mainstream market.
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