Piracy is the reason why AC2 haven't been released on PC yet. They like to give consoles a few months ahead so they get most of the sales and people won't just pirate it for PC.
Seriously, every publisher will start doing this and ignoring PC market if PC players continue pirating their titles. If you care for playing games on your computer or getting PC-exclusives (already non-existent), people need to stop pirating games and start buying them.
The game sold 15 millions units overall, not just on PC. It probably sold more on 360+PS3 than on PC. And with MW2 the multiplayer aspect is a big part, which requires pirates to buy it too to play online.
1) The figure of 80-90% piracy is generated by the industry, and since it is largely unmeasurable it is an estimate (i.e. made up) I suspect no-one has any real idea how much is pirated
It's very depressing to hear this, considering that World of Goo is an independent production; this is the kind of story that makes big-name publishers believe even more strongly in DRM.
The company went out of its way to remove all DRM from the title, labeling the move an "experiment."
If these pirating customers can be converted into paying customers, it's possible the price goes down for everyone.
The market doesn't need to care. But then they shouldn't pirate it either. That's not an answer to an overpriced product, the answer is to play some other game or use some other product.
Like I noted, this system has some parts of the code (savegames, possible game objects, etc) and requires ubisoft account login to play. It will require complete rewrite of those missing parts into the game and creating local equivalents to them. And no, you don't get to use c++ for this; you do it in assembly. That is a lot harder than merely removing protection. It will either take months to code those parts or it wont happen at all. Even if there becomes some version available many months later on some of the biggest titles, most sales will happen on the first months from release.
System like this actually has quite good changes in stopping piracy, unlike the previous ones.
I think the rampant PC game piracy (almost 80-90%) can be blamed for this somewhat. The best battle against piracy is to make the game use online features as much as possible. It will require complete rewrite of the back-end systems or the game code to get those features in pirated version and that is a huge amount of work. Just look at how succesful MMO's and online multiplayer games are with this. This is just taking it to next level and protecting the single player games too.
While this will be little pain in the ass for some customers too, something definitely needs to be done for PC piracy. The profit margins could be really improved if it was impossible to pirate games, resulting in better and more games. There would be more indie games released too, because publishers would be able to take more risks. Otherwise the publishers will just forget about PC gaming and make games for consoles. MW2 was already a little bit in to that direction.
At least they're stated this (which can be considered legally binding)
What if Ubisoft decides not run these online services in the future? Will my game stop working? Ubisoft is committed to being a forerunner in providing new exciting online service. If any service is stopped, we will create a patch for the game so that the core game play will not be affected.
Oops.. I meant to say first beating by police caught on video.
Little is revealed of the UK's rule outside of Earth, but it is thought that they control worlds in different dimensions and inhabited with a range of species. The UK occupation of Earth, however, is shown to be a brutal police state. In London, a generic European city, Civil Protection units are seen frequently, often conducting random searches of apartment blocks, interrogating human citizens and engaging in random police brutality. The military Overwatch forces of the UK are shown attacking human resistance bases in an effort to further solidify their control. The citizens themselves are all clad in blue uniforms and live in designated apartment blocks. Citizens are shown to be moved around to different cities or locales at the UK's will, using passenger trains. Vortigaunts are also shown to have been enslaved, and are observed in various jobs such as janitors. UK is draining Earth's natural resources, including the sea, to be used on other UK-controlled worlds.
At the heart of the UK's command structure is the Citadel, an enormous structure that reaches high into the skyline and delves deep underground. Located within London, the Citadel serves as the primary headquarters of the UK, housing both UK Advisors and the office of the Earth administrator, Wallace Breen. Breen is frequently seen on large screens around the city from which he spreads propaganda. The Citadel projects an energy field that is able to prevent human reproduction, as well as a field that keeps dangerous alien wildlife out of the city. In addition, the Citadel contains a trans-dimensional teleporter which allows UK to travel between their native universe and Earth. The Citadel also contains construction facilities for various synthetic UK combat machines.
