Michael de Plater of Ubisoft tells Videogaming247 the reason that Tom Clancy’s EndWar isn’t coming out for the PC on the same day as the console versions is because of concerns about piracy, and he tells it like it is.
“To be honest, if PC wasn’t pirated to hell and back, there’d probably be a PC version coming out the same day as the other two,†he said, talking of the voice-controlled RTS.
“But at the moment, if you release the PC version, essentially what you’re doing is letting people have a free version that they rip off instead of a purchased version. Piracy’s basically killing PC.â€
We asked if piracy was the main reason to keep EndWar off PC.
“Yeah, at the time of release,†he said. “You know, the level of piracy that you get with the PC just cannibalizes the others, because people just steal that version.â€
Let’s be honest here, he’s not far wrong, in fact he’s pretty much on the money (or potential lack there of). I don’t blame developers for not wanting to release on PC either but the Xbox 360 has it’s own fair share of piracy problems, I guess they just don’t amount to anything near as much as PC. Do you agree that what they are doing is right? Should the people who legally purchase software suffer and have to wait because the rest of the pirating PC community has stuffed it up for them?
Last Updated: October 8, 2008
V@mp
October 8, 2008 at 15:59
Well that’s the nature of the beast. I’ve had to come to
grips that developers don’t want to develop for the Pc
anymore. It’s unfortunate that the most powerful “console”
out there with potential for the best games hardly get
any anymore. And unfortunately we, the loyal, paying
customers suffer as a result of these freaking bastards.
And it’s normally them then that complain about poor
quality games and security measures and then try and use
those as a way to justify their actions.
koldFU5iON
October 8, 2008 at 16:01
this is one of those “all for one, one for all” moto’s I remember cause it’s how we got treated in school, if someone stole something everyone got the same punishment the methodology is that they’d weed out their “friends” so that they’d be punished fairly. or the person who stole it would actually have the balls to admit it and let his peers go.
It’s a cruel world and I think drastic measures need to be taken and unfortunately there are people in the world that believe they should receive free games, but I bet they don’t offer their product/service at no cost.
I believe it has to do with Laws in other countries namely Switzerland were the laws of copy protection don’t necessarily apply to them, unfortunately there are some very smart people out there doing a world of damage to our industry.
Milesh Bhana ZA
October 8, 2008 at 16:11
Switzerland ? Really? I’d have thought they’d be the strictest of them all (but yes, we know Russia has some interesting loopholes)
koldFU5iON
October 8, 2008 at 16:43
I may be wrong but I remember reading something about it somewhere
Vg2
October 8, 2008 at 16:47
I’d prefer a delayed release than limited installs or other DRM
V@mp
October 9, 2008 at 08:46
Although I understand where he’s coming from, there’s just
2 major flaws in his argument.
1) If they are really worried about piracy, then releasing it late isn’t going to do anything. People will still pirate
it.
2) If, however, he’s worried about it being leaked before the release, then punishing the public aint gonna help either, seeing that the leak obviously has to come from inside the company.
So, yes, I understand the problem. But no, this isn’t going
to fix anything. Or am I missing something here? :-
gazza
October 9, 2008 at 08:52
“PC just cannibalizes the others” – what he’s saying is he feels when games release on pc same time as console, console sales are lost as people instead pirate the PC version, hence the late release of the PC version. I would be interesting to see afterwards if there was a way to judge weather End War meets the projected sale for console or its jigher because of the release dates. I don’t know have both a Console and a gaming pc, we will have to see.
V@mp
October 9, 2008 at 08:53
Unless he’s specifically talking about console owners
who owns pc’s as well. In which case they should
punish the console owners, not the Pc gamers.
hahahahahaha!!!
All and all, it doesn’t really bother me as I’m not into
RTS games.
Martin
November 8, 2008 at 20:53
Its also that the console versions generally retail at twice the price of the PC version and usually stay that way unless rereleased on a budget label. PC games usually get discounted within a couple of months after release.
Vytautas
November 18, 2008 at 22:13
It’s pretty simple – punish the whole community and there are 3 possible outcomes:
1) You will achieve nothing but then again do no real damage (that’s the result that has the highest probabilty)
2) The ones that pirate the games will feel sorry for the community or will become impatient and stop stealing (very unlikely)
3) The community will hunt down the pirates (how the hell are they gonna do that?)
That’s the basics of punishing not just the one responsable, but everyone connected.
I myself have a confession to make, I have downloaded some old games in the past, but now since I don’t have that much time for them, I think I can afford one on some occasions.
The problem here is, that cost to avarge salary is steep (14(old simple games) – 200(games like CoD4, NHL09 and so on) cost to ~2000 pay and don’t forget taxes, daily needs and so on). Furthermore availability is crapy and a lot of people don’t trust buying online. So at least in my country if there were no pirated versions, most people wouldn’t even try the game at all (maybe the demo version). There is a particular website where I look for freeware (don’t really trust pirated versions due to viruses) there are pirated games, but the downloaders are just children up to 16 years old… They really don’t have the money to buy the game. And what do they do when they get a big fat no from their parents? I think you know as well as I do…
Perhaps a lowered price would increase sales, but not necessarily…
So all in all, too bad it got delayed… That’s one I will buy should it come out soon enough and if it won’t exeed my budget…
Paul
March 1, 2009 at 08:54
I think that rather than punishing anybody there is a simpler solution. Games with a larger multiplayer component make it more likely that a player will buy a legit copy because pirated copys don’t allow multiplayer play.
This is especially true is the multiplayer side is well marketed or is the main part of the game. For example, there is (or was) no point to pirating a copy of a game like battlefeild 2 because you cant do anything with it.
One of Endwar’s main selling points is the theater of war, a massive multiplayer component. I may be wrong, but a pirated copy cannot allow you to play in the theater of war, when people hear things like this they are more likely to buy legal copies .