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Ubisoft: greater digital demand, infrastructure still an issue

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We are making the shift to digital distribution – slowly, painfully and with plenty of bumps in the road, but it’s happening. Ubisoft VP says it’s faster and less painful than we might imagine, but there are still some major obstacles.

Speaking to Games Industry, Ubisoft VP of digital publishing, Chris Early, explained that the “Time Saver” DLC for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was met with zero resistance, a sign of a changing industry. Early acknowledged that this is also due to better communication and monetization models:

Where it hurts is when you feel like you’re forced, or you’re at a disadvantage or can’t do it unless you [pay money]. That’s kind of a remorseful feeling, and nobody likes that.

It’s not just the DLC, though. Early explains that digital demand is also up for complete games. The same game on old and new gen will have a way higher digital demand on new gen – it seems people have gotten lazy when it comes to changing discs and would rather just have their entire library available so that they can change at will. However, this doesn’t mean that brick and mortar stores will lose their place; infrastructure even in the US of A is getting in the way of digital entertainment in general, and gaming in particular:

It’s not just our challenge, but the biggest worldwide challenge is the even deployment of infrastructure where people can get their games and participate digitally in a free environment. I have relatives in parts of the US even where it will take them several days to download a game. That’s not just going to stop us; that’s going to stop the industry.

Of course, the trend is towards greater availability online. I know for myself that most of my game purchases lately are digital unless I’m grabbing a fancy Collector’s Edition. However, it can take me a ridiculously long time to download games, and I have yet to download a single AAA title – I just know that the sheer size of the download is my main obstacle. Perhaps once my internet is improved I will change my song on this, but for now, I’m happy for the people who can make use of a purely digital environment, but it’s just not feasible (or advisable) for the market to move entirely in that direction.

Last Updated: July 7, 2014

No Comments

  1. Matthew Holliday

    July 7, 2014 at 13:38

    all new games I buy/order are hard copy.
    but theyr all games I want to see on my games shelf.
    i only go digital for steam specials that make it worth the effort of spending 2 or 3 nights downloading a big game.

    Reply

    • Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)

      July 7, 2014 at 13:42

      Same for me Matt, I prefer hard copies, and while I have gone crazy on Steam (especially this last Summer sale), my preference remains…. physical disks in my hand. Real copies of games that I can put on a shelf, and not have to worry about possible cloud servers not existing in 5 – 20 years time.

      Reply

      • Matthew Holliday

        July 7, 2014 at 13:43

        i like pretty boxes.

        Reply

        • Admiral Chief Fairburne

          July 7, 2014 at 13:44

          I miss those huge boxes that you got STANDARD back in the day, nowadays its only the Collectors Editions that look that good

          Reply

          • Alien Emperor Trevor

            July 7, 2014 at 13:58

            Those were cool – now you just get a DVD cover & a pamphlet.

            Last collector’s edition I bought was this bad boy…

          • Admiral Chief Fairburne

            July 7, 2014 at 14:06

            Last collectors ed I got was that RoS I won on Lagz

          • Sith JJ

            July 7, 2014 at 14:44

            Wow

          • Brady miaau

            July 7, 2014 at 16:55

            Double wow. AWESOME

            (Sorry, Sith)

  2. Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

    July 7, 2014 at 13:41

    The best is to have both worlds. There is a market for both digital downloading and physical.

    Those who can download their games at good speeds will always opt for digital (unless it’s for a collectors item as mentioned) whereas those who don’t have that great internet will almost always opt for the phyiscal.

    There are, in my opinion, probably still more people with bad internet than good so the scales as far I am concerned are still tipped to physical purchases and that’s the way I prefer it anyway

    Reply

    • CAE9872

      July 7, 2014 at 13:47

      Ne’er a truer word…

      Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      July 7, 2014 at 13:55

      Digital is pretty much the de facto standard for PC now. Practically everything you buy hard copy still has to be activated online. Which is partly why people raged so much when they announced the always-online next gen consoles.

      Reply

      • Sir Rants A Lot Llew. Jelly!!!

        July 7, 2014 at 18:23

        Yeah I have a whole separate rant for online activation requirements but at least you don’t need to download 30Gigs if you buy physical. Only the mandatory 1Gig day 1 patch 😛

        Reply

  3. Umar Reborn XIV

    July 7, 2014 at 13:44

    Used to prefer hard copies, but with all these sales and ease of access for games that are hard to find….I will say that I’m a complete digital believer

    Reply

  4. Alien Emperor Trevor

    July 7, 2014 at 13:47

    So given this greater demand, have you considered improving YOUR infrastructure so that I can log into uPlay whenever I want to? Seriously, it’s the only online service that regularly gives me sign-in problems & tells me servers are down so I can’t play. If it only happened once or twice I wouldn’t care.

    Reply

    • Viking Of Science

      July 7, 2014 at 15:09

      I Log in once to activate a new game, Then i run it in Offline mode… Saves me tons of headaches….

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        July 7, 2014 at 15:12

        Funnily enough it’s usually the first time I run a game that it’s a problem & after that it’s fine. Happened with AC2, Blood Dragon, FC3 & whatever the F2P Might & Magic card game is called.