Exactly. Oh well, it's US and UK. Here we actually have laws in place that if you even want to record video for security, you need to have a clear sign about it outside your store or other place.
I wouldn't ever want any kind of spy drones and I think most people feel the same way.
Why would they count bittorrent views? Nielsen Ratings is information for advertisers. TV shows in bittorrent files almost always have advertisers removed. It makes no sense for Nielsen Ratings to carry those statistics.
"Price gouging? If you'd bothered to find out, you'd know that the game distributor is responsible for the pricing of the games, not Steam."
Well, that's not entirely true. It was Valve's decision to make Steam multi-currency leading to increase prices in the process.
It was the publishers that wanted the option, and the retail importers in different countries wanted to get their copies at same price as when buying online. Then theres the various tax differences in different countries.
It wasn't just Valve dicking around and thinking "You know what would be fun? Lets introduce different prices in different countries for the lulz!"
When being negative about something someone always comes along and calls for "are you working for [competitor x]?", ie. I don't like Google datamining all over the internet and losing my privacy to them - I must be Microsoft shill.:)
So now I work for Microsoft, Opera Software, Steam, Google, Infinity Ward, Logitech and (interestingly) Red Hat. That makes my work days 56 hours long, which leaves me -32 hours per day to dick around. Man.
Uh what? You do own the books you buy. Immaterial and material products are different cases. You can't compare them directly. Even if the pro-piracy guys always like to point out that copying != stealing or their stupid reasoning that copying something doesn't take anything off from someone and can't really see the larger picture.
See people who imported Modern Warfare 2 which is perfectly legal to do but Valve revoking their access to the game because they didn't buy it from the retail channels Valve/Activision wanted them to buy it through or didn't just buy it through Steam.
The issue wasn't that simple. This is what g2play replied to me after asking why MW2 was removed from my steam account:
Hello mate
Recently we have aquired Call of Duty MW2 keys from a supplier who showed up to get them in unlegitimate way. We had unfortunatley no idea about this since the price offered to us was notcheap and the profit margin for us on these transactions is very low.
We may offer you 3 possible solutions for this issue: 1. Eiether we refund your payment via PayPal 2. We give you any other game in similar value 3. We will recieve another pack of Call of Duty MW2 keys from verified supplier probably in 48 hours (max after weekend ). We can then replace you your current key of course.
Best G2PLAY.net Team
I also bough left4dead 2 the same day from them and Valve didn't do anything about that, nor have I heard they're doing anything about the new keys sold by g2play. If a reseller has acquired and sold stolen/hacked/whatever keys (not blaming g2play here but their supplier!), I think it's withing Valve's right to revoke those keys. And Valve just revoked the key and told to ask for refund from the reseller.
And then there is the Wii offering older games through the Wii shopping channel.
That's an interesting point actually. Steam also offers old games made to work with current operating systems and computers. Then there's GOG, and PS3 and 360 also offer such. It might just be that the trend is continuing and we will see much more such in future. Sure in most cases you need to pay the $5-$9 again even if you own the game, but if you think the game is good its not really that much, and it comes with somewhat improved graphics and making it work in newer systems (or other platforms, like your console).
Not self-destructing, that would be just silly. But if there are valid reasons like MMO player base dying, DVD's getting scratched, or new technology making old devices obsolete, I'll live on and do something else.
But they have a lot larger costs to make than 20 years ago. And to be honest, in terms of dollars spend per hour games as an entertainment are really cheap. Two hour movie ticket with popcorn and cola costs at least $10 per person (and then possible a dinner in restaurant $40). One night out in a bar can easily cost $100.
With a good game you can top hundreds of hours of gameplay, which makes the per hour price come down to like $0.10-$0.20. Not much, if you ask me.
You actually don't own the games you buy physically either. You're getting a license to use them, like with any other software.
But more than that, I don't think that will be such a big issue though. What are the changes that Steam will go away anytime soon? And even if it happens in lets say 20-30 years, that's still many years. Many of the games I bough in 90's are too scratched, lost somewhere along the years or do not work with current operating systems and are unplayable now. Doesn't bother me too much, theres great new games now.
