Ubisoft: PC Piracy Rate 93-95%

[Childs]

Most of my friends pirate single player games.

That is the only way it could make any sense, but how many single games have been released that don't have a multiplayer component that you would want to play?

Thinking about it a bit, maybe this figure mainly applies to Ubisoft. Ubisoft does seem to make more single player focused games than most, and maybe with their DRM and always online requirement, even for single player, make people want to pirate their games more. Or at the least, crack them. I usually wait for big sales when buying Ubisoft games to offset the hassle. I guess I can understand if more people just said F them and pirated it. Not to mention markets like Russia, Asia, South America, etc who will pirate or buy bootleg for one reason or another.

But I'm thinking if it was really 93-95% on PC, they would have left the market a long time ago.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

That is the only way it could make any sense, but how many single games have been released that don't have a multiplayer component that you would want to play?

Mass Effect, Fallout, SWTOR D)

 

[Red Hawk]

My personal experience with piracy goes one of two ways:

1) Download torrent. Wow, this game is awesome. Buy from Steam/Amazon.
or
2) Download torrent. Wow, I'm glad I didn't waste $60 on this steaming pile of $#!%.

There are only 2-3 titles a year that I buy on release day without trying first, not counting all the $3.00-9.99 Steam games that I buy on a whim.

I think (and hope) that a lot of people approach it like I do.

See, this is the wrong approach. Is it right to take a book home from the bookstore without paying for it, read the first few chapters, then give it back? Is it right to watch the first twenty minutes of a movie without paying for it and then give it back? No. Just because it's convenient for you doesn't give you the right to do it. If the developer wanted to give you a free preview of a game, they would release a demo (and some still do).

But that doesn't excuse Ubisoft's crap reasoning. Personally I have avoided Ubisoft games because of their constant connection DRM. It doesn't stop piracy, and it causes a headache for legitimate customers. They're only hurting themselves with it.

 

[ShintaiDK]

Another false assumption is that one pirated copy doesnt mean one lost sale.

Software makers also threw it on themselves. look how much alphacode software gets released. If it sells we fix it, else we just drop it and you lost your 49.95$. If it sells we might fix it the next 3 months we that we put 2 people on for it. After that time it just stops.

Funny enough is software also the only product in the world perhaps, that can freely go away from a huge steaming pile of poop and pretend its just how it is. Because we all know software got bugs.

If software companies didnt continually rape people with pisspoor software. Then I am sure less people would pirate. Personally I ended in the catagory of pirate and try, then buy if good. Else do nothing. And the software companies can thanks themselves for it after raping me once too many times.

Look at games like Skyrim. It sells if its not utter crap.

 

[StinkyPinky]

I honestly don't understand why people even bother to pirate games anymore. Why go through the effort of downloading, cracking, and then putting up with a possibly unstable game when you can usually just buy it for pocket change in a few months anyway.

It only makes sense if you're some poor 18 year old student with no income and they're hardly going to be buying many games anyway.

 

[Red Hawk]

Look at games like Skyrim. It sells if its not utter crap.

...I would add that it sells if it doesn't have draconian DRM as well, but then I remembered Diablo III. It sold like hotcakes despite the DRM. Oh well. But yes, as long as it's a good game it should sell well.

 

[Childs]

Mass Effect, Fallout, SWTOR D)

Yeah, yeah. Add Skyrim and games like that as well. lol I think what I was really saying was "How many single player games that I would want to play...", although that means nothing to anyone else. I withdraw the statement!

 

[ImpulsE69]

...I would add that it sells if it doesn't have draconian DRM as well, but then I remembered Diablo III. It sold like hotcakes despite the DRM. Oh well. But yes, as long as it's a good game it should sell well.

I think it sold well because it was Blizzard and up until now, everyone was happy with Blizzard enough to put up with it....considering I hear more negatives about the game than positives, I think that might change with future releases.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

I honestly don't understand why people even bother to pirate games anymore. Why go through the effort of downloading, cracking, and then putting up with a possibly unstable game when you can usually just buy it for pocket change in a few months anyway.

