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Ubisoft blames piracy for non-release of new Ghost Recon

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DVDBack23 @ Nov 24, 2011 21:14 | 26 comments

As usual, the geniuses over at Ubisoft are blaming piracy for their troubles.

The troubled gaming studio has announced today that it will not be releasing a PC version of the upcoming Ghost Recon Future Soldier because they believe everyone would just pirate it, anyways.

Instead, the company will be releasing a free-to-play Ghost Recon Online.

The news follows "I Am Alive" creative director Stanislas Mettra telling gamers to stop "bitching" about the lack of a PC version, since everyone with a computer is just a pirate.

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier for the PS3 and Xbox 360 is set for a March release and PC gamers will get the F2P version at the same time.

Says producer Sebastien Arnoult (via Escapist)

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. 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 percent of our consumers will pirate the game. So we said okay, we have to change our mind.

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Comment by: kikzm33z (Nov 24, 2011 21:24)

Wow, it sounds like they're self pitying.

This is funny.

Comment by: Mysttic (Nov 24, 2011 22:05)

Thats okay for that mistake I'll just dl the 360 version of future soldier.

Ubisoft has no faith in their fans. They want Activision sales #s on WoW and CoD, and so since none of their games get those #s they have no choice but to blame piracy instead of looking at the fact that maybe just maybe their games don't appeal to everyone.

Also add the fact that that over half their library of games are literally kyfe. From Dance games to the insane drop in quality of Rabbids games. They wonder why their image is tarnished.

Then lets not forget their DRM crap as a way to fend off piracy which never worked, and only harmed the consumers that did buy their retail products. (Brotherhood on PC needed always on Net and it failed to work on launch, the pirate version worked offline no problem), (or Creed for PSP had an in game bug that would make the game unplayable for the longest time.) Then like always, Ubisoft didn't blame themselves at first, oh no it's the consumers fault the game didn't access their servers, or it was Sony's fault Creed crashed on PSP.

Companies like these will sink if they keep their current business model, with their current idiotic assumptions that consumers are dumb and don't care if you screw them.

(With all that said, what a way to thank US consumers on thanksgiving weekend) SCORE + 1 Ubisoft.

Comment by: brockie (Nov 24, 2011 22:10)

not sure about there logic it can be pirated on consoles as well not everyone who owns a PC is thief.

Comment by: Tristan_2 (Nov 24, 2011 23:21)

Quote:
It's easy to download, there's no DRM that will pollute your experience.'

It looks like they just want you to Pirate their games now with that small statement...

Comment by: mystic (Nov 24, 2011 23:28)

wow after reading that as a computer player who also owns both xbox and ps3 I'm pissed I have allot of games and none other then demos downloaded and they who built their company on the backs of pc owners have abandon us and then call us thieves .. who do they think they are I for one who will never buy any of their product,again... wow maybe all of those who play their products will enjoy it but I for one will not be wasting my hdd space on their crap....boycott this company till they issue a humble apology.

Comment by: H0bbes (Nov 25, 2011 01:31)

Yeah that's it. 90%+ percent of your customers are going to pirate it.

Right, because 90%+ of your customers are techy enough to know how to use The Pirate Bay/Bittorrent, port forwarding, WinRAR, Alcohol120/Virtual drive, and/or VPN/PeerBlock [which ever of those may apply].

Nice, UbiSoft. HERE'S YOUR SIGN.

"It’s as if McGruff the Crime Dog snuck into our basement, enlisted an army of cellar rats to eat up all of our cheese, and then burned the house down when we finally locked him out – instead of just knocking on the front door to tell us the window was open." ~Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback

Comment by: 5fdpfan (Nov 25, 2011 03:16)

Oh please, you guys are just ticked off that a gaming publisher is calling you out on something you know is true. I'm surprised at all the hate. Not everyone is a priate but about half or more than half the regulars here are I bet. If you're someone who regularly steals games, music and movies, just own up to it and be proud of it. ya sound like a damn hyporcite and a baby saying the stuff I've seen written on here. You steal their games just like EA games and every other popular game that you want. You playing the "I'd buy their games if they weren't so crappy" stance is about as laughable and embarrassing as their attempts to keep them from being stolen.

