51–60 of 60 posts
I wonder if charging $5 for the game would lead to a massive increase in the % that pay. Steam did a lot of testing around this, hence having F2P (TF2) and $20 games with discounts (L4D etc)
I'd like to know which magic hat the 95% comes from as usual. I pay for most PC games and so do my friends. I highly doubt we're in the 5%. Feels like a classic "the subject is not the percentage" in order to make everyone comfortable with "95%". I also highly dislike DLCs. Usually they're required to keep up in online games (else you're at unfair disadvantage), or they're just fixing bugs/adding stuff that should ha…
> Make the game $5, I'll buy it and so will everyone. That assumes that most people are pirating just because they think the game's too expensive. - If someone pirates games because their parents don't want to drive them to the store and they don't have a credit card for buying games online, then dropping the price to $5 won't change anything for them. - If someone pirates games because they've gotten so used to doin…
I cannot understand the responses from people here and on reddit stating that the figure is totally made up and it can't be that much. reddit specifically is filled with people who are proud of how they pirate all ubisoft games because of the "terrible DRM". Indie games that have no DRM and great prices[1] have reported very high piracy rates, published games that have no DRM and very high ratings also have bad pirac…
Because it is a "terrible dis-service to gamers"?
Suppose I pirate all my games, what do I gain from F2P? A worse experience with constant nagging about buying useless crap.
Suppose I buy all my games, what do I gain from F2P? A worse experience with constant nagging about buying useless crap.
A got sick to my stomach for buying Battlefield 3 Premium, why? What I wanted was the expansion packs but to get that I had to pay for having double XP events, strategy guides, ability to reset stats etc. etc.
If paying for something makes the play-field uneven you have effectively destroyed the value for both free and paying players.
Piracy is a problem (but one illegally downloaded game does not equal a lost sale, I'd also be interested in knowing how many hours are being played on pirated vs. bought games). DRM does not hinder piracy, but it hurts paying players. If you have no DRM then no one will suffer from it (also you don't have to implement it and you won't have to fear the backlash from it). Free to play is a terrible dis-service to gamers.
F2P is good for discoverability, it lowers the barrier to trying. In the old days we had something similar that we called a demo. The equivalent of today is to pirate the game and see if it is worth it. Now the barrier to buying is even higher since you'd have to take care of any progress made, uninstall, buy, install, redo all your settings and progress. Not defending it, but that is often the only way to try a game today - and with all the crap that's being produced wanting to try it out before buying is understandable.
Ubisoft is not a great advocate for the industry, in my opinion. I buy their games occasionally, since they own some of my favorite franchises. I also occasionally pirate them first to see if they are unplayable console ports, or have game-breakingly bad bugs or performance-- which they consistently do. I know I probably don't represent the average pirate, just throwing that out there.
I loved Anno 1404, played it tons. Haven't bought (or played) Anno 2070 because of the awful DRM.
I loved the Silent Hunter series. Played 3 and 4 for countless hours. I didn't buy (or play) 5 because of the DRM.
IL-2 Sturmovik is one of the greatest flight sims of all time. Cliffs of Dover is an abomination.
Meanwhile, after Lock On: Modern Air Combat, the developer split from Ubisoft and went on to make two of the greatest flight sims of the past decade in the DCS series (and they're still going strong).
Not even Ubi's $1 sale could get me to install their client and buy theirs games.
I cannot understand the responses from people here and on reddit stating that the figure is totally made up and it can't be that much. reddit specifically is filled with people who are proud of how they pirate all ubisoft games because of the "terrible DRM". Indie games that have no DRM and great prices[1] have reported very high piracy rates, published games that have no DRM and very high ratings also have bad pirac…
Why aren't people applauding Ubisoft for adapting their business and products to their audience (people that want to play games but don't want to pay -- and those that do want to pay, can)? Because it is a "terrible dis-service to gamers"? Suppose I pirate all my games, what do I gain from F2P? A worse experience with constant nagging about buying useless crap. Suppose I buy all my games, what do I gain from F2P? A w…
This isn't a priori true. Valve seems to have a good handle on non-sucky F2P, for example.
Not all piracy ends up to be a lost sale. There are some people out there that pirate, with no intention of purchase. I'm not surprised that Ubi is also finding that F2P users aren't paying either, some people just don't see the value or don't want to spend their money. Let's take this problem out of the gaming/IT industry altogether. The last time you went to Costco (for non-Americans, it's large warehouse grocery c…
I'd like to know which magic hat the 95% comes from as usual. I pay for most PC games and so do my friends. I highly doubt we're in the 5%. Feels like a classic "the subject is not the percentage" in order to make everyone comfortable with "95%". I also highly dislike DLCs. Usually they're required to keep up in online games (else you're at unfair disadvantage), or they're just fixing bugs/adding stuff that should ha…
"What has become apparent in recent times through this and similar experiences is that DRM only hurts paying customers and does little to stop pirates from releasing hassle-free versions of Ubisoft games online. But with DRM or without, according to Ubisoft piracy levels are massive."
Really does become apparent to folks who make these decisions.
They clearly don't get it. They should watch and learn from Blizzard, Riot Games and the others. If you provide value in online play people will pay for the game solely for the online experience, see World Of Warcraft. I wonder how many people pirate Star Craft 2, Diablo 3 or World of Warcraft.