It only makes sense if you're some poor 18 year old student with no income and they're hardly going to be buying many games anyway.

Some people just don't want to spend money. Look at how many people pirate windows or ms office even though they're probably get their money's worth over the lifetime of the product. mIRC is cheap as hell but I bet most people just use a cracked version. Not that many people get on irc anymore.

Or you can look at the humble bundle. There used to be no minimum price for Steam keys. They had to change it to $1 because people would donate a penny and they'd be on the hook for transaction fees.

 

[thespyder]

I think it sold well because it was Blizzard and up until now, everyone was happy with Blizzard enough to put up with it....considering I hear more negatives about the game than positives, I think that might change with future releases.

^ this.

 

[Concillian]

See, this is the wrong approach. Is it right to take a book home from the bookstore without paying for it, read the first few chapters, then give it back?

Hmmm... this analogy isn't very good. I can stand in the bookstore aisle and read 10 pages if I want. Many bookstores here have a cafe inside where they pretty much encourage you to sit there and read a bit of a couple books so you can see if you want to buy it.

No it's not right to buy and return, but you can easily (and legally) get a taste of the action without buying it and returning it.

This is not at all true for computer games unless you know someone else who bought it and can head over to their house to play a little.

 

[cl-scott]

I honestly don't understand why people even bother to pirate games anymore. Why go through the effort of downloading, cracking, and then putting up with a possibly unstable game when you can usually just buy it for pocket change in a few months anyway.

It only makes sense if you're some poor 18 year old student with no income and they're hardly going to be buying many games anyway.

I've known people who will pirate a game early on, and then buy it a few months later when it drops in price... But to answer your question, people want that instant gratification.

These days, it's probably less effort to pirate a game than actually jump through all the hoops for the legitimate version. I have a friend who still loves to complain about one of the Max Payne games that had some kind of DRM that wouldn't recognize the DVD drive on one of his computers, and so to this day he has a grudge against that kind of DRM.

 

[HeXen]

nothing new here. as you can see from this old computer gaming magazine, they just like to complain about piracy.

 

[n7]

Unreal.

I genuine despise Ubisoft for so many reasons, and they never cease to keep adding to the pile.

 

[Annisman*]

There is absolutely no good, proper, or acceptable form of pirating period.

Some people here seem to think that try it before you buy it is acceptable, espescially if you end up purchasing the game afterwards.

The problem with that approach is that developers only see it as a pirated copy of the game, they can in no way know that one of their legitimate copies was sold to somebody who pirated it to try it, liked it, and then bought it.

If every single person did this method the very best case scenario would be (for example) 2 million pirated copies and 2 million legitimate copies sold. So best case is (an apparent) 50% pirate rate to the developer.

Factor in that most pirates download the game and never buy it afterwards, or don't purchase it because they 'didn't like it' then we're talking about massive amounts of piracy. Enough to kill the industry.

The second point is that try before you buy just doesn't make sense. There are review sites, user reviews, information in articles and message boards that should give users pleanty of input to decided whether a purchase should be made. Also, most products consumers buy just don't work like that. If you go into Target and buy an air conditioner you can't ask them to let you use it for a week at your house before you buy it. Why do PC games have to be any different ?

Lastly, and I know I will get flamed for this. Stealing is just wrong, whether it is physical property or intellectual property, it is somebody else's work, and they need to make a living too.

 

[lakedude]

My personal experience with piracy goes one of two ways:

1) Download torrent. Wow, this game is awesome. Buy from Steam/Amazon.
or
2) Download torrent. Wow, I'm glad I didn't waste $60 on this steaming pile of $#!%.

...I think (and hope) that a lot of people approach it like I do.