        Reply

  5. Milesh Bhana

    July 7, 2014 at 13:49

    i’d love to buy my AAA titles digitally, but for PSN/XBL, new titles are very expensive. More expensive than the shops. I assume this is to protect brick and mortar stores. So right now, there’s no real benefit to going digital for new stuff.

    I do download AAA titles when they go on special (or free on PSN+) a few months later. It takes a day or two to pull a whole game, but at the point, they’re old so i don’t mind a short wait.

    They also need to allow us to pre-download our new releases.

    Reply

  6. Rince&pop

    July 7, 2014 at 13:49

    Lol. OvG Won’t touch anything with a Ubisoft logo on because he was unable to finish Black Flag at 100% because you need to go online.

    Reply

  7. Alien Emperor Trevor

    July 7, 2014 at 13:52

    Speaking of that “time saver” stuff, I accidentally bought that kind of DLC when I bought Sleeping Dogs, was actually a quite annoyed when I realised it – I like earning my levels, not buying them.

    Reply

  8. KingKappie

    July 7, 2014 at 13:54

    There is nothing better to have a hard copy that i can trade with my fiends

    Reply

    • Umar Reborn XIV

      July 7, 2014 at 13:55

      You can trade digital games too

      Reply

      • KingKappie

        July 7, 2014 at 13:56

        and if i don’t have internet
        we do live is SA with telkom

        Reply

        • Umar Reborn XIV

          July 7, 2014 at 13:57

          I’m just saying, you can, IF you have internet. I don’t know. I have a 2mb and I’ve been really fortunate to been getting steady connection, it’s not all bad though

          Reply

  9. Kyratic

    July 7, 2014 at 13:58

    2 or three days!?! o.O didnt know we still used dial up. Fair enough I agree, that games are getting big, but on my 10mb/s line, It is generally only a few hours on steam for anything. I know not everyone has 10mg lines, but 5 years ago, 4 mb/s adsl was omg wow, give it 2 more years, and we’ll be bragging about our 20mb/s lines, and this is in deepest darkest africa… I think this is a disappearing problem.

    Reply

    • Aries

      July 7, 2014 at 14:15

      not really, whether you have fast line or not the way they throttle us is pathetic, so i prefer my discs at the moment, though i have recently got a alot of digital games but havent downloaded them yet

      Reply

      • Viking Of Science

        July 7, 2014 at 15:02

        My Steam Downloads NEVER get throttled, If Console Downloads get throttled locally, that’s Bullshit and unfair….

        Reply

        • Aries

          July 7, 2014 at 16:44

          my line gets throttled, so it wouldnt matter if it steam or psn

          Reply

  10. Craig Lotter

    July 7, 2014 at 14:00

    I’ve pretty much shifted completely to digital now. Haven’t bought an XBOX360 game disc in probably years! (Just wish the local SA marketplace would be better populated)

    Reply

  11. Sageville

    July 7, 2014 at 14:04

    I love the digital version, when I had uncapped ADSL that worked. However with mobile data costs that ship has sailed.

    Generally, I will take the hardcopy over the digital, why? Because when I get rid of the digital copy on my console I can reinstall from disk and thus reduce the amount to download… unless you got shafted with the likes of Starcraft 2 expansion disk containing a grand-total of a 5mb installer file (GOD! THE RAGE I SPEWED THAT DAY!)

    Reply

    • Brady miaau

      July 7, 2014 at 16:54

      I bought some books like that, get a CD instead of a book, with a key to download a DRM Ebook. No warning on website. Bastards!

      Not cheap, story books, either.

      Reply

  12. Sith JJ

    July 7, 2014 at 14:21

    On the Ubisoft subject.
    Myself and a friend of mine both bought Splinter Cell Blacklist on Steam sale.
    Naturally it forces you to open up Uplay in order to play the game.
    And then, of course, it doesn’t work.

    Reply

    • Alien Emperor Trevor

      July 7, 2014 at 14:53

      I did too. I’m already anticipating that problem with Remember Me as well.

      Reply

      • Sith JJ

        July 7, 2014 at 16:04

        I’m getting really close to putting them in the same bin as EA.
        The “don’t bother” bin.

        Reply

  13. Duffman! Formerly_known as_the

    July 7, 2014 at 14:24

    Hardcopy isn’t always an option. I went to BT games last Friday (launch day) to get Don Bradman Cricket for my PC. The only version they have was one that included a shitty controller. NO other shops had the game yet. So I simply got it on steam.

    Reply

  14. Viking Of Science

    July 7, 2014 at 15:01

    Ultimate Convenience is Digital, and what “major obstacles” are Ubisoft talking about? It’s their own platform that’s the obstacle 🙂

    All jokes aside. Digital is just so convenient, I can sit at work, BUY a game on steam through my android app. AND if my PC is on at home, Tell it to download the game. And by the time I get home, the download is done (or at least pretty far along) That’s what Digital is all about.

    Reply

  15. Hammersteyn

    July 7, 2014 at 19:39

    Just because there was zero resistance doesn’t mean are happy about it. Does forcing DLC till no one complains equal success?

    Reply

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