Ubisoft Testing PC Prince of Persia Without DRM

Ars Technica reports that the upcoming PC version of Ubisoft's Prince of Persia will not feature any sort of copy protection. (Not including Steam downloads, of course.) After the backlash in recent months over the DRM in games like Spore and GTA IV, Ubisoft is giving gamers the chance to demonstrate that DRM actually increases piracy. One of Ubisoft's community reps had this to say about their decision: "You`re right when you say that when people want to pirate the game they will but DRM is there to make it as difficult as possible for pirates to make copies of our games. A lot of people complain that DRM is what forces people to pirate games but as PoP PC has no DRM we`ll see how truthful people actually are. Not very, I imagine. Console piracy is something else entirely and I`m sure we`ll see more steps in future to try to combat that."

Comments

What if piracy levels remain the same?

[Anonymous Coward]

That would also show that DRM is moot as it has no effect on piracy. The fact is you will never lower piracy levels through DRM, as long as you can lock it up, there is someone who can unlock it. Copyright infringement is part of the cost of doing business in the gaming world.

Fact is people don't like to be treated like criminals, and if they well they might as well act like one to hold up their end of the bargain.

Re:What if piracy levels remain the same?

[stephanruby]

That would also show that DRM is moot as it has no effect on piracy.

No, this won't show anything either way, or if it does show something, it will be opened to interpretation. This is not a study. This is not a test. There is no control group. The game may do well, or not well. This will depend largely on how good the game actually is. Also, a criterion of success cited by one side may be cited as a criterion of failure by the other. So for instance, if the absence of DRM increases the word-of-mouth referrals and sales, that might be counted as a success by one side, but if that same spurt in word-of-mouth referrals increases the number of downloads from p2p -- that same company may see this as a failure (since it would be seeing all those downloads as a sign that imaginary dollars are walking out of the door).

So with no predefined criteria of success, and no control group of any kind, both sides are bound to repeat the same old arguments over again. It's just that all that rationalizing, framing/reframing, and arguing will be done with freshly acquired data, instead of historical data, and people from either side will probably just stick to their preconceived notions either way.

Re:What if piracy levels remain the same?

[somersault]

You seem to have misunderstood him on both counts.

First, he's asking how you can tell how many people downloaded the game illegaly.

Secondly, he's not saying that piracy can only be done at sea, he's saying it can only be done with physical goods. I kind of agree, I think they should stick to calling it "copyright infringement" since that is what it is. It involves the same idea as piracy in that you end up with something that doesn't belong to you, but it isn't exactly the same thing as stealing, despite being a similar concept. Calling it copyright infringement doesn't make it less illegal, it just is the correct term. Saying copyright infringement is piracy to me is like saying assault is murder.

I don't think it would help...

[the1337g33k]

I don't think that it would help really, most people pirate because they can't afford to pay that much. I know people that have 8000 song music collections, do you really think that @ 99 cents a song at most music download places they paid $8000 for their music? I doubt it.

DRM is only one of many factors

[MoFoQ]

DRM is only one of many factors.
Another is the game itself....the music, the graphics, the gameplay, and stability.

In that same way...if Microsoft were to release a DRM-free operating system but it was sluggish (even more than Vista) or blue-screened often (more than Windows 9x)...I doubt people will buy it or use it even if it was free.

Re:I'm buying a copy just to support the concept.

[LtGordon]

Now that someone is actually assuming customers are not criminals, its worth supporting the effort.

Hardly. The point is to release a game without DRM and then massage the numbers so they can turn around and say that the lack of DRM drove piracy up significantly. The point will be moot, because how do you gauge losses due to piracy? The same way Microsoft does: (Every single theoretical download) * (Retail price) = (OMGthehorror$$$)

They already have their answer.

[iYk6]

These people already has their answer. DRM prevents piracy. Sure, we all know that it isn't true, but judging by what their rep says, they are only seeking to prove that there is something good about DRM, and this "trial" is only to prove that they are right, not to actually gather information. No matter what the results are, they will claim that they have confirmation of what they already believe.