^ This

The problem with entertainment is that once you paid for a game (or a movie) you are stuck with it even if it is a steaming pile of horse meat. As someone who has dabbled in programing I have a full appreciation of the work and artistry that goes into a good game. If a game is awesome I want to give them my money.

Perfect example: Far Cry and FC2 are a couple of my favorite games. I have purchased multiple copies of each, most recently on Steam (so I'll always have them available).

Sure wish I hadn't paid full price for DNF however...

 

[Childs]

The second point is that try before you buy just doesn't make sense. There are review sites, user reviews, information in articles and message boards that should give users pleanty of input to decided whether a purchase should be made. Also, most products consumers buy just don't work like that. If you go into Target and buy an air conditioner you can't ask them to let you use it for a week at your house before you buy it. Why do PC games have to be any different ?

Try before you buy makes sense. They are called demos. Before that, shareware. The problem with your analogy is that while you cannot try that air conditioner before you buy it, you can return it for up to 30 days. Even with music, whether online or in brick and mortar, lets to listen to it for a bit. At least thats the case with new music. If you buy a blu ray and its defective, you can return it. There are no such guarantees with games.

Games are not really art. They need to be functional in order for them to be enjoyed. Its more like buying that air conditioner and finding out it doesn't work in some way, and not being able to return it or use a warranty.

 

[mmntech]

Let's break this down. Assassin's Creed II sold 9 million copies. Say 10% of those were on PC, or 900,000. And at worst this makes up 5% of all people playing the game on the platform. Which would mean 18 million PC copies out in the wild, 17.1 million of them pirated.

Assassin's creed II Cost $24 million to make. 8.1 million copies at $55 per game (store gets their cut, it's around $5 a copy), $445 million. Plus $45 per PC copy sold (PC games are usually $10 cheaper), so $40 million. Less production costs of $24 million. $461 million net profit. BUT, $45 times 17.1 million pirated copies is $769.5 million in lost sales. So Ubisoft should in theory have made $1.23 billion in profit off this game. Ubisoft's revenue for 2010 (the year ACII was released) was $1.22 billion. So Ubisoft should have made more in profit from ACII than it did in revenue for that entire year. Lost sales were 166% of the profit the game could theoretically make.

I'm pulling a lot of numbers out my butt here since Ubisoft doesn't publish PC sales figures or revenue made from ACII. Though a CBC article suggested it made $310 million off 4.7 million copies worldwide sold at launch. Though that would mean they're making $65 per game, which is implausible. I'm also being generous with PC sales. Even if it was 90,000 copies, that's 1.8 million, or $81 million in lost sales. Still substantial. Still 1/6 of potential revenue lost.

With numbers that high, it begs the question. If piracy is making PC gaming so unprofitable for Ubisoft, why do they continue to produce products for the platform. Businesses don't exist to prop up unprofitable ventures. So if they weren't making money off PC gaming, they wouldn't be in that business. I call shenanigans on their numbers. I think it's probably closer to 5%, not 95%.

 

[Annisman*]

Try before you buy makes sense. They are called demos. Before that, shareware. The problem with your analogy is that while you cannot try that air conditioner before you buy it, you can return it for up to 30 days. Even with music, whether online or in brick and mortar, lets to listen to it for a bit. At least thats the case with new music. If you buy a blu ray and its defective, you can return it. There are no such guarantees with games.

Games are not really art. They need to be functional in order for them to be enjoyed. Its more like buying that air conditioner and finding out it doesn't work in some way, and not being able to return it or use a warranty.

If a game is not 'functional' as you put it, neither the pirated OR legitimate copy would be worth getting.

And demos are an excellent way to test a product, like you mentioned.

There are lots of other items that are non refundable, but I do agree that is a small problem for PC games, not being able to return some of the crap that is released.

 

[Kalmah]

I never would have bought Evil Genius if it wasn't for its demo. It's now one of my favorite fall back games when I have nothing else around to keep me occupied.

