POLL: What *publisher* have you mostly been buying recently?

[Lonyo]

This is basically a question vaguely related to DRM, but not specifically.

Of your last 10 games which you purchased for PC, which two publishers of those listed in the poll made up the bulk of your purchases?

(This is assuming I can make the poll correctly...)

And who haven't you bought any of, and why? (e.g. they only make crap games, they use evil DRM).

(Also crap, spelling error in title)

 

[EvilComputer92]

Mass Effect 2 - EA
Dragon Age - EA
Bad Company 2 - EA

Planning to get Metro 2033 from THQ. I'll wait until Bioshock 2 is in the bargain bin and then buy it.

Ubisoft has been making garbage lately. I don't think I've seen a good game from them since Splinter Cell Chaos Theory. Also they seem to like DRM in everything.

 

[Elcs]

Okay, I failed... Only voted once (THQ)

Mainly because they have Relic behind them (Dawn of War franchise and Company of Heroes with past performance with Homeworld under Sierra) and I am seriously thinking of picking up Metro 2033 next pay day as it looks good.

Past performance of THQ's lineup of Developers is quite impressive and despite a move with Dawn of War 2 that many would call evil (tying it to Steam and GFWL) they do not seem to be implementing any 'anti-paying customer' measures like Ubisoft and EA have introduced in certain cases.

In general I do not support a specific publisher or developer... I just purchase games which satisfy my desire to play a good game for what price I feel is appropriate to pay. Sometimes my judgement is wrong and I pay more than I should for a game but we all make mistakes.

In this I also try to avoid picking up games which support certain features which can restrict or inhibit my gameplay, for example I wanted to play Assassin's Creed 2 but I have decided not to based upon Ubisoft's decision to require an always-on connection to their servers whilst playing. This should not be an issue in real terms, I have a stable connection and would assume Ubisoft would too but it is not something that I feel should be a requirement of a game.

Please note that I have only mentioned DRM in my post to add some depth to my purchasing patterns with regard to my personal publisher/developer bias. I urge anyone contributing to this thread after my post to concentrate on the thread topic and not derail it with anti-DRM arguments or inflammatory posts.

 

[Saga]

I don't buy games based on who produces them. I buy them based on the game quality and my personal interests.

Please add "This poll is irrelevant to my decision making process" so I can check it. Thank you.

 

[TheJTrain]

Mass Effect 2 - EA
Dragon Age - EA
Bad Company 2 - EA

Same. Those are the ones I bought new @ retail - my "sending a (positive) message".

Other recents would include:
Assassin's Creed 2 for XBox360 (Ubisoft) - used from Goozex
Bioshock 2 for PC (2K) - used from Goozex
Beyond Good & Evil and Prince of Persia: Sands of Time for PC (Ubisoft) - $10 bundle on GoodOldGames
Riddick: Dark Athena for PC (Atari) - fire-sale $5 on D2D
Torchlight (Perfect World) - fire-sale $5 sale on Steam

So I guess I should have put Ubisoft in my answer along with EA, but I figured you meant "whose are you buying where DRM matters", and my "below this point DRM doesn't matter" point is, obviously, $5.

 

[Lonyo]

I don't buy games based on who produces them. I buy them based on the game quality and my personal interests.

Please add "This poll is irrelevant to my decision making process" so I can check it. Thank you.

Click "other" then. It's right there in the poll.

Also for some people it is a part of the decision making process, like they don't buy Ubisoft games because of crap DRM, or they don't buy EA because it's the "evil Empire".
If it's not for you, feel free to check "other".

 

[WildW]

I don't buy games based on who produces them. I buy them based on the game quality and my personal interests.

Please add "This poll is irrelevant to my decision making process" so I can check it. Thank you.

I assumed the point of this thread is to see whether people are buying games from certain publishers despite then having annoying DRM and such.

I actually seem to be buying Ubisoft lately, despite the annoying DRM - I liked Anno 1404, and Far Cry 2 was a Steam bargain.

 

[Saga]

Click "other" then. It's right there in the poll.

Also for some people it is a part of the decision making process, like they don't buy Ubisoft games because of crap DRM, or they don't buy EA because it's the "evil Empire".
If it's not for you, feel free to check "other".

I assumed the point of this thread is to see whether people are buying games from certain publishers despite then having annoying DRM and such.

I actually seem to be buying Ubisoft lately, despite the annoying DRM - I liked Anno 1404, and Far Cry 2 was a Steam bargain.

