But then don’t blame piracy of poor sales if the PC version ends up being a hell to play like Double Agent. I couldn't even complete it because of an endless array of bugs (legit version).

Still, thank you for still putting out PC versions. I really enjoyed my Assassins Creed PC version.

i think all games should be a PC version at last although there is the piracy. a PC version is some kind of duty of the developer for gamers who has no console. i agree it could be delayed, time is not a problem. the difference is, some PC version is really GOOD, it is optimized and redesigned. but some PC version is BAD and just a simply porting, that really hurt the true players.

oops...post here is not re-editable...that's a bad thing.

Here we go again.

It seems a bit hypocritical to say all that about PC piracy and then say that you're going to release a game to PC. No?

I understand their point of view though. They are a business for profit after all and PC piracy is out of control. A game like Spore is doing amazing, but that's also because the demographic of the players a non-traditional gamers. (or so I hear)
Is there a solution to piracy on PC?

Agree with first poster. Good, polished games sell. Bad games, buggy games, don't.

Stop blaming piracy.

@ Geoffrey

There is a solution. It is called treating your customers with respect. By this I mean not treating them like criminals and limiting the number of installs and installing things like Securom without their knowledge. It also means not expecting their consumers to have the latest in Nvidea and ATI graphics cards. You know the ones that cost $300+.

Perhaps these guys need to take a page from the books of Stardock and CDProjekt.

A lot of people are calling CD Projekt greedy and disrespectful right now. Mostly because the free 1.5 GB update for "The Witcher" requires you to log onto their site manually for about five seconds, while the retail version of that update, which doesn't seem to require any connection at all, isn't free (it costs an equivalent of about $8).

The problem publishers face with releasing games to PC is that the illegal copy is easier to get hold of and doesn't install rootkits on your PC (im looking at you secuROM).

All this says to me is that publishers need to get their act together on digital distribution and DRM instead of blaming PC gamers. Steam is a great service and ive bought many games i would not have because it is as easy as torrents or an ftp, and for the most part doesnt install invasive DRM. If the copy on steam does (Bioshock) i play the pirate version and buy the Steam one.

I long for the day of open digital distribution and sane DRM systems that dont rootkit my PC.

I love the fact i can play Gear of War on my PC with a X360 gamepad and not have to buy a 360 to do it.

PLEASE someone take control of the PC space, keep the price of digital copies low and lets have a simple way to buy a game with sane DRM. Steam is almost there, if somehow Steam got all publishers on board it would buy many more games on PC.

Don't blame the customer! Just make it easier to buy the legal product, and for a good price.

Since there have been really great games in the past that have suffered from piracy a lot, I'd prefer that the software companies agree on some sort of hardware crypto protection that is not copyable.
The problem is ofc that such protections are usually not crack-safe. ( Just got an idea to solve that with a really nifty idea, but I'll keep it for myself for now. Don't want to find it patented/sold by someone else tomorrow. lol)

Anyway, I don't want to see PC games die, so I support the game developers. Since I've read something about "The witcher", I've bought that last chrismas and it was such a great game and worth every penny.
I've also bought "Bioshock", also a great game, bus hated the copy protection, because being forced to download a 27Mbyte pat ch with the registration process on a modem dialup connection that time was the horror !
But well, what should the developers do ? It sucks, if small developers write the greatest games, and then everyone pirates it and in the end there is no sequel, because the developer company earned no money from the first part !

So yes, hope the game developers find a solution and manage to keep the PC alive as a gaming plattform. I don't like consoles very much, user interfaces for keyboard and mouse are usually better .

"Agree with first poster. Good, polished games sell. Bad games, buggy games, don't.

Stop blaming piracy."

Care to explain the poor sales CoD4 PC? The best version of the 3, the cheapest, the most value for the money (no Xbox Live fees, no cost for new maps), scales down to hardware from 2004 easily, perhaps older, and yet it was the most pirated version of the game.

PC Piracy is a real problem. Anyone blaming the quality of the games or the DRM isn't paying attention.

Would be nice if someone could give sales figures for all platforms for Call of Duty 4, which also take into account all online sales rather than just retail sales.

Sadly, the chances of those kinds of numbers being revealed are rather small. Which is a shame really, as it'd be nice to see some statistics I could feel comfortable using myself, rather than something which may turn out to be a hand me down from 20 years ago that dead ends when trying to find the original source for an oft quoted number... Like these:
http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/dodgy-digits-behind-the-war-on-piracy.ar
s

Can anyone point to specific sales figures for the different SKU's of CoD 4? I would be interested in seeing the correlation. Most of the time, I've noticed that game franchises that started on PC sell more PC units than consoles, but have smaller growth.

For the most part, developers aren't analyzing real sales data and saying that they aren't selling well... they are analyzing potential sales coverage and aren't getting as many sales as they would like.

I would argue that if PC Piracy were as big of a deal as they seem to want to make it seem, most of these developers wouldn't have jobs. In the end, the whole PC piracy complaint is that they aren't getting sales that they would have otherwise gotten.