I don't think so. 20 years is lot of years. Even the TV I bough 10 years ago doesn't work anymore (not showing tv channels at least), because digital TV got instructed. Did it really bother me that much? Not really. I just bough a new one with lots of new fancy features and HD picture.
Not everything in life last forever. The pizza I ate yesterday is gone. It was still good and I enjoyed the experience. So is my ex but I enjoyed that experience too and now its time to move into new things.
And theres always private servers, if the player base actually is large enough.
Actually for once EA is doing it correctly. You have 4 ways to buy their games (that I know of):
1) Physical product from store 2) Steam (where you get the goodness of Steam services and social aspects) 3) Direct2Drive 4) EA's own store and download manager
You can buy your game from any place you prefer. If you buy from other places, you won't get EA's own download manager or things. That's how it should - buyer can choose the platform he prefers. For me that is (unsurprisingly) Steam.
I'm sure not all people like the social gaming aspects of Steam and other platforms, but I do enjoy them. It's easy to play with friends or chat in-game (good with multiplayer games). But for those who don't like them, they can be turned off. I never buy from physical stores anymore, it's a lot more convenient to buy from Steam and almost instantly get to play it. I always keep wishing I could do the same with my PS3 or 360, but they usually only have the smaller games in their stores and I have to order the "real" games via post.
Good example of social aspects in Steam is also that via MW2 I've got many interesting players on my friend list so that theres always someone to play with, but they don't bother me if I'm not playing. It's more fun to play with the people you somewhat, even if very vaguely know.
Slashdot Mirror
Piracy is the reason why AC2 haven't been released on PC yet. They like to give consoles a few months ahead so they get most of the sales and people won't just pirate it for PC.
Seriously, every publisher will start doing this and ignoring PC market if PC players continue pirating their titles. If you care for playing games on your computer or getting PC-exclusives (already non-existent), people need to stop pirating games and start buying them.
The game sold 15 millions units overall, not just on PC. It probably sold more on 360+PS3 than on PC. And with MW2 the multiplayer aspect is a big part, which requires pirates to buy it too to play online.
1) The figure of 80-90% piracy is generated by the industry, and since it is largely unmeasurable it is an estimate (i.e. made up) I suspect no-one has any real idea how much is pirated
World of Goo piracy rate near 90 percent. And it's an indie game, which makes it even more sad.
It's very depressing to hear this, considering that World of Goo is an independent production; this is the kind of story that makes big-name publishers believe even more strongly in DRM.
The company went out of its way to remove all DRM from the title, labeling the move an "experiment."
Because then you go and buy some other game, increasing business for their competitors who are doing it correctly.
I honestly don't think that too many users will care. We here on slashdot obviously do, but we're minority.
If these pirating customers can be converted into paying customers, it's possible the price goes down for everyone.
The market doesn't need to care. But then they shouldn't pirate it either. That's not an answer to an overpriced product, the answer is to play some other game or use some other product.
Like I noted, this system has some parts of the code (savegames, possible game objects, etc) and requires ubisoft account login to play. It will require complete rewrite of those missing parts into the game and creating local equivalents to them. And no, you don't get to use c++ for this; you do it in assembly. That is a lot harder than merely removing protection. It will either take months to code those parts or it wont happen at all. Even if there becomes some version available many months later on some of the biggest titles, most sales will happen on the first months from release.
System like this actually has quite good changes in stopping piracy, unlike the previous ones.
I think the rampant PC game piracy (almost 80-90%) can be blamed for this somewhat. The best battle against piracy is to make the game use online features as much as possible. It will require complete rewrite of the back-end systems or the game code to get those features in pirated version and that is a huge amount of work. Just look at how succesful MMO's and online multiplayer games are with this. This is just taking it to next level and protecting the single player games too.