"Other" is not accurate. I don't give a rats ass about DRM. It's always been there in one form or another, even a plain jane CD key is a form of DRM. You guys just bitch about it when it becomes more invasive and think you're special, where the loyalists like myself have hated DRM since it's conception but have long since learned to cope with the reality of the situation.

"Other" would be accurate if I was buying from OTHER publishers as the fucking question is about PUBLISHERS, which I do not hold as playing ANY (see: ZERO) role in my buying decisions. "DRM does not matter in my decision making or purchasing process" would be significantly more accurate of a reply for me. I know reading comprehension is fucking hard, but please try and utilize it.

I'd love to see you quantify your argument that for "some people" it's part of their decision making process. If only you realized that "some people" are a absolutely minuscule percentage of technologically affluent people. Those who even understand most DRM, let alone tailor the decisions on how they spend their money around it quite likely make up less than 0.01% of the percentage of people purchasing the products in question. It's like going to a fucking BMW enthusiasts forum and polling them on if they like German cars or American cars. How the fuck do you think they are going to respond?

Reality check.

 

[zerogear]

EA lately, since they're kinda OK at the moment. Ubisoft = hellno.

 

[GaryJohnson]

I checked all the buttons! Wheee!!!

I think that's more applicable than "Other" if you don't care about the publisher.

 

[TheJTrain]

I'd love to see you quantify your argument that for "some people" it's part of their decision making process. If only you realized that "some people" are a absolutely minuscule percentage of technologically affluent people. Those who even understand most DRM, let alone tailor the decisions on how they spend their money around it quite likely make up less than 0.01% of the percentage of people purchasing the products in question.

This isn't exactly quantifying anything, but when a huge publisher like EA or 2K has to backtrack on its announced DRM plans because the outcry is too much to bear (see Mass Effect/Spore/Bioshock, and later decisions on Dragon Age/ME2/Bioshock 2/Bad Company 2), it's a reasonable conclusion that no matter what the magnitude is of the group of people you're describing, it's big enough to make a difference if they're loud enough about it. Who cares how big the group actually is if it can make a difference sometimes? Obviously EA thinks it's a big enough group to make a difference to their bottom line, hence the changes they've made. Atari & Ubisoft obviously don't think that (Riddick/Ghostbusters/Assassin's Creed 2/C&C4). Who's right? Honestly, without all the relevant numbers at hand, who can say?

 

[mindcycle]

My vote went to Other since i've been buying mostly Indie games on the PC lately. Machinarium, And yet it moves, Osmos, to name few. Sadly, I don't buy many mainstream titles on the PC anymore due to worse and worse DRM being employed by the big guys. It's just too much of a negative having to deal with draconian DRM on a game I paid good money for. I also don't want to tell publishers their behavior is ok by giving them more money. If I do play a mainstream game it's on the PS3 or 360 nowadays..

 

[Borealis7]

EA and Other: 1C company FTW

EA - DA:O, ME2
1C - King's Bounty Armored Princess, Majesty 2 (will not get the expansion...), more in the past...

 

[martensite]

BC2, ME2, Dead Space, NFS:Shift, RE5: EA
Dirt2 : Codemasters
EDIT: forgot to add: Call of Juarez, and FarCry2: ubisoft

Damn... until I counted, I didn't think I had purchased so many EA games recently.
Well, atleast I didn't buy any of the Activision crap.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Atari and EA

 

[mmntech]

Out of the games I've bought for PC recently

Dirt 2: Codemasters
Tropico 3: Kalypso Media
Ghostbusters: The Video Game: Atari
Bioshock 1: 2K Games
Trine: Nobilis

On the DRM issue, I just don't buy games off Steam that use third party copy protection. Simple as that. I don't buy "retail" titles anymore either. Fallout 3 was the last boxed game I picked up for PC.

Last Ubisoft game I bought was Birds of Prey (PS3) and I was vary disappointed with its short campaign. Ubisoft is the new EA. They latter I think has learned their DRM lesson after Spore, and they've been releasing some ok games too.

 

[JoshGuru7]

I'd love to see you quantify your argument that for "some people" it's part of their decision making process. If only you realized that "some people" are a absolutely minuscule percentage of technologically affluent people. Those who even understand most DRM, let alone tailor the decisions on how they spend their money around it quite likely make up less than 0.01% of the percentage of people purchasing the products in question. It's like going to a fucking BMW enthusiasts forum and polling them on if they like German cars or American cars. How the fuck do you think they are going to respond?

Reality check.

I largely agree with this. Polling people in this forum to get a sense of whether DRM is restricting purchasing habits fails at least three different ways. These forums are not a representative sample, posters answer strategically, and the poll was missing a critical response ("I don't know").