In my opinion, the issue with developers like Ubisoft is that they make mediocre games and pay sites to hype them up for them... meaning they get good reviews because they are paying for good reviews.

I was suckered into buying Vegas 1 on PC... I won't be suckered into buying any other Tom Clancy game for the PC. I was suckered into buying Raving Rabids on the Wii... I won't be suckered into buying any other Ubisoft party game on the Wii. In the end, Ubisoft is failing to analyze their reputation with gamers who pay attention. I will not buy a game BECAUSE it is published by Ubisoft. After years upon years of them ALMOST getting it right, I've given up. The reason Ubisoft isn't seeing my money, isn't because I'm pirating their games... it's because I don't give a Sh*. When the poor saps who were buying your other games give up on you... the only people left who bother with your mediocre title are piraters who don't have anything better to do.

Ubisoft is particularly sore about Assassins Creed. I believe the PC version only sold 40k units but the pirate version has 700k downloads.

I wonder how accurate are the numbers of Assassin Creed. Having a correct estimation on piracy is very hard.

Still, selling 40k on a worldwide release is not a good sign.

I think for Assassin Creed, the hype was just gone. That's the drawback of saying "This game is console exclusive, if you want to play it: go buy a console".

There's no point in using a single game as an example and then pretending the argument is based on data. There are too many factors that could possibly influence both sales and pirated downloads. For instance, many people were very disappointed with Assassin's Creed after its first release, and I don't see why PC gamers should be expected not to take those opinions into account. Frankly, I didn't enjoy that game, even though I'm usually strongly attracted to all kinds of stealth-based gameplay. Also, keyboard and mouse controls for AC seem like they weren't given proper attention, and they feel like very poorly remapped gamepad controls.

In order for data to be meaningful, the sample must be large enough to account for such variables as game's score, its public perception, its overall stability, its "mainstreamness", price, delay between subsequent platform releases, target group, availability of single- and multiplayer modes, strength of online community, type of DRM used, availability of DRM evasion measures, availability of retail and digital distribution channels, and probably quite a few other things. It's a job for a scientist.

Think Max Payne 2 suffered also from piracy.
Personally I think of it as a piece of art and a milestone in story telling.
My opinion nowadays is: If I think a game isn't worth the full price, I buy it as budget game later. I also check game magazines, if there is some full version that seems interesting, but was not on my wish list, when it was expensive. Positive thing is that you always meet the hardware requirements, if the game is a bit older. ;)

It's just another case of honest end users being the ones to get screwed over in companies attempts at "fighting piracy." This isn't a fight anymore, it's a pitiful retreat.

What if I don't want to buy a console, but am an honest PC gamer? I use my PC to do my Mod work, it cost me a lot!
I have no where near the money to purchase a console and a high def screen. And anyway why should i want to? My PC is better than some console anyway! *Sighs, Shakes Head, and Walks Away*

When a game or movie or any intellectual property is actually worth it's cost, I buy it after pirating it. This is the future, adapt.

"Good, polished games sell. Bad games, buggy games, don't.

"Stop blaming piracy."

LOL!

So let me get this straight. If something is not *good* then it's okay to steal it.

So, I assume also if you eat in restaurant, but the pasta is mushy, then you feel it's legitimate to just leave without paying the tab after eating your meal.

Stealing is stealing, man. If our economy ran by the adage that only the very best goods and services had to be paid for, WE'D BE IN LIVING IN THE STONE AGES!

To the last Anon:

If you enter a restaurant, order for a pizza and it comes wrongly (like burnt, or diffrently of what you asked) it is your right to not pay it, backed by law in some countries.

If companies allowed return of games noone would ever NEED to download or buy a pirated game (yes, buy, in some contries like where I live buying pirated games is common, SPECIALLY CONSOLE GAMES, so stop blaming piracy at the PC market...)

I am a person that is proud to say that I bought Vegas for PC pirated, and I am proud to say that I threw it in trash, that game suck, it ruined the Tom Clancy franchise (all games before I have original copies), and in fact I regret that I spent 20USD to get that pirated copy (the game here is 60USD)

Ubisoft sometimes make me happy, like when they opened a studio nearby where I live some time ago, or when they release titles in magazines (I bought their release of Age Of Empires, and I plan to buy Sands of Time and Splinter Cell, altough I doubt on the last...), but also they manage to piss me off like ignoring e-mails when a group of fans asked for the sources of the original prince (they do not even said no, they just ignored) or when they say stupid things like that...

Common, not release a Tom Clancy game for PC? Well, I do not want anyway, since Tom Clancy games started to come first from console then to be ported to PC they started to SUCK, and I do not want to buy a product that do not do its job, buying a original Vegas or Assassins Creed is like buying a burnt pizza and eating it.

I am not saying that piracy is right, but I am saying the reasons why piracy exist currently.

I went one day asking on the pirate dealers (that here are quite common, again: SPECIALLY CONSOLE GAMES) about the most sold and least sold games...

Most sold games? The ones with DRM, and also EA games in general...

Least sold games? Stardock games, and those that claimed that they do not sold because of piracy (Crysis and DMC4 PC I am looking to YOU!)