While this will be little pain in the ass for some customers too, something definitely needs to be done for PC piracy. The profit margins could be really improved if it was impossible to pirate games, resulting in better and more games. There would be more indie games released too, because publishers would be able to take more risks. Otherwise the publishers will just forget about PC gaming and make games for consoles. MW2 was already a little bit in to that direction.
At least they're stated this (which can be considered legally binding)
What if Ubisoft decides not run these online services in the future? Will my game stop working?
Ubisoft is committed to being a forerunner in providing new exciting online service. If any service is stopped, we will create a patch for the game so that the core game play will not be affected.
Well you get the idea. And I don't think only their followers visit the site, so you have to calculate those in too.
If you are just harassing one person, probably not. But if you're affecting millions of people, then yes.
Just like you would get a "little bit" longer sentence if you beat up millions of people.
Oops.. I meant to say first beating by police caught on video.
Little is revealed of the UK's rule outside of Earth, but it is thought that they control worlds in different dimensions and inhabited with a range of species. The UK occupation of Earth, however, is shown to be a brutal police state. In London, a generic European city, Civil Protection units are seen frequently, often conducting random searches of apartment blocks, interrogating human citizens and engaging in random police brutality. The military Overwatch forces of the UK are shown attacking human resistance bases in an effort to further solidify their control. The citizens themselves are all clad in blue uniforms and live in designated apartment blocks. Citizens are shown to be moved around to different cities or locales at the UK's will, using passenger trains. Vortigaunts are also shown to have been enslaved, and are observed in various jobs such as janitors. UK is draining Earth's natural resources, including the sea, to be used on other UK-controlled worlds.
At the heart of the UK's command structure is the Citadel, an enormous structure that reaches high into the skyline and delves deep underground. Located within London, the Citadel serves as the primary headquarters of the UK, housing both UK Advisors and the office of the Earth administrator, Wallace Breen. Breen is frequently seen on large screens around the city from which he spreads propaganda. The Citadel projects an energy field that is able to prevent human reproduction, as well as a field that keeps dangerous alien wildlife out of the city. In addition, the Citadel contains a trans-dimensional teleporter which allows UK to travel between their native universe and Earth. The Citadel also contains construction facilities for various synthetic UK combat machines.
Exactly. Oh well, it's US and UK. Here we actually have laws in place that if you even want to record video for security, you need to have a clear sign about it outside your store or other place.
I wouldn't ever want any kind of spy drones and I think most people feel the same way.
Why would they count bittorrent views? Nielsen Ratings is information for advertisers. TV shows in bittorrent files almost always have advertisers removed. It makes no sense for Nielsen Ratings to carry those statistics.
Exactly. I can't tell if he's being serious or sarcastic. Yes there are some other fun ways to spend time, but that list is just boring.
Now here's a better list:
* Drink beer
* Go around and have sex with as many girls as you can
Repeat.
"Price gouging? If you'd bothered to find out, you'd know that the game distributor is responsible for the pricing of the games, not Steam."
Well, that's not entirely true. It was Valve's decision to make Steam multi-currency leading to increase prices in the process.
It was the publishers that wanted the option, and the retail importers in different countries wanted to get their copies at same price as when buying online. Then theres the various tax differences in different countries.
It wasn't just Valve dicking around and thinking "You know what would be fun? Lets introduce different prices in different countries for the lulz!"
When being negative about something someone always comes along and calls for "are you working for [competitor x]?", ie. I don't like Google datamining all over the internet and losing my privacy to them - I must be Microsoft shill. :)
So now I work for Microsoft, Opera Software, Steam, Google, Infinity Ward, Logitech and (interestingly) Red Hat. That makes my work days 56 hours long, which leaves me -32 hours per day to dick around. Man.
Uh what? You do own the books you buy. Immaterial and material products are different cases. You can't compare them directly. Even if the pro-piracy guys always like to point out that copying != stealing or their stupid reasoning that copying something doesn't take anything off from someone and can't really see the larger picture.
See people who imported Modern Warfare 2 which is perfectly legal to do but Valve revoking their access to the game because they didn't buy it from the retail channels Valve/Activision wanted them to buy it through or didn't just buy it through Steam.
