Ubisoft games - poster children for piracy?

[Cerr]

Not really. They released GTA 4 and LA Noire for the PC.

Why then not Red Dead if they have released LA Noire?

I dunno, you'd have to ask Rockstar but if the reason was piracy then they wouldn't have bothered releasing LA Noire on the PC.

[Cerr]

Would explain the lack of PC Red Dead

The solution to stopping piracy is already known; lots of stuff from connecting online.

Not really. They released GTA 4 and LA Noire for the PC.

Forcing people to be always online for single player games is idiotic. DRM like that punishes the people that are willing to pay for games, not the pirates.

What do you suggest then?  If you can come up with something, I'm sure they'd like to hear it.

Retinal scans or DNA verification.

Or no DRM at all. Gog.com seem to be doing pretty well offering DRM-free games.

[Razgovory]

Gog.com isn't producing games.

[Grey Fox]

Gog.com isn't producing games.

It's parent company does tho.

[Cerr]

Gog.com isn't producing games.

It's parent company does tho.

Yeah they released The Witcher 2 DRM-free on Gog.com.

[Razgovory]

I wonder how profitable it has been.  The thing is, I think the DRM's work from the company's point of view.  Games that have DRMS often sell better then those that don't because they are harder to pirate.

[Grey Fox]

I wonder how profitable it has been.  The thing is, I think the DRM's work from the company's point of view.  Games that have DRMS often sell better then those that don't because they are harder to pirate.

Far Cry 2 had insane DRM constraint. It sold 10 000 copies.

It's widely avalaible in it's pirated form.

DRM works for a corporate point of view because they wrongly think that 1 pirated copy = lost sale. That's not the case, 3/4 of those who downloaded the pirate version wouldn't have bought your game.

[Razgovory]

I wonder how profitable it has been.  The thing is, I think the DRM's work from the company's point of view.  Games that have DRMS often sell better then those that don't because they are harder to pirate.

Far Cry 2 had insane DRM constraint. It sold 10 000 copies.

It's widely avalaible in it's pirated form.

DRM works for a corporate point of view because they wrongly think that 1 pirated copy = lost sale. That's not the case, 3/4 of those who downloaded the pirate version wouldn't have bought your game.

That still equals lost sales.  If a game was pirated a million times and 3/4ths wouldn't buy your game then presumably 1/4th would.  That makes for 250,000 units sold which isn't bad.

Crysis 2 did sell 10,000 copies on the PC.  In addition to many more.  Looking around I'm seeing of at least 210,000 units sold.

Here's an example of a game with no protection sold by trusting gamers. http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/13/world-of-goo-has-90-piracy-rate/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+weblogsinc%2Fjoystiq+%28Joystiq%29

[Razgovory]

OH damn.  I mistook Far Cry 2 for Crysis 2.  Bleh.  I can't find Far Cry 2 units sold for PC but it did top the charts for PC games the first week it was out and sold over 2 million copies.  So I suspect they sold more then 10,000 copies for PC.

[Grey Fox]

10k copies. I have no proof but the figure is from FC2's producer.

So you are saying that piracy can't be stop.

If World of Goo had DRM maybe instead of selling to 10% of it's user base, it might have been only to 2% of it's user base.

Pirated games won't go away, 80s style DRM didn't, this modern DRM won't either. DRM exist because publishers wrongly think that making their game harder to pirate people will buy them. That's not what happens, people skip overthem.

[The Brain]

Pirated games won't go away, 80s style DRM didn't,

I rarely encounter "enter word #xx on page #yy of the manual" questions these days.

[Grey Fox]

"work"

Place at your leisure.

[Razgovory]

10k copies. I have no proof but the figure is from FC2's producer.

So you are saying that piracy can't be stop.

If World of Goo had DRM maybe instead of selling to 10% of it's user base, it might have been only to 2% of it's user base.

Pirated games won't go away, 80s style DRM didn't, this modern DRM won't either. DRM exist because publishers wrongly think that making their game harder to pirate people will buy them. That's not what happens, people skip overthem.

Actually, that's exactly what happens.  You can't stop piracy all together.  But you can make it harder.  Since the people who pirate a game still want the game, if they can't easily pirate it more will end up buying it.  This is why console versions sell much higher then PC versions of the same game.  It's much harder to pirate a console game.  It can be done, but most people don't know how.  Pirating PC games is easy.

I don't get this indignation about DRM.  It's not like you have a right to PC games.

[The Brain]

I don't get this indignation about DRM.  It's not like you have a right to PC games.

This comment is so typical of the tenor of the discussion, reactionary.

[Grey Fox]

Actually, that's exactly what happens.  You can't stop piracy all together.  But you can make it harder.  Since the people who pirate a game still want the game, if they can't easily pirate it more will end up buying it.  This is why console versions sell much higher then PC versions of the same game.  It's much harder to pirate a console game.  It can be done, but most people don't know how.  Pirating PC games is easy.

I don't get this indignation about DRM.  It's not like you have a right to PC games.

I disagree with that premise. I think that people don't buy a game wether is hard to pirate or not. There's also a line where the DRM is just too much.

The indignation about DRM comes from the Starforce debacle that use to break your computer. It's hard to trust them after that.