In fact one guy explained that before capcom announced DMC4 PC when complained about piracy (yeah, to many people when capcom complained about DMC4 PC piracy it was the announcement that this game existed) noone ever asked him about it, the day after capcom complained about DMC4 PC piracy a lot of people showed up to buy the game.... Some people claimed that they was buying a pirated copy to punish capcom for calling them (the fans) pirates before telling them that the game existed.

Shame on you "piracy ridden" companies. (Ubi, EA, Crytek and Capcom, fortunally the last one to a lesser degree)

Assassins creed was available to pirates 30+ days BEFORE the game was sold retail. Yes when you delay a product for multiple months for release on PC and a pirated version is available. Your sales will suck.

Releasing half assed ports will also assure your sales suck. Strangely enough Blizzard,stardock,Bethesda dont seem to have many problems and they have a complete LACK of DRM.

Wow. So they're not releasing a game for PC because of piracy? At least they have the balls to admit why unlike some worthless companies *cough*lucasarts*cough*. Frankly my opinion is "Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out." Honestly, I don't care. I don't particularly care for ubisoft games and I don't care for companies treating me a like a fucking criminal even though I've given them my money. The fewer of these corporate pigs in the PC gaming industry, the better. Most games released in the last decade are utter shite, including the beloved AAA titles. Stop marketing exclusively towards ritalin drenched teenagers and maybe you'll actually get some sales.

Now if only EA would stop making PC games...

Please, it's obvious to come up with plenty of reasons for poor sales for their past games. Assasin's creed is a great example:
1. Poor quality console port
2. Released for PC almost a year after console versions.
3. PC version was denied up until a few months before release.
4. Received some shaky player reviews before hand.
5. Hype for the game had died out by that time

Seriously did they expect major PC sales? The 40,000 sales figure is for one month, July, also which is months after the PC release for some reason (guessing it had the better numbers for their press talk) and the NDP sales don't even take into account online purchases nor do we know how exactly their tracking piracy numbers.

This is the type of pattern seen a lot from the people crying piracy. I think it's time for them to own their problems themselves rather than laying blame on their potential customers. If you want to get good PC sales then release a PC game and don't treat the market like crap by off-loading poor ports of your console games to try and snag a few more sales. The PC market has been heavily abused by developers of late, there are very few out there making proper quality PC games.

We have companies basically releasing tech demos of their new engine and calling it a game, console ports, heavily DRM laden software, junk that's so buggy it needs repeated patches for months after release etc... The PC market certainly isn't dead, you can see it in the sales numbers for the good PC games, there's plenty of gamers out there just waiting to buy your product. But if you have a poor reputation or have burned them before with your products then don't expect them to throw money at you just because you ported your latest product over to their platform.

"LOL!

So let me get this straight. If something is not *good* then it's okay to steal it."

No. If something isn't good, usually it doesn't sell well. Specially on PC. On consoles, average games sometimes sell a lot, hence the preference of many devs to move to consoles.

Learn to read, man, I didn't say it was okay to steal anywhere in my comment.

How on earth are publishers trying to calculate piracy rates? For something that doesn't happen out in the open, it's not something you can just get from a web page or a spreadsheet.

This is reality, not CSI / Hollywood technology where you can have a widescreen on the wall that shows a graph and running total of worldwide pirated copies being played on people's PCs.

This reminds me too much of the bogus numbers the RIAA keeps trying to push for their lost CD sales.

If they want to avoid the piracy problem, as lot of people wrote here, they should care about their customers, and with that I mean support for bugs, support for adding new stuff (like Blizzard is doing with SC2) or for example, if someone earns $500 a month (this happens in south america at least), while a game costs $60, and the hardware to run it means affording $500 more, then ...... keep that in mind while selling games

I agree with Mark Elliot's post.

IT's absolute true!!
Today October 16 2008 at 11:50 i and a workmate will discuss about recently released Dead Space and i say wow Dead Space has good reviews by users and critics i say i'll buy it when realeased to PC, and he ask.. when will be released to PC?, on 10 days more, ¿answer? he says ahh ok i will wait for PC copy for download it of rapidshare.

So UBISOFT it's complete right on this. PC Piracy kills console sales.

The sure fire way to stop this is UBISOFT should use 2geeksinalab Piracy software "Global Garde". This software would eliminate the manufactureres (replicators/duplicators) leaks as well end user piracy completely. Since they don't encrypt, just high level fuzzy math it is practically unhackable.
PC gaming can still be viable source of income for UBISOFT. Please don't kill the PC games!!!!!

See this article:
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20985
if you think piracy has destroyed the games industry.

First off as long as publishers treat games as boxed objects and not software licenses they will remain overt hypocrites. How can you condone second hand sales on the one hand (license transfering without paying the original dev) basically a multimillion dollar legal piracy, and then blame every thing bad on individual users that download a pirate game.
Stop legal piracy! Pay the devs for each software sale! Provide cross platform availability for each license purchased with possibility to redownload on reinstall! Provide a useful support service instead of just shipping devs' hard labor!
Don't say it can't be done, Valve's STEAM is exactly that! (well not cross platform but still best system by far)