Saturday, November 26th 2011
Ubisoft Developing PC Free-To-Play Ghost Recon Game, Claims Is 'embracing pirates'
Ubisoft, pioneer of the much-hated always-on DRM, is currently developing Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - but only for the console platforms. The PC will instead get the free-to-play ("F2P" in common parlance) Ghost Recon Online, which conversely will not be available for consoles. Ubisoft claims that this is because "95% of our consumers will pirate the game", so they are addressing the needs of this market. Sebastien Arnoult, Ghost Recon Online producer said:
He then explained how they are embracing "piracy":
However, not everyone at Ubisoft sees it this way, as Stanislas Mettra, Creative Director of console-exclusive Ubisoft title I Am Alive, believes that the sales numbers on PC simply don't stack up to make a full port from console worthwhile:
One thing is clear however: the DRM-free model of premium product does work, whether it be games, songs or movies, as reported here and here. So, perhaps Ubisoft should concentrate less on worrying about "pirates" and instead give people a reason to buy their products - it's very easy to use "piracy" as a scapegoat for the poor sales of a poor product. Treating their customers like criminals by infesting games with unreasonable, draconian DRM is not the way to give people a reason to buy and many potential customers simply boycott those products due to this DRM.
The official website for Ghost Recon Online is at ghostrecononline.ubi.com and an established Ghost Recon fan site with lots of info on the entire Ghost Recon series is at ghostrecon.net
Source:
PC Gamer
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.'Note how Ubisoft are finally admitting that DRM 'pollutes' the experience? No kidding. Arnoult then elaborated on the differences between the business models of the PC and console platforms:
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. On PC, we're adapting our model to the demand.
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% of our consumers will pirate the game. So we said okay, we have to change our mind.In other words, they won't bother developing the main single player game for the PC and just give gamers some maps to play online with each other instead, with some added "premium" content that requires payment to access. Not good news for single player gamers, leaving them feeling like second class citizens.
"We have to adapt, we have to embrace this instead of pushing it away. That's the main reflection behind Ghost Recon Online and the choice we've made to go in this direction.
However, not everyone at Ubisoft sees it this way, as Stanislas Mettra, Creative Director of console-exclusive Ubisoft title I Am Alive, believes that the sales numbers on PC simply don't stack up to make a full port from console worthwhile:
Perhaps it will only take twelve guys three months to port the game to PC, it's not a massive cost but it's still a cost. If only 50,000 people buy the game then it's not worth it.This appears to be the view of the old guard however and it will be interesting to see which view, Arnoult's or Mettra's or yet something else, will prevail in the long run.
One thing is clear however: the DRM-free model of premium product does work, whether it be games, songs or movies, as reported here and here. So, perhaps Ubisoft should concentrate less on worrying about "pirates" and instead give people a reason to buy their products - it's very easy to use "piracy" as a scapegoat for the poor sales of a poor product. Treating their customers like criminals by infesting games with unreasonable, draconian DRM is not the way to give people a reason to buy and many potential customers simply boycott those products due to this DRM.
The official website for Ghost Recon Online is at ghostrecononline.ubi.com and an established Ghost Recon fan site with lots of info on the entire Ghost Recon series is at ghostrecon.net
93 Comments on Ubisoft Developing PC Free-To-Play Ghost Recon Game, Claims Is 'embracing pirates'
How can you see this any way other than the DRM itself is the pollution?
What do others think?
As we all know F2P (really should be called free too play if you want too suck) are the new fad, but they are makeing money .. and that is what this is all about.
read this ..
www.overclockersclub.com/news/30035/
It's the most offensive, condescending crap spewing I have ever seen coming from a gaming company directed at PC gamers.
It reads like a 101 in how to alienate gamers and lose customers doesn't it? :shadedshu Just call them all "pirates" and feed them crap. Yeah, way to go Ubisoft. :slap:
But my point is that they are just putting out more bullshit marketting crap about DRM the way they are doing it now. I'd rather see them prove their original point, or disprove it, that DRM improves sales on AAA titles. By just releasing it for free they can't do that.
First time you'll see me ever rooting for CoD to squash it. They ruined Recon. It either needs to return to it's roots and stop catering to kids, or just outright have that bullet in the head.
adding pc is very easy, the 360 is basically a windows pc with directx
if you look at game data files, you can easily see that all platforms use the same files with platform specific defines, same should be happening for the codebase
QaukeLive..No cpma, but you can't have everything for free.
World of Tanks, HON...I haven't played these two, but they seem pretty good.
This makes me mad and resentful. And after all that, they still expect me to be their customer....GTFO! If they haven't lost me as a customer already, they just nailed the final nail in the coffin as far as I am concerned.
[quote="W1zz]how is it possible that most console ports dont even have adjusted menus if you have that much developer time available for a pc port ? changing an in-game graphic from a triangle button icon to a text label shouldnt take more than 10 minutes? [/quote]
This is the first time our fearless leader, and one of the most elite programming gurus I know, has posted something that cause me to actually facepalm.
No more comments ... I like being a member of TPU and don't want to get banned. :)