Comment by: Mysttic (Nov 25, 2011 03:44)

Quote:
Oh please, you guys are just ticked off that a gaming publisher is calling you out on something you know is true. I'm surprised at all the hate. Not everyone is a priate but about half or more than half the regulars here are I bet. If you're someone who regularly steals games, music and movies, just own up to it and be proud of it. ya sound like a damn hyporcite and a baby saying the stuff I've seen written on here. You steal their games just like EA games and every other popular game that you want. You playing the "I'd buy their games if they weren't so crappy" stance is about as laughable and embarrassing as their attempts to keep them from being stolen

First : I admit I a pirate; I don't give a shit because I actually do buy what I like.

Second: You missing the point the majority here have said; is that it's not 90-95% that pirate, that's bullshit and there is no evidence to prove that is the case.

Third: We are talking about a game company that has proven time again they don't give a rats about their consumers. (You can tell by the way this guy gave up on consumers).

So now that I admit I a pirate, can I go back to whining now?

Comment by: mystic (Nov 25, 2011 04:38)

Originally posted by 5fdpfan:
Oh please, you guys are just ticked off that a gaming publisher is calling you out on something you know is true. I'm surprised at all the hate. Not everyone is a priate but about half or more than half the regulars here are I bet. If you're someone who regularly steals games, music and movies, just own up to it and be proud of it. ya sound like a damn hyporcite and a baby saying the stuff I've seen written on here. You steal their games just like EA games and every other popular game that you want. You playing the "I'd buy their games if they weren't so crappy" stance is about as laughable and embarrassing as their attempts to keep them from being stolen.

well as you sit there wondering why people have ever stolen something like a game from ubi soft think about all the games that they (ubi soft) added dmr and the damn have to connect to the web software to insure their ownership look I own all the games I play and some games that release demos never get bought because they are CRAP and so is the thought that everyone has boot leg software on their systems as well as the fact that some of us have been here (afterdawn) for years and have helped do reviews and discussions about laws and real issues but hey since they let haters like you here maybe should stepback and let you work for the riaa or some other group of people that want to charge printers for downloading movies .... man your off base calling most of the people here thieves....

Comment by: scorpNZ (Nov 25, 2011 06:31)

lol..this from a company who sells games that nobody can finish coz the stink'n thing corrupts game saves..farcry 2 anyone..frak'n a-holes what a waste of my money

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/
http://www.elitemodscene.com/

Comment by: KillerBug (Nov 25, 2011 06:46)

ROFL...

First, yes...probably half of AD PC gamers are pirates...that isn't 90%...and AD users only make up a tiny percentage of gamers. What about the percentage of a typical gaming site like IGN?

Second, even if 90% actually were pirates, 10% would not be. 10% of 1,000,000 sales is still 100,000 sales...at $60 a copy, that is 6,000,000. Figure that it takes a team of 10 programmers about a year to port a game to PC, at about $150,000 per year per programmer total costs, and that is $1,500,000...assuming it is done right which UBI would never do. That is $4,500,000 additional revenue they are throwing away even before you consider that they have already done most of the porting anyway and are releasing it for free.

Third, piracy is nearly as common on the 360 as on the PC, the only real differences in the percentages being directly linked to over-DRM'd PC games that people pirate because the pirated version is better...and UBI only has themselves to blame for that.

Last, I wouldn't want the game...forget piracy, forget F2P. I wouldn't want to spend time playing such a terrible game, I wouldn't want to spend time downloading such a terrible game, I wouldn't even want to waste disk space storing such a terrible game. And I haven't even read a review yet; I know it will be terrible because Ubisoft made it.

Comment by: scorpNZ (Nov 25, 2011 07:00)

Just to add insult to injury there is a patch available,problem is i can't go online to get it for the 360 as it's jtag'd grrrrrr worse still the update & expansion packs don't contain it & those sods knew in testing there was an issue & still released the game,it's like they took a leaf out of microsofts book

@killerbug
ps: glad i could provide you with some lite entertainment..lol..

http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/
http://www.elitemodscene.com/

Comment by: llongtheD (Nov 25, 2011 09:37)

Funny and ridiculous as it is, this is the same made up B.S. they try and get bills written with.

If your fish seems sick, put it back in the water.

Comment by: TBandit (Nov 25, 2011 10:14)

Thats a great way to not only show the fans you care but the direction you are forcing fans to take.

