News

Ubisoft endures 93-95% piracy rate on PC
Posted: 22.08.2012 09:52 by Nick Akerman Comments: 22
Ubisoft Yves Guillemot has said the percentage of paying players is the same for free to play as it is for PC boxed product.

This is somewhere between 5 to 7 per cent. Guillemot says free-to-play has been an effective method of making money from territories the company couldn't previously reach.

"We want to develop the PC market quite a lot and F2P is really the way to do it," said the French CEO. "The advantage of F2P is that we can get revenue from countries where we couldn't previously - places where our products were played but not bought. Now with F2P we gain revenue, which helps brands last longer.

"It's a way to get closer to your customers, to make sure you have a revenue. On PC it's only around five to seven per cent of the players who pay for F2P, but normally on PC it's only about five to seven per cent who pay anyway, the rest is pirated. It's around a 93-95 per cent piracy rate, so it ends up at about the same percentage. The revenue we get from the people who play is more long term, so we can continue to bring content."

Comments

By Chris_Spray (SI Veteran Newbie) on Aug 22, 2012
Chris_Spray
Pity it's not 100%.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Aug 22, 2012
SirRoderick
Seems pretty logical if your tactic to fight piracy consists of annoying all your paying customers so much they want to pirate it anyway.

Guarantee you games like the Witcher don't have that problem.
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Aug 22, 2012
djole381
Ubi's "Always On" DRM isn't the answer to combat piracy. Not everyone has "South Korea" level connection and all it takes is a brief loss of signal to ruin you gameplay experience. Pirated games on the other hand do not require internet connection so it's no surprise many turn to piracy or at least, cracks.
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 22, 2012
nocutius
That percentage seems a bit high, it's almost hard to believe even if we're talking about Ubisoft.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Aug 22, 2012
FoolWolf
Something sounds very odd with those numbers - part from UbiSofts vision on PC gaming though...
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Aug 22, 2012
djole381
There's nothing odd about those numbers, it's payed research that suits Ubi's needs to justify it's DRM.
By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 22, 2012
lichlord
you can't truly secure piracy the more you fight it the bigger and harder the "taint" of it best thing they can do to lessen it is to help those that don't pirate rather then to make em suffocate in security meassures who would only postpone the ineviteble
By danfreeman (SI Core) on Aug 22, 2012
danfreeman
Oh,fuck you ubicrap,trying to play victim.
First off i doubt the numbers are that high,if they were they would have just abandoned the PC platform.
Secondly you definetly have high piracy rates which you definetly deserve because of the shit services you provide.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Aug 22, 2012
SirRoderick
Of course the numbers aren't that high, they're based on wishful thinking and fairies.

Still wish they were, just to make em suffer ^^
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Aug 23, 2012
FoolWolf
Thing is that if they only sell 5-7% normal style, why would 5-7% F2P be preferred?
Also, if only 5-7% games are legit - why screw those poor 5-7% over with the worst DRM scheme?
By HenoKutus (SI Core) on Aug 23, 2012
HenoKutus
One thing to secure piracy you can do on the consoles and handhelds,these are way more tougher and protected than the PC versions.Fact!
By HenoKutus (SI Core) on Aug 23, 2012
HenoKutus
Only thing to do is make the multiplayer awesome,then you will have much more sales on the PC as well
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Aug 23, 2012
SirRoderick
Well you went on quite the commenting spree! ^^
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 23, 2012
nocutius
More chances for us to reply :)
By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 23, 2012
lichlord
well don't underestimate it consoles may be "harder" theirs plenty of piracy on them too just less appearant...
By HenoKutus (SI Core) on Aug 23, 2012
HenoKutus
Only for the select few.
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 23, 2012
nocutius
Xbox has been completely cracked for quite a few years now, it just takes some chip or something. I know that something is happening on the PS3 scene as well but i don't really follow consoles.
By SirRoderick (SI Elite) on Aug 23, 2012
SirRoderick
Cracking a console is easy...and more people do it than you think.
By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 23, 2012
lichlord
exactly its less appearant but its also quite a lot
By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 24, 2012
unsilviu
Trust me djole, internet connection isn't the reason for piracy. Romania has internet almost on par with S. Korea, yet has a ridiculous amount of piracy. If anything, the internet was developed here to this degree because pirates were willing to pay to download...
By HenoKutus (SI Core) on Aug 24, 2012
HenoKutus
Cracking a console is easy but to get it goiing for the latest games with new firmware or different sizes of discs is another matter,its not that easy anymore,and no it doesn't work with a chip only the PSP works with a chip.The chip for the Xbox is 3 years outdated and it doesn't work like that.
If it was so easy why is the PS vita not cracked on the release date as the PSP was.

They can always use for example like Diablo 3 Battlenet wich you always must be connected to play the game,disadvantage is when you want to play the game a couple of years later in a nostalgic moment you have a problem if the service is unaivalable.

Like the crackers say,if you like the game,you buy it!
Or you kill the developers such as Psygnosis(studio Liverpool) for example!

But piracy has advantages too as for example the isos of old consoles gamecube for example after some time they became available to the public and you can emulate them on a PC,so they live on.
For the old xbox games its all gone and they are forgotten!
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Aug 24, 2012
djole381
Ubisoft is the only company that constantly whines how their PC products are most pirated and the figure of 93-95% piracy rate is a pure lie. If the rate is so high they should abandon developing games for PC altogether, but, seeing how they are continuing with the development of PC games it becomes apparent that the 93-95% is a huge exaggeration.