Ubisoft CEO: PC Piracy Rate Is "93-95%", So Free-To-Play Is Just As Practical

I'm not sure that it is 95% only in high piracy countries, it seems like he could be saying that overall it is 95% piracy, including high piracy and low piracy countries. I remember in high school french class reading an article on musicians from former French colonies in Africa. Apparantly piracy is so rampant in some of these countries, many musicians are unable to support themselves and move to France, for access to a less corrupted market.
Still, I'm not sure these percentages are really that important. I think many people who pirate games simply would never pay for it otherwise, even in the form of micro-transactions.

I've always had severe doubts about your final sentence. People keep saying it, but there's no real evidence to back it up. I would bet that, for a lot of people who pirate, it really is a cost-benefit analysis, and if they couldn't get it cheaper or free through piracy, they would actually buy it. Again, though, there's no evidence to back it up. It's just my suspicion.

Also, while Guillemot might be talking world-wide and not just one region, it's an undeniable fact that some areas of the world are the actual hotbeds of piracy, primarily because of lax enforcement of copyright. Asia is one of those areas. China and Taiwan, among many others, are home to actual professional bootleggers who run actual bootlegging companies. They copy games (and music, movies, etc.) and the packaging so well that you can't tell the difference unless you know exactly what to look for. I would bet Guillemot knows that, because it really is a serious problem.

Yes, I'm sure there are people that resort to piracy that would pay at a lower price, and people who pirate a game that they would never pay money for, but unfortunately I don't think there are any reliable statistics on why people pirate. The thing that annoys me about common developer/publisher complaints against piracy is that, at any given price for a game, there are two types of people: those willing to buy it at that price, and those not willing to buy it at that price. It seems game developers and publishers sometimes forget even for pirates, there are those who would buy the game at some price if piracy was not an option, and those who would not buy the game at that price, even without the option to pirate.

That's certainly a point. But the flipside of that is how people who justify piracy also don't have anything to back up their claims about it. It's true that producers see every act of piracy as a lost sale, even though some of those pirates likely wouldn't have bought whatever it was anyway. But some of that piracy very likely is lost sales. It seems to me that both sides like charging into this debate without really knowing what they're talking about.

Anyway, when you get down to it, kids downloading cracked copies of games or movies or whatever really are just the tiniest of drops in the bucket when it comes to piracy. The big problem comes from those foreign bootleg companies that operate in countries with lax copyright laws. So most of this is a moot issue.

My answer to your cost -benefit statement:

I download music. Platforms such as iTunes have made it so that I don't have to shell out $20 bucks for an entire album, I can just pay $1 for the songs I want. I still download the entire album for free.

OK, and...?

This is an example of a company giving the consumer a more cost effective method of obtaining their product, thus giving me the chance to get it more cheaply WITHOUT piracy, and I still don't buy it.

Well, that's nice and all, but:

1) I didn't say that *everyone* who pirates would still buy it anyway if piracy wasn't an option, so a single counter-example doesn't prove me wrong.

2) You say that you're still pirating (unless you mean something else by "I still download the entire album for free"), so you're not actually a counter-example. The hypothetical was that if people who pirate couldn't get it through piracy, some of them probably would just go ahead and buy it. You can still get stuff through piracy, so your example doesn't contradict my hypothetical.

Again, why we can't have nice things.

You're telling me I pay full price for Ubisoft's shitty games and PC ports? WHAT THE FUCK

Maybe for Ubisoft is just as effective to create a free-to-play model than to continue with the DRM-of-death model full of obstacles for the legal consumer, because admit it Ubi, you wouldn't stand playing your own games on a PC, and would eventually just pirate yourselves instead of going through the hassle of buying another one and repeating the experience.

WE ARE PART OF THE 5%!

He pulled that number straight out of his ass, or his sales department pulled it out for him. I bet every digital entertainment sales executive in the world came in their pants the day they realized that they could blame poor sales on nameless, invisible pirates. While digital piracy does certainly exist, it's being used as an excuse for everything far too often.

How can it be so high when games like Alan Wake sold over a million copies on PC. Steam sales should prove this article wrong. Sure piracy is high, but PC game sales are high enough that publishers keep putting them out.

There is also high piracy on consoles as well. I think most publishers forget that.

I got 4 AC games this summer for like $25. This makes me better than the whole country of Malaysia. They should make me their ruler, I will be stern... but just.

IMMA CHARGIN' MALAYSIA!

What was that Ubisoft? You loaded your games with shitty drm for a long time and gamers have voiced there opinion on it? oh your sad that you wanted to stiff real customers with your servers being down day 1 while pirates can play your game no problem on release day? Seriously ubisoft stop crying, make better games(watch dogs look good) and stop loading your games with drm and dont force them exclusively to your new digital platform. People hate EA enough already for that alone.

p.s. no shitty ports with FPS caps!

Next thing ubisoft will say "Console resale of games is at 95%"

Total agreement Sourdeez, I can't remember the last time a Ubisoft game was playable on PC. I remember how hard it was to wipe Starforce off my PC when it prevented me from not only installing my bought game but playing ANY DVD in it as well...

honestly piracy is only an excuse for poor sales these days but in truth poor sales shows game quality, you release a game full of bugs and horrible performance you can dam well be sure its not gonna get huge sales and you will find a lot more people pirate it

PC gaming is not like consoles where you can release any pos game and make money, you actually need quality for the PC gamers and if you dont deliver you can be dam sure i wont buy it

release crap and i'll pirate for the 1 play through, release quality i'll buy and play forever