Comment by: SgtFoley (Nov 25, 2011 12:49)

Hey geniuses at Ubisoft (especially Stanislas Mettra), in case you never noticed, Even those that dont use a PC ARE PIRATES. Believe it or not there are pirates on consoles just as much as there are on the pc. Stop blaming pirates and start blaming activision IMO. (e.g) I havent liked cod since mw2 because what they have done to the PC and then they had the nerve to kick out the co founders of Infinity Ward effectively stealing their game. Blame companies like them for ya lack of sales or start making your games appealing to 12 year olds who just love to swear and think there pro in what has become casual gamers

Comment by: core2kid (Nov 25, 2011 14:57)

If Microsoft followed this logic we may never see another version of Windows...

Comment by: SmokeStacker (Nov 25, 2011 17:12)

here is a game I will not be playing

----

Comment by: Necrosaro (Nov 25, 2011 18:00)

Originally posted by 5fdpfan:
Oh please, you guys are just ticked off that a gaming publisher is calling you out on something you know is true. I'm surprised at all the hate. Not everyone is a priate but about half or more than half the regulars here are I bet. If you're someone who regularly steals games, music and movies, just own up to it and be proud of it. ya sound like a damn hyporcite and a baby saying the stuff I've seen written on here. You steal their games just like EA games and every other popular game that you want. You playing the "I'd buy their games if they weren't so crappy" stance is about as laughable and embarrassing as their attempts to keep them from being stolen.

Your not "stealing" anything. Your downloading virtual 1 and 0's. I download alot of crap, because most of it I wouldnt buy to begin with, so they are not losing money anyways.

Comment by: XENON (Nov 26, 2011 00:18)

well I've been called a lot worse than pirate lol! I've done a bit of pirating yes and I'm sure a lot of people have as well. If I like the software I'll shell out the cash and buy it legit, otherwise it just sits on a CD-R or DVD-R gathering dust as a coaster!

The Problem With The Genepool Is That There Are No Lifeguards! ;-)

Comment by: KillerBug (Nov 26, 2011 05:48)

Originally posted by core2kid:
If Microsoft followed this logic we may never see another version of Windows...

Would that be a bad thing?

Comment by: Vollezar (Nov 26, 2011 16:37)

I guess they have never gone to any torrent or game crack sites. You can just as easily download games for XBOX and PS3.
Instead of bitching they should listen to us (their customers) and create games that last longer than 3-4 hours (in single-player), release games when they are really ready, and create original games and not just slightly modified versions of previous games. And fix the damn customer service. This is just a few reasons why I stopped buying games. I mean why the hell would I keep paying $60-$70 bucks every time they release a game that I have to spend another year waiting for bug fixes and never get any straight answer from support?

Comment by: senator29 (Nov 26, 2011 21:42)

to say half or more then half of the visitors here are pirates does not constitute the statement that 90% of ubisoft customers are pirates. ubisoft does not have that big of a customer base period.

i know a good 100 people really well. only 3 are capable and do pirate anything. of those 3, 0 pirate games. and even thinking about the younger generation siblings or kids of people i know. they all resort to parents pocket books for anything. or they save up lunch money and go stand outside the game store for 3 hours to buy the newest game at 0 hour.

corporate america is getting angry because the consumer is getting smarter and tighter with money. people can't afford to buy battlefield 3, modern warefare 3 AND the new ghost recon.

this also stretches to another point. it is all about money. a game that makes 5 million dollars in my opinion is very successful. 500k is more than plenty to make in a year. many of these game creators (dont forget corp execs) bring in 10s of millions to themselves. why?

i would give up 1 eye for 30k.

Comment by: Jeffrey_P (Nov 26, 2011 22:58)

"corporate america is getting angry because the consumer is getting smarter and tighter with money. people can't afford to buy battlefield 3, modern warefare 3 AND the new ghost recon."

I thought Ubisoft is a French company.
Maybe this explains part of their mindset.

For sale:
WWII French rifle. Never used, dropped once..

Cars, Guitars & Radiation.

Comment by: senator29 (Nov 26, 2011 23:04)

eh, well you get the idea. companies around the world are feeling the same.

besides that doesnt ubisoft have a USA division?

Comment by: Anonymous User (Apr 10, 2012 06:16)

Well, well. Guess why Ubisoft has one of the highest piracy rates in the industry? Can't be anything to do about their attitude and their totally non-intrusive DRM could it? Ubi needs to listen to their audience, and start a conversation that doesn't sting so much.