A far superior way of dealing with these sort of issues is through something called revealed preference, where behaviors are analyzed instead of poll responses. Sales data comparing two titles as similar as possible in everything but DRM would be a good starting point.

AC1 vs. AC2 might be where I would start since the increased quality in gameplay of AC2 is at least partly offset by the higher retail cost, and the "outrage" of the DRM implementation of the second was hyped so much on these forums. A large difference in total sales in the first month of release (or lack thereof) would be much more persuasive than this forum poll, especially if you repeated it with a few dozen examples that were as similar as possible with the exception of DRM implementations.

 

[Lonyo]

I largely agree with this. Polling people in this forum to get a sense of whether DRM is restricting purchasing habits fails at least three different ways. These forums are not a representative sample, posters answer strategically, and the poll was missing a critical response ("I don't know").

A far superior way of dealing with these sort of issues is through something called revealed preference, where behaviors are analyzed instead of poll responses. Sales data comparing two titles as similar as possible in everything but DRM would be a good starting point.

AC1 vs. AC2 might be where I would start since the increased quality in gameplay of AC2 is at least partly offset by the higher retail cost, and the "outrage" of the DRM implementation of the second was hyped so much on these forums. A large difference in total sales in the first month of release (or lack thereof) would be much more persuasive than this forum poll, especially if you repeated it with a few dozen examples that were as similar as possible with the exception of DRM implementations.

It was never intended to be a scientific poll, and with only one set of poll options covering one element of purchasing it's impossible for it to be, but certainly lots of people seem to be buying EA games, even though there are various threads with people complaining about DRM and talking about EA, and in the past people have been 'outraged' at EAs DRM choices.
This forum, where people do seem to care more about issues like DRM than the average consumer might, seems to indicate that people are still buying a lot of EA games, because they keep putting out (arguably) games that people want to play, and people are buying and playing them despite any qualms people might have about DRM.
It does pretty much show that DRM isn't a care for most people, despite all the people posting about how evil EA are with their DRM, shown in a very unscientific manner 😛

 

[Skurge]

New gamer here.

Voted valve: orange box, CSS, L4D
Codemasters: Dirt, grid, dirt2 (and any future codies racing games)

 

[JoshGuru7]

It does pretty much show that DRM isn't a care for most people, despite all the people posting about how evil EA are with their DRM, shown in a very unscientific manner 😛

While I do tend to agree with your conclusion, I just don't think it's supported very well by this method.

EA has also had some of the most popular games released recently in DA, ME2 and BC2 and most of the posters here are very aware of EA's involvement. I could argue the other way on this that the popularity is because EA employed less DRM on these titles than many of the counterpart titles and the games would have sold even better if they had no DRM at all. I don't actually believe that, but this is a very complicated issue and isolating just the impact of DRM apart from game quality and game quantity is impossible in this sort of setting.

 

[CottonRabbit]

EA hasn't had significant DRM on most of their games since the Sims 3. If anything, their games are less restrictive to PC gamers than games by either Ubisoft or Activision. While this forum still contains a lot of EA hate, I think the general gaming community has moved on to hating Activision-Blizzard as the new evil empire (just look at comment on Joystiq or Kotaku).

 

[mindcycle]

EA hasn't had significant DRM on most of their games since the Sims 3. If anything, their games are less restrictive to PC gamers than games by either Ubisoft or Activision. While this forum still contains a lot of EA hate, I think the general gaming community has moved on to hating Activision-Blizzard as the new evil empire (just look at comment on Joystiq or Kotaku).

This^

BF:BC2, ME3, and DA:O, all had completely tolerable DRM. However, C&C4 (which was most recently released) requires a constant connection to the internet similar to the DRM Ubisoft uses with Assassin's Creed 2 and Silent Hunter 5. Not sure why they did that, but as long as other EA titles don't go that route I could see myself buying EA games again.

 

[shortylickens]

THQ.
Not that I especially love them, but lately they've had a lot of good shit on Steam.

 

[mmntech]

EA hasn't had significant DRM on most of their games since the Sims 3. If anything, their games are less restrictive to PC gamers than games by either Ubisoft or Activision. While this forum still contains a lot of EA hate, I think the general gaming community has moved on to hating Activision-Blizzard as the new evil empire (just look at comment on Joystiq or Kotaku).

As I said, the bad publicity over Spore, plus the lawsuit, hurt them a lot in the PR department. Mostly because it was the first time casual gamers were introduced to that level of DRM. They're an elusive market and if you don't keep them happy, they'll just move on to other forms of entertainment.