Ubisoft games - poster children for piracy?

[sbr]

But why do you need a reason to pull completely out of a market?  As I said above you can't exactly boycott games that aren't made.

Because the market is no longer profitable? It clearly a win to produce games that are made for consoles. You've the capability of consoles to handle as close to PC capabilities as most consumers want and said consumers have to worry nothing about hardware restrictions as the devs can optimize games to work across several consoles systems. Why wouldn't the ideal consumer base now be said platforms?

I missed an important word in my question, let me try again.

But why do you need a contrived reason to pull completely out of a market?  As I said above you can't exactly boycott games that aren't made.

[Iormlund]

But to pretend that a huge market shift that is well understood and even predicted before it happened (the dominance of the console as a game system) is driven by piracy, when the data shows that piracy has been largely constant throught?

Surely you're not claiming that piracy has remained largely constant for the last 25 years or so (which is roughly the timeframe in which large numbers of games for the PC have been widely available commercially)?  I have trouble believing that piracy was as bad in the late 80's when relatively few people had internet connections (and what they had was really slow dial-up) as it is now when most of us take the internet for granted (and have high-speed connections).

My entirely anecdotal evidence points to piracy being much worse back then. I bought maybe two or three PC games during my teens, as did everyone else around me. It was not until I was almost in my 20s that I started purchasing them regularly, an activity which puzzled most of my friends.

[Grey Fox]

Has big as piracy is today, it was much worse before the internet.

[Syt]

Has big as piracy is today, it was much worse before the internet.

Especially in the 16th-18th century in the Carribean.

[frunk]

It's tough to argue that anecdotal change in behavior stands for the market as a whole.  Many of us pirated games when we were younger because we didn't have the money to spend on games.  Now that we are older with money we'll tend to prefer the ease and security of not having to worry about malware or viruses in torrents.  Buying is the better deal.

Most of the hot video games are specifically targeted at teenagers, who like us at that age were short of cash and not that worried about system security.  Considering that there's a not insignificant cost to porting video games from system to system and the wide variety of hardware in pcs, it's an easy call to release just to console.  Most of the target market has consoles, you don't have to worry as much about piracy, and the headache of dealing with different video cards, monitors and motherboards goes away.

[Barrister]

Has big as piracy is today, it was much worse before the internet.

I don't believe that one bit.  Do you have any evidence to support your claim?

[Grey Fox]

Has big as piracy is today, it was much worse before the internet.

I don't believe that one bit.  Do you have any evidence to support your claim?

Nothing but personal experience.

Did you buy games in the 80s?

I work with a lot of 40something gamer type. None of them buy games, they didn't back when they were young either. it used to be C64 games now they are console games.

I also have a C64, I've got a couple of boxes worth of games, all copies. My dad doesn't buy games, he copies them.

Our generation buys the games now. They never did.

[Barrister]

Has big as piracy is today, it was much worse before the internet.

I don't believe that one bit.  Do you have any evidence to support your claim?

Nothing but personal experience.

Did you buy games in the 80s?

I work with a lot of 40something gamer type. None of them buy games, they didn't back when they were young either. it used to be C64 games now they are console games.

I also have a C64, I've got a couple of boxes worth of games, all copies. My dad doesn't buy games, he copies them.

Our generation buys the games now. They never did.

Yes, I bought games in the 80s.  I remember working as an umpire one summer.  I got a months paycheque and being told by the guy giving it to me to "not spend it all in one place".  I laughed because that was exactly what I did - I chashed the cheque and bought Ultima V.

But I had copies of 3 & 4 that I certainly had not paid for.

I certainly pirated games as a kid, but it was fairly limited because you had to know someone who had a copy before you yourself could get a copy.  There's no limit on pirating a game these days.

[Slargos]

You'd be surprised.
Downloading was of course virtually non-existing but direct copying was very common. With the old spectrum I got off my cousin I only have about 10-20 real games out of hundreds.
The market and the companies making the games were a lot smaller back then too, quite a different situation.,

No shit. I pirate a lot fewer games now that I have a connection that makes pirating them trivial. In the era of "difficult" piracy (28.8k modem), I had several sources for games and waiting for more than a month after release was the exception rather than the rule.

[Slargos]

It's tough to argue that anecdotal change in behavior stands for the market as a whole.  Many of us pirated games when we were younger because we didn't have the money to spend on games.  Now that we are older with money we'll tend to prefer the ease and security of not having to worry about malware or viruses in torrents.  Buying is the better deal.

Most of the hot video games are specifically targeted at teenagers, who like us at that age were short of cash and not that worried about system security.  Considering that there's a not insignificant cost to porting video games from system to system and the wide variety of hardware in pcs, it's an easy call to release just to console.  Most of the target market has consoles, you don't have to worry as much about piracy, and the headache of dealing with different video cards, monitors and motherboards goes away.

And how much money does this generation of youngsters have? I remain skeptical about claims that there are actual losses involved. Sure, it's irritating that people are enjoying your product without paying for it, but the money of gamers will eventually land in the pockets of developers regardless.

Put it this way: If Piracy was rendered impossible over-night, would there suddenly be a tremendous increase in the amount of copies sold? I don't think so.

[Josquius]

When I was youger I certainly pirated a lot more than I do now. I bought very very few games, usually bought copies off some guy my dad or my uncle or whoever knew.

[Syt]

I only had very few original games for C64 (AD&D, Battles of Napoleon, Starflight ...).

[Barrister]

It's tough to argue that anecdotal change in behavior stands for the market as a whole.  Many of us pirated games when we were younger because we didn't have the money to spend on games.  Now that we are older with money we'll tend to prefer the ease and security of not having to worry about malware or viruses in torrents.  Buying is the better deal.

Most of the hot video games are specifically targeted at teenagers, who like us at that age were short of cash and not that worried about system security.  Considering that there's a not insignificant cost to porting video games from system to system and the wide variety of hardware in pcs, it's an easy call to release just to console.  Most of the target market has consoles, you don't have to worry as much about piracy, and the headache of dealing with different video cards, monitors and motherboards goes away.

And how much money does this generation of youngsters have? I remain skeptical about claims that there are actual losses involved. Sure, it's irritating that people are enjoying your product without paying for it, but the money of gamers will eventually land in the pockets of developers regardless.

Put it this way: If Piracy was rendered impossible over-night, would there suddenly be a tremendous increase in the amount of copies sold? I don't think so.

Why put the qualifier of "tremendous" in there?

The better question is - if piracy was rendered impossible over-night, would there be any increase in the amount of copies sold?  I'm certain there would be.

[Grey Fox]

It is my opinion that for the mainstream crowd video games are like books. Copying a paper bound book isn't exactly easy but yet do they sell more copies of the same book because of it? Or does people simply loan the book to their friends & family?

[Grey Fox]

The better question is - if piracy was rendered impossible over-night, would there be any increase in the amount of copies sold?  I'm certain there would be.

In the western world? Maybe.

However, there are studies outthere that prove that where most of the downloading for copies of games happen in country where the people couldn't afford the games anyway.

Piracy never equals a lost sale.