Re:They already have their answer.

[TheLink]

I actually find it strange. I thought someone trying to make money from selling software would be more interested in _sales_ (and profit). Instead of trying to prove whether DRM increases or decreases "piracy".

Here's a hint to Ubisoft wannabes:

If you make a really crap game, piracy will go down, but sales would go down too.
If you make a good game, both piracy and sales will go up.

If you make an online game (one where most of the fun bits are online, not just the DRM bits), you can reduce piracy to near zero - but your operating and upfront costs may go up too.

Re:They already have their answer.

[IamTheRealMike]

Wow, the denial on this thread is amazing. The test hasn't even started yet, and people are already writing it off on the grounds that it can't be a "real" test, or that they're doing it wrong, or whatever.

I think it's safe to assume it won't make much difference, because modern PC DRM doesn't seem very strong, but to make blanket statements about DRM is pretty absurd - it clearly does work in other implementations, like the consoles.

Let's wait and see what the numbers say. I know most Slashdotters made up their mind a long time ago, but at least Ubisoft is open to other ideas.

Re:They already have their answer.

[Anonymous Coward]

What is different today is that most piracy is not in "the warez scene", whatever that is exactly, beyond the cracking and initial release, but in peer-to-peer networks composed mostly of people who do not have infinite storage and bandwidth, and so more rarely will download games, and even more rarely seed them, if they do not expect to like them.

Re:How to make enemies and alienate people

[philspear]

Treating people like criminals will make them lose respect for you and that's a really bad way to make a sale. And yes, that includes snippy little remarks about "how honest" they are. I, personally, will never buy another game from this company so long as this dipshit is at the helm.

I think it would be really easy to become very jaded about DRM and piracy when you're the one being pirated from. I DON'T think it's fair to heap abuse on someone from that background who is making a compromise.

The guy is making a game, and is likely annoyed at least with people who pirate it. Some are people who bought the game, but download the cracked version because of the DRM, probably. It's of course impossible to test whether that's most people or whether most pirated copies are downloaded by people who never paid a dime for it. This is one of the only ways I can see to actually test the idea that DRM encourages piracy.

Don't buy the games if you don't want to, but acting offended because the guy isn't giving away his product with a smile is, well, absurd.

Re:Virus free keygens

[Anonymous Coward]

One of the reasons I got those Windows DVDs from the pirate bay is mainly because of the older (hard to find) versions, e.g. pre-2k so I wasn't really pirating it

Yes you were. Stop deluding yourself.

Where's the Demo?

[Kneo24]

I honestly can't figure out why anyone would complain about piracy when there's isn't a visible demo for this game. The honest people are being forced to pirate this game so they can make an informed purchasing decision. This alone will skew any erroneous figures that they will ultimately make... When will these companies learn?

Re:How to make enemies and alienate people

[moranar]

legitimately pirating the game.

The word of the day is 'Oxymoron'.

Demos often don't give you the full sense of a game, and you need the full version to get a feel for whether you really want the game or not.

You seriously believe what you just wrote? It looks like a flimsy rationalization for pirating. These days, it's often simpler to download a torrent than going to a website, registering, signing in, downloading the demo, installing crapware (not always), etc. That would have been a 'better' rationalization, I think.

Re:I'm buying a copy just to support the concept.

[trytoguess]

Ubisoft spends considerable amount of money on DRM. If it can be shown that it's a waste of resources why on earth would they continue to support it? Hell, even if the numbers are ambiguous, it'll make them less likely to use DRM. Course it's possible this test will show an increase in piracy, but I don't think they'll jump to any conclusions considering that there's a considerable amount of money and time to be saved.

Re:How to make enemies and alienate people

[Chrondeath]

legitimately pirating the game.

The word of the day is 'Oxymoron'.

I think it's clear that he means the statistic is legitimately classifying them as pirates, not that the piracy is legitimate.