The only ways I would have known are:
1)demo
2)pirate it and try it
3)buy it and hope I don't get ripped off since it can't be returned.

I prefer to steer clear of option 3. Diablo 3 was an option 3 decision and I got ripped.

Chances of them getting my money are higher if it's a good game. Since demos are rare now I'm more careful with my money. I'm afraid of torrents these days so I'm throwing less money into the system. Give me option 1 and they might see more of it.

 

[lakedude]

There is absolutely no good, proper, or acceptable form of pirating period.

Yeah, I'm with ShintaiDK on this one.

"They" put out crap that didn't run one too many times necessitating a try before you buy approach.

Imagine if Ford sold vehicles like some companies sell software...

Salesman: "Here are the keys to your shiny new Ford truck Mr. Annisman"

Mr. Annisman: "Hey it doesn't start!!!"

Salesman: "Well there is a problem and it is going to take Ford 3 months to sort out the issues. We will just push that thing over here with the rest of them, come back in 3 months when we figure out how to make your truck run."

Mr. Annisman: "What! Is there nothing I can do?"

Ford: "Well you can try downloading the newest drivers, flashing your BIOS, and updating your OS. Of course none of that is going to work because the problem is with our POS truck but we are sure you understand how it is. Thanks for buying Ford, have a nice day."

 

[Annisman*]

But again, if a game is so poor that it doesn't even run, then even a pirated copy wont be any better. Every game review goes over performance, and should touch on bugs, giving most people the ability to know ahead of time if it will run properly. There is just too much information about game releases to claim ignorance imo.

 

[Kalmah]

But again, if a game is so poor that it doesn't even run, then even a pirated copy wont be any better. Every game review goes over performance, and should touch on bugs, giving most people the ability to know ahead of time if it will run properly. There is just too much information about game releases to claim ignorance imo.

This brings up the question about pre-orders. If you've pre-ordered it, then you don't have the resources available at the time to be completely certain. If you pre-order and then the game turns out to be a flop should you be entitled to a refund since said reasons you should have known better to buy were unavailable? If you can't return a pre-order that becomes a flop, should they legally be allowed to offer pre-orders if you can't legally return it?

I never pre-order anything myself. I just figured this should be brought up.

Regardless, if an excuse like 'you should have researched' is a viable means to make it your own fault, then why the hell do so many people pre-order? It's usually easier to just grab the game on release anyways since there always appears to be problems such as places running out of copies. (even though you pre-ordered it... lol what a joke)

 

[lakedude]

But again, if a game is so poor that it doesn't even run, then even a pirated copy wont be any better.

Exactly.

If you can't get a demo or a less than legitimate copy to run there is no point in buying the game.

Reviews help a little but they cannot address compatibility issues for every possible combination of hardware. A game might run fine on every other computer in the world, except yours. That don't help you much. 99.99% of everyone else telling you a game is great and runs no problem on their system is no help at all.

Maybe you have been lucky and just have not had the kind of poor experiences some of us have had?

 

[Childs]

If a game is not 'functional' as you put it, neither the pirated OR legitimate copy would be worth getting.

And demos are an excellent way to test a product, like you mentioned.

There are lots of other items that are non refundable, but I do agree that is a small problem for PC games, not being able to return some of the crap that is released.

You forget always on DRM that prevent legitimate customers from playing their game. Cracked and pirated versions dont deal with it. What these publishers should do is just let it go. The pirate rates are what they are. If someone wants to pirate a game and doesnt want to pay, you cant make them pay. Even if pirates cant crack the game, it doesnt mean they'll buy it. They can inconvenience paying customers a million times over, and that has yet to really stop the pirates. It just reduces the number of paying customers who are willing to deal with all the BS.

Out of curiosity, what non perishable item, that you cannot try before you buy, doesnt allow returns or have a warranty? I think software is the only product that doesnt have some form of customer protection.