The issue wasn't that simple. This is what g2play replied to me after asking why MW2 was removed from my steam account:
Hello mate
Recently we have aquired Call of Duty MW2 keys from a supplier who showed up to get them in unlegitimate way.
We had unfortunatley no idea about this since the price offered to us was notcheap and the profit margin for us on these transactions is very low.
We may offer you 3 possible solutions for this issue:
1. Eiether we refund your payment via PayPal
2. We give you any other game in similar value
3. We will recieve another pack of Call of Duty MW2 keys from verified supplier probably in 48 hours (max after weekend ). We can then replace you your current key of course.
Best
G2PLAY.net Team
I also bough left4dead 2 the same day from them and Valve didn't do anything about that, nor have I heard they're doing anything about the new keys sold by g2play. If a reseller has acquired and sold stolen/hacked/whatever keys (not blaming g2play here but their supplier!), I think it's withing Valve's right to revoke those keys. And Valve just revoked the key and told to ask for refund from the reseller.
And then there is the Wii offering older games through the Wii shopping channel.
That's an interesting point actually. Steam also offers old games made to work with current operating systems and computers. Then there's GOG, and PS3 and 360 also offer such. It might just be that the trend is continuing and we will see much more such in future. Sure in most cases you need to pay the $5-$9 again even if you own the game, but if you think the game is good its not really that much, and it comes with somewhat improved graphics and making it work in newer systems (or other platforms, like your console).
Not self-destructing, that would be just silly. But if there are valid reasons like MMO player base dying, DVD's getting scratched, or new technology making old devices obsolete, I'll live on and do something else.
But they have a lot larger costs to make than 20 years ago. And to be honest, in terms of dollars spend per hour games as an entertainment are really cheap. Two hour movie ticket with popcorn and cola costs at least $10 per person (and then possible a dinner in restaurant $40). One night out in a bar can easily cost $100.
With a good game you can top hundreds of hours of gameplay, which makes the per hour price come down to like $0.10-$0.20. Not much, if you ask me.
You actually don't own the games you buy physically either. You're getting a license to use them, like with any other software.
But more than that, I don't think that will be such a big issue though. What are the changes that Steam will go away anytime soon? And even if it happens in lets say 20-30 years, that's still many years. Many of the games I bough in 90's are too scratched, lost somewhere along the years or do not work with current operating systems and are unplayable now. Doesn't bother me too much, theres great new games now.
I don't think so. 20 years is lot of years. Even the TV I bough 10 years ago doesn't work anymore (not showing tv channels at least), because digital TV got instructed. Did it really bother me that much? Not really. I just bough a new one with lots of new fancy features and HD picture.
Not everything in life last forever. The pizza I ate yesterday is gone. It was still good and I enjoyed the experience. So is my ex but I enjoyed that experience too and now its time to move into new things.
And theres always private servers, if the player base actually is large enough.
Actually for once EA is doing it correctly. You have 4 ways to buy their games (that I know of):
1) Physical product from store
2) Steam (where you get the goodness of Steam services and social aspects)
3) Direct2Drive
4) EA's own store and download manager
You can buy your game from any place you prefer. If you buy from other places, you won't get EA's own download manager or things. That's how it should - buyer can choose the platform he prefers. For me that is (unsurprisingly) Steam.
I'm sure not all people like the social gaming aspects of Steam and other platforms, but I do enjoy them. It's easy to play with friends or chat in-game (good with multiplayer games). But for those who don't like them, they can be turned off. I never buy from physical stores anymore, it's a lot more convenient to buy from Steam and almost instantly get to play it. I always keep wishing I could do the same with my PS3 or 360, but they usually only have the smaller games in their stores and I have to order the "real" games via post.
Good example of social aspects in Steam is also that via MW2 I've got many interesting players on my friend list so that theres always someone to play with, but they don't bother me if I'm not playing. It's more fun to play with the people you somewhat, even if very vaguely know.